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Wanted a balance bar setup to
allow fine tuning of brakes.
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Quantum did not do a balance bar
setup at the time so realised I would have to create my own.
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From seeing other Cosworth
installations in LSIS cars, I also realised that the Exhaust from the
Cosworth engine was going to occupy the same area as the master cylinder if
I kept the standard Xtreme pedal box installation. This would not be good as
you don't was a hot exhaust overheating your brake fluid.
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After lots of research, I was
prepared to splash out on a Tilton Brake Bias Pedal box when a conversation
with Dave Griffiths at Interpro Automotive pointed out that a MK II escort
rally pedal box will take the sierra pedals and is a lot more cost effective
way getting what I required. he also stated he had a pedal box in stock.
Dave also reckoned I would require a 0.625" and a 0.7" master cylinder to
get the bias correct. The Escort pedal box took girling master cylinder
which I got from Merlin motorsport. It was not the cheapest place to get
them from but at least I could gaurantee they were new.
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When the Escort pedal box turned
up. It only accommodated a brake pedal and had a modified MKII Escort pedal.
The first thing that was apparent was that the Escort pedal shape was not
going to be compatible with the Sierra clutch pedal and brake pedal. Ok
then, lets cut the balance bar mount off the escort pedal and weld it onto
the sierra pedal. The hacking has started. I took the pedal along to my
welding course and asked the instructor whether he would weld the balance
bar mount onto the pedal. He agreed and within 15 minutes it was done and
the weld quality was far higher than I could have ever achieved. Luckily I
had another batch of parts which required to be powder coated so I included
all three pedals within this batch.
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The pedal box itself was going to
be more difficult. Firstly, I never liked the position of the Quantum
supplied pedal box. The main reason for this was the clutch pedal required
lots of travel to disengage the clutch. This meant moving the seat closer
than was comfortable to get good travel on the clutch.
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Ok lets reposition the pedals
while I am modifying the pedal box. I realised the pedal position of the
clutch and brake could be easily adjusted by welding the pedal stops in a
different place.
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It was not just the pedal throw
which was annoying about the Quantum pedal box, it was the height of the
pedals from the floor. As all three pedals are pendulum mounted and even
with size 9 feet, I felt the pedals were mounted a little too high for
comfortable usage. Although this is fine for the accelerator pedal as it is
light to use, the brake and clutch will be heavy to use and would require
lowering.
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I decided to use the pivot bar
holes on the Escort rally box for my clutch and brake pedal but graft the
the Escort rally pedal box onto the Quantum pedal box mounts. This meant
cutting away the pivot bar holes on the Quantum pedal box and also cutting
the Escort pedal box in half (just leaving the pivot bar holes and balance
bar part of the pedal box).
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The Escort pedal box was then
offered up to the remains of the Quantum pedal box and the two parts tack
welded together for trial position on th chassis. After a bit readjusting, I
decided to position the pivot point of the escort pedal box further back and
lower than the Quantum pedal box location but I must admit that the
positioning in the end came down to suck it and see as I could not entirely
make up my mind.
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The escort pedal box was then
completely seem welded to the Quantum pedal box. This took a great amount of
time and patients as I was welding mild steel to stainless steel.
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Once welded up, it was time to
position the pedals. This was another time consuming task and required lots
of trial fitting and removal from the chassis. I reused the brake light
switch plate from the Quantum pedal box as it already had the laser cut hole
for the brake light switch. This was welded in place to allow the brake
pedal to sit ~35mm - 40mm further back than the Quantum pedal box. The same
method as the Quantum pedal box was used for releasing the clutch pawl on
the self adjusting clutch. I realised that the position of the release
finger was going to define the position of the clutch pedal with respect to
the brake pedal so it was important to get the clutch position as close a
possible to the same position as the brake pedal. As the clutch relese
finger would be under a reasonable amount of strain due to the clutch pawl
spring tension. I decided to up rate the release finger so it would not bend
over time due to being under continuous strain.
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Once the clutch and brake pedal
position were located. It was time to position the accelerator pedal. As
standard this sat in the completely wrong place and it would be impossible
to heal tow as it was. I tried to adjust the cable length to set the
accelerator pedal in the correct place but it was not doing the desired job.
In the end I returned the accelerator cable back to its original length and
cut a V into the back of the accelerator pedal to allow the angle of the
pedal to fine tuned. Once I was happy with the position, I re-welded the cut
V on the back of the pedal so that the position was fixed.
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The Girling master cylinder fit
the pedal box without any real dramas. The balance bar also connected to the
Girling cylinders without any issues and hey pesto, I have a pedal box which
looks functional.
