It's taken over a week of rainy days and other diversions before making the next move. But it's a fateful one. I knew that I had to cut the transmission mount on the tail housing to no more that 5 1/2" width so that it would fit past the frame tubes in the transmission tunnel. I also knew that I had to cut the front half of the chassis mounting plate so that the tail housing could fit into that space. So today my plan was to do the cutting and then get the transmission and bellhousing into the chassis for a fit check. I did the cutting with my pneumatic cut-off wheel. To get into the transmission tunnel with the cutting tool and get it into the right angle I needed to route the air fitting at a 90 degree angle. Fortunately I had a brass fitting that would do that and I had just enough angle to make the cuts, following the piece of tape that I had laid down before.
It takes a little fortitude to cut-up parts that are irreplacable. But once it's done each cut serves a purpose that cannot otherwise be achieved. I will later make a bridge around the front of the chassis mount so that it maintains its structural integrity. I will also drill and tap new mounting holes into the tail housing for a new mount.
I had lifted the chassis off the cradle and back down onto the furniture dollies. Then I lifted the transmission into the engine bay and slid back into the tunnel. There are still a couple of awkward interference points that keep the transmission from its exact alignment and it took an hour of fiddling to get close. I then mounted the bell housing onto the front of the transmission and re-aligned the whole unit into position. According to Richard Hall the design height for the crankshaft longitudinal axis is 90 mm above the frame rail. With much tugging and pushing, while trying not to strain my back, I got the axis to be close to 100 mm with suitable ground clearance below the level of the flywheel/bell housing. I don't think I will have to trim off the bottom of the bell housing but there is still much fiddling to do to make sure I have proper clearance everywhere. This is a big transmission to fit into the tunnel and there's no spare room. It is quite pleasing to actually see where the shifter post is going to be relative to the steering wheel and that it will be quite fine. I plan to use a Steeda Tri-Ax short-throw shift lever. I used to have one but I have no idea where to find it now. Also, the cut in the bellhousing I had to make to clear the tunnel around the starter fits right into place.
The next step will be to get the chassis back onto the lift so that I can get a view underneath it and see what more trimming I need to do to get clearance. After I'm satisfied with that aspect I will move on to the engine. I will mount the bell housing onto the engine (without the transmission) and put the engine in the chassis so that it is aligned at the same point as I achieved with the transmission with the bell housing attached. Then I can mock-up the intake and exhauset manifolds and make decisions on how I will achive fitting those into the available space. I can also mock-up the engine mounts I will have to fabricate because the Pinto mounts that were supplied from GBS will not work. I can only guess that the "Pinto" used either a 1.6L Kent pushrod engine or the 2.0L EAO engine that was available before the 2.3L SVO engine.
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| Final position at 100mm crank height |
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| Clearance at starter housing |
Here's a nice Wikipedia page that explains all the variants of the Ford OHC engine.
I plan to use a McLeod series 1400 hydraulic throwout bearing so I won't have to worry about the clutch lever or linkage - because actually there's absolutely no room for it anyway! But as long as I can route the two hydraulic lines out of the bell housing then everything else is contained behind the clutch. I am very interested in how this clutch actuation feels! Ive already made the measurement for the clutch height "B" dimension required by McLeod. The hydraulic throwout bearing fits right over the input shaft snout and reacts agains the flat on the bearing retainer. With the dimension "B" we can deterrmine the stack height of the spacer that goes behind the throwout bearing.
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