I think the same thing with the modern stuff. I'd rather work on a classic. The classics can be rebuilt a lot of stuff on modern cars are throw-away.
I spent a little time today getting ready for the assembly once the parts get here. I've got everything cleaned and painted so I'm down to just little stuff till the parts get here. To that end I put in all the shift linkage inside the case and drove the small roll pin in place to lock it in. I also removed the remains of the bearing inner race on the 2.76 crown gear. I tried to use my bearing spreader on it but it simply wasn't having it, so I got out the cutting wheel and made a slice in the bearing race, I didn't even have to hit it with the cold chisel, after I made the cut as I was walking over to get the hammer and chisel I heard a 'pop" and when I looked at it I could clearly see the split, it pulled right off with a pair of channel locks. No damage to the gear either. The last thing I did was install the seal and support bushing for the shift shaft, and the seals in the side covers. I dug out extra shims and other odds and ends for the assembly, the new crown wheel bolts and lock tabs etc. Now I'm stopped till the new parts get here. More as it happens, probably a week from now.
I placed an order to MiniSpares last Thursday, and one to Moss on Monday of this week, and I wondered which would get here sooner - it's still a toss up as I haven't gotten a ship notice yet from DHL and it's usually at least three days from then that parts arrive. I did get ship notices from Moss, 1/2 of my parts are coming from Virginia, the other half from California! Still a toss up on whether England or the US parts will arrive first!
DHL has finally given me a ship notice, and they claim they will deliver next Wed, which means they'll probably be here Tuesday......so, the race is on! I think the parts from Virginia will hit first, but Ca or England is a toss up right now!
Well, Moss won - both shipments came in - one on Sunday and one today. It surprised me to see that what they shipped from California - one tiny little spring! I needed it so I was glad it came in - now I just nee DHL to visit so I can get the machine shops to work on the block, head and crankshaft. The Mini gearbox is cleaned and ready for assembly....
DHL dropped today, so I'll be back to work on this gearbox in a day or so. I ran the pistons out to the machine shop, and the valve guides and new valves downtown to the cyl head shop, with any luck they'll both be done by Friday afternoon. The crankshaft guy comes in on Friday too, and mine is the first in line.
Ha! I see someone else uses cardboard on the workbench. I started using cardboard on my workbench years and years ago..........because I kept forgetting where/what things were. My father-in-law showed me a trick of his. Take a sharpie and outline the part and then write down on the cardboard what it was and where it came from. Been doing it ever since.
I do it because when I drop small parts they don't bounce as far! That and the workbench is metal, so it doesn't scar up fresh paint that way....like on the Mini transmission case. Oh, and one other thing - I used to set freshly cleaned parts on those nice red shop rags - but then a few days later all my nice clean parts were rusted where they touched the shop rag! Cardboard doesn't do this!
I picked up the block, pistons and crank today, but the head won't be ready for another week or more - the shop is that backed up. So tonight I decided to start on the diff - to that end I took it the rest of the way apart - my plan was only to change out the cross shaft as that's the part that wears, but it was badly damaged, along with the bushings in the side gears so a decision has been made for me - I'll be installing a new cross pin diff carrier! I also noticed that one of the fiber thrust washers for the stub axles was completely worn out and gone. All these parts come new in the cross pin kit so they'll all be replaced. Now I need to double check the bushings in the side covers and see if they've worn badly too - I can press new ones in but they'll have to be reamed to fit and I don't have that reamer either. I hope they're OK.....I suppose I can just buy new side covers with new bushings already installed and sized.....that would run another $150......what the hell, it's only money! Lastly I took a look at the new laygear inner shaft - I noticed it's made a little differently than the old one - someone tell me why this matters?
No takers for my question about the inner layshaft? Normally you would not want to see a sharp edge on a shaft as it transitions from one size to another, as those create stress risers and they can break there. However, if you look closely in the second pic you can see there is a small radius at that edge - MED sells the exact same shaft for their race gearboxes, so it must be OK! Today I built the cross pin differential and installed the 2:76 final drive gear, film at eleven! I also got started on the gearbox re-assembly but ran into a small issue on the shifter - I hope I don't have to remove the entire main shaft again to fix it!
Tonight's video.....the gearbox is done, so I've started working on the block. Just got the call today that the head is done too so progress should speed up on this project.
Got the block all cleaned up and I'm giving it a few coats of paint today, the weather is perfect for painting outside - we had a hell of a rain storm last night so there's no dust in the air, and today it's sunny, warm and fairly not humid with a very light breeze. Just enough to carry off the paint fumes! I installed all the water and oil core plugs - one tip, drill the hole in the oil plugs with a 1/4" bit, not 5/16" as I used - it leaves a lot more metal to tap the old shell out with. Much easier that way.... Color to be revealed in my next video, where I'll be building the block back up.
I found that I forgot to order thrust washers, so I cleaned up the originals and stuck them in to see how badly they might be worn (it was pretty clear from looking at them that they were worn - I didn't know how badly) I set up the dial indicator - normal clearance is about 3 thou, but as the picture shows - these are way too far gone. Just to be on the safe side I also ordered a set of 3 thou oversize too. Today I'm mostly just cleaning and painting bits, so when the rest of my small parts get in I'll (hopefully) have everything I need to put it together. The cylinder head came back yesterday so I can clean it up and get it assembled in the meantime. I'm using a set of forged 1.13 rockers and a new shaft.
In tonight's installment I put the block together with the cranks, rods and pistons and cam. I also installed the new thrust washers and made sure the clearance was correct, and finished up the front end by setting cam timing, installing the chain, tensioner and putting the front cover on. 3.5 thou instead of 10 on the thrust bearing clearance Front end all buttoned up....
Today I drop the motor onto the gearbox.....my Spares order now says it will be here Friday (which probably means Thursday given the way they've been running lately) but either way it won't matter, I'm stopped till the order gets here as it has the new headstuds in it.....so the head can't go on till then, I still have a few more things I can do to get ready to drop the head on the block, and I have some cleanup and arranging to do before a new arrival hits the shop on Thursday too. Stay tuned, same Bat time, same Bat channel! One interesting thing happened with yesterday's video - because the radio was playing in the background, You Tube banned the video for copyright infringement! I had to use the "song mute" program to delete just that song - I listened to the video today and I couldn't hear any difference other than the radio disappeared out of the video for a bit, didn't seem to make any difference to the narration.
DHL dropped a few days early so I had the parts I needed to finish this build, coming along nicely now.
The next chapter - does it run? Well, of course it does! I warmed it up and retorqued the head, then fired it up again and ran for 20 min to bed in the cam. This is the final run up before I pull it out of the stand and put it in the car - that's a whole 'nother story tho!