The engine has been cleaned and is now ready to get put in today. I've managed to arrange some help from my brother and a couple of the neighbours to help lift and position the engine. With the engine in a stripped down state it is actually very light (I can amlmost lift it myself). With this in mind I decided that I wouldn't need a crane, helps cut down with the costs, and I coould simply mate the gearbox to the engine once it is in place.
So, 11 o'clock arrives and nothing happens. Kathy had to go out and get some more nuts and bolts so that the engine mountings amd brackets could be fixed in position after we have lifted the engine in place. Should have really thought about that before today. Thirty minutes later she returns and the bolts are available, so the engine lifting takes place as you can see here, here and here.
Finally the engine is in place.
A few quick observations and we noticed that the engine was sitting too far back in the engine bay. So far back that the cylinder heads would not fit on. This is down to the way in which the brackets that fix to the engine and also to the chassis have numerous positions in which they can be fixed. As they are not labelled which way round or which is left/right, it is all down to guesswork.
A quick shift around of the brackets and a swap from left to right and the engine is sitting more forward and it looks better. We'll see later if it is in the right position or not. Now to mate the gearbox....
This should have been an easier job that it was. All we had to do was to move the gearbox under the car, lift it up to the engine, slide into position and fix a few bolts. However, things don't always go as planned.
The first problem we came across was trying to get the gearbox under the car. The axle stands had not lifted the car high enough so that the bell housing could fit under. We lifted the front of the car with some 4" x 2" on top of the trolley jack to give some extra clearance, then we padded up the axle stands with some MDF slats. This gave us the extra room we needed.
With the gearbox now under the car the next job was to liftit up and slide it into the engine. So on we go.
We propped the gearbox up with some wood so that we could fit the trolley jack underneath so it would give us a strong arm to lift it - the box is quite heavy for its size. Having lifted the box up, we then slid it forward and tried to mate it with the engine. It wouldn'y go. We tried all sorts - we dropped the angle of the engine, tried the box at various heights/angles/positions and the thing still wouldn't go. Every time we moved the box forward the thing just would not engage the engine. Time to see what was wrong.
Looking at the clutch we could see that the drive plate was not central - now I know what those clutch aligning tools are for. Not having one it was left down to eyesight. Having repositioned the clutch it looked much beter so we retried the gearbox. Still no luck. Could it be that the clutch was still not central?
We thought we'd cheat a little here. One of the easiest ways to ensure the thing is central was to take off the bellhousing from the gearbox, loosen off the clutch, slide the gearbox in place and then retighten the clutch. That should at least ensure it is central. So we tried, and the thing still would not go in. Drastic measures were called for.
We took everything off and tried to see if the actual drive plate would go over the end of the gearbox, and it wouldn't. This seemed to be our problem. With all the work that I'd put in cleaning up the engine and geabox, the one thing I'd forgotten to do was to clean off the end of the gearbox where a little rust had build up. So a quick scrub with the wire brush and the clutch plate was moving back and forth smoother than a baby's bum. Now to retry fitting the clutch in place. What we did this time to to place the whole clutch assembly over the end of the gearbox, drive plate engaged, slide it forward and fix it to the engine. This would definitley ensure that the clutch was in the right postion. All we would need to do then would be to reattach the bellhousing, offer the box to the engine, and all should fit snuggly.
It worked a treat. The gearbox mated to the engine almost first attempt. A light tap with a hammer and the thing engaged position. Bolts fitted through the bellhousing fastened it to the engine and the job was done. The job to do now is to fit the bracket to the bottom of the gearbox so that it is held up correctly. For now I have simply tied some string around the end of the gearbox and around a block of wood through the gearchange hole, just so I can move the car back into the garage. It has taken almost 4 hours to mate the gearbox and it was dark when we finished.
I measured the distance between the end of the diff and the end of the gearbox and it is longer than the prop shaft that I have. Looking again at the front of the engine bay and the engine is still sitting to far forward. The pulley for the fan belt is almost right over the steering rack. I can see some more adjustment available on the brackets and so I'll move the thing back in the next few days. I'd like to get to a position where the prop shaft actually fits.
We spent the day out in London yesterday and on our return a card had been popped through the door telling us there was a parcel ready to collect. Kathy went along today to collect it and it turns out that my instrument clocks have finally arrived. It's only been around 3 months, so that must be pretty quick I guess!
At least I now have the speedo guage that I need to fix to the end of the prop shaft before eveyrthing is finally fixed. Now I just need some more good weather like we had Sunday and I can continue along...
I started to clean off the inlet manifold and the carbs today. Both were looking quite grubby from where the engine had been lying outside before I purchased it. It was attacked with plenty of paraffin and a good scrubbing brush. That seemed to do the trick and removed all of the loose dirt (and the not loose dirt too!) and grime. The carbs were quite awkward as they still had all the linkages left in place, but the were cleaned up as best I could.
Once they had been cleaned up I finished off the inlet manifold by spraying it silver so that it looked much tidier. As I plan to replace the manifold and carbs when I have the money I never bothered too much with the carbs. I just want to use them to see if the engine will actually start. Fingers crossed.
After all the cleaning up had been completed I then reassembled the engine. Cylinder heads were put in place and then torqued. With the brake servo in place this was quite awkward as there was not much room, but it was still possible. The manifold and carbs were then fitted, along with the ditributor and new distributor cap. At this point I realised that I had fogotten to put on some of the sealing rubbers at either end of the inlet gasket. That could have been messy with oil pouring out when the engine was started, so the manifold was removed, seals put on, and manifold replaced. The nicley poweder coated rocker covers were fitted. The last thing to do was to attach the alternator.
Pilgrim had supplied me with a custom made bracket that takes the standard Ford alternator. I lined the holes in the bracket to the holes in the engine casing and fixed the bolts. When I tried to attach the alternator to the bracket I found that the original bold that holds the alternator in place did not fit through the hole in the bracket. I removed the bracket and drilled out the hole so that the bolt would fit and the alternator went on smoothly. I then attached the adjuster bracket.
Now I need to read my Haynes manual to check that I can get the timing approximately correct. Then I can look to start connecting the wiring loom to the main engine connections in an attempt that things make tick over soon.
Got some bad news today that the cam belt on my Carlton has snapped. This probably means that some of the valves are knackered, not to mention that a new cam belt is required. I'll now need to spend the next few days fixing that before I can think of doing anything on the Cobra. Damn.
Well the Carlton is finally back together and there appears to be very little damage, other than the cam belt snapping. As I replaced the cam belt I also took the opportunity to replace the water pump that was leaking and making some strange noises. That has stopped the water leak I had and the car no longer overheats. Now I can continue with the Cobra...
In an effort to try and get the engine running, to see if all the hard work that has been done over the past 6 months has actuall paid off, I started connecting the wiring loom to the engine itself. This meant having to fix in place some of the sender units for the ETB dials, namely the temperature sender and the oil pressure sender. Both units seemed to fit in the same fashion - bloody difficult. They both come with adapter threads that fix into the engine casing, then the sender unit fit into the adapters. As I was fastening them in they seemed very tight, almost as if they were the wrong thread. I am told by Pilgrim that these items are tapered thread and guessed that meant that they are an awkward fit. Neither of the senders seemed to fasten right down bu they are in as far as I can get them, so that'll do.
One interesting point that did arise was that the oil pressure sender unit I was told to fit into place where the oil pressure warning light and fuel cut off switch is fitted on the Rover oild pump. This is essentially a single switch with 3 connections to it. The original Rover oil pressure sender has been left in place. If this is wrong, could you let me know?
So on with the wiring. Having fitted the sender units I then attached the 3 wires from the Pilgrim loom onto them. Reading the wiring diagram that comes with the manual is, at first, very daunting. Now its as simple as reading the alphabet - amazing what you learn when you do this sort of thing.
The next task I had in mind was to connect up the starter solenoid and motor but could not see where abouts the battery terminal should connect to on the solenoid. I called up Bob Findlow to ask him for adivce and he explained, in plain English terms, whereabouts the connections should be made. This was as simple as the book said. What I hadn't realised before was that the starter solenoid was damaged and the main battery connection terminal had been smashed off. This means I now have to go and find a new solenoid.
In the mean time I think I'll finish off some of the other jobs that aren't quite complete. I have to finish off the fuel line, wire up the fuel pump and sort out the coolant hoses. Then I should be able to get some oil, spark plugs and petrol and see if the thing will start up. Not sure how soon that will be. A lot depends on how quickly I can get hold of a solenoid. Scrappers tomorrow or Sunday.
