Slight setbacks

Ok, y'all read how we suffered to put the diff into its spot - well I discovered yesterday that the diff has a slight leak from the input pinion oil seal. I addition to that, I got the 12mm bobbins from the factory. After installing them, I found that there is no way in this world or the next that THAT particular diff is going to fit at the front, rear and centre mounting points. I am guessing that the rear mounts are going to have to be modified to suit the set-up. So out she comes.

This means that all my hard work installing the fuel tank will have to be undone. Curses. Alastair is going to blow a fuse.

The pistons that I sent to have fitted to the rods? Well the guy doing the fitting let one of the gudgeon pin retaining circlips "get away" in that it went "PING" never to be seen again. Well, you can't have 3 pistons fully clipped and one with only one circlip (spoils the balance you see...) so I told 'em to remove all the circlips and replace them with all new circlips of a different type. Not too sure they are actually needed as the stock set-up does not have circlips but Cosworth must have supplied them for a reason....

More positive aspects of the weekend....

I cadged one of my old pistons and set about fitting the Cosworth rings to the bores. Very much to my surprise the rings fit with no modification, the gaps are all within spec.

After I was unsuccessful with getting the pistons I also started with fitting the bearings, crankshaft and cradle to the block. Torqued it all up as per the book. It rotates smoothly and no trace of play. Installed the new rear crank seal and oil pump too.

Then I got carried away and started to fit my fancy low-profile sump but stopped in time because the pistons were not in yet! Stopped for the day and shrouded the block with a new black garbage bag.

I also finally made sense of the gearbox diagram and put all the gears loose where I could on the main shaft, now I am just awaiting the bearings and seals and I can put it together. But NOT before I get the spigot bearing, flywheel and clutch from Raceline because I need the input shaft to line up the clutch disc and flywheel before I bolt the cover to the flywheel. I also memorised the re-assembly procedure in my head. Fortunately I will be reassembling with the parts clean and lightly oiled, which is always so much more pleasant.

I used my Dremel to polish up the face(s) of the sandwich plate on the gearbox because whoever last stuck the gasket on must have used self-petrifying gorilla snot. No amount of scraping could remove it, so I reverted to the polishing wheel. Worked like a charm.