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Coalnotdole's Scimitar - Machining work: Speedometer Drive Unit 12/4/19


coalnotdole

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I love this stage of a project car! That last photo is great. It gives you a tantalising impression of the completed job, while reminding you that there's still a bunch of stuff in bits and therefore a bit of graft/enjoyment yet to come.

 

Cheers, Buried in that last photo is a clue to the contents of a future post... Where i take a break from reattaching parts and start taking things apart again....

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  • 1 month later...

I'm often asked by friends, family and co-workers how the GTE is getting on... often with the implied question what’s taking so long?

Time and motivation have been a bit short and the more I work on the car the longer the jobs list seems to get. There's a certain logic to tackling some jobs while the car is off the road as they will only be a pain to sort in the future.

 

Wiring Part 1:

When I bought the car in 2010 There was no dashboard wiring loom / fusebox at all (probably because the old one had be destroyed by fire) to solve the problem back then Dave and I made a new one from scratch. Which was fully functional, but over time proved to have some drawbacks all the cable lengths were a little bit short which meant that it was very hard to get the dash fascia on and off. Add to that some of the Lucas wiring colours were unavailable when we made it so some wires are the wrong colour. Also there were lots of bullet connections instead of multiplugs which could be difficult to disconnect.

Here’s a picture of our homebrew loom:


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The under car wiring loom was also never replaced and was prone to causing problems. For the last 6 months that the car was on the road the interior light had not worked source of the problems being this pair of connectors. which after 45 years abuse under the car were now quite crispy!
Why the interior light didn’t work:


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The painter had also helpfully* sprayed all the wires red.

For all of January I delayed making a decision about wiring but was eventually persuaded by Dave to go down the lockup garage and evaluate all of the factory wiring looms I had left over from breaker cars. These had sat festering in a box for years and I was a bit unsure what I had.


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Turns out there were roughly 3 cars worth and the best of the bunch was from a 1975 car. I cleaned the grime off the outside and laid it out roughly as it would be in the car.

For a car of its era the Scimitar has a decent amout of electrical kit as standard. Reliant were including:

Heated rear window,
rear wipers,
Reverse lights,
Two door swiched interior lights,
warning lights for brake pad wear, brake fluid level, low fuel and rad fan.
Electric radiator fan,
2 twin speed heater fans.
7 driving gauges including a clock,
etc,

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Here’s a few more close ups:

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The plan is to strip the loom tape off inspect it for any issues, repair any corroded terminals or connectors and add in a few additional wires for some extra's...
The dashboard then came off...

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Followed by the sub dash.

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lets have another look at the old loom.

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As the dismantling process had gone this far the heater box was removed too,

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Revealing yet more fibreglass repairs....

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To be continued...

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Tangent: Heater and More Firberglassing

 

Heater matrix out - time for more fibreglass repairs....

Prep:

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Lay UP:

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Flat back:

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With the heater box out of the car it was clear that the sealing foam was quite hard and perished and had quite a few major leaks.

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As a bonus to getting the heater out I have finally removed the last bits of broken windscreen...

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While I had the heater box out it seemed to make sense to replace the heater matrix, I bought this new from Motorads of Redditch,

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The new one has 3 cores vs the 2 cores of the original

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In the process of removing the sub dash dave noticed there was quite a bit of play in the steering column bushes. Particularly the bottom end bush which had spun in the outer sleeve and had clearly got quite hot.

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This photo shows the circular locating lugs practically worn away to nothing!

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New uprated bushes were bought from Revington TR - they were quite a bit better price wise than their rivals!

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Those loom pictures give me the fear ... 

 

Theres quite a bit going on but with a decent wiring diagram its fairly staightforward. Most of the wires will not be touched and I'll be targeting a few specifc jobs:

 

  • Replace any damaged terminals
  • Replace wires that have got hot or brittle (for exaple the feed for ignition warning, which has had a hard life in the engine bay.)
  • Uprate the main power feed from the alternator to cope with higher output, (fitting a 100Amp Denso instead of lucas)
  • Add in cable for Auxillary lights (should I ever want the front fog and spot lights)
  • Add cable and relay's for heated front windscreen.

A detailed look at the fuse box has found that there are a few terminals which have got hot enough to melt the plastic case so that may also need some work.

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I’d missed quite a bit of this thread. Great work so far, it’s looking fantastic.

 

It’s interesting to see how your rebuilding this car, should prove useful and inspirational for me as I’ll be doing exactly this on my Capri soon!

 

Cheers, always look forward to seeing your Capri updates. hope you've got a reasonable size garage I've found working around the GTE  and the constant worry about damage to be a real issue!

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  • Replace any damaged terminals
  • Replace wires that have got hot or brittle (for exaple the feed for ignition warning, which has had a hard life in the engine bay.)
  • Uprate the main power feed from the alternator to cope with higher output, (fitting a 100Amp Denso instead of lucas)
  • Add in cable for Auxillary lights (should I ever want the front fog and spot lights)
  • Add cable and relay's for heated front windscreen.

A detailed look at the fuse box has found that there are a few terminals which have got hot enough to melt the plastic case so that may also need some work.

Relays for aux lights ?

Slightly bigger than original battery ?

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Cheers, always look forward to seeing your Capri updates. hope you've got a reasonable size garage I've found working around the GTE  and the constant worry about damage to be a real issue!

Sadly not!

My garage is bigger than a standard one but to do most of the work I’ll still need dry weather as I’ll need to back the car outside and rebuild it.

Not ideal but it’s all I’ve got unfortunately.

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More goodies have arrived.... A Heated Windscreen

After the explosion of my windscreen last year (it inexplicably shattered into a thousand cubes for no reason whatsoever) and I had to drive home from work with no screen fitted!
 
I fitted my only spare that afternoon, It came from a breaker a few years ago. Already Scratched and chipped it had been carefully stored amongst the junk down the side of the house and was really only fit for tip.
 
With the screen out again for the paint job I really needed to sort out a replacement. I could probably have got a decent used one for not too much but instead I've taken a chance and ordered a brand new heated front screen. (I've bought a replacement rear screen too as my current one doesnt work)

 

 
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I'm hopeful that once in with the seal it there won't be much (if any of the copper conductor round the edge visible.

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You can get heated Front and Rear screens for all Scimitars (thanks to the owners club and a partnership with Ricky Evans Motorsport) The purchase is made directly from the owners club but Ricky Evans supply them and hold all the stock.

 

http://www.heatedwindscreen.com/acatalog/heated-windscreens.html

 

A look on the Ricky Evans website shows they do a reasonable slection of Front screens for other cars... I think they are quite motorsport / rally oriented

 

Presumably replacement rear windows are a Scimitar quirk. A heated rear screen was standard kit on a GTE but its rare for them to still be in working order.

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  • 1 month later...

I've neglected this thread a bit, as I've got lots of partially completed jobs bits which are not quite finished which is annoying. some jobs are waiting for my mate Dave's particular attention (such as the main loom modifications) other jobs have been slowed by the need to do things in a set order...

Continued from the last post about the heater...

Quite a few of the captive nut plates that hold the sub dash and heater to the car were damaged or missing (it was actually amazing the dash didn’t not move or rattle.) A batch of new nut plates were made in stainless....

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and fitted...

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Heater matrix went back into its box with lots of new sealing foam to make it airtight...

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pipe flanges were reattached, bedded in on polyurethane sealant, new grommet for the speedo cable.

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The heater box was then bolted back in and the fans were connected for an air pressure test. The original heater fans were upgraded to modern spal ones a few years ago.


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The pressure test was good with a reasonable output at all the outlet points, I'm still not convinced the air felt as powerful as some modern setups I've seen. Possibly due to the long runs between the fan motors, large area under pressure. also the large diameter pipes don't lend themselves to generating high speed airflow.

I did consider going for an air conditioning upgrade while I was working on the heater. I think its possible to find room for an additional matrix inside the existing heater box, a compressor and a couple more hoses could be accommodated in the engine bay and a condenser could me mounted ahead or behind the radiator. Time and money have ruled it out for the moment. Future upgrade project? Maybe.

Moving on... Washers and wipers.

I had to get some parts for the doors folded up with the local sheet metal specialist... so while I was there I had some new plates made for the wiper wheelboxes. made in Stainless naturally!

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I think the main function is to protect the wheelboxes from excess water coming from the air grill in the scuttle, though they may just be there to spread the load from the wiper rack more evenly.

I've fitted stainless grill mesh to the scuttle air intake, Not sure if all 5a's had mesh I know that coupe's and rebels don’t have it. The washer jets Wiper rack & motor were also refitted. The washer jets are NOS single jet units which seem to be quite rare in that shape. (twin jets are for some reason much more available.)

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Before running the washer hose I had to sort out the cable grommet for the engine wiring, the fibreglass bulkhead was so thick that it was impossible to get the grommet to sit in the hole. A steel surround was made and fitted,

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And hoses routed to the original spec Tudor washer bottle with some new washer pumps. I'll probably have to fit bigger P clips when the wiring loom is reinstalled depending on routing.

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And now for something completely different....

A recent eBay browse threw up a used Dolomite spec front splitter for not too much money. Of all the aftermarket nose modifications I've often thought this one looked neatest and most "factory." I know Its mostly an aesthetic alteration (though I guess there may be some benefit to the amount of air ducted to the radiator.) but I quite like the way the nose looks with it fitted.

Heres a closer look at one on someone else’s car (stock pic off the net.)

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I've some slight concerns about ground clearance though... Hitting every speed bump with it could get really tedious.

Here’s a few pictures of the one I've got...

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I appreciate that fitting a splitter its not for everyone and is likely to divide opinions, its a period part and a well documented back in the day modification. I'm not totally convinced by it yet but will probably fit it and remove it if I don't like it....

Coming up in future posts: Alternators, Battery locations, More Fibreglass, Bumpers, Headlinder replacement and I randomly decide to take an angle grinder to the exhaust system...

Cheers, Joe

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Guest Hooli

I fitted a home made splitter (half the original spoiler inverted) on a XR4i years ago and the biggest difference was how much sharper it turned in at speed. I didn't expect it work to reduce floatyness at the front but it did.

 

Maybe yours will do the same?

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

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I fitted a home made splitter (half the original spoiler inverted) on a XR4i years ago and the biggest difference was how much sharper it turned in at speed. I didn't expect it work to reduce floatyness at the front but it did.

Maybe yours will do the same?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

that would be a bonus!

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Just wow..... when this thing finally rol out don't worry about keeping it clean, I'll gladly lick it rid of anything daring to try and spoil it's purity........ I'm boggled by the level of detail you're going into. I'm far too slapdash for that sadly. As all my motors (and ex gf's) will testify.

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Just wow..... when this thing finally rol out don't worry about keeping it clean, I'll gladly lick it rid of anything daring to try and spoil it's purity........ I'm boggled by the level of detail you're going into. I'm far too slapdash for that sadly. As all my motors (and ex gf's) will testify.

 

This thread never disappoints.

 

Lol no pressure! the installation is probably not quite as tidy as it seems in the pictures! I do try and make an effort to do things that will look all right and in keeping with the period. I bought the car in 2011 and have been hording parts since then, anything that came up at a bargain price was bought and squirreled away waiting for the time that I would get the car to a stage where the paint was good enough to make it worth fitting all the decent bits too!

 

I was particularly pleased with the NOS Trico washer tubing, Its hard to find it in period blue/green and can sell for £30 a roll on ebay with the right OMG LOTUS CORTINA keywords. ( i bought mine at a beaulieu autojumble one year, for a more sane price of £3 a roll )

 

I'm now at the stage where I've got around 20 crates of NOS, NEW or very good used parts. They tend to be sorted by model, project or function. For example there are two boxes of Rebel parts, a rebel engine crate and some overflow. Theres 2 boxes of straight 6 coupé stuff, a box for the v6 coupé. A box of electrical parts, two boxes of GTE parts (not including anything I'm expecting to use in the current refit)

 

This crate contains wiper parts....

 

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(mostly)

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Generating More work for myself...

As standard the GTE has a Lucas ACR 17 Alternator producing around 35 amps, For most of the time I've had it my car has had a 55amp Lucas alternator fitted, a nod to the fact that the original was probably ok on totally standard car but once you start introducing additional electrical load it is a bit under spec.

When I fitted the EFI engine I added fuel pumps and modern* coil packs. A short while later I upgraded the radiator cooling fan to a high performance spal. The end result was potentially another 35amps of demand. At this point I started to worry that the 55amp alternator was going to struggle.

With this in mind last year I bought a 100Amp Lucas alternator on Ebay...

Turns out the 100 amp lucas unit is very wide and during a trial fitting was far too tight for clearance against the Lockheed brake servo, The wide body also reduced the amount of movement available when the alternator adjuster was loose meaning that it was nearly impossible to fit a fan belt with a set of alloy rocker covers on!

Here's an old picture of the old 55amp unit which shows how tight the clearance is...

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I put the 100 amp unit to one side and refitted the faithful 55amp one!

In January during discussions about the wiring loom... the alternator question came up again...! Dave suggested going for a Denso type which are a bit smaller and more compact than their Lucas equivalent. I'm looking at needing somewhere between 70-and 90 amps.

An ebay search later:

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£20 For a refurbished unit? Bargain. The paperwork with it suggested it was for a 1.8 Diesel Transit connect / Focus.

Specs:

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I now have an alternator lineup... (The old 55amp on the left, Nippon Denso 90 amp in the middle and Lucas 100amp on the right.)

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Trial fitting the Denso to the Ford bracket, The alignment looks like with some adjustment it could be made to fit...

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So I was going to need to do the following: Sort out a suitable pulley, Modify the mounting bracket and sort out a longer adjuster.... Back to ebay!

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The Indian adjuster bracket arrived, It was completely straight and roughly the right lengh. It was slightly annoying that the slot wasn’t in the middle though!

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Some work with a hammer, a vice and some random bolts to maintain the gap and a curved bracket was produced...

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Trial fitted:

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Looks like this might work! The alternator needs to move backwards on the bracket but the exact measurements wont be known until it can be tried with a pulley!

To be continued....



 

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Generating More work for myself... ( Continued )

The pulley I ordered arrived and the diameter looked pretty good,

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Unfortunately the diameter of the groove was two wide and I had to spend another £16.20 on another one. So far the £20 alternator has actually cost £76.08 once you add in the extra parts and the postage!

The new pulley is the one the left…

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The output shaft on the Denso alternator is very short only 26mm sticks out and of that only 10mm is threaded.

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With the new pulley on there you can’t actually attach a nut as none of the shaft is visible…

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Fear not there is a plan ( sort of )

I took a load of measurements and sent the shaft off to Dave on the IOW, he deployed his milling / lathe ninja skillz to counterbore the pulley…

Like this:

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He then got mega keen and made a custom nut out of an old boat propeller nut he had knocking about. Its stainless which is a bonus…

The thread inside is from its last application and is not correct for the Denso which needs a M14 fine thread. As this is a funny size and neither Dave nor myself had one so a tap was ordered… (another £12 for the slate)

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The head of the nut was then slimmed down to reduce the weight on the shaft, It also looks a bit more slimline and refined.
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A few weeks later and I picked up the pulley and nut and was ready for a test fitting. Looks pretty good in this photo.

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Here’s a close-up of the nut. There’s enough clearance to get a 10mm socket on the end of the shaft to stop it spinning.

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With the pulley attachment sorted Its time to move on to work out the final position of the alternator.

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After some more measuring. Its clear that The alternator pulley is out of alignment with the waterpump and cranksahaft pulleys by 4mm. The easiest way to sort this would be to take 4mm off the back pulley…. But instead of doing that the plan is to take 2mm off the pulley and 2mm off the bracket. Obviously!

Parts posted to the IOW Again:

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And machined.

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Finally, the last job was to sort out the lower pivot which was a bit of a mashup of metric and imperial sizes. The torx screwdriver had done a pretty good job up to this point.

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A variety of pivot bolt designs were discussed but in the end we went for a tubular spacer, like this:

A long bolt will run all the way through into the existing thread in the alternator which should lock everything up securely.

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Which is about where I’ve currently got to. I’ve not had a final test fit yet as the pulley and bracket are on the island.

At this point its pretty clear why no one really bothers to do this, it would actually be easier to have just spent a load of money getting a refurbished Girling Mk 2b servo… and fitted the 100 amp alternator and lived with not being able to fit alloy rocker covers…!

As a project its sort fitted in around the other refitting jobs, but it has taken quite a few hours of messing about over the course of a couple of months. There’s probably another posts worth on this topic still to come (sorry!)

I promise the next update will involve fitting something shiny… #Magpie

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20 cases of hoarded bits. Thats some habit mate. Top work on the alternator jiggery pokery. What can be achieved by a man of determination and talent never fails to impress me.

 

Spares aquisition started as far as I can tell it started with Dave's red rebel (as parts for those are rare.) Having multiple boxes of stuff is not the best system, parts have a hadit of getting lost misplaced or dissapear into some kind of black hole.... I've got a set of NOS quarterlight hinges for the GTE / GT and cant find them anywhere!

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Cheers, I've learned a lot of stuff through working on old cars, online reseach reading other peoples project threads on here and elswhere.

 

I always find the posts on a single topic the hardest to right up. Its difficult to explain why I've made certain choices for engineering or technical reasons without the post just being long, boring and unreadable. Its even worse when it takes place over a long time period and it has to be condensed down, edit a critical bit out and suddenly the descison making process won't make sense!

 

It would be much easier just stick up a picture of the finished article but I guess that would cheat everyone of the oppertunity to see the mistakes along the way and how the ideas evolve. I'm always amazed by how modifying one part of the car can creep into changing something else and how quickly the costs can change.

 

I'm not an expert, its all experimental and I get frustrated with the amount of time everthing takes. Really I'm desperate for the car to be usable again but I know that if I don't get things right now, I'll only have to repeat doing things in the future.

 

PS I've fixed the broken images in my last post!

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