Why is nothing easy....??

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.

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..........

Colour me 'Yellow Gold'......

With the engine removed from the car I decided that this was the time to re-spray the engine bay.  'ANA' was re-sprayed during the late 1990s in the original 'Yellow Gold' colour but the boot interior and engine area was never done. 

I decided to invest in a compressor and spray-gun despite having no experience in the dark art of car finishing.......lack of experience never stopped me before.......I am a firm believer that you only become 'experienced' by actually doing it ( especially after making a few mistakes).

Interior of the boot floor had some fabrication with new metal in the past and I was a little worried about the bottom of the spare wheel well that showed some corrosion. As mostly the case with a Vauxhall Viva, corrosion on the surface is always just the tip of the iceberg and on close inspection the whole wheel-well needed cutting out and replacing with new.

 A Viva wheel-well is not surprisingly wheel shaped, with a radius and a concave curvature in the opposite direction. I find the best method of fabrication is to try and copy the original as close as possible. Original radius was copied and then tack welded into position allowing me to 'tin-bash' the concave curvature with a round mallet. After continuous welding the finished job I filled any surface indentations with a flexible filler and applied a white primer. I then prepared the whole of the boot area for re-finishing as the forty-year-old paint was showing it's age and re-sprayed it with the original 2YW code 'Yellow Gold' colour in cellulose. 

 

Boot area re-finished in the original 'Yellow Gold'

 

Carpets and trim replaced on completion

Next job whilst the sun was shining towards the end of the fantastic summer of 2013 was to spray the engine-bay whilst the re-built engine sat in the garage.  Everything was moved out of the way , such as master cylinder, brake pipes, etc, ready for the old paint to be prepared with wet and dry paper and a lot of elbow grease.

 

Ready for the refurbished suspension,brakes and rebuilt engine.

Everything was now ready for the refurbished cross-member, brakes, steering and suspension to be bolted back into the car so that the engine could be replaced before winter. Summer was disappearing fast and without a running engine I could not get 'ANA' into the protection of the garage.  Pushing it solo by hand up the steeply inclined drive was not an option.