Another productive day, must be the good weather.
Started with filling the gearbox with oil, according to the manual there
should be about 2.3 litres of oil in an IB5 gearbox, so 2x1 litre bottles
squeezed in for now. just in case anyone else has issues finding the
gearbox filler hole, it is a hex head bolt right next to the gear cable
bracket here's a pic with the bolt out.
.
I then topped up the brake/clutch res as I hadn't tested the brake
pressure switch yet, so after sticking in around 1/2 a litre of DOT4
fluid I did a quick bleed of the front brakes. The lines were completely
air blocked, after opening the bleed nipples on the HiSpek's I started
pumping the brakes, then noticed the res level was going down so I
Knew i was doing it right. So after a couple of minutes I shut the bleed
points off and pressed the brake again, and sure enough after a couple
of pumps the brake light came on. An awful lot more bleeding to do but
the switch works.
Another issue i had but wasn't at a stage were I could look at it was
the reverse light did not come on when reverse gear was selected, I
thought that it may be an issue with the gearbox not having any oil
and also the clutch line not being bled yet. So now was the time to
have a look. Gearbox full of oil now bleed the clutch line. A very
simple task as the bleed nipple on the clutch/gearbox end just
needs twisting 90 degrees clockwise to open then 90 degrees
counter clockwise to shut. I could now hear the clutch operating so
time to put it in to reverse. Nothing. Decided to take the reverse
switch out for a better look, luckily it's above the gearbox oil level
so no spillage. Anyway got it out and noticed it was a bit stiff, stuck
a bit of oil on it and tested with a fluke. Now getting continuity so
stuck it back in for another go. This time !!
.
So happy with the work today, the handbrake light now stays out on
the dash thanks to the res now being full.
At least another full day of bleeding the entire system, next weekend
for that, roped the missus in to being brake boy.
Tomorrow hopefully get the starter motor going and if that goes well
look at getting the engine running next weekend.
Sorry if some of this seems a bit noddy to some of you, but nearly a
year ago before I started the build I would have been lucky to have
changed the odd spark plug or wheel which as an engineer for over
20 years I found highly embarrassing . So for anyone with little or no
car maintenance experience, crack on, it's great.
I'm off to enjoy the sun now, 26 degrees in Glasgow, mental, just
hope it's like this in a month or so.
Ned