My dad and brother-in-law were down today and really helped me speed along with the build. We had some big items on the agenda, and, for the most part, got everything ticked off the list.

We fitted:

• the handbrake and cable,
• differential,
• propshaft,
• gearbox
• bellhousing
• washer bottle and washer jet (and piping)
• horns

We also managed to prep the engine bay for engine fitment tomorrow. All in all, a very productive day and things are moving along at quite a good rate – especially considering the thing was only delivered 3 days ago!

Hopefully tomorrow will see the engine in place and as much of the rear axel done before the roll cage needs to go in (the roll cage needs to be fitted before the rear damper unit can go in – the seatbelts and seats need to go in before the rollcage goes on – the trimming and panneling in the cockpit needs doing before the seats can go in – the steering column needs to be fitted before the trim can be done… so it looks like there’s still a bit to go after all!

Notes on the build:

Differential
Yes, it’s a pig. It’s big and heavy and the alignment isn’t good. However, the method in the latest build manual appears to be the best one and it worked for me. Use a jack to position the diff up into the car. Once you’ve got the top bolt holes roughly in alignment, you need a long, fairly strong, but thin bar to go through the whole length of the diff and through the chassis mounts. This will ‘hang’ the diff in place. You need to pivot the diff to line up the lower holes and temporarily fit the bolts, using shim washers to centralise the diff in the chassis. Measure carefully to avoid heartache! We found a nice straight edge on the rear anti-roll bar mounts and a tape measure to the same spot on the carrier each side gave accurate results.

Once its right, tighten the lower bolts (but not all the way to torque). Check the measurement again to confirm this tightening hasn’t moved anything drastically. You can then use the jack to take the weight of the diff and ‘pivot’ the carrier slightly up. Visually get the alignment through the top bolt as close to perfect as the tolerances will allow… it won’t be perfect – just go for as much as you can get. Get shim washers together that match the gaps in the between the diff and the chassis mounts, stick them together with copper grease. Then, use the diff bolt (coated in plenty of copper grease) to push out the pin bar you used to temporarily hold the top of the diff. As you reach the gap between chassis and carrier, wedge in the shim washers, use the pin to bully them into alignement and then ready the 5lb lump hammer to begin persuading the diff bolt that it does want to go into the  hole. Use as much force as necessary but make sure you’re not stuck on washers etc.

Once at the final chassis mount, it’s likely that this is nowhere near in alignment. You may need to tweak the jack a little but you can also help things along by using something to lever the bush in the chassis mount to ‘point’ towards the end the bolt. Once the bolt chamfer gets a sniff of what it needs to do, it then slides home with more persuasion from the hammer. Tighten and measure again to confirm this hasn’t put anything massively out of alignement.

Gearbox
The manual mentions several blanking plugs that need to be fitted to the gearbox – my gearbox didn’t have these holes to plug. There is one hole at the rear end of the gearbox that doesn’t initially get mentioned in the manual. This is the hole for the reverse light sensor and it is mentioned later in the manual once the gearbox is fitted (you can get to the attachment point through an access pannel in the tunnel.)

Don’t tip the gearbox up onto it’s rear end as it will gush out oil!

My gearbox had a old square filler plug socket, which means the allen key method the manual goes on about is completely redundant. It also means that my gearbox is likely impossible to fill up when installed in the car… I really hope it doesn’t spring a leak.

Prop shaft
It’s hard to try and torque up the bolts on this because it has a tendency to rotate! I guess that’s the idea of a prop shaft! I decided I’d wait until the handbrake is attached before attempting to get to required torque setting.

Engine mounts
Hellishly, these use an imperial size, which I don’t have the required allen key size or socket allen key for. Meant a trip to Halfords – and they didn’t have any either. However a chance glance at the filler plug tools section and one of them seemed to sit very nicely in the bolt head. Still, bloody annoying!

Method
I’m straying from the manual method in the transmission fitment. In my case, I don’t have too much of a choice in the matter because of the square socket filler plug. But I am installing the gearbox and bell housing in to the tunnel and then lowering the engine down horizontally to meet it. The gearbox has therefore gone in full of oil. Whether this makes the engine an absolute pig to fit correctly will be seen tomorrow! I have spoken to book-a-track mechanics and they swear by this method. I’ve also read in blogs that it helps because you don’t have the fiddle of trying to fill the gearbox in situe and you don’t have to faff about getting the angle of the car perfect.