Preparation

Session 11: 31st October 2020

It's a few sessions off yet, but the time is coming soon when the engine will need to be dropped into the chassis. Today was all about making preparations for that process. Not a single bolt was added to the chassis itself.

The first job was to assemble a new bit of kit, an engine hoist that'll be used to do the manoeuvring. That arrived in bits on a pallet, and so needed to be assembled, at least to reduce the amount of space it was occupying. For the most part, Caterham supply labelled parts in bags per-section. The hoist box contained some lumps of steel, a single box containing all the fixings, and some brief instructions (a short narrative, an exploded diagram and a parts list). Since this tool is going to be used to dangle the heaviest, most expensive component in the air over the second heaviest, second most expensive component, getting this right seemed sensible!

There were several diameters and lengths of bolt and so on, all with relatively subtle differences between them, so rather than accidentally pick the wrong bolt I started by checking things against the parts list so that I could know for sure that, when they said "use bolt X", I didn't have bolt Y in my hand.

Where's this lot go?

The numbers are part references from the parts list. The pile on the left have no part reference, or are in excess of the quantities listed as being included in the kit. There's supposed to be two each of #23 and #32 and yet I have three of one and one of the other. Hmm.

Something was clearly up. I couldn't get the parts I had to reconcile with the parts list. Whilst it's possible that the wrong parts box ended up being shipped, it seemed unlikely. I started cross-checking against the exploded diagram, as the narrative didn't really mention numbers of parts used, whether washers were needed at point X, etc. The numbers of bolts seemed right (even if sizes might not be 100% clear) so rather than bounce the issue back to the manufacturer, I carried on. Eventually, it became clear that the quantities in the parts list were incorrect, as the exploded diagram used different numbers of various bits, and those (mostly) agreed with what I'd been supplied with. Having now some small amount of confidence that things might be okay, I proceeded with a degree of caution as it was clear that, at various points, I was going to have to infer what the right fixing was, rather than be told.

Ultimately, everything slotted together okay. The purpose of some washers that weren't mentioned anywhere in the instructions ultimately became clear. The locations where different bolt lengths were needed was mostly obvious. I ordered some extra spring washers for a couple of bolts where they really ought to be included but weren't supplied with the kit. But it went together in the end.

The photo opposite indicates the next problem. I'd run out of space to work, and so couldn't get a clear shot of the hoist without something getting in the way. If this thing was ever going to be used, something had to change.

The beast, assembled and ready for use.

Stored and waiting for its time.

Before...

The garage needed to be reorganised. I'm now done with the sides of the chassis for a bit, so there's no issue with it being against a wall. All the attention is going to be at the front for a while, so it being at the back makes sense. That meant that all the boxes at the back had to come to the front though. And that meant an awful lot of lifting and dragging.

...and after.

At first glance, the result doesn't look much better than before. However, now in the foreground we have the engine (bottom right), the gearbox (under the pink-wrapped exhaust pipes, bottom left) and the hoist (out of shot, extreme left). That gives me the working space that I need to mate the gearbox to the engine, and then lift it into the chassis with the hoist. Once that's done the chassis can come back out of the corner again, for the remainder of the build. However, that's several weeks off yet.

The light having long gone, I did some prep work for the next session (finding parts and so on), the now routine Amazon order, and headed home.

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