Clutch fork mods.

Now the engine was in I could start to look at some of the little jobs that need doing. the first of which was to check that the clutch fork would clear the chassis.

I has already removed the 2 points from the end of the fork to give greater clearance, but looking at it in situ I decided that the return spring hole had to go as well.


So out with the trusty dremel and about half an hour later the fork was modified, this is as far as I can go without the slave to move the clutch and check clearance.

Next step on the clutch is finalise the slave bracket design and get it built!

Engine update....

IT FITS!!!!!!

Well stone me, it went it in without too many protestations. We had a little bit of mucking about with the engine mounts but eventually she was in. To top it off the gearbox appears to fit OK as well!



Many thanks to Andy J and "its not a cravat!" Malcom T.

Well chuffed!

Well todays the day - hopefully!

There no more time to mess about with tape measures and bits of wood, its time to see if the engine and gearbox will fit in the chassis.

As I appear to be the only person as yet known who has fitted a Getrag gearbox in a GD I may be about to find out why everyone else pays the extra and buys a Tremec! My main aeas of concern are.

1) Gearbox rear mount location relationship to the GD mount tabs.
2) Clutch fork interference with chassis rails and body.
3) Clutch slave bracket interference with chassis rails.

To be honest item 1 could probably be worked around but 2 and 3 may well be deal breakers. So by 18:00 today I will either my very happy with some nice pics to show or very sad with a Getrag gearbox up for sale!!

Watch this space....

Clutch slave.

With things dried out in the garage (£93 worth of electricity later!!) I need to press on and get the clutch slave cylinder bracket sorted. This needs to be done before the engine goes into the chassis as space will be tight and its much easier to work around the engine on the floor stand.

I need to get the engine into the chassis to make way for my next side project, Ive a Ford Pop engine to rebuild for my father in law so I need the space currently occupied by my engine. I did offer him the 302 but he felt it a little over powered fro the Pop!

Of course this being my build nothing goes simply or follows the accepted norm. Whereas most would buy the Tremec gearbox option and have the joy of using the Repower slave cylinder and bracket that just bolts on, I of course chose the little used Getrag/Ford in a GD combination. A such a slave cylinder and bracket are not available off the shelf in a kit, but hey its all good fun and I'm saving money, well that's what I keep telling myself!

The clutch fork on the standard Ford setup operated the opposite way to a Tremec in that the cylinder needs to be engine side and push to the rear of the car, of course engine side is where the bell housing is and space is a little tight.

I will go back and populate with pics in the future of the various designs I wen through but here's V2 that has now been sidelined in favour of V3 which is under development.


As you can see it is mocked up in MDF and once finalised I will transfer to AutoCAD and get them cut from mild steel in 6mm thickness (thanks Simon for that advice).

having looked at the design I am now trying to work out if I can out the vertical mounting plate on the other side close to the bellhousing thus reducing the width of the assembly by about 8-10mm.

Back to the drawing board.