That's the oil pressure adapter, a small valve screws on to that and a nylon tube clips in to it. Now the tube cannot be pulled out, the clip has to be jiggled to stop it just falling out. The tube was cable tied to the chassis rail as a safety but I'd forgotten that I'd cut the ties as it stopped the tub fitting properly. Well after the second start up the tube slipped from its location and landed on the nice warm exhaust headers, fortunately the engine wasn't running but that didn't stop the pipe from melting. Not a problem I thought, I'll just chop the melted bit out, and it’s too long anyway and reconnect it. Well, that was the plan, the chassis member made it difficult to remove the pipe and refitting it was just impossible. The adapter was unscrewed, pipe connected and screwed back together. The engine started again and the adapter promptly sheared off, leaving a bit of broken brass in the head, an adapter in a small puddle of oil on the floor and me swearing like a trooper. So, out came the easiout, in it went, off it snapped. Now I really swore, so now I have a snapped off easiout that hasn't plugged the hole, won't come out and won't drill out. That left me feeling dejected. I just don't understand why ever step I take I end up two or three steps behind where I started. Well I called in the cavalry, this was going to hold me up so I made a little list of other things I could do and this is what I came up with.

Fit oil take off plate under oil filter
Fit steering rack
Fit steering column
Tidy up engine wiring
Fit tunnel cover
 
So, off came the oil filter, and on went the take off plate, well it would if it had fitted. The water pipe to the oil cooler got in the way. So, if I remove that hose and loosen the bolt that holds it in I should be able to wiggle about and see if I can get some room. Well, I can get some room, mainly because the oil cooler pipe that goes through the sump came out in my hand dropping the o-ring into the sump and the contents of the sump on the floor.Off came the sump, new gasket ordered. New plan of action for oil pressure, do what everyone else has done. Drill the oil cooler bolt (link to fluke motorsport) which was a bit more expensive but would have now saved me a fortune. Damn, damn, damn.

Ok, next job, steering rack. Now the build manual says to make sure the steering arms are parallel to the wishbones. All well and good, but what the build manual doesn't say is you need to set castor up before this as otherwise the rack is too far back, link bars don't clear chassis rail and bolts can't be inserted because the shocks are in the way. Elongating the holes that I drilled, the rack was moved forward until the rack gaiter is only 3mm from the front chassis member. It's tight to get it on, but it shouldn't need to be changed that often!

The steering link bar was offered up to the rack but it was about an inch too short. Although the Haynes manual says the triangular part of the column should be 185mm long this doesn't hold true for the Vortx, the bar needs to be persuaded to be longer, a pair of mole grips and a mallet did that job. Now the wheels turn with the steering wheel!

Engine wiring was tidied up. Following the Yamaha wiring loom I've removed every non essential unused wire from the loom. It may sound a bit excessive, but I've removed 400 grams of wire and relays from the bike loom. I've done the same with the MNR car loom. Quite a lot of wires can be removed in my case, some for security, which you'll excuse me if I don't go into, and some for use with the FIA cut off switch. This removed another 250 grams of wire. These little bits soon add up. The loom has been rebuilt using cloth tape and heat shrink and externally you can't tell the difference.

With everything sealed up wiring wise I got on with the tunnel. Measuring the gap to the cross members and things that poke out I've cut holes for the handbrake, gear stick and chassis rails. Although the components are marked to the length they require, some bits need to be lengthened to make it possible to get the cover on!  With the tunnel in and some of the interior trim in you can really see the car starting to take shape. All I needed to do now is get the damned engine sorted :(

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