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backing plate from the half cut was for an auto gearbox, and had to
be modified to fit the T50 bell housing, which among other things,
has the starter motor on the other side (the passenger side). Here
is the modified plate, with the new starter motor cutout, and the
old cutout filled in. We sourced a cheap (free!) piece of gal. 1.5
mm steel plate from Metalcorp in Oxley, and then welded, drilled,
cut and filed the rest of the plate into shape. It should do the job
nicely. |
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| The
lightened flywheel can be seen clearly here. It is basically a lightened
flex plate, attached to a modified flywheel with large slabs of metal
removed. Merv McCallum has expressed concern that this is not a good
engineering solution. Unfortunately Merv is a mechanic, so cannot
be ignored! I have decided to press ahead with the current setup anyway,
and hopefully it will not disintergate at 8000 RPM. |
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Here is the clutch being assembled. I am constantly amazed at how
these things work. There are so many things that can go wrong,
yet someone somewhere has done the maths, and figured aout what works
and what doesn't. You don't realise until you start trying to build
a car just how much thought and sweat and frustration must have been
expended on the details we take for granted. Let's hope my Exedy 'Xtreme'
performance clutch works as advertised. |
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We finally got the engine
and gearbox assembled. There were a few real 'moments' when I thought
we had stripped the thread in the block, but we managed to clean
it out with an M12 1.25 tap. I still don't know what caused the
thread to bind up. Anyway, the flywheel, clutch, pressure plate,
throwout bearing and fork (with clips) were all assembled and bolted
together. I was going to fill the gearbox with Redline MTL, but
as this appears to be hard to get, I will leave it until later.
Apparently, you can fill the T50 gearbox through the selector lever
on the top. It takes 1.6 litres. If it leaks, I will be *un*impressed.
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Here is another shot
of the engine/gearbox assembly. Once attached, we turned the engine
with a socket, and observed the output from the geabox, which all
seems to be working as advertised. Woo hoo!
The torque settings for
the bolts gave me some concerns. The four main bolts that attach
the bell housing to the block are located in a 120 degree section
on the top of the bell housing. The bolts are high tensile M12 *
1.25 mm thread, and require 80ft/lbs torque. I had to do this in
stages, as it seemed completely un-natural to apply that much pressure
to these bolts. Still, we got there in the end. The other bolts
underneath are M10, and require a piffling 40 ft/lbs.
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| Here is the new lightweight flywheel from John Bosci. Since I had the engine out for the new T50 box, I decided that I didn't really need the extremely lightweight flywheel from Paul Arnott. I may hang on to this item, or I may sell it. I haven't decided. Anyway we installed this beauty with the help of Paul Hannel and his mate Paul (surname forgotten) who are both builders. Paul came to help with the installation of the clutch, as I wanted to get this item right. Thanks Paul! |
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This is the T50 from Dean Sainsbury down the coast at Currumbin. It came from an old Toyota Sprinter, and has a fair few k's on the clock. We haven't stripped it, but that is a job that can be done later if necessary. The bell housing had the left hand side clutch opening, so that could not be used. Luckily, our old 'T50' bell housing bolted straight on to the T50, so we are in luck there. This picture shows the clutch slave cylinder attached.
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The remote gearshift extension from John Henderson fits the T50 a treat. It is a very well made unit, and has very little play. We have installed the box and shifter, and it comes to hand beautifully in the Westfield. Feels really sharp and accurate as well.
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