GrantSmith6
Member
I am finally beginning my build log even though I am well underway. I have been working to balance kit building with college as well as managing a BAJA SAE student organization. Lots of involvement in motorsport for me right now and I am enjoying it all. My goal is to finish my goblin by the end of the semester so that I can enjoy driving it around this summer and potentially some autocross. I started the project with my deposit on July 4th, 2023, and bought the donor in September of 2022. I began the build slowly and in segments after receiving the kit in late September of '23. I worked on stripping the donor all the way until December of '23. Then attention shifted to wiring over my winter break in the evenings while I worked on building a tube chassis for BAJA during the day for this years competition build. Assembly then began on the frame in early January of '24. As of beginning this log, I have the car roughly mocked up with the engine, wiring, and supporting elements installed in the chassis. As I expected, the first startup was not as simple as turning the key and now I am turning to the forum for some help as I have a couple of questions.
The first problem that arose for me was related to the clutch. I attempted to bleed my clutch using the bleeder valve on the engine/trans side of the car where the steel line connects to the adapter which then connects to the trans. This yielded no result even when I used a vacuum pump on the bleeder. I started to trouble shoot so I pulled out the steel line from the adapter, pulled vacuum, nothing, and kept moving forward. I was using a homemade slave cylinder the whole time while doing this by running the line that would normally go to the brake res. into a cup as I don't have brakes hooked up and didn't want fluid just spilling out of the lines. Even when I removed the steel line from the clutch master cylinder and pumped the pedal, still nothing. I am confused as the clutch worked perfectly in the car and it was not damaged when removing it so maybe I am just bleeding it incorrectly??
While on the topic of the clutch/transmission, I noticed that when I move the shifting arms mounted to the transmission, the rear of the arm (opposite of the ball joint) contacts the chassis when shifting into certain gears. Do I need to grind down the lobe to prevent this? Or is there something else that I am missing? I will attach a photo to better illustrate whats happening. (note I have the F23 trans)
Last question for now is onto wiring... my least favorite. I was already on the forum and got some great help with a few issues that I was having but now it seems that I have more. When I turn the key, I can get the butterfly valve to react when the throttle pedal is pushed, but when I try to test the fuel pump by priming it, it doesn't react to the jumper, nor does the starter crank when I turn the key. I am thinking this could be caused by something related to crank position sensor but I am unsure of how to troubleshoot so I thought it best to ask first before I start fiddling around.
I am having a great time working on this project and I am learning a lot. I will add some photos of the progress I have made along the way to this post and do my best to keep this updated.
The first problem that arose for me was related to the clutch. I attempted to bleed my clutch using the bleeder valve on the engine/trans side of the car where the steel line connects to the adapter which then connects to the trans. This yielded no result even when I used a vacuum pump on the bleeder. I started to trouble shoot so I pulled out the steel line from the adapter, pulled vacuum, nothing, and kept moving forward. I was using a homemade slave cylinder the whole time while doing this by running the line that would normally go to the brake res. into a cup as I don't have brakes hooked up and didn't want fluid just spilling out of the lines. Even when I removed the steel line from the clutch master cylinder and pumped the pedal, still nothing. I am confused as the clutch worked perfectly in the car and it was not damaged when removing it so maybe I am just bleeding it incorrectly??
While on the topic of the clutch/transmission, I noticed that when I move the shifting arms mounted to the transmission, the rear of the arm (opposite of the ball joint) contacts the chassis when shifting into certain gears. Do I need to grind down the lobe to prevent this? Or is there something else that I am missing? I will attach a photo to better illustrate whats happening. (note I have the F23 trans)
Last question for now is onto wiring... my least favorite. I was already on the forum and got some great help with a few issues that I was having but now it seems that I have more. When I turn the key, I can get the butterfly valve to react when the throttle pedal is pushed, but when I try to test the fuel pump by priming it, it doesn't react to the jumper, nor does the starter crank when I turn the key. I am thinking this could be caused by something related to crank position sensor but I am unsure of how to troubleshoot so I thought it best to ask first before I start fiddling around.
I am having a great time working on this project and I am learning a lot. I will add some photos of the progress I have made along the way to this post and do my best to keep this updated.