2 door VAE 306H

[kevin s]

I've made the new towers up to suit the mazda engine mounts.

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Made a wooden jig and cut some plate up with my evolution saw.

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Welded together to give these.

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Obviously need a bit of cleaning up but otherwise ready to fit, rh side will be easy lhs might mean moving the servo (its in the way of all sorts of things so may put it in the wheelarch).

[kevin s]

After adding some engine oil to the carb dashpot the car has been driving fine, so much so that My son (who's car it is) has decided with 10% inflation there is no point having savings so he has invested it on minor parts.

We now have :
-heated windscreen (ordered new seal to but ESM sent the wrong one)
-sports exhaust
- LCB manifold
- twin Su's and rebuild kits
- 13" ET 25 minilite type wheels.
- some 30 and 20mm wheel spacers made from billet we can turn down to whatever thickness we need.

And he will get new tyres, probably 165 or 175 80 13.

Wheels/ tyres and windscreen are the priority before the winter, but hopefully it will all be done before xmas.

[kevin s]

Fitted the new heated screen yesterday evening.

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Managed to bresk the old screen getting it out (it was badly scratched anyway) but otherwise went in OK, struggled to the chrome strip in as I couldn't find the tool, Andrew cut up a rat trap to make one and it then went fairly easily.

We didn't get round to adding the sealer, not sure it needs it on the screen side as it grips the screen quite tightly but it will need sime on the body side there are fairly sizeable gaps in the top corners. (Wern't there on original screen).

Also need to order a 10 minute timer relay and washer switch to wire it in.

Only other thing he has noticed is it occasionaly hesitates under full load accelerstion, suspect with the cam, compression ratio and head work it's the std carb not coping, really need to get the twin carbs on, the std carb was only a temporary fittment to run it in anyway.

[kevin s]

My son is back at uni so the minor hasn't been used much lately, one problem it has had lately is it starts backfiring and missing above about 4000rpm. This has a megajolt ignition sytem driven off a crank sensor, connecting the laptop to it showed the megajolt ws loosing it's crank signal at the same time. A quick look relealed the problem.

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The sensor had moved rearwards so it was no longer in line with the trigger wheel, while moving it forward fixed the problem the real issue is the bracket which is a generic A series one and thus has oversized slots to allow adjustment but also means the sensor can move around.

Consequently a bespoke bracket was made.

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All fitted runs fine now and the sensor can't go anywhere.

[kevin s]

The gearbox has now got to the point where we daren't go very far in it, it's always sounded rough particularly in 1st, now it also screaches in the lower gears, goes quiet on the overun or in 4th, and jumps out of 1st, I'm guessing the bearings are breaking up.

So I have puchased a pair of secondhand gearboxes which both feel smooth and change gear ok , as it only takes a couple of hours we'll throw one in and see how it goes, then perhaps re-build the other or the original as a spare.

Otherwise it's running fine as long as you top up the very worn carb's dashpot every week, we now also have all the parts to fit twin su's and a LCB / sports exhaust . Also need to wire in the now fitted heated windscreen.

[les]

Does it only take a couple of hours? Must be something wrong with me !!

[kevin s]

4 post ramp and two of us, one being fit and only 20 years old.(my son).

This will also be the 3rd time in 3 years so a bit of practice and nothing seized etc.

[kevin s]

Started cleaning up the 2 new to me gearboxes today and had a closer look, both change gear easily enough, one though is a bit stiff to turn in gear and occasionaly locks I suspect it has some debris floating around inside, the other turns freely and smoothly it sounds like a bearing might be a bit noisy though, revised plan is to hopefully harvest enough parts out of the 2 to build something servicable with a new set of bearings.

Off to dig out the factory manual.

[Peted7202]

Have a look at this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6_r0RQiaO4&t=188s

[kevin s]

Ta, as long as I get the balls and plungers in the right place it looks pretty straightforward.

[kevin s]

Finaly gotbround to stripping one of the gesrboxes today.

I think it's in pretty good shape.

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A bit of wear on 1st and the idler but they look servicable to me.

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The baulk rings also look gine.

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The layshaft has some pitting and the output shaft bearing feels rough.

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Also the rear bearing shim has obviously been miss aligned and crushed at some point

[kevin s]

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So in summary looks like a new set of besrings and gaskets should give us a servicable box.

[kevin s]

Decided to strip the second box today, this one was locked solid so I didn't expect much but thought there might be some useful parts. Lo and behold it' is in even better condition the gears have been replaced at some time and are barely worn, the baulk rings even have paint marks on them still. The reason it was locked is that it has been stored on it's end for many years with nothing over the tail shaft and the 3rd motion shaft bearing is full or crud.

so plan is to build the gear out of this into the original case which I have already cleaned with new bearings. Only thing I need to work out is how to get the internal circlips out of the layshaft so I can fit the new bearings.

new gears

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Other interesting point was this one has been running in gear oil, apart from the bearing full of muck it was far cleaner and with less marking everywhere which reinforces my decision to run the new one one on mineral 75w90 gear oil.

[philthehill]

Reference the layshaft circlips.
Gently and carefully grind away with a Dremel type tool at one point on the outer circlips so that you can break them in two and lever the remains out.
There is no need to remove the inner circlips.
As the new layshaft bearings are longer than the originals there is no requirement to fit new outer circlips when rebuilding the gearbox.

[kevin s]

That was one of my thoughts, but I read on an mga forum to centre punch them opposite the gap, that worked fine, both clips and bearings are out now, with no damage to the gear cluster. The bearing surface of the cluster looks perfect too.

[kevin s]

Gearbox re-assemby day today.

Firstly dug out an old clutch plate and tightened up the first and third motion shaft nuts, the folded over the tab washers.

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Next up made a dummy layshaft by cutting one of the old ones down.

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Fitted the laygear with the dummy shaft and only the front shim (gear needs to sit an angle to get the 1st motion shaft in).

Then placed the 1st motion shaft in the freezer and the case on the bbq.

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Next up dropped the 1st motion shaft in from the back then pulled it through by gripping the 1st motion shaft and pulling, pulled it through, fitted the circlip then pushed it back firmly home.

Fitted the 1st 3rd shaft bearing then While it was still warm fitted the 3rd motion shaft, because the case was warm it was easy to twist the carrier and make sure the pin aligned with the hole in the rear case.

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[kevin s]

Next up was fitting the layshaft and rear shim which slid home easily enough then the selectors, shafts and interlocks.

Checked all the gears could be selected then started in the tail housing. Measured up for the shims, it needed 0.6mm or 24 thou, seems a lot I must have checked a dozen times but it came up the same each time
, suspect it may be the modern replacement bearing. Fitted the shims with some grease the greased gasket and put it all together, grease squeezed out of the gasket as the bolts tightened so the shims can't have been too much.

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Fitted the speedo gear and rear oil seal, checked I could select all the gears and fitted the plungers and side case only thing left now is the front cover, I've fitted a temporary one but will have to fit the one in the car eventually as it carries an oil seal and is modified for a concentric slave cylinder.

So it's ready to go in the car now, in the next few days I will re-assemble the other box with the best of the bearings I have, which would make it servicable in an emergency.

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Only part I seem to be missing is the gearstick anti rattle plunger and spring hopefully there is still one in the box on the car.

[kevin s]

Re-assembled the second box with the best of the bearings, which once cleaned out felt OK, will keep it as a back up, both boxes all done.

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Recon one on right..

Did have poly bags over the end but took them off for the pic.

[kevin s]

Finally got my finger out and started on fitting the gearbox, spent 45 minutes after work yesterday and ended up with this:

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and this ready for the clutch actuation and front cover to be removed.

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then at lunchtime today I set to the gearbox with a the rattle gun, after a few minutes it was in pieces, the worst of the damage is:

layshaft badly worn

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1st gear on the layshaft in a terrible state.

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and also no shims clamping the front or rear bearings front circlip had a noticeable groove in it,

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1st on the main shaft was also fairly worn. As I already have a better spare and not a lot of storage space, I'll keep a few odds and ends plus the input shaft as a alignment tool but most of it will go in the scrap bin.

I've also ordered a new clutch and pilot bearing as it came out with the gearbox, the rear propshaft UJ was nigh on seized which might explain the vibration at 50mph so they will both get done too, once the parts arrive another couple of hours should see it all back together.

[kevin s]

Striped the clutch slave cyl etc off to change over then when I measured for the front bearing shim turns out I need a 6 thou one, typically I have 2 4 thou, an 8 thou and a 10 thou but no 6 thou! so that will slow things down for a few days, the pilot bearing arrived today and according to UPS the clutch and propshaft Uj's should arrive today so at least I can do that over the weekend.