Section XIV Handbrake and Seat and Harness Assembly
Warning:- Before carrying out any modifications to the standard design seek written approval from the Kit Designer. Use only high quality materials and fasteners and lock all threads. This applies particularly to Safety Critical items such as Brakes, Steering & Suspension Components.
Please read the entire chapter once or twice BEFORE starting as the relationship between the handbrake sub-assembly and the seats is important.
You MUST be able to operate the handbrake with the harness tight. This is an SVA requirement. If you are unable to reach the handbrake (long legs, short arms ?)
you may need to look at an alternative handbrake location. See the RHOCaR site.
Since this article was first written it has been decided to remove the Recaro Seat runners etc. I left them on initially as the work required to remove them seemed a bit daunting, also leaving the runners on made it easier to fit the seats. Furthermore I did not feel very happy butchering two brand new Recaro seats. However it has been decided that the seating position is too high (see the section on the bonnet) and the runners will have to come off. Note that the two seats are quite different as the (Vectra passenger) seat has no height adjustment and is thus a more solid job. If you are short in stature you may feel that the seats do not need to be any lower. I am quite tall and removing the runners makes you feel as though you are sitting in rather than on the car. You also need to bear in mind the Roll Bar height, ideally this needs to be HIGHER than the top of your head for obvious reasons. At least one, the inner, seatbelt mounting point will remain on the seat frame. It is therefore important that the seat mountings comply with the structural requirements of the SVA. Bolting the seat to the floorpan will not do. At least two reinforcing angles are required with any stresses passing back to the chassis. Assume the floorpan does not exist. With care the front angle can be used to mount the handbrake assembly. See below.
The Recaro seats supplied in the kit are identical to those fitted to the Vauxhall "Vectra" saloon and the Audi "Coupe" even the fabric pattern is the same, and are supplied as Left and Right Hand units. The seat tilt knobs normally going on the outsides of the car, with the non-adjustable unit on the passenger side. All knobs and plastic trim had to be removed to get the seats in.
Removing the Recaro Seat Runners:-
With the seat upside down remove the plastic stop at the front of both tracks. Knock the runners off to the rear, this needs quite heavy hammer blows, as they get very tight towards the end, together with the plastic ball tracks (4). Lever off the plastic links between the release bar and the finger plates. Prise the finger plates out of their pivots and pull clear. Unscrew the 4 socket head screws in the alloy finger holders and lift off the alloy finger holders. The way is now clear to grind off the heads of the rivets holding the fixed runner tracks to the seat base. Grind off with an angle grinder and knock out the heads of the rivets. On the passenger seat the belt anchor brackets also come off, so you will have to re-fit at least one on the tunnel side. All the under gear will now fall clear leaving the seats free ready to fit to the floor. As space is very restricted I also decided to remove the lifting gear from the outside of the "offside" seat as this will not be required. There is little point in removing the runners, then lifting the seat up again !! Remove all the plastic trim (2 self tappers) and undo the 4 Phillips head screws. Pull off the lifting gear mechanism. A large torsion bar spring will flirt the seat fully up. Saw through the spring bar where it exits the seat tube and pull out the rest of the spring bar as far as possible, and re-cut. (it will not pull right out) You will need to fully lower the seat brackets and securely bolt or weld these in the down position. All this seems quite horrendous, but a quick spray with gloss black aerosol on all exposed metal faces gives the seats an as new look, but at least 30mm lower. You now have 2 seats modified to be as low as possible, ready for fitting.(see para 2 below) When the modified seats dropped into the car it has a lower leaner look, even though the seats have only gone down 30mm. Place the seats to one side for the time being.
Handbrake Assembly.
The methods used below require an additional new Ford handbrake cable, as we need to use two (longer) adjustable outers. (you could use an outer off the donor) These provide the extra length required when fitting the 40mm angle closer to the front of the car than originally intended. This allows the angle to pick up on the rear seat mounting holes. After you have cut the nipple of the end of the inner (to shorten it) you remove the short non-adjustable outer and fit the longer (adjustable) outer. Do not forget the spring and two plastic washers. Both outers are now identical and fully adjustable, as a bonus you also get twice the adjustment.
Note:- Once you fit the Cable Outers into the Sierra Backplates they are virtually impossible to remove without a special tool to depress the metal spring tangs. Just a 150mm piece of steel tube with a 10mm hole will do the trick, otherwise you will be stuck with shortening the inner cable in situ which is not easy.
Now that the internal panels are in we can consider fitting the Handbrake followed by the two Recaro Seats. As designed the Sierra Handbrake tucks in very close to the base of the passenger tunnel side, and will be fitted as such, but modified to tilt the lever upwards, more or less as per the methods detailed on the RHOCaR site. A 25mm x 25mm steel angle is fitted across the full width of the car at a point where it picks up the REAR Handbrake mounting hole, (vertical flat face to the front) note the bottom edge of the tunnel side just comes to the edge of the Floorpan cut-out, and a another piece of 25mm x 25mm is welded at 90 degs to the main cross angle, and picks up the front handbrake mounting hole and then continues forward to the 38mm dia gearbox cross member. This Tee frame is secured to the chassis with 3 "J" bolts which are virtually invisible when the internal trim is on. This gives a very secure assembly. With care this first angle will also pick up on the front mounting holes in the Recaro seat rails. Read the SVA on under body fittings. Note:- Fit the Handbrake switch and plug with a long wire tail. It is quite hard to fit later on when the carpet and seats are in. Check it works and the cable does not foul the angle at any position. Mine failed on this point. see Section XXV The SVA Test.
The handbrake cable supplied has an inner that is too long, whilst the non-adjustable outer is too short. Solution. Buy a 2nd identical cable and when you shorten the inner, remove the non adjustable outer and re fit with the longer adjustable outer from the 2nd cable. The other option is to move the 40mm angle back to the rear of the floorpan but this interferes with the pop rivets and does not pick up on the seat runners. The cable will need to be trial fitted to establish just how much to cut off. Instructions are in the video on how to do this. From a safety point of view this is NOT really an acceptable method as any heat applied to the stranded cable will weaken it to a greater or lesser degree. Try out your local Yacht chandler who may be able to put a steel crimp on the end as per the Ford original. See note on Brazing. Also note that the outer cable ends snap into the backplate and do not come out again very easily without a special tool, see note above. On the new cable supplied there is only one adjuster, but this is threaded on the outside of the outer cable and thus has a very large potential range of adjustment, if the adjuster is positioned correctly before the cable is cut, it will allow a couple of mistakes in cutting plus any foreseeable range of adjustment. Using the method suggested above you get twice the adjustment. If you are using the old shoes, make sure you have plenty of cable available when you come to fit new shoes in the future. If you stick with the standard Ford cable the non adjustable cable end is quite short and a clip will be required to retain it to the 40mm angle. Two rubber grommets are fitted to the cable, originally designed to pass thro' holes in the rear chassis, you will need some support here to stop the cable hanging down and also to make sure the cable outers cannot be trapped in the suspension arms as they move up and down. This point is most important.
The 40mm x 40mm rear angle is now supplied 815mm long and with a bit of attention to the outer ends it can be made to fit snugly in-between the Sierra suspension arms and bolted to the suspension mounting plates at each end. Using suitable packers a further 2 - 10mm bolts (10mm or 7/16" high tensile bolts are an SVA requirement) will pass through the floor pan to pick up on the Rear Seat Rail inner mounting holes into the 40mm angle and will give a superb solid mounting since it is linked right back to the stainless steel chassis. Machine the cable support angle as per the Video to accept the outer cable ends (The holes need to be 15mm dia x 65mm apart on the centreline, with 5mm cable slots.) Temporarily secure it in position with a couple of car jacks and spot through for the 6 holes. Remove, de-scale & paint, refit when dry. Fit the two handbrake cables through the key holes. Set the cable adjuster(s) to give about 3" through the angle. Fit the cable and the equalizer, make sure the handbrake is fully off and the rear brake shoes at least somewhere near the drums. Establish by how much the cable needs shortening and carry this out as per the Video. Do not forget to test your work at the end.
Also do not forget to fit a new circlip (Ford Part F6122626) in the equalizer pivot. Grease all exposed cables and the equalizer with waterproof grease and adjust the cables as required. This will need redoing as the brakes bed in, hence the need to get the cable as tight as possible to start with or you may run out of adjustment. If possible fit a rubber gaiter or a cover over the external handbrake mechanism, otherwise loads of waterproof grease will have to suffice. It is in a very exposed position and will soon seize up if not protected.
1) Fitting seats with the runners in-situ:-
The outer rear seat rail holes pick up on the St Steel chassis plate, which doubles as the outer seat belt anchor point and the inner ones go through the floorpan into the 40mm x 40mm handbrake rear cable angle. This unit gives a very secure mounting for the seat and handbrake assembly and further stiffens up the floor. As the handbrake lever has been raised, a 12mm slot will needed in the vertical face of the 25mm x 25mm cross angle as clearance for the cable lever. Drill through the angles at the three ends and fit the "J" bolts onto the chassis as mentioned above. Chamfer all sharp ends and dress off the corners, remove any mill scale and paint well. Refit when dry. When the outer panels are fitted they can be slipped between the angle and the floorpan/chassis. If you fit the front bolts it is JUST possible to pull the seat hard forward on the runners, and fold the back right down to mark off and fit the 2 rear bolts. Once the rake is reset it will probably never be altered anyway. If you do need to remove the tilt knob, leave the splined rod in place, it will be needed to raise the back after the bolts are in, and ensure that all the clutch bits cannot fall out. There is not a lot of room for any of these bolts and some care should be taken before drilling any holes. Once the seats are in and the rake is set it is unlikely they will ever need to come out again. Bolt the seats to the car with 4 (or even 6) M10 high tensile steel bolts.
2) Fitting seats with runners removed:-
We still need to pick up the 4 holes on the sub chassis, so a seat sub frame is made up from 2 pieces of 35mm x 6mm flat bar, using 8 countersunk screws fitted from the underside, fit the two rails to the seat base long enough to span the four holes in the sub chassis with the seat in the position you require, allow a bit extra for future adjustment. Drill 2 holes in each rail and fit these through the two angles as above. Unlike para 1) the two inner rear bolt heads are 100% inaccessible from the top so you will need to use c'sk screws and braze the heads so you can tighten the nuts up from underneath. Fitting these seats so that they are in the right place and lining up with the angle sub frame has been a real b----- If you do need to remove the tilt knob set the seat back rake, leave the splined rod in place and ensure that all the clutch bits cannot fall out. Also set both seats at the same angle. Once the seats are in and the rake is set it is unlikely the seats will ever need to come out again. Take care with all the marking off as the seats need to "drop in" to the 4 drilled holes in the floor, not easy !! Bolt to the car with 4 (or even 6) M10 high tensile steel bolts
Sabelt Seat Harness
Beware that the Harness lower mounting bolts will need to be fitted BEFORE the seats go in as there is no access once they are in. I have used the RHSC's mounting for the Lower Outer bolts with a captive nut (see photographs below), the seat bracket for the lower inner's and the RHSC's mounting points at the upper rears, again with captive nuts. Follow the Sabelt Instructions supplied.
The SVA & the Seat Belt Mounting points.
Strict interpretation of the SVA guidelines would suggest that ALL Seat Belt Harness bolts are secured with CAPTIVE nuts. The method I have adopted is as follows:- The 4 RHSC's plain steel inner tubes were knocked out of the thin welded outer tubes on the upper rear chassis cross member & discarded. 4 new threaded tubes were made from 17mm a/f stainless steel Hex bar, but with a short hex shoulder on the lower portion and the outer diameter a medium drive fit in the welded on RHSC's tubes. The bore was tapped at least 30mm deep full thread to suit the seat belts. This thread is a 7/16" UNF x 20tpi. (check this) These threaded inserts need to be flush with the top of the RHSC's tubes as per the originals. When you drive, or better still pull these in from underneath, put plenty of Loctite Retainer on and leave to cure fully. Re-run the 7/16" UNF tap thro' after assy to ensure the threads are perfect. These inserts cannot pull out upwards due to the shoulder, and the Loctite Retainer will prevent them rotating if the seat bolts require removal. If you use Hex bar for the inserts, then if they ever do slip, you can get a spanner on. To be 100% SVA certain you can always weld or braze them in or fit a pin through the solid part below the Seat Harness bolts. RHSC's should fit tapped inserts in the first place. Do not over tighten the seat belt bolts for the SVA test. In the event of an accident these upper bolts need to be 100% perfect as they take the major load. If in any doubt ask. The lower inner bolts fit to the threaded bracket on the seat runners and a captive nut was also fitted to the lower outer bolts that fit through the pre-drilled chassis brackets. This is a simple drilled plate brazed to a 7/16" UNF nut and secured to the chassis with two M6 socket head screws. See photo. Over engineered, so what. Use the original high tensile Sabelt bolts with just a tad of Loctite for retention.
Note:- As the handbrake lever is fitted at an angle to the chassis centreline the cable pull is also off centre and will introduce a bending moment to the lever. This can be overcome by fitting a couple of "U" grooved rollers to the floor pan, with captive cable guides. This will reduce the efficiency slightly but will eliminate any off centre loads by transferring these to the floor pan through a piece of 1" x 1/8" St Steel flat bar. Routing stranded cables this way was common practice on older cars, even for front brakes. Before the advent of hydraulic brakes, there was no other option. This poor cable alignment has been highlighted as a problem, but as far as we know, no car has failed using the basic RHSC's design. A photo of this roller setup will follow in due course.
This more or less completes the fitting of the Seats and Handbrake unit. Not the easiest of jobs due to the acute lack of space coupled with a poor design, it does however need doing properly and any extra effort is well worth the time spent. Given care you can get a good result as many finished 2B cars can prove. It is vital that the fitting of the seats, harness and brakes are above reproach. As I have said before the integrity of brakes and steering is paramount. If in doubt ASK. You might not get another chance. In retrospect I would have fitted the angles and cables with the car upside down. See section VII
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This shows the proximity of the passenger tunnel side to the handbrake cut out on the floorpan. |
This is the modified handbrake assembly fitted to the angle iron "sub frame". |
An under car view looking to the rear. Note the use of two adjustable outers and the cut-out in the "sub frame". |
Another view, this time to towards the front of the car. The 2 rubber grommets will be used to support the outer cables. |
| Captive nut for Seat Belt Mtg. | Gear Lever detail and Handbrake |
Copyright Text © Colin Usher 2009 Illustrations © Colin Usher 2009
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