Author: Boyd Ingram

Sorry its been a while…

While I’m waiting for Whitby’s to reach out and tell me it’s time, I’m still tinkering here and there. Worked on the Serpent Express trailer some more, getting the cover tight and the framework secured down.

Brother Doug came to visit for a weekend and I kept him busy. We did a few laps around the neighborhood in the Boss, didnt get arrested! Got home and spent some time cleaning her up and loaded her on the trailer.

Next morning we took her to the Anne Arundel County Animal Control Pistons & Paws car & motorcycle show, all to benefit Friends Of Animal Control. Another local F5 Roadster builder joined us, Gary Luigi, with his semi-complete and legal Coyote powered machine. It was cool to be parked together so we show a kind of with-and-without-body kind of thing.

While were at the show, I noticed a small wet spot developing under the left header where it bolts to the sidepipe. Investigating abit, we found the clutch fluid reservoir was leaking where the fitting is on the bottom. Since these are an NPT thread and I was using 90* fitfings, its difficult to get these to seal correctly because you need them in a particular direction. Back home,  we tried several things, including Loktite thread sealant, good for brake fluid. No joy. We also found another reservoir that was leaking at the cap. We couldnt understand that one, and never did figure it out because the fluid was about an inch below the cap.

So anyways, I decided to not deal with it. Lots of other builders have used the CNC Triple Reservoir and I decided to do the same. Found it on Amazon Smile and with Prime, it was here in 2 days and free shipping.

So today I’m working on building a bracket to hold this assembly, then I’ll get it plumbed in and working right.

Couple of nice things: These use an expandable / collapsible diaphragm seal under the cap, with a small vent hole in the top of the cap. This allows expansion and contraction of the fluid as well as sealing. Nice design. I also ordered 3ea straight 1/8npt x -4AN fittings and 3ea -4AN to 3/8 hose barb 90* elbows. This will allow me to direct the fittings in the proper direction and still tighten them down nice n tight.

Update when it’s done… 😉

 

Lots of little items got wrapped up today…. carpet, seats, belts, reinstalling all the interior panels… I think it looks good. Custom without being brash, clean, I fit and I feel comfortable. I feel good that I’ve done a good job, although there are a few things I would change were I to do it again. Anyways, here’s some pics. Hope you like it…

I had set the driveshaft alignment earlier in the build, but I never felt very good about it and wanted to revisit this. So I spent some time researching last night and I got it. What I’m looking for is to have the rear 1* below parallel with the transmission. I also need the 2 ujoints to be within 1* or less of each other, and no ujoint to be over 3* itself.

It tooka few hours, but I got the rear axle pointing down 1.1* from the trans, with the front ujoint at .2* and the aft ujoint at .7*. Not perfect, but right there. It’ll work. All this required lifting the rear of the trans 1-1/8 inch with a spacer.

Thats done. I installed the Metco driveshaft safety loop thats been in the garage for about a year. Nice piece, and I believe it will stop the bad stuff from hurting, should the front ujoint decide to fail.

I checked the rear axle cover bolts due to a little drip that had developed, found they were barely hand-tight. Torqued em down to 25 ft/lbs and good to go.

Did some interior carpeting work, but didnt get to finish. Complete pics tomorrow, but here’s a teaser…

Hope everyone’s enjoying spring!!

Been out of town for a while, and now the weather is finally getting nice, so it’s back to work! Havent done anything in nearly a month…

Removed the center console cover to cover it in 1/8″ foam and my grey leather, just like the dash and the switch panel. Cut out the holes for the shifter, parking brake and seat heater switches. The notch at the front is for the wire harness that comes out of the dash and goes to the back of the car.

Next I installed the brackets that mount the switch panel and the seat heat switches. Used a 14mm socket to press down on those switches nice n hard to click them into place.

Decided to go a little cleaner on this item than the dash and the switch panel… decided to use heavy duty velcro rather than exposed screws. I think this stuff will hold… its not a very structural item.

Not a bad looking interior for a first-time builder with not much imagination.

Began test fitting the carpet. All the pieces fit very nicely. After this pic, I removed all the carpet and spray painted black wherever the carpet pieces meet and I didnt want any shiny silver showing through. I also went around with a silicone caulk gun and closed up any holes I could find.

I think its gonna look pretty cool.

 

Tomorrow… I glue!!

Cant post the video here, but after spending a lot of time getting the alignment and ride height all squared away…

I drove it!

So it’s time for ride height and alignment. I’ll give a little overview of how I did it.

First was the steering rack. Back when I installed the rack and steering shaft, I followed the procedure in this post on the Factory 5 Forum by Karlos from a few years ago. So I knew my steering rack and wheel were centered.

Ride height is next. After a little fiasco I had with severely uneven shocks to acquire an even ride height, I figured that we have to adjust the shocks in small amounts and equally to maintain the same spring pressure side-to-side and very close to equal heights. I did as a guru on the Forum suggested and with the suspension hanging, set the collars right down on the springs. I measured the shocks from the top of the spring collar to the top of the threaded tube to make sure they were equal. The fronts and rears were at 2.5″. Even though I used silicone spray on the threads and did my adjustments with the suspension hanging, I still could not turn the collars by hand once the spring started compressing. So I used my Koni shock adjustment spanner that I had previously gotten from Breeze (cheaper than Amazon!). Got the rear frame height set to 5.5″ with 3″ on both shocks and the front crossmember is at 4.25″ at center with 3.25″ on the shocks. Good place to start as I expect it to settle and also to have to adjust after getting the body installed.

Next I wanted to make sure the 8.8 is square in the chassis. This is done with the panhard bar and the Breeze adjustable lower trailing arms. I measured in several places from the axle (not the brakes or tires) to the frame and found that while it was square with the frame, it was sitting about 1″ to the right. I ran strings on jackstands off the rear sidewalls and then measured from string to chassis and confirmed it was over too far. Adjusted the panhard bar and got it solid in the middle. Cool.

Now for the front suspension. Caster & camber, then toe. I used some alignment plates I borrowed from a friend of mine… I had tried the wax paper thing and the tires just tore it up. Didn’t have any large plates around nor any floor tiles. These turn plates worked very well and it was quite easy to turn the wheels back n forth many, many times. I also used the FasTrax Caster / Camber Gauge along with their toe plates.

Setting the caster gets you started, but it will change as you then adjust the camber. I was shooting for +8* caster, -.5* camber for a power system. I mistakenly wasted about 2 hours when I realized I was using the wrong 0* mark on the FasTrax scale and only had 3* caster set in when I was reading 8*. Be sure to use the right scale. So as I set the caster and camber, working back and forth, the adjustment amounts got smaller and smaller until it all came right into place. Beautiful. I did NOT have to cut or modify the upper arm tubes in any way. I had read of so many people that did need to do this that I was expecting to.

I did one wheel, then the other. Went back and forth and double checked several times. She’s good. Time to work on Toe.

First step was to center my steering wheel and strap it down. I ran a ratchet strap to the brake pedal to hold the wheel centered. Using the FasTrax toe plates made it really easy. I clamped a level to one wheel (making sure it was against the wheel lip and not being held out by the tire sidewall… the 17″ers dont have much sidewall bulge) and found the wheels only had about 1/4″ toe in, but by checking with strings, they were pointing out to the right. I brought both tires back to straight, verified by running strings and measuring from string to the frame back by the door latch area. Very small adjustments make a big difference when measured that far away. With the wheels set straight, I was easily able to use 2 tape measures to check the toe. Got her adjusted to 1/8″ toe in… each tire toed in 1/16″ from straight and verified by the 2 tapes across both tires.

Went back and double checked everything… ride heights, equal shocks, rear square and centered, steering wheel centered with tires straight ahead, caster, camber, toe in. Shes set pretty good, I think, and I feel good about the way I measured and verified.

[edit] To sum up my settings… 5.5″ rear height, 4.25″ front height, R Front caster +8* camber -.5*, L Front caster +8-8.25* camber -.5*, total toe in 1/8″ [end edit]

One step closer to go-cart!

Been working on getting her squared up and setting ride height. Going pretty well until setting the shocks on the front. To make the frame tubes even off the ground, the front right shock is screwed down 2.5″ with the front left being at 3.375″. Everything is assembled correctly, points are greased, nothing is binding… I’m at a bit of a loss. The shocks really need to be even so they are placing even weight on each corner.

I’ve reached out to the Factory Five Forum to see what the pros say. I hope to get this settled by tomorrow.

Still pretty cold out, but got some work done. Finished up some temp mount plates for the rear taillights so I can keep them installed when I start driving the Go-Cart…

…and installed my quick release steering hub onto my new steering wheel. Fits good, feels great, looks even better…

…And started on the front alignment. This is an interesting part of the build, as its not a direct science. Takes a lot of adjustment and going back n forth on the settings to get it right. I’m using a Fasttrax Alignment tool with the added toe plates. Pretty easy so far, just takes time…

Cool. More tomorrow.

So its been, like, a month and half since I’ve posted. Between work and the weather, I have not been working on the Boss very much at all. When I do, it’s like an hour at a time before I’m freezing and have to quit.

One thing I was able to do is mod up the door latches so they are more dependable and work better. This involves a carriage bolt, a few washers and a locknut. The mechanism is all swaged together from the factory that makes them, but the swage is such that it is easily overcome with a screwdriver or through regular use. The details of this mod are all available on the Factory 5 forum, where I got the details. The next part of this mod is to drill and tap the lever knob for a #8 screw so that swage doesn’t come apart too soon.

I also filed the stop pin so the lever can move further, allowing a complete retracting of the door latch.

So I’m on vacation this week, and I am determined to get some serious work done.

Today I worked on my rollbars, getting them to fit correctly.  Seems when I first fitted them, I tightened the bolts way too much and oblonged the stainless steel. Its good now, although it took a few hours to right that wrong.

Decided to work on some exterior lighting so I can get this thing driving as soon as the weather turns nicer. Up until now, I’ve just been using wiring nuts to temp connect my lights to their harnesses. Time to do some connectors.

I’m using Weatherpack connectors. They use seals around the wires and in between the connector halves to seal out moisture and dirt. It does require a special crimper to do these… luckily I was able to buy a set of jaws for my Pertronix crimper.

So first it’s stripping the wire, installing the seal and them crimping on the contact.

Then we install the contacts into the connector.

When we have both connectors installed…

Its very easy to lock them together and seal out all the trash.

On to the rear tail lights. Here, I am only using 3 wires because I have  trailer light converter to make all 4 tail lights work as both running lights and blinkers. From Factory 5, you set it up so either the upper pair or the lower pair work as brake or turn signal, but not all like I’ve done. Anyways, 3 wires going to 2 lights requires some jumper work…

so I can send the power off to 2 connectors (1 for each light assembly). Same method for crimping and assembly…

And Voila! Illumination!

Thats it for today. My hands were getting cold and it was past Scarlett’s dinner time, so packed it up. I have lots more plans for this week, so stay tuned…

Hit the road yesterday with the trailer and Boss427 body in tow.

Made it to Whitby’s and back in 1 day… 14 hours and 670 miles. And at 10.2 mpg, that means we sucked up about 65 gallons of gas. Whew. Hello hydrocarbons.

I was impressed with Jeff at Whitby’s. He took the time to show me around, talk to me about my car, made me feel good that I was going to like what I got back. We spoke about options and details and he was patient and listened to everything I had to say.

This is just 1 room at Whitby’s. There’s 8 Factory 5 Roadsters and a ’33 in this pic. Thats my #9042 in the lower right. Cant wait to see what it looks like in another 6 months…