clubstylus

While my engine's sitting on the floor , I started cleaning out the flywheel bolt threads with brake cleaner and brush THEN thought , the spigot's been in there since 2006 and the bell housing not being bolted to the box recently , must have given it a real hard time . So not posessing a puller for the job I tried the old ''dowel and grease method'' which has worked very well for me in the past ----- but not today
Determined not to buy or hire a puller , I chose an 8 inch coach bolt then ground the head down to slip just passed the spigot to grab the edge. I pushed a 6mm bolt into the spigot beside the big bolt to keep it in position , grabbing the edge via it's ground down head. I had a piece of pipe handy about 6 inches or so to put over the threaded end of the coach bolt ---- plus large washer plus nut ------------------ wound away and out it came Cost now't which felt even better
Some of the bits and pieces to repair the master cylinder and hydraulic nose cylinder in the bell housing have arrived but I'm still waiting for flywheel and clutch bolts. I've got bolts for the bell housing to box , also the clever little NORDLOCK double washers and all gasket sets . Drained the box , cleaned and painted so all ready for assembling everything now.
Spent this afternoon cleaning all the box and hydraulic oil from under the car and tunnel and then noticed the powder coat peeling off from the engine side of the pedal box. Another little cleaning and bilthamber/paint job before it goes back together.

Flywheel arrived today with new ring gear fitted at £96 including carraige so with my other bits and pieces around £80 , I got away with it lightly

yes you did - lucky!

I'll start by repeating '' I'm very lucky '' -------- BUT ------ I got on with rebuilding the clutch master cylinder and hydraulic nose cylinder in the bell housing today . All simple enough , HOWEVER --- the word profiteering comes to mind , after putting what amounts to , two very small bits of rubber plus miniscule spring washer in the Girling 3/4 in cylinder.
THEN , three , what looked like rubber bands into the hydraulic nose .
These two repair kits amounted to £35 ------------------------------- Nice work if you can get it aye
Meldrew will shut up now

ha ha - there's always some bugger making a mint out of 'bespoke parts' ha ha

Tried this on my mates V8 tonight. Didn't manage to shift it at all left him to mull over how he'll get it out. He did have a big drill in his hand when I left though.....

stylussprinter wrote:I'll start by repeating '' I'm very lucky '' -------- BUT ------ I got on with rebuilding the clutch master cylinder and hydraulic nose cylinder in the bell housing today . All simple enough , HOWEVER --- the word profiteering comes to mind , after putting what amounts to , two very small bits of rubber plus miniscule spring washer in the Girling 3/4 in cylinder.
THEN , three , what looked like rubber bands into the hydraulic nose .
These two repair kits amounted to £35 ------------------------------- Nice work if you can get it aye
Meldrew will shut up now

The hydraulic nose plus front cover and spacer are all bolted back onto the gearbox now . Over the last few days , I researched via BURTONS who supplied the kit and many other sources , what torque settings I should use for the ally front cover to box also alley nose to ally front cover. Well , last time I just pulled them up with a socket but having the whole lot almost fall apart , I thought I should find out from those who know Nobody seemed to possess the torque figures I needed
So that being the case , I set the 6mm front cover bolts to 12lbft and the nose bolts to 10lbft plus locktite blue. I did a little test first and pulled them up with the socket to just my '' feel '' . Then put the torque wrench on the front cover at 9lbft which only clicked once I'd moved the bolts a touch --- again at 10lbft then finally at 12lbft . The bolts felt quite hard to move at 12 plus the cork gasket had pinched down a bit , so happy to leave it at that ----- but who knows
I did the nose in a similar manner ending at the 10lbft but of course it was ally to ally and no cork gasket to take the strain
I'm now convinced I was too light with the spanner last time , plus I didn't use brake cleaner to clean the threads into the steel box , so they may have had some oil residue spoiling the locktite.

The flywheel and clutch torque settings are easy to find in numerous places plus I have these Nordlock washers
Next job is to treat and paint the front of the pedal box before the master cylinder goes back on.

Pedal box bilthamber'd and painted and surrounding chassis tubes. Bolted up the bell housing to the gearbox with Nordlock washers , locktite blue too , at 81lbft ---- just 20% more than standard torque which is what Nordlock advise if using their washers and some lube(locktite blue)
Fitted a new gearbox mount while I was at it , bought while at RACERETRO this year So now the box is back where it belongs with the addition of Nordlock's on the mount , also the three quickshift bolts.
Sunday , I'll fit the rebuilt clutch master cylinder and connect up the oil pipe supply and bleed line then treat some of the chassis tubes where the powder coat's scratched off .
Monday should see the engine back in then need some Water Wetter and gearbox oil --- hopefully that's the end of the spending now , till some other little gremlin pops up

Monday I got the engine back in and all bolted up to the bell housing but just the passenger side engine mount . The drivers side for some inexplicable reason is a touch out of line with two of it's three bolts in and although it obviously came off with three bolts , I decided to take the whole thing off today and '' modify '' it ie. drilled the holes 1mm bigger and took some metal off the side closest to the oil pressure take off , where it was a very tight fit. Tidied it up and painted it , also the block breather which was pretty scratched up with the engine being out twice in one year
Engine mount fits easy now , should have done it before instead of fiddling. Exhaust manifold and silencer is bolted on , plus the starter and fuel lines. Wiring all connected , ARB and shocks back on so just needs the accelerater setting for FULL throttle --- dead easy to be 2mm short and lose some top end
Apart from that , I'm just waiting delivery of gearbox oil , grease and Water Wetter then I can run it and refit the flip front. Somehow leaning over the side of the body to bolt the starter on , I managed to snap off the bonnet shut guides --------------------------- ugh another little job

At last it's running again --- well just run it up to temp anyway then switched off. Tried the clutch cylinders by driving it on the lawn and both seem OK and the box selects all gears without issues. The wiring is cable tied back in place , the engine has had a good clean . The lower wishbones were showing signs of chipping from track grit so painted them again , also the panhard which had little paint at all and plastered in oil and grease.
Only got to refit the flip front , repair the bonnet guides I broke then give it a clean and she's ready for the RAF Festival , if I get an invite again A free track session and just 25miles away

It might be fun to drive it as it is