Brake Light Switch Upgrade

I've never been truly happy with the existing brake light switch, the one supplied by Tiger.  This is a pressure switch that screws into one of the spare outlets on the brake master cylinder.  It is not very reliable and sometimes requires quite a bit of pedal pressure to light the brake lights.  Being a small, low car it is essential that people following behind, sometimes too close, are given maximum warning when I am slowing down.  I was reminded of this when being tailgated in London city centre last weekend.

To ensure that the brake lights come on as soon as the brake pedal is pressed I've introduced a microswitch on the brake pedal assembly, just the same as would be fitted to a normal production car.  Here is the microswitch mounted using a piece of cut and shaped aluminium L-section.

Floor mounted brake pedal re installed and wiring connected up.

The microswitch has been wired in parallel with the existing pressure switch - adding a level of redundancy.  Now, when the brake pedal is depressed just a couple of milimetres, the brake lights come on.  Likewise, now the lights also go out with a very positive action.  Next on the to do list is to investigate a high level third brake light installation on the roll bar.

IVA Re-Test Passed!

Had the re-test this morning and the car passed!  Very pleased indeed.

The first part of the test went very quickly, just checking the previous fail points: fog light switch, exhaust clamp and rear brake show inspection holes.

Here I am up on the ramp while the tester checks the rear brake inspection holes.

All of these points passed easily.  It was the next part that I was very apprehensive about - the five point brake test.  I understand this is a relatively new test in the IVA and basically checks what the braking force is on each axle at five points up to the point where the wheels slip on the rollers.  Then these figures are put into a calculation, which I believe takes into account the centre of gravity of the car, and the result is a comparison of the brake distribution ratio vs the weight distribution ratio for each of the five braking points.

How these are measured is quite neat.  With the car on the rollers the tester straps a pressure sensor to the sole of his right shoe.  This sensor is wired in to the remote control for the rollers.  Then the rollers are run many times to take the required readings.  During these the system is measuring what braking force is exerted by the car for a particular pedal pressure.

Half way through the tester decided that the brakes needed warming up.  I assumed that the readings were not coming out as expected.  The car had been in the garage for a week and a half and there was some surface rust on the front discs.  To warm the brakes the tester drove the car twice around the test centre with the brake pedal applied.  He appeared much happier with the second set of measurements.

Then I was told to put the car back on the trailer, while the tester went to do the paperwork.  There was no indication at this point of the test result.  It was clear that the door was closed on any re-run of the brake test.

I waited anxiously in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity.  Maternity wards sprang to mind.  Then finally I spotted my tester coming out of the office, having done the required brake calculations.  I was delighted to see an IVA certificate in his hand instead of the refusal notice delivered last time.  Time to take the car home, whilst wearing a big cheesy grin.  Next its off to the local DVLA office to make the application for the registration plate.

Front Suspension, Hubs and Brakes

Here are the very sorry looking Cortina uprights, discs and calipers bought from ebay.

These were dismantled and the discs discarded.  The uprights just needed the rust removing with a wire brush attachment in the drill before they could be masked and painted with Hammerite.

After cleaning the hubs I attempted to remove the outer bearing races.  Unlike the rears, which were easy to remove, these would not shift.  The task made harder by the fact that they need to be pushed from the opposite site, i.e. a tool was needed to get through the centre hole of the hub, from the other side.  In the end it looked my efforts were going to risk damaging the hubs, so I admitted defeat and took them down to my local engineering shop.  They removed the races the same afternoon for a small amount of beer tokens.

Here is one of the hubs with the new outer bearing races fitted and the wheel studs repaced for longer versions.  These are to accommodate the alloy wheels instead of steel.

The hubs were then painted.  After fitting new discs the centre of the disc was masked for painting, the part that is not swept by the brake pads.  The idea here is to prevent this from going rusty and looking unsightly behind the alloy wheels.  Time will tell if this area gets too hot for normal Hammerite paint.

The bolts that fix the discs to the Cortina hubs normally have locking tabs fitted.  Two were missing.  I fabricated two new ones from some thin sheet steel by tracing round one of the originals, cutting with a jigsaw and then finally filing in the vice, with the new and old clamped together as a guide.  Spot the difference?

Hub and disc ready for fitting.

Upright fitted to car.  Upper ball joint not fully torqued until the camber has been set.  This will be done at a later stage.

Hub assembly fitted to upright, using a new wheel bearing kit.  This was then torqued to the correct amount, as per the Cortina Haynes manual.  As one of the hub grease caps was missing I bought two new aluminimum ones from Rally Design.  They were not cheap, but are very well made.  Shame they won't be seen behind the centre of the alloy wheels.

I entertained the idea of renewing the calipers, but in the end it seemed too much effort when new ones can be bought from Rally Design for a very competitve price.  The old ones will go back on ebay.  Here are the new calipers fitted, along with a set of new EBC Green Stuff pads.

All complete, barring the fitting of the brake flexi hose.  This can only be done once the body shell is on.

Floor mounted pedals mounted

I am fitting the Tiger floor mounted brake and clutch pedals. First to do is the brake. The brake master cylinder had been mounted previously so, after inserting the pushrod, it was relatively easy to establish where the floor bracket for the pedal would go and hence where the holes needed to be drilled. The pushrod seemed a little long, so in order to maximse leg room in the cockpit I decided to shorten it. In the end I only removed about 5mm. This was to ensure that the pedal still had it's full travel, i.e. the master cylinder bottomed out and the back of the pedal did not foul the bulkhead. Also as the pedal swings the pushrod does not move in a perfectly horizontal plane. It arcs slightly and as such the pushrod cannot be too short or it fouls on the slides of the master cylinder plunger.

The clutch pedal was mounted next. Before drilling the holes this was lined up with the hole in the bulkhead where the clutch cable passes through.



The chassis now needs to be turned over so that larger holes can be drilled in the aluminium floor to allow the nuts to be added to the pedal mounting bolts. Finallly the lock nut can be added to the brake pushrod connector and the stop can be fastened under the rearmost bolt on the brake pedal bracket. This prevent the pedal falling towards the driver and the pushrod falling out of the master cylinder. Not what you want whilst driving!