Week 43

More slow progress. Got the oil temperature sensor fitted, by drilling a hole in the sump just large enough for the temperature sender, then clamped on the other side by a spare thread adaptor used as a nut. There's a fibre washer on the outside to (hopefully) stop any oil leaking out. Then fitted the sump which, with the engine in the car, was a complete pain in the proverbial.... First was getting into the bolts that hold the oil pickup pipe onto the oil pump. Then there was getting the sump in place, with the rubber seals around the semi-circular ends and trying to keep the bolt holes in the gaskets lined up. Then the next problem was getting to all the hex drive cap-head bolts which hold the sump onto the engine. Anyway, it's there now, let's just pray it never needs to come off again.....

Also fitted the catch tank to the outside of the passenger footwell, and the clutch cable (which is too long - I can't get the clutch to disengage completely). Neil Wain's sending his cable off to Speedy Cables in London to have it shortened, so I'll send mine down too.

Week 44

Fitted the front brake lines and calipers. Turns out the bracket between caliper and hub is different between the "pair" supplied by Tiger. Shouldn't affect anything, just means the VW supplied high-tensile bolts to hold the bracket to the hub only fit on one side, so I've had to use normal 8.8 bolts (I suspect the VW bolts were only 8.8 anyway) on the other side. Ne'er mind.

Loads of polyurethane sealant/adhesive around all the big gaps between the chassis and tub in the engine bay, mostly to stop me from losing any more nuts and washers down there. The engine wiring's as good as sorted, just need to attach the coil and ignition amplifier to the chassis, then that'll do the ignition. Turns out my alternator *is* too big so I'll have to chop it in for a little 'un. Brackets to be made to hold the radiator fan, radiator brackets already bent to shape. I suspect a fair amount of fan will need filing away to make it fit. (in case you hadn't guessed, and I can't remember if I've mentioned it, the fan's being bolted behind the radiator, whereas the manual suggests mastic to hold the fan and cowling onto the front of the radiator - no ta.....)

Week 45

The coil and ignition amplifier are now attached to the top chassis rail either side of the carbs. I put rivnuts into the chassis to hold them, since I can't put a bolt all the way through the rail. Easy job, apart from putting too much force on the first rivnut and ripping the thread out. Also replaced the remote gear link bar with a nice welded stainless affair donated through family connections of Neil W... Basically this replaces the two bars which connect the gear selector and the remote lever with a single welded bar, which removes a lot of the slop in the mechanism. Very nice it feels too!

I've made up the brackets for the fan, which seem to work well. It sits above the steering rack, with the fan between the radiator and the top chassis crossmember. It's going to be fairly close, but I might get away with no mods to the fan blades at all. Quite surprised about that really!

Week 46

Replaced the alternator I had with a smaller one from a local auto electrical specialist. It's an "A115" apparently, but it's much smaller than the standard one. Unfortunately I still don't have enough room to fit the alternator between the exhaust and the chassis rail and still tighten the drive belt. Some fettling required...

Got the clutch cable back and fitted too. It's the perfect length, I had 2" chopped off, which has given just the right pedal position and a nice solid feel at both ends. However, I realised that the RS2000 sump I fitted covers the hole in the bellhousing which the clutch cable normally seats in. It has another hole about an inch away, but as a result the cable doesn't line up with the end of the clutch release arm. What I *need* is an RS2000 bellhousing, which has a different release arm in a different place so it lines up.... So I've got one on the way (incidentally, it's also many kilos lighter than the cast iron standard one.... :-) In the meantime, it seems to work okay with the slightly squinty cable arrangement!

Week 46

Made the alternator fit, using a combination of filing the outside edge of the thing down and adjusting both brackets with a file and hacksaw. Had to get a slightly shorter belt too - all motor factors carry a huge range, just ask for one around the size you need and they'll have one a few mm away. The code on them is a length in mm, so a 1063 is 1.063m long. The drive belt just clears the underside of the thermostat housing. This came off a late-model Sierra 1600, and has a cut away on the bottom to increase the clearance from the belt. This works well, even better now I took a file to it to smooth it off and increase the clearance some more....

Fitted the inlet manifold and carbs. Look good and clear the top chassis rail by a fair bit (hopefully enough to fit K&N filters on them after SVA). Chopped the top tab off the throttle pedal, and bolted the twin-cable block on in its place. This secures two cables side-by-side, whereas the tab on the pedal wouldn't have been wide enough to do this. Made a little plate for the pedal box to hold the outer cables in place, chopped the cables to the right length (inner and outer) and connected it all up to the Magard carb linkage. Then disaster, the cable clamp sheared. It's a 50mm threaded rod (unthreaded around the pivot point in the centre) which has a hole drilled sideways through the thread for each cable. A nut and washer on each side of the cable then clamps it tight and prevents slippage. Unfortunately the rod came apart next to one of the cable holes while tightening - overtightening? me? never..... :-( And Magard appear to have gone out of business so I'm going to have to make my own replacement.

Went to get my own rivnut inserter on the weekend while I was near somewhere that sells them. They were sold out. Typical. Going to have to get one mail-order now, which is a pain.....