Engine and Gearbox Internals

Things are picking up in pace - yesterday I dropped off the old Duratec pistons and conrods (along with the new replacement Cosworth pistons to be fitted) at No-Nok Engineering (yes, that IS their name) and I will pick those up tomorrow. They also obligingly removed the speedo gear from the T9 mainshaft so at last the gearbox is in its component bits, all cleaned in paraffin.

When I got home I moered the speedo gear into a box, never to be used again.

Today I will go to the local bearing distributors and order the following bearings and seals. (I am writing this down so that if anyone needs to reference the numbers, they will find them here)

The T9 has 3 major bearings, and 2 small ones, specifically:

A large ball bearing supporting the Input shaft in the Gearbox (The other end is supported by the spigot bearing which is in the crankshaft) FAG 545893

The input shaft and output shaft are concentric and rotate relative to each other by means of a small roller bearing fitted to the rear of the input shaft

A large ball bearing which supports the output shaft at the sandwich plate SKF 362021

The Layshaft or Countershaft gear cluster is supported at both ends by:

A set of 21 needle rollers running on the layshaft at the front end, I have the short ones held in by 2 spacers, I am supposed to replace these with the longer ones.

A roller bearing fitted to the rear of the layshaft which is housed in the casing.

To summarize:

35*58*21 Roller bearing rear Layshaft FAG 545995 or INA F-94297

28*75*20 Ball bearing Mainshaft (fits in the sandwich plate) SKF 362021

35*77*17 Ball bearing Input shaft FAG 566096 or SKF 362020 or SKF 545893 The bearing in my case is a 545893, I picked these numbers up off the net.

The input to output shaft needle bearing has no number on it but I have samples of all the bearings to show the guys. I don't have a number for the input/output bearing but I do have the sample.

Seals:

Input Shaft       CR 10930 or Fed Mogul 222820
Output Shaft    CR 13527 or Fed Mogul 2443
Selector Shaft CR 5541

I'll be back to correct this if there is any change in the data.

Bits and Pieces Trickle In.....The Gearbox Continued...

Monday saw the arrival of a long awaited box from Burton Power via DHL. In the box was a set of Cosworth 11:1 pistons, gudgeon pins and rings, main bearing and big end shells, conrod bolts, a new friction washer and a crankshaft position sensor.

Last night I took the old piston/con rod assemblies, marked them, and they will go to the local engineering shop to have the old pins pressed out and the new pistons installed.

Also the speedo gear must still come off the mainshaft. It won't be going back on as I won't be needing it, making subsequent stripping jobs a lot easier.

I cleaned up the gearbox parts I have taken off already as far as I could with paraffin, catalogued and bagged them neatly in order so that come re-assembly it will be a lot easier. I even took photos so that I can put it all back together again.

If I can get the bearing sizes and seal sizes for the box I will be even happier. The one bearing on the input shaft is a FAG 545893 single row ball bearing with locator ring - it measures 35*77*17 bearing which I can source, the others I must still get the dimensions because some do not have a number at all!! The local bearing shop says no problem he can get anything I need.

If I want gaskets I am going to have to make my own. Easy peasy. The seals I must pick out of the tail housing but they are going to be completely knackered in that process.

The rear seal plate of the selector housing is gone (as in completely missing) - I am going to make up a plate with some thick aluminium and tap it into place. I am also going to have to source a brass selector saddle, anything plastic on the selector will break or disintegrate inside a week. It is as rough as a bear's arse.

Once I am finished with this box and it has the seals and bearings on it I will have more confidence in the unit.

I am still awaiting a shipment from Raceline. It was supposedly shipped on Friday 22nd and the bucks came out my account, but no tracking number as yet. That has the cam cover, water rail, cams, springs, thermostat housing, flywheel, clutch, and starter motor. Can't wait.

Finally Jeremy (my daughter Fiona's BF) collected some 12mm diff mount bobbins from the factory so I can finish mounting and torquing up the diff. Bless his little cotton socks. The lad is going off to Thailand on Saturday to do some missionary work for 6 months - Fiona is all sniffy and morose. Shame.

This is a bit of an update for future reference:

Front I/P shaft bearing FAG Z-566096 KL-H49A
Rear O/P shaft bearing SKF BB1B-362021

Front Layshaft HD Bearing INA F-208843
Rear Layshaft Bearing Torrington 545995

Stripping the Gearbox

On Saturday I headed into a unseasonably wet Springs to collect a 5 speed T9N gearbox from Joe's Scrapyard. The only one they had came out of a Cortina 3.0l bakkie so I am thinking the first gear is gonna be a little short. But hey, there's only one available so R4500 later I am on my way home. It has a short input shaft and no gearlever so I cannot test if it even has all its gears.

Sunday morning and first thing I do is head for Autozone and get me some decent circlip pliers.

The gearbox came with a bell housing which is a massive bit of metal, including the clutch lever and thrust washer. Some fiddling about trying to remove the lever with no joy, so I hold the lever forward while I bash the thrust washer backward. Success. Those two bits come out and now 4 bolts are holding the housing to the gearbox. So out with the impact wrench and 10 seconds later the housing is off.

Now at least I can manoeuver the box around.

First off is the top cover and I tip out all the oil into the bucket. The oil is clear and clean, which is a surprise. Then I notice the gasket off the top cover is liberally covered in RTV, which tells me this box has been opened. Now this can be good, or bad. Good in that it may have been re-conditioned properly, or bad in that some shade tree mack has tried to recondition or repair it, and failed.

I press on, following the Haynes manual I downloaded off the net. The box comes apart slowly and the plastic container slowly fills up with springs, shafts, blocker bars, circlips and synchro rings. To my surprise, the synchro rings look pretty new, they still have ridges on them, the bearings feel tight and the gears are not worn at all. So the box is in pretty good nick. The only main problems I can see is the selector connector has been badly hacked with a file and the plastic saddle that sits on it has disintegrated. The rear round cover is missing and has been replaced by a "wall" of RTV.

When I get to the very bottom of the case, the magnet is completely covered with fine steel sludge sticking to it. Far more than a gearbox in this condition would suggest, so maybe the previous repair mob didn't clean it up.

The speedo gear must come off  - an engineering firm must help I do not have a big enough puller.

 

I cleaned the parts as I went - I absolutely HATE gear oil. Note to self - get some paraffin!

Gearbox found

The search for a 5 speed Sierra gearbox is over. S'funny but I phoned the scrapyard looking for a Type-9 gearbox a month ago and they said they did not have any. This time I asked for a Sapphire or Sierra 5-speed box and they said Yeah no problem!!

I rescued the old coil pack that I stripped from the engine a month ago, with the intention of replacing it with a new part. It will have to do - a new one is pretty expensive! I am going to have to scrape pennies together for the next couple of months.

Spent an interesting hour this evening just paging through the Burton Power on-line catalogue - there is horbs of info on speccing, building and tuning Ford engines. And lots of good ideas.

Fuel Tank and the Fuel system

I had to give up on the seatbelts because the factory has supplied the wrong belt receivers - they do not have the electric switch that actuates the seatbelt warning light.

For the rest of the day I connected together the fuel system at the back, tank to pump, pump to filter, filter to feed line, return line to regulator, regulator to tank. Lastly the fuel tank and filler hose was installed, and the tank strapped in. The boot was placed on the back to check for interference, thankfully there is none.

The Webcon regulator is a snazzy little piece of kit, unfortunately I bollocksed up the bracket by cutting in the wrong place, so I had to modify the bit that was left. No matter it fits now to the cockpit rear wall.

 I had to go and buy 10mm fuel hose because the stuff supplied is just too damn small for the fuel pump inlet.

My last move here will be to cable tie the hoses, then drill the holes for the rear number plate and lights.

What I cannot work out is what the two top tank spigots connect to, and the purpose of that small breather/header tank behind the drivers seat. It's not a swirl pot, of that I am sure.

I removed the front uprights, these were loosely attached to the wishbones. They will not go on again until the shocks arrive.

The front and rear suspensions were torqued up, and the front anti roll bar fastened to its linkages and I applied some lube to the rose joints

Last item on the agenda was to centralise the steering.

Quite a busy day. Now to watch the footy.

Seat Belts and Fuel System

Today I took a bit of time off and went Clay Pigeon shooting which was very relaxing.

When I got home I got stuck into the fuel system, installing the pump and the filter in the left rear of the rear compartment. I had to stop because the fuel pipe supplied is way too small for the tank outlet and the pump inlet. Birkin have supplied 5/16" hose and what is really needed is 3/8". So I'll wait till Autozone opens tomorrow and get some then.

So I looked around for something to do so I started installing the seat belts. Would you believe the receivers have no internal switch for the seatbelt warning light? I will talk to Autozone tomorrow if they have the right kit. Then if there is any Sunday left to me I must complete the dashboard wiring.

The hunt for a gearbox continues........

Rims and Throttle Bodies

On Monday the throttle bodies arrived from Webcon and I hooked up the linkages. The set-up looks very professional and well made. Then immediately I boxed it again as I am still a while away from fitting them to the head. The red is going to fit in well with the overall colour scheme.

On the wheels side I went to Tiger Wheel and Tyre and bought a set of 15 * 6.5 rims. They are the silver finish "Drift" rims. These will be powder coated black with a red trim line. I can't decide on which tyres to get in terms of profile, possibly 225/60R15V Bridgestone Turanzas or maybe Toyo R888's 205/55R15.

Darn but it is FREEZING!

I tried going outside this arvy to do some work on the car, like fit the fuel filter and regulator but the cold chased me inside again. This morning it was -2 Celsius and this is supposed to be the tropics!!!!
Guess I will have to wait for the weekend.

On a bad news front Cheryl e-mailed and stated the rear uprights, shocks and headlights are still not at the factory so the arrangements I made for a pal on golf tour to collect them will fall through. My back up plan is my daughter's beau Jeremy, he can pick them up end of the month.

You have probably noted I have not mentioned anything about paint schemes. I have chosen a Brilliant Red, it's a standard BMW colour. Rims will be black with Red pinstriping. 205/55R15's all round.

The reason is that I have been quoted R12K plus for a paint job. =8O - I'm told that is the going rate! Well I don't have that kind of tom just lying around. The recommended route is to spray paint first, then build, but you have to be moer careful you don't scratch your paint job while you build. ie you can't wear belt buckles and there has to be carpeting and mats all over the car as you lean in etc etc.

So I, picking the road less travelled, will be painting last. I will paint the scuttle, fenders, bonnet, nose cone and rear mudguards as I go. Then before I do final assembly, spray the rolling chassis.

Fuel Pump

This took a LOOONG hard think.

Common sense tells me the fuel pump has to situated somewhat lower than the bottom of the fuel tank, ensuring a flooded suction at all levels of the fuel tank - dry, full and in-between. Taking a look at inside the rear compartment there is not a lot of space where such an item can be placed. Bear in mind there is a lot of suspension arms and movement in there. Lots of builders resort to an in-tank pump/swirl pot/sender/filter arrangement which is actually a very cool solution (But costly).

I opted to place the pump vertically next to the fuel tank on the left hand side bolted on to inside the aluminium skin.  From the outside you see only 2 bolt heads and the wheel covers them anyway. It looks good and usually if it looks good it generally is good (but not always). The fuel feed comes from the bottom of the tank to the pump intake, out the pump at the top, over the wheel arch and down to the filter before entering the delivery pipe to the front of the car.

My only gremlin is vibration and to mitigate that I am going to use a great gob of silicone sealer to anchor the bracket to the steel tube member. The fuel pump bracket is a mangy piece of engineering that needs to be replaced with something waaaaay more solid. It relies on two pop rivets and offcut aluminium sheeting. I think this is an item for my "Fix This Before You Start Driving" list. I have got a bracket engineered in my head but it is going to cost a bit. Nice plug for Mechanix gloves, don'cha think?

The Dashboard

Yesterday I installed the gauges and switches, today I wired them up and tested them for continuity and earthing. The switches remain unconnected, there are some issues with regard to the wiring colouring. I must just check the wires through the fusebox to the source, and the ammeter is not connected either.

I also installed the wiper motor, ignition switch and the driver's seat runners. The ignition switch was a bit of a struggle as I had to loosen the upper portion of the steering column so that the lock in the switch would engage the slot in the column.

At the back I fitted the fuel tank sender unit which only required a minor relieving of the hole to insert.

The Dashboard and Instruments

The car came with an un-upholstered dashboard, so I have decided I want it done in a charcoal vinyl.

There is a small upholstery shop here in Mokopane, they had everything I needed.

Armed with thin sponge, the vinyl, contact glue and razor blades I roughly cut out the shape of the dash in sponge and glued that onto the dash. Then I cut out the instrument holes and trimmed the sponge with a razor blade.

Next move was to cut out an identical shape but a little larger, in vinyl. I did not glue the vinyl to the sponge, preferring to just stretch it over and glue it around the edges, behind the dash. You can see the bead stretching over the top of the dash.

As soon as I had enough glued on, I couldn't resist fitting a gauge to see the effect. I carefully cut a hole smaller than the instrument hole so that the gauge clamps the vinyl. The effect looks good! That's the ammeter by the way.

And the final product surprised even me. There is a gap where the speedo should be. The factory supplied me with another rev counter instead. That is going to be swopped out soon. I also have an issue with the dip switch, the action isn't what I'd expect - push to make, push to break. This is a momentary switch which is all wrong. Tomorrow I am going to try connect up what I can.

Applying for an Importers Code

Last week Fedex informed me the first of my parts shipments for the engine had arrived and could I please supply them with an importers code.

Turns out that any import worth more than R20,000 SARS requires you to register as an importer. So I fill in the DA185 to register and off I go to Customs and Excise at Polokwane International and hand in the docco. They supply me with a receipt showing I have applied, which is all I need to get my shipment released. I scan that, and e-mail it to Fedex.

This means I can get moving on the engine next week.

Funny thing about Polokwane International, there must have been around 40 staff moving around the building sweeping, cleaning windows, doing office work, but my bakkie was the ONLY vehicle in the car park. Not ONE single passenger in the building!!!

Clutch and Brake Master Cylinders

I get home from work and reward myself with a bit of something different.

I haul out the cylinder kit and then sit down next to the car and visualise how these are supposed to fit. OK here are two identical cylinders - these must be the brakes front and rear, and this one must be the clutch. Then I see that the castings have got a nasty seam running across the hole, so out with the Dremel and I grind these off to give a nice flat surface for the nuts to torque on to. Then swop out the fitted con-rods for the supplied ones, replacing the grease in the process. Grease up the shaft, replace the boot and we are good to go.

The cylinders go in no problem, on go the hoses, and I connect these to the mount plate and to the front and rear hydraulic lines. Job done!

The Sideshafts, Upper Wishbones and Anti-Roll Bar

Sunday morning and we brace ourselves for the upper wishbones (lousy pun). The day before I had seen the the right upper would go in pretty easily, but the left was going to give us trouble.

And so it proved. Measuring up there was no clearance at all for a 4th washer. Or you could do 2 whole washers and 2 1/2 thickness washers. No matter which way you cut it it was going to be a bear. So out with the grinder. Try again, we bash bolts through and discover we have irrepairably damaged the thread of the rear bolt.

Damn. I'll get one at the local engineering shop.

So in a fit of pique I fit the anti-roll bar (easy-peasy) and the side shafts (also easy-peasy, especially with an angled impact ratchet).

Note at this time NOTHING has been torqued up.

I have a nagging feeling the hubs are sticking out too far...... That's because I am thinking the diff I have is too wide between the flanges (30cm) leaving the sideshafts too long. As soon as I get the rear uprights I will know.

Fitting the Handbrake, Differential and the IRS

I suppose the moment of truth has arrived - time to fit the handbrake, differential and the independent rear suspension. Note that at this time I have NO instructions on how to do this, only pictures from other build diaries. Luckily a lot has been written/blogged about this.

It is the second build weekend and because Alastair is here I need him to help me get some of the nasty and heavy work out of the way.

Up early as I want to maximise the weekend so I leave Al to sleep and get on with the handbrake. I've studied the setup all week and my only puzzle is how to fit the main cable. I hit on the idea of feeding the handle end of the cable through its hole, then pulling the wire all the way out backwards and feeding that through the hole on the engine side, and hey it nearly works the damn hole is just a tad too small for the snout. Out with the die grinder and now it goes in snug. Fit the circlip and job done. The rest is a doddle, "D" plate, pins, cotters left and right cables, a smidgeon of grease and it is all good.

Just in time for the shops to open....

I hurry off to Autozone to pick up some new oil seals for the diff, some LM grease, GL-4 hypoid oil and some other odds and sods.

Get home, and first thing we empty the diff of oil. Hypoid oil has got to be the most evil concoction ever, well, concocted. Clean Green? You might as well use shampoo...

Using my trusty impact wrench we sound like a NASCAR pit and off comes the back cover. Where are these circlips so I can remove the pinions.....?

No circlips, in fact the inside of the diff bears NO resemblance to what the manual shows. The cage is completely closed except for 2 small apertures. I see no way I am going to disassemble this bad boy so I admit defeat, cut a new gasket, bolt her up. Its just as well it wasn't leaking anyway.

With the bitter taste of defeat in our mouths we decide to do the lower wishbones. To our surprise these go in relatively easily, because I hit on the idea of sharpening the washers on one edge to "get a foot in the door" so to speak.

We break for lunch. Now for the diff.

When I get back I realise that to fit the diff we have to remove the rear aluminium mounting plate. OK that means removing the lower bolt for the left wishbone, undoing the ally plate and "V" struts, and swinging it upward out of the way. No problem.

So we loosen the attachment bolts, loosen the "V" struts, remove those and we lift in the diff. The front goes in fine but the diff will not lower into position. Quick, check the handbrake. We see that a stiffening rib on the bottom of the diff housing is resting on the handbrake "D" plate. Out she comes. Break out the grinder and I have at the casing. Looks like I've taken off enough - try again. Nope. Out she comes and this is where I get medieval on its ass and grind a whole lot more off. Try again. OK the handbrake works but somewhere in its arc it fouls the diff again. Out she comes. By this time I am getting a bit tired of this so I REALLY go to town on the offending ribs. In she goes. This time it clears and lowers into position. Do up the front mounts which are M12. Get to the middle ones and find that the mounts on the car are M10, the threaded hole in the diff case is M12. So I need some M12 bobbins and new bolts. By this time Alastair has named this the "Diff from Hell" as so far it hasn't ticked ANY of the right boxes and he is wanting to know was it actually a Ford Sapphire I took this off? Oh, and by the way did you fill it up with oil before we fitted it? 'Cause with this plate in the way.....

Smartarse. Out she comes for an oil fill. One litre of GL-4 wotsisname oil later and in the diff goes again, we do up the ally plate and the rear mounts on the diff.

Then we re-install the left lower wishbone. By this time it is dark. Off  to the "Dros" and we watch the Stormers thump the Bulls. Great!!!

What an end to the day!!!!