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Getting back into it.

so i have been off traveling for work for the last month... back now and ready to get back into it.

lots of parts arrived while i was gone,

1. the aluminum fuel tanks from Boyd
2. the heater bypass kit
3. the rest of the fuel system fittings
4. the M12 banjo bolt for the clutch

Tonight i went to a local car show then came home and finished the clutch plumbing and bleeding. I was shocked to see a GTM at the show. It was in about the same state as mine, not quite running but almost there. It looked like a twin turbo LS7 setup, its all being built by a local shop, doesn't look like the owner is doing anything himself. I grabbed the shops card so i can try and get a hold of the owner later.

I worked for a month straight without weekends or evenings so i have a few weeks of time off saved up, the current plan is to take a week off next month to focus on finishing the gokart.

this is the GTM i saw at the Calgary car show.

Weekend well spent.

I started off the weekend by filling/bleeding the brakes. I had a 2 air leaks that took me a while to track down. The first was in the fitting at the top of the master cylinder which caused me to have to rerun the front brake line. Once the leaks were gone the lines bled easily.

I locktite'd, torqued and safety wired the axels. This process took no less then 6 hours. The drilling of the bolts took the majority of the time. Most of my drill bits are brand new and couldn't make a dint in the hard bolts using my drill press. I bought a set of BigDog bits a while back at tradeshow, they worked like MAGIC for about 3 bolts before the titanium ends broke off. They were able to drill through the bolts like butter. I bought safety wire pliers which made short work of actually getting everything wired up.

I then took the time to adjust the CableShift unit so i could get through all the gears without the shifter hitting sides or bottoming out the cables. I then spend the next 10 minutes or so sitting in the drivers seat shifting gears while making vroom vroom noises with my daughter, its a toss up for who had more fun.

I shifted focus to the ebrake, the one from the doner was covered in rust so i soaked it in rust remover

This is the after shot. (about 2 hours later)

It wouldn't fit because it was quite bent. I don't think this is factory, i think someone must have bent it by pulling WAY to hard.

I bent it back to flat and then a little bit more in the other direction so it clears the center console.

Connections to the rear went together as planned..

Where have people been mounting this piece. I saw that Shane has a kit but it wont fit because my starter is in the same mounting location.

I shifted my attention to the AC lines. I started by putting in all the lines loosely (heater/AC)

I could not get the evap unit to sit where the manual says. Upon further investigation (by watching FastThings videos) i saw that it mounts better just behind the coolant tank. The reason i couldn't get the unit to fit there was because i used the 6" extension as the manual stated.... i will be removing that 6" piece, which is a shame because it was a ***** to get it in there in the first place.

The heater lines come with fittings that turn 90 degrees. why? it seems this would be easier to plumb if they were straight fittings.

These seals were in the box with the AC pieces... what are they?
were they supposed to go on the AC compressor fitting?
Does anyone know what these are for.

I also have a few parts on order
1) I ordered the heater bypass solenoid from Crash's website today.
2) Fuel tanks should be finished this week and shipped out (they are being custom made by Boyd's). They have AN fittings and a fuel pickup in the drivers side and a sending unit on the passenger side.
3) Aeromotive fuel rails should be here next week
4) M12 banjo bolt and fitting for the clutch

I head out to CES (Tradeshow) on Tuesday, back for a few days then off to Bett in London (Another Tradeshow), back for a few days then off to ISE in Amsterdam (yet another Tradeshow)..... so it might be a while before i post another update. 🙂 I do plan on getting some Traction control planning done in my other thread while traveling.

Laws

For anyone in Alberta Canada like me, I have found the basic rules for what needs to be completed before being certified to run on the road.

There might be a more recent version of this but i couldn't find one.
http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Regs/2009_122.pdf

Progress, progress, progress…

First the current road blocks... The Medeola slave cylinder uses an M10 banjo bolt and banjo fitting that came with the GTM. I used G96 transmission that seems to use an M12-1 banjo bolt and fitting. I visited 6 automotive stores none carry M12... all carry M10.. I guess M12 is not common. I ended up ordering an M12-1 bolt from Vancouver if it fits I will pick up the fitting from the internet somewhere.

Safety wire was hard to find but i finally found a shop that carried it. I also bought the fancy spinning pliers because i can never pass up an excuse to buy a new tool.... I also bought 3 new torque wrenches and 3 new ratchets.

I picked up almost all of the required fluids like coolant, Dot 3 brake fluid, engine oil. However i still have to pickup transmission fluid, seems most people on line are very picky about what they use.... I think i might pick up transmission fluid directly from Porsche.

I bought my fuel pump/filters/mounts/regulator/rails and most of the required fittings for the fuel system.

I have ordered some new parts
Sway bar: http://quickracingproducts.com/html/chassis.html
Fuel Tanks: http://quickracingproducts.com/html/fuel_system.html
Door Switches http://quickracingproducts.com/html/electrical.html

All in all this week cost about $4000... the value of the Canadian dollar is killing me.

Still enjoying it though 🙂

Another day another issue to work through

The shifter mounted a little different then the images on the vspeedworks site http://vraptorspeedworks.com/cable-s...g-bracket-kit/. My shifter ends about 1" more forward then the images on that site. Not exactly sure why but I am tall, that comes with long arms so 1" further away from the seat might be a good thing.

This banjo fitting doesn't have a bolt so i will need to buy one. The manual simply says "use the supplied bolt"... not sure what it was supposed to be included with. (I have two slave cylinders, i didn't get a bolt with either)

Axles fit right in, I just need to put some thread lock on the bolts and get them locked down.

The rear bump steer kit just arrived, postmarked from last Tuesday (3 weeks after i was told it was shipped...) regardless its here and looks great! Now i just need to get all the bolts locked down.
Brake lines are now 100% complete, I will pick up some brake fluid on the way home from work tomorrow.

I mounted the battery tray and washer fluid bottle. I will use a small piece of tube with a bolt though it to secure the top of the washer bottle. That will ensure that it doesn't move at all. I drove all over town looking for the last fittings for the brakes, turns out no one carry's brake line fittings anymore because "there is no money in it". I went to 5 automotive stores and received the same response at each one. (I ordered them off Amazon, should be here soon). In the meanwhile i used the fitting that came with the master cylinder and the T that was supposed to be used at the back of the car. Works great.

Robb was over, he welded in the VSpeedworks cable shift mount kit that i bought. Fit perfect, was short one bolt (kit comes with 6 bolts, requires 7 if you follow the pictures on the site).

This is the welder that i had to wire into the garage, works amazing.

Shifter installed

I finally figured out how to mount the shifter cables to the trans. Turns out the bracket that came with the trans is a perfect fit. I just had to remove the bracket flip it over 180 degrees and put it back together. Not sure how i didn't see that before.

the rear bump steer kit that i bought 2 months ago still isn't here yet. I was told it shipped over a month ago, I have called the company that I ordered it from 5 times, they seem to have no idea where it is. I might have to cancel the Visa payment on it and cut ties with that company to get my money back.... ARRGGG.

I started putting on the front bump steer kit. I don't quite understand how its supposed to go together or how it would help with bump steer. It mounts in the same way the factory unit mounts and has almost the same clearance. I also don't see how it would be adjustable... is that what all the washers are for? is that how it adjusts? If so it doesn't adjust by much.

I finished putting the axles together and got stuck on the Porsche side clips. Only one C Clip was in the box... I needed one more 1" clip, once again i hit every automotive store around me and turned up nothing. I had to order a kit containing 300 clips for $8 off the internet, that should be here soon as well.

I think i'm going to have to install the AC lines next before the coolant system because its easier to climb in the front without the radiator.

Pretty productive day

Pretty productive day, I will try and post some photos tomorrow (I have a few hours tomorrow to work on the car as well).

Brake lines and clutch lines are in although I need to buy a few new fittings because I stripped out the T that goes on the front brake master. The ones from FFR seem a little cheap, I will pick up a better quality one. The kit also didn't come with enough brake line to finish the clutch and brakes. The manual mentions different lengths of brake line however I only received 60" lengths. So I will have to go to the store to pick up another couple of feet to finish the last rear brake tomorrow.

I disassembled both corvette axels and cleaned all the axel components of all grease. I mocked everything up so tomorrow should be smooth sailing. I still don't have the banding clamp pliers that I ordered so I wont be able to do up the CV boots (that's the tool I was talking about)

The radiator rubber bushings came in today, Once the brakes are all bled and tested and the windshield washer fluid container is in tomorrow I can get that all mounted.

So for tomorrow:
Washer fluid tank install
radiator install
Mount axels in car (assuming I can find the tool locally)
Ebrake lines
Shifter mount (I bought the Vraptor pieces, I just need to weld them in)

This leaves:
Coolant lines
Fuel system
(rear bump steer kit still hasn't arrived)
Rear mount for transmission (have to weld something up)
Attaching the wiring harness (premade)
Wheel alignment

Then I can gocart... I am getting excited about gocarting 🙂

Waiting.

Waiting on Orders to come in isnt a ton of fun.

Almost a month in and the Bump steer kit hasn't even been shipped yet.
New rubber bushings for the radiator have been over 3 weeks without being shipped.
I bought some new tools to assemble the CV's, those are MIA. (couldn't find the tool locally)

hope some orders will be here soon so i can resume progress.

GTM Progress Continues

bought the 97-08 Bump Steer Kit from
http://www.rpidesigns.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=944
today

$500 Cad by the time it gets to my door but i feel that its worth it. I was just reading crash's notes in another thread about the amount of force that gets put on the linkage. Oh well, another day another $500

Lit myself on fire yesterday while running the grinder, took a look down and saw that my hoodie was on fire. That was fun. No injuries though but the garage still smells like burnt hoodie.

i fixed the welder plug as well, i had to make a custom mounting plate because the hardware stores around my house don't carry what i needed.