Are You Being Servo'd?

It won't have escaped your attention that the website has changed... I had to migrate all of the content away from MobileMe, as apple are ceasing the service. So, I decided to spruce it up whilst I was at it. I've used a service called SquareSpace, and they host and have web based design tools to aid your development.

I do think the site looks a lot nicer now. And it loads a hell of a lot faster as well. Bonus. :)

Anyway, enough t'interent talk - back to the car.

As a project at my engineering class, I started making up some aluminum bits to act as brake pipe stand offs on the top wishbones

The half rings started off life as a 40ish mm cylinder of aluminium, that was turned and then bored out on the lathe to suite the upper wishbone diameter. Then fixing holes where drilled and counter bored, along with a counter bore for a 8mm rod before they where parted off and then split in two. The 8mm rod was tapped one end to except an M4 set screw, which would fix it to one of the half rings. The other end got an M8 thread cut onto it.

The final piece is 12mm in diameter, with an corresponding M8 thread tapped into it, and then an 8mm slot milled straight through to allow the brake pipe to sit within it.

Once assembled, it looks like this:

Both half rings are held together with M4 cap head screws, and the pipe holder screws ont to the rod sticking out of the back half ring. I made one for each side, and then polished them up:

And now they've been fitted to the wishbones, replacing the cable-tie and fuelpipe solution that's been in place since the IVA test:

Completely and utterly over-engineered for what it needs to do, but hey -it's kept me occupied at class, and gives me something else to polish on the car. :-)

Once I'd finished those, I then moved onto solving a problem that's plagued me since I put the spare wheel on the back - namely I couldn't see a bloody thing in the rear-view mirror. Before the spare was mounted, the mirror I fitted was fine, but with it in place it was too low to see over the wheel.

Obviously the mirror needed to be moved up, but I didn't like the look of any of the available long stem mirrors that you can buy off the shelf. So I decided to make up a rod mounted system, like the old Jag E-Types and older MG's had.

I would show you my carefully milled, lovingly prepared brackets I made at class over the space of 4 weeks for this, but I can't. Mainly due to the fact that I rushed the last drilling step, and buggered up the holes that the rod was to sit in. They where completely skew-whiff, and wouldn't sit flat with the rod installed. So they got thrown in the bin with extreme venom and a few choice (read: blue) words. 

I ended up making a replacement set in one afternoon in the garage... :-/

Anyway, here's the brackets and rod:

The brackets are just 12mm square section aluminium bar, that I had left over from making the second incarnation of the AFM mount, many, many moons ago. I drilled and counter bored them on my pillar drill to take an M4 countersunk set screw, and then cut the shoulders of at 45 degrees by clamping them in my vice and using the top of it as a guide for my hacksaw. 

Then they where cleaned up and a 5mm blind hole drilled and tapped to accept the 5mm diameter stainless rod that will hold the rear view mirror. Once polished, they look as if they're all made of the same material.

The windscreen surround was drilled and tapped for the M4 set screws, in what was a very squeeky bum moment. I set my cordless drill to the slowest setting it had, and then didn't put too much weight behind it. As soon as I broke through the frame, a stopped immediatley to avoid braking the glass. I don't want to do that again! 

The rear view mirror I'm using with it is a repro MGB part, and it just clamps on at whatever height is required:

I now have no problems seeing over the spare tire. Yep, I can see my feet as well. ;-)

I've also bought a second clamp on mirror for another little project - I'm going to see if I can convert it into a mount for my iPhone. I'm still figuring out the details on that, but once I've sorted it out I'll post some pictures.

Another thing that I've recently changed is the windscreen washer bottle. If you remember, I had made a bottle out of an aluminium drinks bottle, laid on it's side above the pedal box. Which was great, until I noticed that everytime I opened the bonnet, there would be a wet patch directly under the bottle neck where the stopper was.

I don't know if there's something slightly corrosive to rubber in the screenwash, but no matter how tight I did the bottle up, I'd get the same problem. And then it started leaking around the barbed fitting I'd bonded into the cap.

So I took the decision to get a new tank - one that would fit the space the old one took up, but filled in a more convesional manner. After a quick google, I found a local firm that would make bespoke tanks. I filled in their enquiry form along with some sketches, and then they rang me back. The price was OK, so I got them to make it up. Here's the result:

It's made out of 3mm aluminium sheet, with a nice matching cap. The tank extends in a finger over the end of the top of the chassis. With the slight slope that the chassis has there, the fluid naturally gathers at the lowest point, which happens to be the end of the tank, and this is where the outlet it is.

The chap who made it has done a very good job, and he polished up for me so it looks nice in the engine bay. I'll have to buy shares in Autosol at this rate. :-D

The keen eyed will have notice that there's a large gap in the engine bay where the brake servo should be. That's becuase it's been taken out whilst I tested a new 7" dual diaphragm servo that we've been pondering over at the Madabout Kit Cars forum. One of the members - Mike - bought one (which turned out to be the last one left in the country!) and bolted it into his Marlin Cabrio, to see if it would phsyically fit - which it did. He then lent it to me to see if it would fit a Sportster and so I could carry out 'Sea Trials'.

It certainly fit:

It's all been a brilliant success - the braking performance is soooo much better than the little Metro servo, with better initial bite and pedal feel. You don't feel as if you're pressing on a lump of concrete with the dual servo.

I personally feel a lot more confident of stopping with it - there had been ocurrances in the past where it was definately a case of 'Pray and press harder' trying to anchor her up. 

After the favourable report back to the chaps at Madabout, Mike started to drum up interest in the new part, so we could get enough people together to do a group buy from the manufacturer in the States. With Mike's persistance, we did get enough - and He placed the order with MBM on Monday. Hopefully they should be here before Christmas!