Dry Fitting the Engine and Transmission
In the interim while I was trying to sort out the adapter plate and all that pain, I had the
good fortune of a visit from a fellow gear-head, Eric. He and his wife were in town, and he
(thankfully) begged off a trip to the craft fair with the wife in order to help me dry-fit
the engine and transmission. I wanted to see what modifications were going to have to be
made in order to get it all to line up properly.
The first step was to try and bolt everything together, with the aim of using the wooden
mock-up to hold the transfer case and gearbox together inside the chassis. Immediately I
discovered that I am missing a LOT of bolts, but had enough in the coffee cans and under the
old springs to at least get everything assembled. We had a few comedies getting the
whole thing chained up properly as well - lesson here is that I am going to install
the transmission first, then the engine. Not the whole thing, thank you very much.
Once it was assembled, we started maneuvering it into place.
Now begins the litany of problems that cropped up... The transmission mount on the passenger
side would not accept the T-18 - it is much bigger than the Land Rover box. It also became
apparent that everything was going to be very tight. I had truly hoped that I was not going
to have to do any dramatic centering, as described in Teri Ann's page. Call it a foolish dream,
but I hoped that the previous owner's Steve Parker V6 conversion had moved the mounts enough
to fit the V6. Not quite. The transmission was going to have to come over another inch. That
should provide suitable clearance, but the possibility remains that the valve cover or
bellhousing might still be too big, and might require more reworking of my gorgeous bulkhead
that I had already restored. Sh*t.
Overall, it was a bittersweet attempt. I was now confident that it could all fit. I was
daunted by the task of moving the transmission mounts, because I hoped to keep the original
driveshaft geometry intact. I am going to have to rework the 4WD lever, because it rubs
on the side of the T-18. I was going to have to fabricate a mount for the clutch slave cylinder,
and mate it to the bellhousing. I was going to have to modify the clutch fork, and also fab
a mount to attach the Hi-Lo selector arm to the bellhousing. Time to get welding!!!
Moving the Transmission Mounts
created and maintained by
Matt Atkins
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