Club 80-90 Forums

Sounds just like what i would do

Keep up these reports - im really enjoying them thanks

Ringo

Hi Dickspanner,

Very neat conversion I have to say.
Could you please share the supplier of the very nice engine to trans adapter?

Cheers,
Jim

KEP I think if you the thread read back

KEP are West Coast sandrail racing specialist, Kennedy Engineering Products, famous for pioneering the classic VW-Subaru EJ22 conversions

Hello Folks,

Sorry for lack of posts recently, had a lot on and with the lead up for Chrimbo just not touched computer or Crewcab.

Jim, as Harryman states, I used a KEP conversion. I did lot of research in this area and there are several companies out there who will help, but KEP won my order as they have been doing it for years and the dollar was so weak it just made sense. I also bough a racing clutch and hi-torque starter at the same time, howvere saving money was good the package still got stopped coming into the country by C&E and they bummed me

Just as a update, the crewcabs engine bay is now painted black, decided on black as it is a universal colour and goes with all colours, incase I spray her later. I used smootherite thinned down through my spray gun as this made application easier.

The engine is now finally bolted in with the gearbox and the driveshafts are now bolted to wheel carriers.

I intend to resume the project next week after I have settled back in at work, I will try and undertake all the enginebay work by the end of the month so it is ready for firing except the wiring. The wiring is still a daunting task even though we have stripped 80% of the wiring harness away. Still got the uncertainty of the compoanants being submerged in water when my lock up flooded, hopefully there was no damage to them.

Mechanically I am very confident except the water fill position as it does not fill at the top of the system, I am slightly worried about locking, so may have to modify that part yet, will post solution when it is worked out.

Hope everybody had a good new year and santa brought all presents and tous wished for.

Dickspanner

Bugger Bugger and an even bigger Bugger.

I came to bolt my drive shafts up tonight and the gearbox is not central.

I am absolutly puzzled so had to walk away.

Basically when I measured the distance from gearbox flange to swing arm on both sides there is a difference of 40mm.

I am puzzled because I set the centre of the ford V to the centre of the rear of the crewcab. When you measure the distance from crank pulley to either side it is the same. The gearbox is sitting in its original mount so I can not understeand what I have done wrong. Have I made a schoolboy mistake and assumed the drive shafts are the same length?

Advice sought?????

Dickspanner

dickspanner wrote:Bugger Bugger and an even bigger Bugger.

I came to bolt my drive shafts up tonight and the gearbox is not central.

I am absolutly puzzled so had to walk away.

Basically when I measured the distance from gearbox flange to swing arm on both sides there is a difference of 40mm.

I am puzzled because I set the centre of the . . V to the centre of the rear of the crewcab. When you measure the distance from crank pulley to either side it is the same. The gearbox is sitting in its original mount so I can not understeand what I have done wrong. Have I made a schoolboy mistake and assumed the drive shafts are the same length?

Advice sought?????

Dickspanner

Gearbox mounting bracket onto body in the wrong holes?

There is something defo wrong with this whole thing as I have butchered my cradle, moved the engine across and it is just wrong.

Gave up in dispair tonght as it just was not my night.



Engine crank pulley now sitting to right on piccie and still anoth 10mm to go before it measures the same distance.

Wrong Wrong Wrong. Bugger.

Need a strong drink and dirty woman, will be happy with either.

Manual gearbox, both drive shafts ARE the same length... Auto box drive shafts are not....

Mmm.. measure and re measure.. as Andy says.. poss front mount???..

Can you not get a fresh set of eyes to have a look, that often helps.

Well I called at my lockup last night and decided to strip the whole thing out and reinstall it.

Going to get lots of reference points set up on the underside of bodytub so I can pull off dimensions from where I know is a correct reference point and work out the exact dimensions that I need.

I think I have a creeping error which has caused the problem so I have to iliminate it from the beginning. I think the error started from moving the gearbox mount by swapping it over and then modifying the mount on the back of the gearbox etc, then it has followed through the drive train.

I think this may entail fabricating a front gearbox mount and modifying my support cradle but hey hoe thats sometimes the way it must go.

Annoying thing is that I have made all the compoanants to fit the set up with the engine on the sqiff. Bugger, hope everything still fits with it moved. Never occured to me to check the alignment as I went along to ensure it all worked. Doh.

MM, there is another lad who is usually knocking about at my lockup and we useually bounce things off each other in a conversion project to try and put a fresh set of eyes on a problem. But he has not been around for a while as he is doing nights at the moment.

AS/TMT, I was recommended to flip the gearbox mount around to move the whole drive train backwards, only one set of holes that I can remember, but when I take the full assemble out tonight I will check. Needed an excuse to strengthen back mounting anyhow.

Dickspanner

Got a pic of the front gearbox mount???

TMT,

I have posted a piccie of the gearbox mount in the technical forum as I try and resolve problems on there and post results of problem on here to keep this more of a build thread than lots of problems thread.

I have not used the rear mount before and that is where I think the problem comes from as a string line through the drive train shows it all to be in one line. Aiden has told me he has lots of mounts, so I am going to arrange a visit to his place and look at the different mounts before I fabricate a full new mount to see if a generic mount/bracket can be used. If this is not the case then I will make my own mount.

I am hoping tobe able to resolve the full problem before the end of next week so that the engine/box and driveshafts can be fully mounted and the final build can commence.

I still have to shorten the gearlinkage as I have moved the gearbox towards the front of the crewcab by around 45mm.

Dickspanner

Well tonights work entailed modifying my gearbox support first so that the gearbox rested on a bar rather than a dowel and hence when I moved the gearbox across it would slide on the bar.

After this job was done, the gearbox was resupported and the whole assembly lowered which allowed access to the rear mount



The mount was removed and stripped down to leave just the rear plate. This was bolted back to the rear of the gearbox and the box was lifted to the correct height.



The next job is to febricate a new rear mount assembly. This was started with two 8mm steel bar outriggers from the plate. Unfortunately my 10mm drill bits are all burned out and I will have to nip to screwfix tomorrow to pick up some new ones before I can assemble to new mount insitu and tack it together before fully welding it together. I am aiming to have the rear gearbox mount completed tomorrow night and then it is just finalising the welding on the front mounts to seat the engine and box in correct alignment.

Just as a note to others, The problem has occured due to the following combination of sliht errors which have amplified the problem.

1. I made an engine cradle to support the full assembly. This cradle which picked up the cosworth engine mounts and used the existing mount was fine with original assembly then I inadvertantly changed the rear mount and never cross checked the dims etc.

2. I swapped the gearbox mount around which could have compounded the slight error.

3. Due to the engine then being twisted it induced torsion into the engine mount which pushed the engine and box across further.

Solution.

I have now had to rebuild my rear gearbox mount onto the original mounting plate.

I have had to chop up my original engine cradle to move it and also allow the torsion to be removed from the cosworth mounts.

In doing the latter I now have to ratchet the rear of the gearbox across before I can weld the rear mount together to induce oposite torsion into the engine mounts so when I reweld the front cradle I will be able to remove the torsion out of the mounts etc.

Hope that made sence and thanks to help on technical forum in solving this problem.

The build continues and I will post some pictures of the new rear gearbox mount hopefully tomorrow if I get it finished.

Dickspanner

Hope that made sence and thanks to help on technical forum in solving this problem.

Not really but no bother, we're still following the Cosworth saga with anticipation...

I understood you fine its great making all these bits to get round somthing!!!!