15^th march

 This car has to have an electric start, pull start as the engine was designed just wont do for this build.

 After a bit of thinking and a complete failure of an idea I came up with this.

 One rear wheel with sprocket from a mountain bike was all I needed.

 Removed all the spokes, sprocket, axel and ball bearings from the hub cut off the none threaded side off the hub and removed the lip with the holes in that the spokes went thru.

 On the original pull start the pressing that was used to engage the cams was turned round and the half axel was welded on to it I used 4 magnetic 90 degree set squares to hold the hub in place until I had held it with a few weld tacks then removed the magnets and welded round the tube. 

 One concern I had was “run out” would there be any vibration?

I was very surprised to find out there was only 0.020” of run out, minimal vibration and nothing to worry about.

 On the sprocket I removed all the smaller gears so only the largest one was remaining used spacers to pack out the sprocket cartridge so the locking ring would hold tight.

 For the starter motor itself I used a 12v model aircraft starter mounted on to a piece of 5 mm aluminium then made a couple of brackets to hold the motor to the engine

 The drive cog from the end of the colts clutch drum was drilled out to fit the shaft on the 12v motor then drilled thru the cog inline with the hole in the motor shaft and drove a roll pin thru the hole and tightened the nut to lock into place.

 Then fitted the sprocket on the fabricated hub carrier and attached it to the end of the crankshaft using the original mounting points of the pull start.

 Fitted the chain and adjusted the tension.

 The starter motor was fitted with a relay to take the high amps of starting away from the push button start switch.

 Also I had removed the stator and fitted a switched circuit onto the low tension side of the coil to be able to shut off the engine by the ignition switch.

 Connected to a 12v car battery and crossed fingers lol

 Great all worked fine chain didn’t fly off lol turned over great.

23^rd March

 Decided to have a go at building my own exhaust system just to see how it would go.

 I used 1mm sheet steel to form the outer tube of the muffler bent it round a line prop well a bit id cut off an old one lol. 

 Then welded the seam.

Two circular discs were cut for each end, one with a round hole and the other with a square hole 

A  piece of ¾” square tube was used to make the tailpipe I cut a v out of one side bent it round and welded the joint and a piece of 20mm tube was used for the straight section.

 On the straight pipe I cut slits into it and inserted a flat screwdriver and twisted it so they would act like a scoop and deflect some of the gases out of the tube into the larger tube of the muffler.

 Then assembled all the parts and checked for leaks (put my hand over one end and blew down the other lol) now leaks that I could tell of. Finaly a coat of silver paint.

 29th March 2009

Today i decided i was going to do the steering rack and the linkages.

I am going to use the escort steering column just needto make a few mods to fit and work. The top mounting bracket was removed from the column and a small bracket was made and welded to the colomn and the round bar on the top of the chassis, the other end of the column was attached to an upright 3/4" tube wich was attached to the chassis.

the steering rack itself was wade from 8mm square section sliding inside two 10mm square section guides wich were welded ontop of two pieces of 3/4" section at the front of the chassis leaning inwards.

 The last six inches was cut off the bottom of the column and filed into a square at the end so it would fit into a 1/2" socket universal joint.

  A 10" socket extension bar was fitted then another universal joint. 

All welded together for strength.

I used a kart steering column (£8.99 secong hand from ebay with link arms) cut down to just the end section and a 3" socket extension bar hammered inside it and welded together for extra strength.

 This part was then fitted to the chassis at the lower most forward part by a bracket with a hole in wich the threaded part was inserted and a nylock nut to secure.

This single point was not strong enough to hold the steering firm.

this was overcome by another bracket.with a copper liner/bush.

here are the bracket components i made from 1.5mm steel plate.

 These were welded together, the copper bush was 22mm coper tubeing perfect tight slide fit this was slid over the lower steering joint and then the bracket was welded onto the chassis.

To connect the the link arms to the rack i made two of these....

 using 10mm square section and a fabricated "U" shaped bracket to conect to the tiebars.