Today was a bit like the Curates egg, good in parts....
Cracked on with the steering only to find that when I had welded on the spline to the end of the shortened steering shaft the heat had tweaked it a bit and it was running about 1mm out of true, doesn't sound much but it was very noticeable in that the bearing kept binding up. Nothing for it but to fix it. Cut the old spline off , luckily I had a spare. to make sure it was as true as possible I cam up with this:
the ali angle is about 4mm thick so good and hefty, also checked it with a steel ruler and it was dead straight. Just kept trying drill bits until I found a matching pair that just slid in nicely, tacked it, repeated at 90 degrees tacked again. Then welded it in opposing spots until I had gone all the way round. Will pick up some 3mm roll pins in the am as with all steering stuff I like to have a a mechanical fastening as well as a weld, not that I don't trust my welding but better safe than sorry.
Taking a step backwards to before this hiccup in events I made the bearing carrier for the front bulkhead. I needed the bearing to actually be 10mm away from the bulhead for everything to go to plan so a quick visit last night on the way home to a mate who run an Ali and Stainless fabrication business bagged me a piece of Ali 5mm plate from the scrap bin for the sum total of a kind word!
With steering shaft now straight and the bearing mount finished I got it all in and am pleased to report that I now have steering!
The welding at the top of the shaft is a bit ropey but now all the lengths are set ill take it all apart in the morning anyway to fit the roll pins and will grind it back and re-weld, at the same time ill countersink the holes in the bearing carrier.
Got home and some good stuff has arrived, the last of the bulkhead fitted items:
Good heavy electro polished stainless mesh for the grill from
here not cheap at about £75 a sheet delivered but I needed a full sheet to do it in one piece. I'm probably going to have some good sized offcuts if anyone is interested?
Also my new header tank, decided the vertical one just didn't quite fit as I wanted so have swapped to the horizontal model which will fill the centre of the bulkhead nicely.
Also the filter regulator for the fuel system. I'm absolutely sure that I already have one but after turning the unit upside down 3 times I couldn't find it and cant wait until it turns up so there may be a bargain to be had when the original makes an appearance!
To be honest I have run Webers before without a filter regulator using just an inline plastic filter (as long as your using a carb specific pump) but couldn't find anywhere to put a plastic filter and it just didn't seem right and the filter king looks period correct, or that's how I sold myself the idea anyway!
So brakes tomorrow!
TTFN
Mac