1971 1.8 K Standard Roundnose

[twincamtone]

Must be have costed some cash, mate

Yeah, we all need to keep feeding that money pit

[Dobey]

Hahahaha that’s for sure. But then again if it’s a hobby, it’s allowed to cost money 😂

[twincamtone]

Put a bit of black paint on the driveshafts last night so they would be ready to fit today. Had to make a small change to the suspension buffer though. With the suspension on full droop, the driveshaft angle was too steep and it was jamming on the edge of the inboard cv joint. Decided I would drill a hole in the top arm where it rests on the buffer and put a nut and bolt through to make it adjustable. Thought about removing the top arm, but there isn't enough room to remove the shaft holding the top arm on as the gearbox is in the way. So I compressed the rubber cone so that the arm would move up enough to get a drill in there.

Removed the buffer


Arm up just far enough


Fitted the nut and bolt and took the rubber of the buffer

[twincamtone]

Had quite a few clearance issues over the weekend.

This was the first one. Had to remove the alloy spacer I made to raise the gearbox mount because the cv boot clip was touching the frame.


So changed it for a thinner spacer.


Which then caused the radiator to touch the frame.


So had to drill some mounting holes about 10mm up the brackets to raise the rad.


With that sorted started to fit the other driveshaft and fit another adjustable buffer, though it wasn't really needed on this side.


While fitting the driveshaft, I notice the engine was touching the suspension shaft.


So, next job was move the engine mount forward.


Now I have about 10mm clearance.


Refitted the frontend just to check alternator clearance.


On the subject of the alternator. I had to make the adjustment bracket a little bit longer as it was already on full adjustment.


Also, I felt the belt was a bit too close (1mm) to the bolt on the timing cover, so ground off most of the flange on the bolt.


Next job is to make a lower gearbox steady like this one on the engine side.


So glad I welded on the same mount on the other side too just in case I needed one.


That's it for this weekend.

[Dobey]

Hehehe looks good, mate.

[Yellow]

Looks really smart - what paint have you used on the frame? You really are up against it for clearance!

[twincamtone]

Thanks guys, yeah got the clearances around 10mm everywhere now, the manfold to bulkhead was my main concern as I really don't want to put the plastic one back on.

If you paste this title into fleabay HIGH TEMPERATURE HEAT PROOF Body Paint Steel,Metal,ENGINE,CALIPER Military Army this is what I used, it's about £20 a litre. I got it for painting the engine, but had loads left over so used it on the frame too.

[twincamtone]

Finished the gearbox steady today







Sorry about the naff photos.

[Yellow]

Gearbox steady looks strong. Home brew or adapted from something else? I’ll have to take another look at mine, I’m sure I looked at doing something similar and couldn’t find room.

[twincamtone]

I hope it will be strong enough. The bushes and threaded bar are from the ultimate engine steady for the A series and the gearbox bracket I made to fit to the available threaded holes on the gearbox. I have about 3mm clearance between the gearbox and steering rack so hopefully it will stop it hitting.

Personally, I think you have your gearbox steady in a perfect position. If you think about it, when accelerating hard, the engine wants to rotate in the opposite direction to the wheels so the engine/gearbox will be pushing your steady together as opposed to mine being pulled apart. Unfortunately, my front bar is too high to position it like yours.

[Yellow]

Th threaded bar will be plenty strong enough I’m sure. It also gives some wriggle room to fine tune the engine position if needed which is a good idea

[Dobey]

It’s always better then none 😬, this just gives it that extra and i agree with yellow, it will be enough

[gazwad]

Not wanting to piss on your chips but those lower engine mounts will transmit a lot of vibration (as will the top steady). I used to have a sump mount and gearbox steady very similar but with a mini steady bush instead of the poly bushes you have and they tranmitted a lot of noise and vibration - I removed the gearbox steady and changed the sump one so it used a standard rover/mgf large steady bush and the noise reduction in the car was huge. On the standard mounts the engine doesn't actually move about too much. Of course if you don't mind the noise then it's fine and will help on the track.

[Dobey]

Hahahahaha that first sentence made me laugh, i guess if gazwad tried it, its probably not worth doing but on the other hand it’s something different

[twincamtone]

Not wanting to piss on your chips but those lower engine mounts will transmit a lot of vibration (as will the top steady). I used to have a sump mount and gearbox steady very similar but with a mini steady bush instead of the poly bushes you have and they tranmitted a lot of noise and vibration - I removed the gearbox steady and changed the sump one so it used a standard rover/mgf large steady bush and the noise reduction in the car was huge. On the standard mounts the engine doesn't actually move about too much. Of course if you don't mind the noise then it's fine and will help on the track.

Hahaha! Please promise me you will control your bladder when I'm eating my chips. Yeah, I'm expecting plenty of vibration. Bit of a trade off really between vibration or knocking on the steering rack.