well, more stuff has happened.
first, that spigot ring for the gearbox. it was all sorted for me by the ladies choice himself, mr mike D. no not that one, the one off here from grimsby who also has a taste for old tat. cheers dude, cant thank you enough
it looks like this-
which slots in here-
but first, it needs fitting to the gearbox. it goes on here, and as you can see, is a 'good' fit, so it cant fall out. a few taps with a hammer after this pic and it was down and on.
next, i found a half decent clutch release bearing out of the stash, welded up a bit of wear on the groove for the clutch release fork (it has a dimple worn into the side of it). no pics as it was a case of weld it quick then chuck a bottle of water over it to prevent frying the bearing. it was then filed up all smooth and was as good as new.
the clutch fork then needed the same treatment, as nearly hafl the pins were worn away!
welding up-
ground and filed back square-
hopefully thatll be good for another 50+ years now.
next, i had to fit it all. slight problem here. id checked online i could fit the clutch fork and release bearing with the bellhousing and clutch on- not a problem according to a couple of f100 owners forums in the states.
this has lead me to conclude two things-
1. internet facts are just like normal facts, except not true.
2. never trust an american.
so after a lot of cursing, swearing, and scratching most of the paint id applied off the motor/bellhousing/engine mount, i had it back out, the bellhousing off, and the clutch arm back in. the bellhousing then went back on, and i decided to fit the gearbox so i didnt have to manhandle it under the car then jack it into position, as it weighs a f-king ton- i cant striaght-lift it by myself, i kind of have to 'roll' it onto the jack.
so, i got it on the jack and slid it into place. all good, spigot ring fits perfect, all clutch stuff links up A-ok. ive already drilled the bolt holes out big enough to allow for a fraction of misalignment on the bolts as their placement doesnt seem to be massively accurate(15mm holes for 9/16" bolts), so it should all go on ok, shouldnt it? err, no. 3out of 4 bolts go straight in no issues, the other one is quite a way out. so, meaga-heavy gearbox back off again to investigate, and i find this-
wtf?! yeah, american build quality is
excellent aint it. for those not sure what they're looking at, the bolt hole isnt 'centred' in the lug on the gearbox- its over 1/8" too low and off to the side.
after a good session with the die grinder(and 3 more trial fits), its now slotted out to the correct position to allow the box to bolt up properly.
after much more cursing, the engine and box were now ready to go back in. i dangled it back in the hole, and i was fairly sure the extraneous rear tailshaft mount was going to cause issues. it did-
so, off with the yoke and the tailshaft housing, and a bit of this-
plus a bit of shaping and smoothing with the flapwheel that i forgot to photo, and it all fits fine now. all reassembled and sat back down on its mounts, and it looks like this-
very tight on space, bit it fits and thats all that matters.
next, i decided it would be good to get the clutch working properly, especially as i was needing to do it on my mates A I'm building too, so it made sense to do both at once. i needed to do a hydro conversion to do this (its linkage normally, bit I'm needing to operate it from the opposite side of the car now).
not having a clue what size cyl to use, i decided to opt for land rover ones, as theres 3 different bore sizes of slave available, and 4 of master, so if i cant get it to work with a combo of those its never gunna work! i decided to start with the most common setup, which is 3/4" bore master with a 7/8" slave, and see where that gets me as a starting point.
this is the slave cyl-
which i measured up and drew out a bracket for-
I'm picking up on two tabs on the bellhousing, which seem to be very conveniently placed for a hydro conversion and don't have any other use i can see, so its probably what they were intended for.
all cut out, ground up, holesawed and drilled, and bolted into position, we have this-
its a very tight fit to the bellhousing, but the master cyl bolts straight trough the bracket and the lower hole in the bellhousing, the bracket then extends up to the other bolt hole to stop it twisting. its all suprisingly stiff as it is to say its got a lot of force going through it and its only 1/4" plate, but ive left this outer edge a touch oversize for the minute so i can weld a 90deg. rib down the side if it does flex at all. theres minor misalignment to the cutch arm, but no more than a couple of degrees, and there was no other way of mounting it with the alignment any better, so itll have to do. the pushrod it the original 'pull' rod cut down and the domed bolt and locknut flipped over. theres loads of adjustment on it both way so i should be able to find its sweet spot without issue. ive just got to sort a 3/8" unf banjo fitting so it allows ample oil filter clearance, and then this end is done. id best sort out the pedal next then..........
a couple more pics of the setup-
