Steering and interior projections

 A couple of jobs done this weekend. First the interior projections. I want to make sure I had everything IVA friendly, so I got everything cleaned out to see what was left to do. Passenger side was as simple as you might expect;

Nothing really to report, apart from a sharp edge to the aluminium on the left hand side (you can even see the sharp edge in the photo!). So that will need to be smoothed down. My only doubt is TR9, the black bar across the top where the firewall rivets to. Because the dash doesn't come down very far TR9 is quite visible and quite 'shin damaging'. I don't know whether it needs some padding. It's 355mm off the floor, and the IVA says anything lower than 150mm off the seat is to be 'blunted'. Given that it's well above that and therefore in the 'specified zone', I'm guessing it needs a bit more than just blunting. 

As a side comment, now that all the plastic is removed and cleaned up, I am very happy with how it looks. The only thing is the back of the firewall, I might paint it because it's basically the 'raw' side of aluminium. 

The drivers side is obviously a bit more hectic;

The steering column is tucked out the way behind the steering wheel, the speedo cable is now safely clamped out out of the way, but the handbrake is obviously very vulnerable. As with TR9 it's in the specified zone, so I need everything to be correctly radiused. So that'll be bolt covers for the bolts, I need a sleeve or something on the handbrake cable end, then the left hand fixing needs some 'refinement';

I think I need to essentially 'box it in', so a 3D printed cover that either clips or bolts into place. It needs to cover the switch mechanism, although the connector tang here needs to be bent out the way so the connector and wiring can be safely routed. 

The second part of this weekend was to do the front suspension. I have a major issue with Ackermann, in that the wheels seem to completely disregard the need to move correctly when turning! The inside wheel is meant to be at a tighter angle than the outside wheel in order for the car to go round corners, but for me the outside wheel turns tighter. That means the inside wheel is likely to scrub. Problem is I just don't see how a good Ackermann angle is achievable with the rack being in front of the axle. I might try and measure my own car to see what sort of angles that has. 

I did initially think that it was because the suspension wasn't tightened up or set to the correct setup. So the first job was to get all the balljoints and other parts in place, then adjust everything. I now have front suspension with 1 degree camber and 1 degree toe-in, obviously based on my limited tool set so both may be within half a degree or so. Still, it looks better than it was... until I turn the steering wheel and then things get cockeyed again. I'll do some measurements and see how bad it is.

I do have the option of raising or lowering the steering rack, and that would help resolve this particular issue;

As you can see the bellows are in contact with the front of the car. This is another of those 'how is this happening' scenarios, where I've done all the measuring correctly but it's still ended up wrong. The Haynes manual says 95mm from the bottom of the chassis, and 93 back from the front. My rack centreline is 97mm up from the bottom, but only 81mm from the front. So I'm going to move it 12mm back for a start, that will get it clear of the chassis. I'll then need to adjust toe again, but maybe that will give me some sort of self centering ability? And yes, that's the main requirement here. I'm not worried about Ackermann directly, I'm not in a London Taxi and lock to lock turning will be a potentially uncommon occurrence. But positive Ackermann also limits self centering, and with the suspension geometry already reducing KPI and causing self centering problems for others, it is one thing I need to keep an eye on. 

Oddly enough a quick Google search for 'self centering' suggests the rack should really be much higher. So that's definitely an easy thing to try, it'll also make the steering column engagement a lot more secure, you can see at this angle it's barely engaged;

I also need to make or find a rack fixing bracket for the passenger side, when I was taking these photos I realised the exhaust clamp and no rubber grommet is probably not the best solution! 

Definitely when I get close to running this car I need to go over everything and make sure I've picked up on all the little jobs. Hopefully none of them will be insurmountable, a bracket here, an extra bolt there, etc.