4 April 2007
Bell housing plus more parts!
Found a local company that perform all sorts of metal cleaning and polishing. He took my bell housing off me yesterday and today I picked it up, that's quick. All the paint is off now and it kind of has an etched appearance. So I am going to spray it wish aluminum paint.
I have set myself a bit of a objective for this long weekend and that is to get the transmission installed on the engine! This entails fitting the spigot bush into the end of the crankshaft. The spigot bus keeps the primary shaft gearbox aligned with the crank without enough friction to turn the shaft when the clutch is not engaged. Not looking forward to this bit as it entails whacking in with a drift and hammer!
I then need to fit the flywheel to the crank. Then fit the clutch and pressure plate again aligned with a special tool that I have now bought. I need to fit the clutch release bearing. Pivot ball. Fit release arm, push rod and clutch slave cylinder and finally the bell housing. I ordered all these parts the other day and they turned up this morning. I have all the right parts and have not forgotten anything then it will be a miracle but I can but try. I will be a little frustrated if all I am missing is a bolt.
Here's a photo of all the bits that turned up whilst I was at work. The wife was not happy as the shopping had just arrived and then two deliveries for me and the phone was ringing and I was calling her mobile to remind her to wait in for my stuff!!
Top left to bottom right, 4 packs of ATF for gearbox. release bearing and carrier, clutch friction pate, release arm, clutch slave cylinder, release arm slippers!, push rod retainer clip, push rod and clutch alignment tool.
**Note: Concerning the ATF gearbox oil. I have been advised that this is not the best oil to use in this box even though it was recommended by Rover! Apparently Rover switched to using ATF oil, usually used for Autos, to improve gear change in low amdbient temperatures. Unfortunately this leads to premature wear. The MOD discovered this also and change the oil after purchasing new vehicles. Rover apparently developed a better oil especially for this gearbox and this is known as MTF94. I made some further enquiries and apparently the favourite is Castrol SMX-S which is a fully synthetic oil. I shall be using Castrol SMX-S in mine I think. Unfortunately not having the oil prior to installing the engine means I have to do when it is installed which is a little tricky.
Clutch pressure plate:
Standard P38 sump also arrived. I bought this off Ebay for £31. I am not actually going to use this on the running engine but I am going to install to protect the engine when moving it just in case I drop it! I will go on to use this as part ex sump against a baffled one which should save me about £70. Saving money, what's going on!
I forgot to mention that I also bought some lights off Ebay. Brand new and supposedly a bargain at £79. They are 4" black and round. Look quite neat I think. I do not like the 5.75" versions I think they look too big.
5 April 2007
Session 154 - Bell housing painting
Spent around 2 hours painting my bell housing. First up was to spray with ACID etch primer and this is what it looks like now.
This is showing up some pock holes that the etch blasting has opened up. So I am going to fill with metal epoxy and this is the effect!
Its not as bad as it looks! Some smoothing down and some more layers of primer later.
And finally several layers of aluminum paint later.
Just to remind you here is the before picture
Worth the time and money, I think so. Now who said building a Westfield takes just 120 hours!!!
7 April 2007
Session 155 - Here, there and everywhere
Been very busy today not actually doing my planned but necessary work. I failed to hire an engine crane and without this I can do nothing! I managed to source one on Ebay late last night and picked up. Unfortunately when I looked at my engine crane in daylight this morning it was missing the pump handle. I had actually put this in its holster on the side of the crane but I remembered the chap removing it to get to a bolt to dismantle, yes, he forgot to put it back, shucks. Thankfully he only lives about 20 miles away so I went back this morning.
This is a picture of the crane after I cleaned it! I haven;t broke the news to the wife that this is going to have to live in the garden for a bit.
I had to drive up to Westfield this morning because they only gave me one part of the two part gearbox mount on Thursday. Talking with Barry on WSCC they should have given me two parts. Barry told me the part number so off I went this morning to get the other part. I also noticed Westfield had not given me the bolts for the engine mounting bushes that I picked up a few months ago. I am obviously reliant on Westfield giving me the right parts for the job as I have not done this before and this is not covered by the generic SEi construction manual.
At the front you see the alloy block. The rear of the photo is the rubberized mount which bolts down to the chassis. The alloy block is inserted at the top and bolts down and through to a captive nut in the gearbox bracket. The mount is actually a Sierra type 9 gearbox mount.
I also had to get some engine slings for the crane as they had not come with it.
My first job on the engine is to insert the spigot bush so after some hunting for something the right size and material I came with a clutch alignment kit which I will never use for its intended purpose as I have the specific one for Rover V8s anyway. Hopefully this will work. I also had to buy a bigger lump hammer to ensure that I have a enough force to insert the bush. I thought I had all the tools when I started this kit! I am not looking forward to this, it has to be done right, level and not damage!
Clutch alignment kit, aka, spigot bush drift pin! The adaptor you can see at the top left of the photo is spot on the correct size, I actually enjoy the challenge of finding something to perform a job that it was never intended to do. You remember my banister copper end cap used to insert the crank seal in the timing cover.
Here's a picture of the prop shaft that I also had to get from Westfield, luckily it was in stock. I am enduring a few hurdles in getting to a position to get the engine installed but so far I have managed to resolve all of them albeit at the cost of driving 400 miles in the last few days.
Do you think a prop shaft is just a piece of metal, think again! It is a real piece of engineering. It isn't just a tube with universal joints with end but it has to be telescopic also as the car suspension changes, the engine/gearbox moves closer and further away from the diff, it must be able to change its length also! On top of all this it has to be balanced precisely. If it is not balanced and as it rotates at speed it would shake and cause vibration and worse still the forces could overwhelm the fasteners and cause it to loosen and possibly break through the transmission tunnel and fragments could hit the occupants inside the car. Still want to come in my car, of course you do!
I managed to lower the engine onto the special crate on the ground this took me along time! I lost count how many times I adjusted the rope changed where I attached it, checked the hooks, checked the angle of the crane, check the chocks, etc, etc. If you have ever done this you know what I mean. I would have taken photos of the engine on the crane but I was a little concerned with lowering it to the floor as quickly but controlled as I could. Well quickly is a relative term.
Now the engine is on the ground I removed the engine stand mounting bracket so now I can finally get to the crank to install the bush. I lightly coated the outside of the bush with engine oil to ease it home. The spigot bush housing in the crank is slightly chamfered on the inside edge making introducing the bush to the crank level a little easier. Success the bush is in and only took me about 4 minutes and that was going steady especially at the end to ensure that I do not go beyond level. Check with a steel rule and it is smack on level with the surface. I am glad that's done, I thought this would be the worst job, maybe that has to come. Lets see what tomorrow brings.
Picture of installed Spigot bearing in crank.
Not wanting to start something that would take me into the night, got to show my face. I decided to remove the protective coating/oil from the flywheel and clutch pressure plate and get everything ready to make an early start instead. Oh how nice it is to finish on a positive note.
8 April 2007
Made an early start today and for the first hour or so I was moving around in my garage gingerly. Cleaned the flywheel and clutch pressure plate again. Pushed on the flywheel and coated the ARP flywheel bolts with generous amount of ARP moly assembly lubricant ensuring underneath the bolts heads are covered. You must use this assembly lubricant for torque critical components as it ensures that the torque is accurate. Just screwing a bolt in by hand with the assembly lubricant compared to no lubricant is detectable, it is quite a bit easier to screw in due to less resistance. With the lubricant you torque up to 62 ft/lbs without it you torque up to 80! This is one time when you ignore the manufacturers instructions and follow the ARP instructions.
The heads on these ARP bolts is quite large and no need for washers in fact they tell you explicitly not to. This is where my problem started as the gap between the bolt head and the spigot bush carrier at the centre of the flywheel was insufficient to get a normal socket over! This stumped me for a while and I was asking neighbours for sockets to compare, they were of course all the same thickness. I made a posting on the V8 forum and Katanman came to my rescue and told me, oh yes we all have one of these. He told me just to take an angle grinder to the socket and carefully reduce the outside diameter. It worked.
Picture of flywheel attached.
Installed clutch friction and pressure plate and ensured it was centrally located with the Rover V8 clutch alignment tool. Picture below
Thought I'd check what it looks like with the below housing placed on. Hopefully will get the gearbox installed tomorrow.
The usual Sunday rituals prevented me making more progress today. Still ending on a positive note.
9 April 2007
First job was to install the bell housing to the gearbox. Secured by six big bolts. Torqued up to 59 ft/lbs. No gasket or sealant is used it is just bolted up.
Here's a picture.
Next up was to bolt up the alloy block and rubber mount on the rear underside of the gearbox. This is the item which which I had to do 260 miles for!
I had to cut down the bolt by three threads as it would have gone through the captive nut in the bracket and bottom out on the gearbox casing. I did not have torque settings for this bolt so used the standard for 7/16" bolt which is55 ft/lbs. Remember to lubricate the threads, I used plain engine oil knowing if I used the ARP moly that 55ft/lbs may actually be 80t/lbs in real terms!
The mounting point for this bush is just on a plate which is welded to the chassis in the transmission tunnel. Due to the various gearbox options this is not pre-drilled. So I will need to install the engine and mark where to drill and probably have to move the engine out again to drill out the holes.
Next up was to start installing the clutch mechanism. This is where another hurdle was put in my path but unfortunately not one I get around on a bank holiday monday! The issue is that the release arm where it mounts to the bearing is too wide. The release arm is 1.915" wide where the slipper pads are installed and the width of the bearing where the slippers pads contact is only 1.650" so no chance this will work. Maybe this is the wrong release arm, maybe I just bend it to suit but before I do that I am going to check as I may need to send the arm back to the supplier.
Here's another picture showing the obvious problem, is it the release bearing or the arm that is wrong? I shall have to find out.
This diagram demonstrates the clutch components
Some day soon the gearbox and the engine will be one!
My wife saw the above and commented how nice and new it looks and that it will be a shame to drive it! She also said that she cannot see how this can fit into the Westfield, erm, don't even go there, it will fit I have an angle grinder and a big lump hammer you know.
Barry made a comment last night that he and others have had problems with the gearbox primary shaft making contact with the spigot bearing or the carrier in the end of the crankshaft. The remedy is to grind down the end of the spigot housing!! Noooo. Once all this is bolted together then need to check that the engine still turns.
I undertook to try and calculate the clearance. Using the bell housing as a relative point the splines start 17mm within the bell housing.
On the flywheel I took relative measurements from the clutch pressure plate and found that the spigot bush which is flush with the carrier is 75mm and using the same point I measured to where the bell housing will attach and found this to be 88mm.
So the end of the spigot bush is effective 13mm within the bell housing. So it would seem that I have 4mm worth of clearance. My measurements will be out but I hope by not more than 1mm per measurement so worst case is that the total error of three measurements is 3mm if all in the same direction and that will leave 1mm spare of clearance.. plenty!
Apparently the Rover crank end has grown by 3/8" over the last twenty years. I suppose now that this engine was latterly used in 4wd vehicles where the bell housing is much bigger was the reason for this growth, who knows.
I also found some articles on the internet where the T5 gearbox was used and this had this issue regarding the input splines making contact with the crank and the solution was to shorten the crank end. I also found some articles where a diesel or a 4WD R380 gearbox was used which had longer input shafts causing the same issue.
12 April 2007
Clutch release arm
Jim Robinson who builds Rover V8s for a living for SD1, triumphs and kit cars had a look at my clutch release arm photograph the other day and confirmed that this was the wrong part as thought. I called the supplier, Rimmers to tell them. They told me that this was the replacement part and that it should fit! Nope, A Landrover clutch release arm is a little different to an V8 SD1/TR7/8! I have sent the item back and asked for a replacement and I am still waiting 3 days later even though I had actually initially paid for next day delivery on this. A little frustrating.
Jim invited me to call him direct as he has experience of other issues regarding this type of gearbox fitment to this engine. There are a few variants of this box, specifically the problem one being the diesel version as the first motion shaft is different in length and width. He talked me through several measurements to check that my first motion shaft would fit and it seems with a bit of judgment and a lot of luck that it actually is spot on correct.
So I am eagerly awaiting my clutch release arm from Rimmers now so that I can get on with finishing of the clutch components and installing the box on the engine. Will the engine be in the car next weekend, lets see.
13 April 2007
Session 158 - Clutch release mechanism
Received my clutch release arm today and yes its the right one.
Here's a photo showing what it should look like.
As you can see quite a bit different to a Land Rover release arm not only in width but length also. However the release bearing did not fit it was too large, but only by about 1mm. I filed of 0.5mm off each post. To the top right you can see the slipper pads these are inserted onto the posts and then pushed into the groves on the release bearing carrier.
I also found that the slipper pads were very stiff on the posts, especially when pushed home. So I took a round file to the bore of the slipper pads and practically just cleaned the bore a bit and that did the trick.
The spring affair you see on the back of the arm basically goes over the pivot ball so that the clutch arm is held in place. A little bit tricky to squeeze over the ball and push into the release bearing at the same time the bearing being inserted over the primary motion shaft.
At the bottom of the release arm you can see a hole and a dimple. The push rod which is activated by the clutch slave cylinder rests in the dimple, obviously on the front! A retainer clip pushes through the hole and the end of the arm to hold the push rod in place.
I applied a very small amount of grease on the carrier inner housing. The bearing is sealed and has grease inside so no need to worry about this. I also applied grease to the slipper pads and posts. Greased the pivot ball and where the push rod rests in that dimple. The primary motion shaft I used a very small amount of copper grease. I think it is important not to go made with the grease, especially the shaft which is spinning at engine speed. You do not want grease spinning off onto the clutch plate or flywheel, that would be bad!
I thought I'd do all this tonight so that I can get on with offering up the bell housing to the engine tomorrow morning and then hopefully be in a position to get the engine in the car. I have been warned that I will need to have my angle grinder ready to, ahem, adjust the bell housing in certain places. I might even have to adjust the gearbox housing.
Here's an out of focus photo (it was dark in the garage) in the bell housing showing the release arm and bearing all in place. A tip here, install the push rod and its retainer before installing the release arm, I had to remove the arm again.
14 April 2007
Major session today from 10:00 to 22:00! But achieved more than I wanted to albeit not without a little drama. Thing is when you start installing an engine you are sort of committed, you have to finish what you started in the same day.
First up was to get the bell housing bolted up to the engine, this I thought would be simple, wrong. The issue being that the primary motion shaft or the input shaft to the gear box has to be inserted through the clutch and flywheel through to the spigot bush in the end of crank and this it an exact fit. At the same time the splines of the shaft have to engage the clutch and this has to be inserted straight and must be careful not to put too much weight or strain on the shaft. Even using my engine crane proved difficult because as you offer up the gearbox the angle changes! I tried this for 50 minutes. The solution in the end was to enlist the help of my 17 year old son and 15 year old daughter and the crane! So job for the crane was simply to hold the very back of the gearbox whilst I held the middle, heavy bit and twisted a little bit whilst offering to the engine. At the same time my son would align the bell housing with the dowels. As we pushed home, with the gearbox engaged my daughter wiggled the output shaft to help engage the clutch. This procedure was then completed in 7 minutes. Torqued up the bell housing to the engine to 21 ft/lbs as per the Rover 3500 manual.
Next was to check absolutely that the shaft was not bearing down on the end of the crank or spigot bush as mentioned above (9th April). For this I took out the sparking plugs and I had the gearbox in 4th so left it there. Tried turning the crank from the front and it turn quite freely, which is a very good sign. I had to measure the torque requiring to turn didn't! It was only 23 ft/lbs so very good signs.
Gearbox installed, phew!
Next up was the job of installing the engine and gearbox which I knew was going to take a while, to get all the angles and procedure right. Speaking to Barry on the WSCC he told me to lift the front of the car up and sent me some pictures.
Before installing the engine remove the starter motor and the engine mount rubber from the same side. You have to remove these to clear the lower steerting column. Once below the lower steering column you can re-attach the engine mount.
Engine being hoisted the first time, this is the wrong angle of attack! Getting the rope lengths right is a little hit and miss. Suffice to say the engine was lowered back onto its crate and the ropes adjusted, in fact this took three attempts before it looked a feasible angle.
So next up was to start hoisting the engine about six feet in the air, boy I hope those ropes hold (yes I bought the rope designed for the purpose and complete with a certificate saying load max of 2000Kgs!)
Anyway, started offering the engine into the bay and slowly lowering push and shoving check everything as it went.
Now when you start lowing the engine and gearbox is in the transmission tunnel, you then place a trolley jack on the gearbox holding just of the mount and then continue to lower the engine and you will find that the front lowers and the engine begins to level out.
In the next photo you can see the trolley jack and also the first clearance problem. The back of the clutch slave cylinder housing fowls the chassis. This has to be fettled with an angle grinder to encourage it!
I haven't got a picture of this but the next problem was the gearbox has a mounting lug cast in the casing which fowls with the chassis. If I had known of this before hand I would have cut clean off with an angle grinder before it was almost installed in the car. Likewise with the bell housing, but I had known about this but didn't quite know how much to grind off or where until it is installed.
After the engine was installed on the mounts I noticed that the rear of the RH head fowls with the clutch master cylinder resevoir! This will need sorting.
However I was not sure which side of the chassis brackets to install the engine mount rubbers. I installed the prop shaft whilst I was installing the engine to try and determine which side to bolt the mounts but of course it is a little telescopic. So I went with further back option. This clutch clearance issue is making think I need to relocate the engine mounts.
This is the LH mount pictured.
You can see there is scope to move this mount forward What is a little strange is that the mount the other side looks more centrally placed but the gearbox is centrally placed in the tunnel. I shall need to check this before torquing it all up.
Finally a car with an engine installed pictured below.
As you can see it was dark when I finished. Just when I thought the marathon was over and I discovered that the car did not have enough clearance to get up the drive! Our drive does apex quite badly, more so than our next door neighbours for some reason .I used to ground my BMW sometimes if I went too quickly. But there are two reasons for the problem, 1) the Sump I have attached is very temporary just there to protect the crank whilst placing on the floor and just in case I dropped it, yes I am paranoid. The sump is a range rover item and is quite deep, no need to worry about ground clearance on a serious 4x4. 2) The other thing is that placing the engine into the car has reduced its wide height by some 1.75" ! I have adjustable dampers so can change the ride height quite easily but being dark it is difficult to see. So using blocks of wood and the engine crane we lift the car at the back and front to clear the apex, all this took another hour.
15 April 2007
Session 160 - LH engine mount/Gearbox mount
Got an answer to my engine mount observation. Apparently the LH mount has to be bolted to the front of the chassis bracket whilst the RH mount is bolted to the back!
So my first job today was to re-position the engine mount. This will not require the engine to be completely removed, just support that side of the engine with the crane and raise a little to ease out the bolts. Worked a treat.
This looks much better now. Whilst I had the engine supported by the crane but after I started to tighten up the mount I had to reposition the gearbox back to the centre of the tunnel and it was at this point I noticed that the clutch reservoir was now no longer touching the head but the gap was just big enough to get a file in so I decided to do some gentle fettling of the head, in case the gap closed with the engine settles back on the mounts and it did a little but not a lot.
This is the RH mount
You can now see the clearance between the clutch reservoir is much, much better. Another common problem for fowling is the banjo connector on the brake reservoir fowling with the rocker covers, does not seem to be problem for mine.
So that's the engine in. The last job was one I was not looking forward to and that was drilling the chassis to bolt down the gearbox mount. Its usual practice to mark through the mount in the transmission tunnel and then remove the engine and gearbox to drill! Nooo! I decided to not to take that approach but it took me hours to measure where a ruler was not designed to go and then translate this accurate to the underneath of the car for drilling! The holes obviously have to align up exactly so I measure, re-measured, and thought, stared and re-measured several times over. Anyway I decided to take the plunge and using my smallest drill bit, 1.5mm I drilled the first hole and success this was straight though the eye of the needle. I drilled the hole out in stages checking each time for central position, all the way up to 8mm and then tried the bolt, whoa. Now the next hole was not so straight forward as I could get no measuring implements anywhere near it. I could easily work out the centre line going from the LH to RH of the tunnel but where on the line, this took me even longer to measure, in the end I used a piece of plasticine and moulded on the end of the chassis tube and over the mount and to an impression. I then placed this underneath the car and approximated where It would be. I really did procrastinate about drilling this one. Anyway finally summoned up the courage to drill with my small bit. Looked above and it was exactly in the middle of the hole from front to back but left to right it was almost on the edge of the hole on the left hand side. This was good news for now I had a reference point under the car where I need to drill and knew that this first erroneous hole would be absorbed by the eventual 8mm one! Suffice to say this hole ended being spot on and although more troublesome than the first one was no means less accurate. Torqued the gearbox mounts down to 13 ft/lbs
So a very good weekend, and a milestone reached, engine and gearbox and prop shaft installed and no clearance issues.
21 April 2007
Did some boring bits on the car today. Torqued up the propshaft. 35 ft/lbs for the diff side with some loctite. The gearbox side uses setscrews and nyloc nuts no need for loctite, torqued up to 37 ft/lbs. Now car has some weight in it, i.e. the engine, I took the opportunity to torque up the damper mounts to chassis, this has to be done when the car is loaded as the bushes are rubber. Torqued up to 30 ft/lbs like all the other suspension bolts. I also torqued up the rear dampers fixings but on the upper ones as the lower ones go through the upright and rose joint as this will need adjustment requiring the bolt to be removed.
Engine rubber mounts to the chassis and engine were torqued to 26 ft/lbs. I managed to get my torque wrench with a crowsfoot spanner trapped between the engine mount and the engine which took me 30 minutes to remove it!! You've been warned.
I also decided to move the RH side loom around a bit as I fear it would be too close to the exhaust headers. I also completed the tie-wraps in the transmission tunnel making the postive feed from the battery box to the starter motor secure. I had previously left this cable loose not knowing where the starter motor would sit in the engine bay, it would seem I got it spot on but it was an educated guess.
Here's a picture of the gearbox oil I intend on installing in the gearbox tommorw. Now this is going to be tricky.
22 April 2007
Session 162 - Gearbox oil & remote gear change
Tricky is not the word I would use trying to get the oil to go in the gearbox now, I would use stronger words! Anyway, I ended up having to cut a hole in the drivers foot well to a) be able to get the oil in and b) be able to do the oil filler plug up to the right torque. I could of done the filler plug up by hand from underneath the car but I know it would play on my mind forever if I did not torque so that hole was the only option in the end. Doing the filler plug up to 30Nm seem to take forever and I was cringing! The hole is tapered and manuals give a warning about over torquing. I used 2.35ltres of oil but some went on the floor, probably around 100mls so I am guessing it took 2.25litres to fill the box.
I shall plug the hole with a rubber bung and call it an inspection hole.
I then trial fitted the remote gear change to work out where in the transmission tunnel cover I would need to cut the hole. I decided on cutting a 60mm hole to allow for suitable clearance when going through the gears.
It is now apparent that I need to get the gear lever cut down quite a bit as it sits higher than the steering column!
24 April 2007
Session 163 - Speedo gear blank plate & gear level
In my lunch hour I visited one of the engineering companies on the local trading estate and ask for an off cut of aluminum for which to make my blanking plate. They did not have any scrap so that cut a piece out for me for free! The plate is quite thick about 3 to 4mm which is a little thick but beggars and all that.
After work I set about measuring the speedo hole in the side of the gearbox which is a little tricky in the car again. I am hoping that this is the last job on the gearbox which damages my knuckles! I could not get my vernier gauge to the hole to measure it I thought I'd measure the plastic blanking plug but this compresses as it is pushed in the hole so would lead to a blanking plate that is too large. I decided to leave the plastic plug in and using some plasticine took an impression and measured that. The hole is stepped but the first step on the outer most side of the hole is 40mm. So using my hacksaw and file I made a perfectly formed 40mm blanking plate, took a little while, 40 minutes but it fit perfectly first time.
Look at the inspection mirror and you will see it installed. The orange stuff is instant gasket, strong stuff.
You probably cannot see it but there a single 6mm hole in which to hold the normal speedo gear in place so I created a strap to provide extra fastening. I did find that I had to put a couple of washers on the bolt underneath the strap as my blanking plate comes just proud of the first step.
A fiddly job but another job done, hopefully it will not leak with the amount of instant gasket I used I would be surprised if it did.
My next job I thought I'd get our of the way today is reducing the height of the Rover gear level which is a bit agricultural, well as used in Land Rovers, etc.
The following photo showing the gear knob higher than the steering column and with the stretched out driving position would probably be higher than me! Not to mention the exaggerated throw when changing gears.
Reducing the height will obviously reduce the amount of movement required for gear changes, aka quick shift.
I made some postings on the WSCC forum asking people how much they had reduced by and the results. Suffice to say I decided to remove quite a bit leaving just under 1.5" of the shaft left, above the crinkly bit. The metal was quite hard I am glad I decided to use my angle grinder not the hacksaw, never can withstand the grinder!
Here's a photo of the lever after cutting. Yes I couldn't resist spraying it black, yes I know it will be hidden by the gaiter.
Finally trial fitted to the car you will see it is much slicker now. Oh by the way you probably noticed the wires coming from the gear knob this is not to light up the knob. Wait for this, the top of the gear lever lifts up like a missile launch button under which there is a big red button, yes, we have ignition!
25 April 2007
Session 164 - Remote gear change & Transmission tunnel top panels
Tonight I torqued up the remote gear change setscrews to 18 ft/lbs. The pin that holds the lever linkage to the gearbox change is very difficult to tighten as it requires a screw driver to hold the pin from underneath whilst tightening the nyloc nut on the top. Underneath is between the gearbox extension and the remote not only can you not see but you can barely get a finger in there. In the end I used a pop rivet to hold the pin from underneath whilst it was torqued up to 16 ft/lbs.
I positioned the transmission tunnel top panels in place and drilled the chassis first with a 4mm drill bit through the panels as I am going to use 4mm screws. I then removed the panels and drilled the 4mm holes out to 6mm and then countersunk. I am going to screw these panels down rather than pop rivet so that I can remove to gain access to the handbrake adjustment and remote gear lever etc. I am going to insert counter sunk rivnuts in the chassis and use allen dome head screws.
26 April 2007
Session 165 - Transmission top panels & rocker covers
I shall soon need to buy more parts I am running out of jobs. Tonight I finished off the transmission tunnel panels. Installed the rivnuts and screwed down with M4 set screws.
As per photo, oh yes, I cleaned all the panels on the car again.
The middle panel seems to be out of alignment but this was the best I could get it, seems that the cut of the panel is not spot on, good job this will be covered in carpet. The observant amongst you will notice that there are three top panels which overlap and that they are installed from the front first, i.e. the rear most panel is on top of the previous one. Two reasons for overlapping and in this manor: 1) Access is required to adjust the handbrake which is the rear most panel so it would be no fun to have to remove all three panels just to get to the one above the handbrake adjustor. 2) Any water thrown into the tunnel is from the front and this ensures water cannot force through the gap.
Do you like my coordinated floor mats and gaitors matching the body color. Yellow and black and damn righ mean! If you click on the photo you will be able see my ignition button inside the gear knob, oh yes.
Rocker covers have just been placed on my heads all this time. These rockers being the older type have cork gaskets glued in. Rover later replaced these cork gaskets with re-usable rubber ones which provided a better seal so I have done the same. I have some allen cap head socket setscrews for the job so I installed tonight.
27 April 2007
Session 166 - Flywheel sensor blanking plate
The Gems/Thor 4.6 Engine, the later Range Rover Sport engine like mine has a flywheel sensor to detect TDC of piston one. I will take my trigger pulse from the front of the crank so I will not require to install the flywheel sensor. There's a hole through the back of the engine to mount the sensor so that it gets a clear view of the back of the flywheel. As I will not be requiring this sensor then this leaves an open hole which is forward facing which is ideal for all sorts of muck to get into the bellhousing. Tonight I fabricated a small plate to cover the hole. This took me just about 1 hour to produce, all these little jobs add up.
The two allen bolts utilise the original holes which the sensor would of done if I needed it. Another approach to this is to knock out the round plate you can see and replace with a plate that RPI produce which does not have a hole through it. This has to be done before the flywheel is installed. For some reason, maybe later engines, this plate is tig welded in place. I decided therefore not to even attempt to knock out this plate for fear of causing damage to the block.
I have torqued the scews done to 5 ft/lbs and used screw lock (loctite 222) to ensure they stay put.
28 April 2007
Session 167 - Plenum chamber design
Well I am waiting for parts again so back to cleaning the garage, the car and continuing with my plenum design. Not done a lot on the plenum design spent hours cleaning! Anyway after some discussions with my colleagues on the V8 forumI have decided to reduce the height of the plenum by 15mm and I have made it a little longer and made a base board and mounted to hold it in shape ready to make a mould from.
It will sit a little lower as at the moment it is resting on top of the trumpets which you cannot see.
Go to May 2007