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twas_brillig
Jedi Knight
Offline
I've just spend a couple of days struggling with the above installation (and there's sure no reflection on Rivergate - the kit is complete and well done) and would like to share what I ran into and get others' advice for the next time.
Pilot Bearing: the pilot bearing drives into a 'stepped' hole, so you can't use a bearing puller to get a grip on the inside edge to pull it out: the stock bushing pushes right up against the 'step' in the crank. I wasted a lot of time and effort getting it out originally, finally using a hack saw and a small chisel - and it came out easily. Other methods (such as filling the cavity with grease and a pilot bearing puller and running a tap straight on through) all seem to be only suitable for other vehicles where the steel bored hole stays constant diameter past the bushing.
I managed to bell the Rivergate bushing tapping it in, such that the ID got squished down and when I was finally able to force the pilot shaft in (not knowing any better) there was way too much drag since the clearances had gone negative. Phoned Rivergate and they mailed me two replacements for a quite reasonable price, and these bushings had a rim on the trans side so you couldn't tap them in too far and bell them. To get the belled bushing out, we just ran a 1/2" (if memory serves) coarse bolt in and it was loose enough we were able to turn it out. The problems I'd caused myself originally were due to running a tap into the bearing with the idea of running a bolt into the tapped threads, but I managed to run the tap right through the bushing and into the steel crank.... Just running the bolt in the second time without the tap, meant that it pretty much stopped when it ran out of bushing and into the steel.
Installation: not a fun time - partially/mostly due to not fully reading/understanding the instructions. Where I really ran into problems was getting the bottom half of the trans mount in. Ended up removing the front engine mounts completely so I could get it as low as possible; putting a trolley jack under the transmission to get it up as high as possible, then slipping the mount in as best I could and using a bottle jack to compress the rubber enough that I could tap it in to place. We'd installed the driveshaft early on so it would stay clean etc: wrong, as the yoke on the driveshaft interfered with the top of the driveshaft tunnel and used up some precious clearance. I had the nut on the crank pulley hard up agains the front frame crossmember: ended up prying it back maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch so that the casting in front of the shift lever could move back into the shift lever opening and free up some additional precious fractions.
? has anyone installed the transmission separately and then put the engine in? how did that go? We'll be doing our second BE hopefully this summer and anything that makes it easier I'd like to hear about. I think I'll grind off the seam at the bottom of the trans where the rubber mount has to slip past, as well as the seam in front of the shift lever assembly, just trying to capture those precious fractions.
Philosophically, it's good to get these hands on humbling experiences so you can admire the guys that do it, and be in awe of the guys that pulled the kit together. However, I'd prefer if I got a bit less humbling and got things done faster.
Doug
Pilot Bearing: the pilot bearing drives into a 'stepped' hole, so you can't use a bearing puller to get a grip on the inside edge to pull it out: the stock bushing pushes right up against the 'step' in the crank. I wasted a lot of time and effort getting it out originally, finally using a hack saw and a small chisel - and it came out easily. Other methods (such as filling the cavity with grease and a pilot bearing puller and running a tap straight on through) all seem to be only suitable for other vehicles where the steel bored hole stays constant diameter past the bushing.
I managed to bell the Rivergate bushing tapping it in, such that the ID got squished down and when I was finally able to force the pilot shaft in (not knowing any better) there was way too much drag since the clearances had gone negative. Phoned Rivergate and they mailed me two replacements for a quite reasonable price, and these bushings had a rim on the trans side so you couldn't tap them in too far and bell them. To get the belled bushing out, we just ran a 1/2" (if memory serves) coarse bolt in and it was loose enough we were able to turn it out. The problems I'd caused myself originally were due to running a tap into the bearing with the idea of running a bolt into the tapped threads, but I managed to run the tap right through the bushing and into the steel crank.... Just running the bolt in the second time without the tap, meant that it pretty much stopped when it ran out of bushing and into the steel.
Installation: not a fun time - partially/mostly due to not fully reading/understanding the instructions. Where I really ran into problems was getting the bottom half of the trans mount in. Ended up removing the front engine mounts completely so I could get it as low as possible; putting a trolley jack under the transmission to get it up as high as possible, then slipping the mount in as best I could and using a bottle jack to compress the rubber enough that I could tap it in to place. We'd installed the driveshaft early on so it would stay clean etc: wrong, as the yoke on the driveshaft interfered with the top of the driveshaft tunnel and used up some precious clearance. I had the nut on the crank pulley hard up agains the front frame crossmember: ended up prying it back maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch so that the casting in front of the shift lever could move back into the shift lever opening and free up some additional precious fractions.
? has anyone installed the transmission separately and then put the engine in? how did that go? We'll be doing our second BE hopefully this summer and anything that makes it easier I'd like to hear about. I think I'll grind off the seam at the bottom of the trans where the rubber mount has to slip past, as well as the seam in front of the shift lever assembly, just trying to capture those precious fractions.
Philosophically, it's good to get these hands on humbling experiences so you can admire the guys that do it, and be in awe of the guys that pulled the kit together. However, I'd prefer if I got a bit less humbling and got things done faster.
Doug
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