Been a while of distractions and procrastinations,
and the "elephant in the room" or syncro in the workshop, has called me back to lying underneath and pushing, wiggling.
In younger days I loved this sort of activity, so though its finding its way down off the bottom of to-do lists these days,
at least it brings back some nostalgia of passionate relationships with motorcars 30 years ago..
The trolley/dolly performs really well, van up to get the box under, then lower van down carefully with the box in the approximate place,
watching carefully to prevent damage to the difflock actuator, the gearbox is now easily positioned to mate with the engine.
Unfortunately the shaft is not going into the clutch, and I think I know why..
When I was removing the gearbox I hadn't made the dolly so it hung on the spines a bit as it slid off, which probably misaligned the clutch.
So its off again and I will need an alignment tool, and have a look at the clutch whilst in there.
With a VW motor it would be possible to lower the back of the motor, inclining it towards the gearbox.
The Subaru and RJES mount isn't quite as flexible, but a jack under the sump tilts it just enough,
its a very tight fit though and I am very glad that the gearbox sits on its wooden box, balances well, and rests on the floor easily.
There is yet some work to do fitting the RJES exhaust box which is more complicated than I expected,
involving drilling through the cambelt cover for bolting to the block, and fabricating an ally mount to weld to the smallcar sump.
Its out of MOT now as well, spotted some rust on the bottom of a sill, just a tiny bit,
but it would be as well to cut it out and sort it properly, I dont have a mig, but do have oxy acetylene.
The heat from gas tends to burn of a lot of paint, leading to more rust attraction possibly.
Maybe I should be thinking of getting it done by someone else.. or not.
)
