Radiator & Front Suspension

April 7th - 17th

Seems like all I've been doing over the past week is cleaning up bits. After two of us chasing the workbench around the garage trying to undo the the hub nuts on the hubs that i got from the breakers. Found that on one spindle, the thread is left handed!!!

Fitted the clutch cable as I was waiting for bits to arrive from Rover. After trying to work out how to thread the cable through the other half came in and said "here just remove this rubber bit from the cable". So simple when you know how!!! the yellow part of the cable fits between the little lugs in the centre tunnel.

Also I bought an all alloy radiator from Ebay. This will far exceed the cooling necessary for the turbo. Or so I've been told. tried fitting the rubbers from the kit supplied. They don't fit on the bottom mounts on the radiator. After speaking to Mark from Marlin he said they rest on them. Still not being able to work this out, I thought the only solution was to cut a cross into the rubbers to support the bottom of the radiator. They needed to be cut to about half way done the rubber. Fitted perfect.

The weekend (Sunday 17th April) ended up being a great sunny day. So I wheeled the car out of the garage to work on it. Carried on plumbing in the radiator.

I found that through transit, the radiator cowl was a little scratched. The other half had always fancied trying spraying. So a spare can of red spay that was lying about and the misses done a great job on her first spray.

May 2nd

Another good sunny day. Decided to have a go at the suspension. First job on the agenda was the bushes. Each wishbone need two black plastic parts pushed into the holes by hand. The using a vice, the stainless steel tube bit pressed into the black plastic parts. Used some wood to protect the plastic against the jaws of the vice. Once these were all pressed in, the wishbones needed fitting. This required a bit of luck and persuasion from a wooden hammer. Once these were in, it was a matter of bolt through each hole. The bottom bolts needed also a bit of persuasion to help make the holes bigger that were already on the chassis.

Once all the bolts for the wishbones were fitted, the shocks and springs were fitted only needing a bolt top and bottom. Screwed in the track rod end to the steering rack, the top and bottom ball joints, the stub axle and wheel flange. But checking my pack of bits from Marlin, no steering levers!!! Ahhh!!! So can't complete the front steering and suspension.

Last thing I tried today was fitting a wheel. Wheel alignment was well out but who cares. Another day of feeling something major has been done. The front suspension was nearly complete.

I've found the steering levers in my box of bits. The reason I did not recognise them is Marlin had changed the design and did not look like the ones on the build CD. Spent a good few hours trying to adjust the camber angle for the steering. Then realised that the front upright was upside down!!! I setup all the suspension and connected the steering levers. Tested the steering and all worked fine. Last thing of the day I thought I would try on the wheels. The whole suspension dropped and now the hub bashes against the lower part of the spring. But I've been told this is normal and once the car is on it's wheels the suspension will move back up.

I've also been scratching my head about the cooling system The original design of Marlin's Turbo was to supply the Turbo inlet from the top expansion/coolant elbow hose via a t piece. My concern here is that the Turbo is getting supplied hot water (not sure how hot) for cooling. On the Rover the Turbo was supplied direct from the radiator. So after many drawings thrown into the bin, help from other 5EXI builders, MR2 forum (to see how the MR2 Turbo was plumbed in), and the guys from Rovertech, worked out how I was going to do it. Here is the link to the PDF file.cool.pdf


	Radiator & Front Suspension April 7th - 17th Seems like all I've been doing over the past week is cleaning up bits. After two of us chasing the workbench around the garage trying to undo the the hub nuts on the hubs that i got from the breakers. Found that on one spindle, the thread is left handed!!! Fitted the clutch cable as I was waiting for bits to arrive from Rover. After trying to work out how to thread the cable through the other half came in and said "here just remove this rubber bit from the cable". So simple when you know how!!! the yellow part of the cable fits between the little lugs in the centre tunnel. Also I bought an all alloy radiator from Ebay. This will far exceed the cooling necessary for the turbo. Or so I've been told. tried fitting the rubbers from the kit supplied. They don't fit on the bottom mounts on the radiator. After speaking to Mark from Marlin he said they rest on them. Still not being able to work this out, I thought the only solution was to cut a cross into the rubbers to support the bottom of the radiator. They needed to be cut to about half way done the rubber. Fitted perfect. The weekend (Sunday 17th April) ended up being a great sunny day. So I wheeled the car out of the garage to work on it. Carried on plumbing in the radiator. I found that through transit, the radiator cowl was a little scratched. The other half had always fancied trying spraying. So a spare can of red spay that was lying about and the misses done a great job on her first spray. May 2nd Another good sunny day. Decided to have a go at the suspension. First job on the agenda was the bushes. Each wishbone need two black plastic parts pushed into the holes by hand. The using a vice, the stainless steel tube bit pressed into the black plastic parts. Used some wood to protect the plastic against the jaws of the vice. Once these were all pressed in, the wishbones needed fitting. This required a bit of luck and persuasion from a wooden hammer. Once these were in, it was a matter of bolt through each hole. The bottom bolts needed also a bit of persuasion to help make the holes bigger that were already on the chassis. Once all the bolts for the wishbones were fitted, the shocks and springs were fitted only needing a bolt top and bottom. Screwed in the track rod end to the steering rack, the top and bottom ball joints, the stub axle and wheel flange. But checking my pack of bits from Marlin, no steering levers!!! Ahhh!!! So can't complete the front steering and suspension. Last thing I tried today was fitting a wheel. Wheel alignment was well out but who cares. Another day of feeling something major has been done. The front suspension was nearly complete. I've found the steering levers in my box of bits. The reason I did not recognise them is Marlin had changed the design and did not look like the ones on the build CD. Spent a good few hours trying to adjust the camber angle for the steering. Then realised that the front upright was upside down!!! I setup all the suspension and connected the steering levers. Tested the steering and all worked fine. Last thing of the day I thought I would try on the wheels. The whole suspension dropped and now the hub bashes against the lower part of the spring. But I've been told this is normal and once the car is on it's wheels the suspension will move back up. I've also been scratching my head about the cooling system The original design of Marlin's Turbo was to supply the Turbo inlet from the top expansion/coolant elbow hose via a t piece. My concern here is that the Turbo is getting supplied hot water (not sure how hot) for cooling. On the Rover the Turbo was supplied direct from the radiator. So after many drawings thrown into the bin, help from other 5EXI builders, MR2 forum (to see how the MR2 Turbo was plumbed in), and the guys from Rovertech, worked out how I was going to do it. Here is the link to the PDF file.cool.pdf