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SNClocks
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Somehow when we got our '60 Bugeye back in April I didn't realize just how much I would end up doing for the little beastie. Whilst the "restorers" work had some issues, I sort of figured I'd be able to sort it out pretty quickly. Which shows just how dumb I actually am. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being dumber than a brick, well, write me up as a 9.8.
One thing I wanted to tackle was the leak from the rear main. The guys doing the resto didn't put in one of the replacement oil-seal kits - whilst not terrible, the leak was more than the rest of our cars combined. Which is not good, given one of said cars is an XKE.
So... Out comes the engine/tranny. And off comes the tranny and pressure plate. Hmmmm. What the heck is this? The pilot bearing is all chewed up and not exactly where it is supposed to be. Hmmm.
Hmmm. Wedge between two of the flywheel bolts and sort of chewed on by the transmission input shaft. Hmmm.
I also noted that one of the throw-out bearing clips was missing - found it!
Behind the flywheel. Hmmm. Oh, and that bolt isn't screwed all the way on - turns out it was too long...
Oh well, what the heck, since I'm here - I looked into 5 speeds - and found one from Moss Motors - in stock! So, T9 headed our way.
Onward, pulled the pan in prep for installing the updated rear main seal. And, well, low and behold:
Wow - looks like a brillo-pad was chewed up by the crank. Which is in fact what it is! Yup, brillo pad stuffed into the oil k.o. on the timing-gear cover fell out and got chewed up. Consensus from a number of folk was that it probably did no real damage, but heck. Either tear the engine down and check every thing or march boldly forward and upgrade. Mini Mania is nearly done converting the little 1275 to a little 1380!
Back to the Tranny. Frontline's instructions include a couple of pictures that sort of give one an idea of what one needs to cut out - but that don't give one (at least this one) a warm fuzzy. So, here are two shots - what came out, and what is left. Unfortunately, photos really don't give one a true sense - you have to be under there to really get it.
I left about 1/4 inch of belly pan around the edge of the cutout so I wouldn't mess up the tunnel and would have metal to smooth out after cutting out with a multitool. What did we ever do before we had oscillating multi tools?
Next I gave cooling some thought - the little bugger came with a standard radiator that looked to be in good nick. With a 10 inch electric fan held in place with the round plastic thingies that folks shove through the radiator. Gads I dislike those. So, off to bugeyeguy for an aluminum radiator. And, after making lots of measurements, a new 12 inch Spal pusher fan.
I wanted to build a shroud to maximize the effectiveness of the new fan - since I would not be clamping it right up against the new radiator core. Such a simple thought that - just build a shroud and all will be peachy.
After a certain amount of work I have the fan in place only to find out that the lip on the back edge of the bonnets front opening fouls the fan motor. Checked out the original fan - which was smaller - and yup - also fouled there. But the restorers couldn't be bothered about such minor details.
After much head scratching and modifying I got it all to fit together perfectly! And just finished powder-coating all the parts I made. Ended up needing to make shims to move the radiator back about 3/8 of an inch, notched the back frame of the radiator to fit around the rack, and gently bent the new shroud so it fits perfectly into the gap between the top and bottom tanks of the radiator. Oh, and gently massaged the lower edge of the fan guard so the edge of the bonnet opening doesn't touch. Ended up with over 1/8" of clearance!
One step closer to being ready for the engine to come home from MiniMania!
One thing I wanted to tackle was the leak from the rear main. The guys doing the resto didn't put in one of the replacement oil-seal kits - whilst not terrible, the leak was more than the rest of our cars combined. Which is not good, given one of said cars is an XKE.
So... Out comes the engine/tranny. And off comes the tranny and pressure plate. Hmmmm. What the heck is this? The pilot bearing is all chewed up and not exactly where it is supposed to be. Hmmm.
Hmmm. Wedge between two of the flywheel bolts and sort of chewed on by the transmission input shaft. Hmmm.
I also noted that one of the throw-out bearing clips was missing - found it!
Behind the flywheel. Hmmm. Oh, and that bolt isn't screwed all the way on - turns out it was too long...
Oh well, what the heck, since I'm here - I looked into 5 speeds - and found one from Moss Motors - in stock! So, T9 headed our way.
Onward, pulled the pan in prep for installing the updated rear main seal. And, well, low and behold:
Wow - looks like a brillo-pad was chewed up by the crank. Which is in fact what it is! Yup, brillo pad stuffed into the oil k.o. on the timing-gear cover fell out and got chewed up. Consensus from a number of folk was that it probably did no real damage, but heck. Either tear the engine down and check every thing or march boldly forward and upgrade. Mini Mania is nearly done converting the little 1275 to a little 1380!
Back to the Tranny. Frontline's instructions include a couple of pictures that sort of give one an idea of what one needs to cut out - but that don't give one (at least this one) a warm fuzzy. So, here are two shots - what came out, and what is left. Unfortunately, photos really don't give one a true sense - you have to be under there to really get it.
I left about 1/4 inch of belly pan around the edge of the cutout so I wouldn't mess up the tunnel and would have metal to smooth out after cutting out with a multitool. What did we ever do before we had oscillating multi tools?
Next I gave cooling some thought - the little bugger came with a standard radiator that looked to be in good nick. With a 10 inch electric fan held in place with the round plastic thingies that folks shove through the radiator. Gads I dislike those. So, off to bugeyeguy for an aluminum radiator. And, after making lots of measurements, a new 12 inch Spal pusher fan.
I wanted to build a shroud to maximize the effectiveness of the new fan - since I would not be clamping it right up against the new radiator core. Such a simple thought that - just build a shroud and all will be peachy.
After a certain amount of work I have the fan in place only to find out that the lip on the back edge of the bonnets front opening fouls the fan motor. Checked out the original fan - which was smaller - and yup - also fouled there. But the restorers couldn't be bothered about such minor details.
After much head scratching and modifying I got it all to fit together perfectly! And just finished powder-coating all the parts I made. Ended up needing to make shims to move the radiator back about 3/8 of an inch, notched the back frame of the radiator to fit around the rack, and gently bent the new shroud so it fits perfectly into the gap between the top and bottom tanks of the radiator. Oh, and gently massaged the lower edge of the fan guard so the edge of the bonnet opening doesn't touch. Ended up with over 1/8" of clearance!
One step closer to being ready for the engine to come home from MiniMania!
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