More on transmission

Picked up the transmission this morning to ship up to Renn Tech. So here's the deal: It's an early 915, where the mainshaft seal was installed from the inside of the transmission. Basically the first thing that goes in on assembly. So the story that this came off a running car is impossible. Steve showed me that if you look down the sleeve around the mainshaft with a flashlight, you can see glorious transmission insides. That ain't right.

And here's a bit of fun as well: Since it spewed transmission fluid through the mainshaft, it ruined the clutch. Brand new, happy Sachs Powerclutch, a nice $595 item from Pelican. Sweet. Steve says that they might be able to clean the tranmission fluid off the disc, but the chances of clutch failure are pretty high. And then everything would have to come out one more time. Yeah, forget that option. Still have to see, if the clutch disc from that kit is available separately. All in all, i'm liable to have up to $1400 in that transmission, between the lost clutch disc, the labor to fix the misaligned reverse shifter arm and the labor to pull the transmission and engine again.

Let's see if Renn Tech does me right on this. Either way, still no car and none for a while to come.

Transmission saga continues

Ok, another call from Dieter's and not one of the "your car is ready for pickup" variety. No, main shaft seal is missing and apparently on the old 915, it gets replaced from the inside. Long story short: A lot of hours to fix.

So I called Renn Tech. I told him about the reverse shift fork issue that created the clicking when rolling backwards. Also told him about seal. He said he doesn't see how there could be anything wrong with the transmission, since it came out of a running car and, anyhow, fixing the seal issue was easy. Well, great, dueling mechanic opinions, all I can do is badly relay the complaints one gave me to the other. Fortunately, he said he'd fix the transmission, if i shipped it back to him. I can live with that.

Get to deal with a trucking company again. This time, i'll do pickup. When i showed up with the scooby at the terminal last time, they just stared at me and weren't quite sure what to do with someone physically dropping something off. That was entertaining.

I guess, we're at least another 2 weeks out then. I think i'll be a year before the car is back and running.

Still no car... Maybe next week

The oil leak turns out to be transmission. Most likely just the seal on the mainshaft. Easy enough of a fix. Of course, easy enough after the engine comes back out of the car. Aargh!

No car this week

Dropped off new registration tags at Dieter's this morning. They had expired since I've dropped the car off.

While there, Steve went over the work to date and what was remaining. Also putting it up on a lift, we discovered about a quart of oil under the car that had pooled there over night. Grr.. Huge leak. Also discovered that several studs were missing from the chain tensioner covers. More black marks for Renntech in Auburn. It's really starting to piss me off. I guess thems the risks buying an engine long distance.

Of course, we got El Nino conditions here, so it's not like i was going to drive it today or even at the Auto-x tomorrow.

N8, you got one more weekend to beat me to the road with the Fiat!

Engine started today!

Just got a call from Dieter's. The engine started for the first time today. Heating is adapted, then the axles are going back in.

In torsion bar news, I've settled on 21/27 spring rates. I'm planning on going with Hollow Weltmeister bar's, i.e. the actual bars will be 21.6mm front and 28.5mm back to get those rates. I'll hold off on this until i know what the final damage is for getting the car back on the road.

Cold Air Distraction

I was thinking about cold air intake options, even if their usefulness if questionable and thought that a nice way for this would be running a duct through the firewall and up to a duct coming in through the quarter window. I figure, i'd want to do it in the driver's side, since that way it doesn't impinge on visibility, but it would also be a longer duct, since the 3.2 intake is on on the passenger side of the engine bay.

Anyway, these people make a lexan quarter window with duct insert

Of course, this is something far down the line of mods, past all the "must do" and in the "i got nothing else to do" category.

Next Step: Torsion Bars

Spoke to Steve at Dieter's this morning and he highly recommended that the next thing I tackled was torsion bars. I knew i needed to firm up my suspension, since i had a fun little 2 wheel experience at an autocross last year. I figured, i'd go with swaybars, not really understanding Torsion bars.

So i looked into Torsion bars and how you stiffen up the ride, much like getting stiffer springs. A good article on both the selection and installation is over at Pelican.

I'm gonna hit up the boards and get some opinions but i'm leaning towards 21/27. The stock rates are 18.8/23 for my 69. Since i got a 86 engine in there now with it's ~80 extra pounds on the rear suspension, I figured i'd go with a ratio that's proportional to the 86 car, which had 18.8/25. The writer put 22/28 on his coupe, but that's also a heavier chassis, so i figure, i don't want something as stiff as that with my ~500lb advantage.

Then we'll see how it goes before deciding on sway bars.

Engine is in, Harness is working...

I should have the car back by next weekend and just in time for the next SDR Auto-x. I cannot wait

Progress

Just got an Email on the status of the install:

• Transmission is repaired, (improper assembly) no broken parts.
• Engine conversion harness is done.
• Chassis wiring conversion done.
• DME harness is 1/2 done.

Yay! Maybe i still have half a chance to get back on the road in time for the Feb 12th. Auto-x