V-12 Engine into 308 Build, over on Grassroots

Dropped off the paperwork to get an antique registration with in PA means its registered for life and no more inspections. And also requested a custom plate
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Very small progress....I ordered a new higher voltage set point regulator that should change the new Li battery properly form this place for $26:
https://www.prancingmoose.com/AdjustableVoltage.html

They have lots of options. I when with a fixed internal regulator with a 14.8V set point for $26 which should net about 14.5 system voltage but they also have an adjustable option and conversions for external regulators fix or adjustable.

 

Still no update on bearings but in other news I bought a 5/8" master cylinder to replace the 0.70. with 5/8 front and 0.70" rear it was about perfect with the balance bar centered but 5/8&5/8 with the balance balance bar kicked over I can have the same f/r balance with 10% lower pedal force which I think will be better and since its already apart it a good time to make the change.

 

The battery came today....weirdly light to pick up, my brain sees a battery but nope, its not heavy. It has a built in volt meter and talks about storing at x% charge or bring to 100% every 6 months and such abut nowhere does it tell me what voltage is what % so the instruction are basically worthless. And got a new charger and work with it and it tells me all kinds of stuff....that I have no idea what it means or why I care which just makes me feel old and ignorant. But the battery is light.

This should be the end or corroded battery terminal so the plan is grab new terminal bolts and baking soda and wire brush everything clean before installing it.

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At least the charger seems to know what full charge is

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Kind of boring stuff. Google helped me convert voltage to % charge

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The clean the wire ends didn't go well

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But all well in the end

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This is kind of funny. I've had this car for 25 years and a few months now and I've had the ground off the battery dozens of times for storage or working on whatever..... but today i realized there is a disconnect that works perfectly..... DOH!

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And the driver's window that wouldn't go down was just a pin popped out of a connector, easy

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The new mastercylinder arrived Monday but I need to sort out the steering before I can install it...so I ordered the $160 dunebuggy rack I was eyeing:
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Its everything you'd expect at that price and more! There is quite a bit of lash and no way to adjust it but its about perfect travel wise and not the and about 1.62 turns lock to lock which I think is near prefect (they said 1.5 but that's a lie). I took it apart:
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On the plus side the rack teeth are induction hardened and the pinion is hard, the bellows seem fine.

On the minus side no bushings in the housing and while it appears to be designed for a rear pinion bearing there isn't one. The rod end are 3/8" which would be only marginally adequate. And of course its mossing about 2 feet on the right side.
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I stared at it for a bit trying to decide if its worth messing with...I have a plan.
1) add a rear pinion bearing
2) add rack bushings to the housing and off-set then slightly to yield a high pre load on the pinion. That will fix the lash and should it ever return replacing the bushings should again sort it but I can't imagine it will get that kind of use
3) Rethread the rack ends 12mm or maybe 1/2"
4) thread the OD on the right side of the housing
5) Add a right side rack extension
6) add a right side housing extension

I'm guessing that's $50-$100 of material then I can worry about how to install it.

 

There is definitely an extra quick ratio 308 rack hiding in there. I was concerned it seemed fragile but it's probably stronger than stock. I was horrified to discover the tierod ends are 1/2-20 thread....oh the shame of it....
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The rack is 22mm, of just under 7/8. I was going to make a thread on extension but 22mm is hard to come by and it would be WAY easier to just slip a 1" OD x0.62wall tube over the end and weld it....I think 4130 comes .065wall so stronger and would fit better. The I found some 1" sch 40 aluminum pipe that has a 1.05" ID to make the housing extension from. This should work.

 

I ordered a 2" piece of 4130 tubing to extend the rack from aircraft spruce, $10+$10 shipping was about the cheapest I found so a few days for that.

The new rack had rod ends which I think are a little small and would make adjusting toe a pain. I spent some time looking at different inner tie rod options and ordered some on amazon to see if I got luckily because I was completely not understanding I could just use the ferrari parts and and have to adapt nothing. I just need to tap the rack and install studs. Amazon parts canceled.
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I will need to use larger bellows to go over the tie rod ball, but luckily I have ferrari bellows, I'll need to make a sleeve to up size the rack housing. Easy enough

Then last the ferrari rack pinion is angled like 5deg and the new is straight so I need to figure out where exactly I should position the rack to get everything happy about the angle change. I guess that is the next step so I can do the housing work.

 

I was in the shop most of the day....but you know....

First I really needed the fab table so I moved the crank and rods to the printer bench and finished deburring the pistons before moving them
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Then removed the appendage they intended as the mount.
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..and couldn't help myself I filled what was left of the bolt holes and cleaned it up

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At this point I noticed the gear teeth are cut not ground and decide I lap them a bit to smooth them out
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The rear of the pinion wasn't really any size...a fat 15mm so I had to polish off a few thou to make it fit t5he bearing correctly
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Then add the rear pinion bearing and a couple notches thinking they will give me at least a change of being able to remove the bearing
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The sleeve for the front bearings was kind of loose so I assembled that with red loctite and and kind of spun it hoping that carters it.
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I kind of futzed around with the rack and blocks and shims to see how much clearance causes how much rotation in the rack and decided I need to move the rack 0.15" closer to the pinion so into the 4 jaw chuck on the lathe and indicated it true but .015" off center and got cutting. I bored the center so the rack had room to move, added a bushing and threads to the one one, flipped it then shortened the other end 1/8" because after fitting it in the car that end was a little long, then cut the bushing bore, then added an OD I can press an adapter for the the boot onto.. And here is where it sits.
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I probably could have move the rack another few thou but its smooth and the lash is gone. tomorrow I need to shorten the rack on the driver's side and add a stud so the tie rod installs in the correct position. From there I can finish the housing extension and test fit it in the car which will let me start figuring out what I need to order to connect to the power unit and the steering wheel. It should start to look like something tomorrow.