CTG

- April 22 -

Earlier in the month I had emailed CTG a company that make bespoke CFRP propshafts, begging them to make a prop for me, citing the racing success of the Phoenix, the glory, the huge potential market...

They declined, apparantly because they don't yet have the capability to produce the slider part of the prop, needed to allow relative motion of the engine to the diff.

"It is anticipated that this will be a bespoke (with associated cost) part in 6-8 months and a production-type component in 12-18months."

I'm pretty sure I'll be suffering from a severe bout of upgradeitis by then, so we'll see...

In the meantime, if I want a CFRP prop, I'm on my own...

Prop adaptor

- August 21 -

Whilst I was in the area, I thought I'd fit the propshaft adaptor. However, it seems to be the wrong size, as the splines on the adaptor don't match up at all with those on the output shaft. Perhaps Ian has given me a Fireblade one by mistake. I'll give him a call on Monday.

The right adaptor

- September 8 -

The prop adaptor (or drive flange as it's more properly known) was indeed a Honda one - the parts delivery today included the correct adaptor, so I bolted it and the ring gear for the electric reverse on, just to check that the electric reverse is in the right place. It seems OK, but the pinion on the reverse is only a gnat's todger behind the ring gear when fully disengaged, so I may need to space the prop adaptor forwards 1mm or so to give it clearance.

Once I've bolted the engine in place (not entirely sure why I haven't yet) then I can measure up for the propshaft.

Thumbs up to Bailey Morris

- September 16 -

After bodging up a tool so that I could torque the drive nut up to Suzuki's recommended torque of 115Nm, and with the engine finally in place, I ordered my prop on Tuesday afternoon from Bailey Morris - basically you tell them you want a 2 piece prop for a bike engined car, and they fax back a drawing with blanks on it for the measurements. It took a little digging on their website to find out which of the 2 centre bearings on offer was the one I wanted, and the standard options for the diff and engine flange weren't the ones I needed, but they seemed to understand my scribbles about 'Small English' and 'Freelander', because on Wednesday afternoon they rang me to say it was ready - did I want to collect it or to have it posted?

Sure enough, on Thursday it arrived, the paint not quite fully cured in a few places - it might have been better if they'd left it a day or so before strapping it vigarously into its packaging, but hey - no-ones going to see it the missing paint once it's in situ.

I wonder when Ian will manage to get my replacement steering rack mounts and driveshafts to me?

On top of that - it actually fitted when I did a trial fit - yay!

In the pub later on, I asked some of the Cam7 elders what they recommended in the way of bolts, and the universal opinion was something along the lines of a 12.9 grade, with as little thread as possible - just enough for the nut. This just helps to prevent the threaded part of the bolt getting loaded in shear.

I'll be needing that...

- December 11 -

Hardly worthy of mention, except that it took an hour: I bolted the propshaft into place at both ends - getting the reverse gear in place was a very very fiddley job.

This page last updated on: Sunday, Jul 16 2006