July 20, 2020.
After some aborted attempts I produced the first real part from the MPCNC. This is one of the plates that stops the blanking seal at the end of the camshaft from falling out.
I’ve some tooling and other issues to work through with this before I go forward to do anything else with it so at the moment this the MPCNC is on the back burner whilst I get on with other things.
The bellows arrived from the UK so I could finish off the assembly of the steering. The first piece is bolted to the aluminium sheet using M4 riv-nuts, there’s neoprene foam rubber on the back to form a seal.
Next is the adapter to connect to the bellows, I’d ordered these in the wrong size, and the soft silicone proved impossible to machine anyway, but copying the attachment method this were printed in PETG and bolted to the first part. I could have reprinted to whole part as one bit, but decided to go this way.
The bellows then fits over that and a similar piece on the outboard end holds that in place. As that was printed too the clamp to hold it to the steering shaft could be incorporated into the piece.
All put together, clamps hold the bellows into the grooves.
PETG is a modified version of the stuff plastic drink bottles are made from, its got useful mechanical properties but can be prone to stringing as shown below, this cleaned up ok though.
After getting that done I assembled and greased the completed front suspension. The top ball joints on the Corvette uprights dont have grease nipples, so some was syringed in instead.
Going through the process of basic alignment, I found that a couple of thing were not quite right, which is why you leave adjustment in the design so this can be dialed out. Looking at the picture below, the top rear chassis bracket is 4mm too far back and the top damper bracket is about the same too far forward.
Some new spacers got it in to the correct position and it now measures the same as the other side.
After a remarkable amount of effort the front wheels were aligned, with the steering rack being centered at the same time. All the fasteners in the front suspension, steering and brakes are now tightened, pinned or thread locked in place, excepted for the dampers as I want to use different fasteners for those that need to be sourced.
The drivers seat was refitted, along with the adjustable seat rails that are a legal requirement, as it slides this could be fitted and still leave room to get behind it and do the work that’ll be required on the fuel tank and cover.
Where the bolts come through from the seats and seat rails I could see people scratching themselves on when reaching around down there, so I printed off some covers for those, I didn’t print the thread into them but ran ran a tap through after, not to pretty, but not sharp edged either.
