135 replies to this topic

[robj2502]

Same gearset, roller bearing drop gears (I'm using 1.04:1 ratio) and crownwheel and pinion as mine - it's pretty loud!

The spec is pretty much identical although I went with 1:1 for the drops as thought 3.75 for the final drive was high enough. I also notice that you have the pinion support bearing and kind of wish I had done this too. Shame its not really a retrofit piece as I get the impression the main shaft needs to be turned down to fit

 

This is the same kind of spec im looking at. How loud are we talking? Livable? Or really bloody loud lol.

I guess this very much depends on what you are used too. I dont think I would want that much noise if it was my daily but otherwise it is acceptable.

Edited by robj2502, 08 January 2019 - 10:36 AM.

[imack]

This is the same kind of spec im looking at. How loud are we talking? Livable? Or really bloody loud lol.

It's pretty loud, ok out for a blat around the lanes but constant motorway speed on a light throttle is fairly painful, definitely need ear protection at hand for any distance at speed.

[1330RG]

Ah fair one, sounds livable to be honest. Like you say if it was a daily it would be a different story.

[imack]

Same gearset, roller bearing drop gears (I'm using 1.04:1 ratio) and crownwheel and pinion as mine - it's pretty loud!

The spec is pretty much identical although I went with 1:1 for the drops as thought 3.75 for the final drive was high enough. I also notice that you have the pinion support bearing and kind of wish I had done this too. Shame its not really a retrofit piece as I get the impression the main shaft needs to be turned down to fit
 

This is the same kind of spec im looking at. How loud are we talking? Livable? Or really bloody loud lol.

I guess this very much depends on what you are used too. I dont think I would want that much noise if it was my daily but otherwise it is acceptable.

Only recently fitted the KAD pinion support housing due to breaking teeth off my 3.44:1 helical crown wheel and pinion. Was running the 3.44 with 1.09:1 drops effectivly giving a 3.76:1 final drive.
I found 1st gear was a bit on the tall side and felt particularly hard on the transmission when giving it full bore from a standing start - combination of tall 1st gear, 165/70x10 a032r, quaife atb and a 649 based cam (MED FIA15 historic race cam) needing a load of revs so as not to bog down.
When I rebuilt the box I decided to drop the final drive ratio to 3.9:1 using MED 3.75:1 straight cut crownwheel and pinion and 1.04:1 drop gears, giving me the option to go back to 3.75 by changing the primary gear if I didn't like the 3.9.
Took a while to make a decision on the pinion support housing as when I asked on here several people didn't like them as they'd seen the ends of the mainshafts break as a result, not causing failure, just a loss of speedo drive. I spoke to KAD who claimed they'd not seen any broken shafts and made the decision to go for it figuring it couldn't be any worse and at least you'd know you're likely to have broken the mainshaft if you lost the speedo.
The mainshaft does need grinding and a sleeve fitted to fit in the bearing.

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[robj2502]

Thanks for the pictures and info imack 

 

So to pick up where I had previously left the ancillary bits:

 

Heater pipework; I first looked at using standard silicone hose however I dont think it ever looks neat and no matter what way you route it it always sags so I then toyed with and even purchased some stainless tube but when I actually had it it in my hand and offered up against the engine I didnt like how it looked (it was a little to shiny and silver) so started looking for something else and came across alluminium hardline. There are several benefits to the alloy stuff: its lighter than SS, its easy to bend and it comes in black (obviously the most important!) it also meant I could use AN type fittings which is always nice!

 

SO purchased some tube:

 

now the only real issue with this stuff is that it comes in a roll and then has to be straightened. This can obviously be done by hand but is very tedious and genrally looks rubbish so I purchased the proper straightening tool:

 

Which meant my hardline now looked like this:

 

After some jiggery pokery much tweaking and some AN fittings I now had this:

 

 

 

I also made a stainless bracket for the P clip (picture was before I cleaned it up):

 

and a close up with it fitted:

 

Pretty happy with that lot. Not sure about the stainless dome head nuts for the top of the head studs but there is fairly limited choice in UNF thread type fixings but I will keep looking. There may also be some more tweaking (Hence the additional length) to routing once the engine is in the car in the car but I dont think we are a million miles away.

 

I have a couple of bigger updates coming just need to get the pictures together!!

Edited by robj2502, 29 January 2019 - 03:16 PM.

[1330RG]

Looking tidy dude. Is the engine going to be as solidly mounted as possible i assume? I only ask as i wondered about flex in the alloy pipe, as with silicone or rubber theres an element of movment or “stretch” if you will for when the engine moves.

[robj2502]

Looking tidy dude. Is the engine going to be as solidly mounted as possible i assume? I only ask as i wondered about flex in the alloy pipe, as with silicone or rubber theres an element of movment or “stretch” if you will for when the engine moves.

Thanks, yes it will be as the KAD internal gearchange needs the least amount of movement as possible. However, where the heater lines go into the bulkhead there will be silicone 90's so any movement/vibration etc should be taken up by these. 

Edited by robj2502, 29 January 2019 - 02:32 PM.

[1330RG]

Makes sense. I thought you would of already had a plan for the install ;) just figured id ask.

[robj2502]

Not alot going on at the moment! I have had some issues with my other cars; Mini JCW has a knackered clutch, cracked windscreen and a noisy timing chain.....all cheap and easy to fix im sure! and the family BMW estate decided it wasnt going to start. Thankfully the BMW is back up and working (not really sure how or why) but I am putting it down to not using it and the cold weather. As a decent battery charge and the milder weather seemed to sort it out. The JCW has been taken off the road whilst I amass some funds to get it back to full health and Im not sure at the moment if im going to do the work myself or take it somewhere. Either way it wont be quick fix as I may do the turbo and some other general refresh stuff whilst its off the road especially as it will far easier with the engine out of the car to do the timing chain and clutch and as its a smidge off 90k miles it probably needs it.

 

In classic mini related news I have been working on the primary gear and idle gear and getting the box ready to fit:

 

First of all the gearbox mounting holes needed to be drilled out to 8.5mm to take the larger 5/16 bolts that come with the MED copper gasket Kit:

 

All done ready to go:

 

Next was to remove the old idler gear bearing from the transfer case:

 

 

I bought myself a cheap blind bearing puller kit off ebay and it did a pretty decent job:

 

Then this needed to be installed as I will be running a roller bearing idler:

 

And then pressed into position:

 

Next was the primary gear. thankfully I had amassed various parts over time (I also had bought a brand new washer C clip and bush so the old stuff was just in case) so I could pick and choose to get the correct clearence:

 

Everything went together fine initially and checked the clearence with the DTI and although in the upper reaches of the Haynes tolerance it was acceptable. This is where things started to get a little odd. Rotated the primary gear and thought I would check again just to be sure and I was now over tolerance. kept rotating and kept getting different figures. At first I thought my DTI was messing about or there was some slack in the magnetic base, but this checked fine. Then I thought it was the bush at the base of the primary gear but again this was checked and found to be completely flat. So then I thought it must be the C clip or washer......errr nope. it turns out its in the primary gear itself:

https://i.imgur.com/MJEBIvp.mp4

This vid shows the 0.04mm of runout on the top of the gear. Now obviously I didnt think this was correct (even though the runout is very small in real terms) and contacted Minispares (who supplied the gear). I was subsequently contacted by a very helpful chap who thought that it was likely to be from the play from the lower (internal to the primary gear) brass floating bush and nothing to be concerned about especially as the clearence issue came and went. He also suggested running at the top range of the Clearence value to ensure there was no issue. 

 

 

So once again what should have been a simple job turned into something that took 5 times as long and lasted more than a week!! However box should hopefully be fitted to block this coming week and then covers and clutch etc can go on and it can be buttoned up and finished off. Just contemplating getting the engine dyno'ed so it can go into the car run in and set up.......

Edited by robj2502, 15 February 2019 - 09:39 AM.

[1330RG]

Always the bloody way isnt it, all goes to pot at once, at least the daily is a going again. Glad you seem to have sorted the gearbox in the end though dude. Have you enquired about costs for engine dyno running in? Would be intresting to know.

[robj2502]

Always the bloody way isnt it, all goes to pot at once, at least the daily is a going again. Glad you seem to have sorted the gearbox in the end though dude. Have you enquired about costs for engine dyno running in? Would be intresting to know.

Yes it is! its just frustrating that time (and cash) I thought I would be spending moving this project on is time lost to other problems. If its not the house or work its my other bloody cars! I am starting to think it may not be completed this year

 

I had spoken with KAD about it when I was last there and seem to remember between £300 and £500 dependant on time spent in the dyno cell. Obviously there are lots of things that can be messed with (cam timing, ignition timing, carb setup etc) and there are always the unexpected issues such as leaks that would add to time (hence the variation in cost). I think this would be very close cost wise to similar time spent on a rolling road. I guess the only benefit is that any changes, issues etc are far easier to sort out with the engine out of the car. On top of this you would get a "real" power figure not a calculated one. I also quite like the idea of having the engine all run in and setup ready to go once fitted. As the bedding in procedure for piston rings and cams would be particularly dificult to do especially with the car located in central London!!

Edited by robj2502, 14 February 2019 - 02:16 PM.

[1330RG]

to be honest i think thats money well spent to be able to put an engine straight in, knowing you have no issues and optimum power output. Then you can just drive it and enjoy it. As for time scales, cars always seem to get pushed down the list by life priorities, but guess thats the fun of being a grown up lol. Any progress is still progress though dude ?

[robj2502]

So another week another load of silly issues!

 

With the primary gear all set up it was time to mate the engine to the box and first up the copper gaskets that came with the MED kit:

 

then engine fitted to box and idler gear and gasket installed:

 

Went to fit the transfer cover and was giving it a gentle tap with the rubber hammer heard a crack and bits of bearing fell out of the bottom which meant the removal of this:

This was a massive pain as the bearing race also needed to be pulled from the transfer cover and its not a cheap bearing at nearly £30. I was more than a little surprised but assume the weakness was there and I just found it....luckily before the engine was running! I also damaged the gasket on removing the cover again but thought thats ok I have another gasket....

 

Waited for the new bearing to turn up then reinstalled eveything and this time it all went together fine with a little jiggling. Torque up the fixings and now the drop gears wont rotate what the hell!! Remove eveything once again all looks fine. Check the new bearing was seated correctly along with the race but all ok. Looked at it for a bit then inspected the cover and whilst doing so had the new gasket in my hand; hmmm feels a little flimsy compared to the other. When checked together its not quite as thick as the previously damaged gasket arghhhh!!!

Damaged on left and thin one on the right so another couple of days wait whilst another gasket turned up.

 

Once the new gasket turned up got the transfer cover fitted and this time it was all fine so craked on with getting the primary gear oil seal installed using one of the uprated minispares items:

 

and the proper tool:

 

All done:

 

I have now taken the engine off the engine stand and I am just sorting out the ancillary bits and clutch and making sure I have all of the fixings so hopefully another update to come soon. Again I have been doing other small bits to the shell but nothing worthy of a full update as of yet although hopefully that will change in the next week or two.

[1330RG]

Ah man, nothings ever straight forward with a mini build. Glad its still progressing though. Cant be all that far off now in the grand scheme of builds.

[Wiggy]

I made the mistake of forcing the transfer case on once. Buggered things right up. Turned out my gearbox case was bent. If you have to use any force, something is wrong, or it needs a wiggle.

And I now buy 2 of the same gasket, because I always manage to tear the damn thing when mocking things up.