With the engine bay finished in gleaming new paint, it was time to put the engine back.
This was knocking on the door of autumn last year (2013) and the British weather was preparing itself for the largest rainfall levels since records began. Together with high winds this was not good weather to be fighting the cold steel of an engine block as the car was exposed to the elements, trying to locate the splines of the in-situ gearbox.
We did try, oh yes, we tried - we tried for a week of nice days. We got maximum points for trying, but to no avail. During the occasional nice day of September I literally wrestled with the re-built engine. We had centred the clutch plate with a home-made mandrel and managed to mesh the splines but try as we might the engine would not locate the last 10mm onto the steel pegs on the gearbox housing.
I wish we had tried this a month earlier, but we were returning from the River Severn on our narrowboat 'San Serriffe' in glorious weather. Check out our narrowboat travels with this link:
click on link..........
Narrowboat 'San Serriffe' blog. River Severn to Gloucester.
Sunshine of summer was rapidly disappearing as the great deluge of the 2013 winter started. I know when to give up - so the engine was left on blocks in the engine bay until
a time when it was not both freezing and raining.
This was not until late March 2014 and a few weeks ago we decided to have another go.
With the problem of meshing the gearbox splines not resolved a different approach was decided. Engine was taken back out of 'ANA' and put carefully on blocks on the garage floor. Gearbox support bolts were taken off and after supporting the prop shaft I manged to remove the gearbox.
We now had both the engine and gearbox in the relevant warmth of the garage and could hopefully resolve why we could not mate one with the other. Supporting the gearbox bell-housing with the engine crane we tried again ,with the same result of the gearbox housing not locating on the engine dowels. We checked the clutch plate alignment, etc with our 'mandrel' several times, but the engine and gearbox remained stubbornly apart.
I began to worry we had some strange mis-match because the block was reconditioned and originally came from a Chevette.
" O.K , let,s start at basics, remove the clutch cover and clutch plate and see if there are any problems locating the shaft without them" I suggested.
This was completed and the gearbox slid onto the dowels like butter, so there was no mis-match. I tried the clutch plate separately over the splines again with no problems.
Clutch cover was returned together with clutch plate and using our alignment tool everything we checked everything once again. Pushing the shaft onto the block produced the same result - 'clunk' as everything jammed before the bell housing would get onto the block dowels.
This was a real head scratcher.......
"Why is nothing easy ?" I muttered.......
"Any ideas ?" I asked in desperation of Andrew....
Andrew DID have an idea. He loosened the bolts of the clutch cover allowing the clutch plate to 'float' slightly allowing the shaft and plate to centre.
" If this works, how are you going to tighten the bolts again with bell-housing on? I cautioned.
" With a socket extension through the starter-motor hole whilst you turn the engine over so that each bolt comes around to where I can get the socket into place" he replied with a display of what I thought was misplaced confidence.
Everything was centred again but with the clutch plate able to move slightly so that perhaps the splines could mesh a little easier. I was both amazed and relieved when the shaft mated and the gearbox went straight onto the dowels with no problem - job done!!
Each bolt on the clutch cover was then tightened as I turned the engine so the correct alignment could be achieved to get the socket extension through the starter motor hole in the gearbox housing.
So engine and gearbox sit mated together on the garage floor like the good pals they should be, waiting for a nice warm dry day to put them back into the Viva..........
This was knocking on the door of autumn last year (2013) and the British weather was preparing itself for the largest rainfall levels since records began. Together with high winds this was not good weather to be fighting the cold steel of an engine block as the car was exposed to the elements, trying to locate the splines of the in-situ gearbox.
We did try, oh yes, we tried - we tried for a week of nice days. We got maximum points for trying, but to no avail. During the occasional nice day of September I literally wrestled with the re-built engine. We had centred the clutch plate with a home-made mandrel and managed to mesh the splines but try as we might the engine would not locate the last 10mm onto the steel pegs on the gearbox housing.
I wish we had tried this a month earlier, but we were returning from the River Severn on our narrowboat 'San Serriffe' in glorious weather. Check out our narrowboat travels with this link:
click on link..........
Narrowboat 'San Serriffe' blog. River Severn to Gloucester.
Sunshine of summer was rapidly disappearing as the great deluge of the 2013 winter started. I know when to give up - so the engine was left on blocks in the engine bay until
a time when it was not both freezing and raining.
This was not until late March 2014 and a few weeks ago we decided to have another go.
With the problem of meshing the gearbox splines not resolved a different approach was decided. Engine was taken back out of 'ANA' and put carefully on blocks on the garage floor. Gearbox support bolts were taken off and after supporting the prop shaft I manged to remove the gearbox.
 |
| Everything checked and dead centre, but still had problems. |
We now had both the engine and gearbox in the relevant warmth of the garage and could hopefully resolve why we could not mate one with the other. Supporting the gearbox bell-housing with the engine crane we tried again ,with the same result of the gearbox housing not locating on the engine dowels. We checked the clutch plate alignment, etc with our 'mandrel' several times, but the engine and gearbox remained stubbornly apart.
I began to worry we had some strange mis-match because the block was reconditioned and originally came from a Chevette.
" O.K , let,s start at basics, remove the clutch cover and clutch plate and see if there are any problems locating the shaft without them" I suggested.
This was completed and the gearbox slid onto the dowels like butter, so there was no mis-match. I tried the clutch plate separately over the splines again with no problems.
Clutch cover was returned together with clutch plate and using our alignment tool everything we checked everything once again. Pushing the shaft onto the block produced the same result - 'clunk' as everything jammed before the bell housing would get onto the block dowels.
This was a real head scratcher.......
"Why is nothing easy ?" I muttered.......
"Any ideas ?" I asked in desperation of Andrew....
Andrew DID have an idea. He loosened the bolts of the clutch cover allowing the clutch plate to 'float' slightly allowing the shaft and plate to centre.
 |
| Andrew solves the problem with a bit of lateral thinking........... |
" If this works, how are you going to tighten the bolts again with bell-housing on? I cautioned.
" With a socket extension through the starter-motor hole whilst you turn the engine over so that each bolt comes around to where I can get the socket into place" he replied with a display of what I thought was misplaced confidence.
Everything was centred again but with the clutch plate able to move slightly so that perhaps the splines could mesh a little easier. I was both amazed and relieved when the shaft mated and the gearbox went straight onto the dowels with no problem - job done!!
Each bolt on the clutch cover was then tightened as I turned the engine so the correct alignment could be achieved to get the socket extension through the starter motor hole in the gearbox housing.
 |
| Bell housing supported as we mate it to the engine block |
 |
| Cleaned up and awaiting a dry day to put everything back in the car. |
So engine and gearbox sit mated together on the garage floor like the good pals they should be, waiting for a nice warm dry day to put them back into the Viva..........
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