so having found a bell that may do the job,the guy came back with a price-£150!! thats $230!!-for something im going to have to cut and modify anyway-forget about it!!

this gave the opportunity to use one of new favourite powertools-the MILWAUKEE SAWZALL.

marked the bell housing out on my surface plate using the vernier and the upright scriber-marked the cut a few mil above where we need to be so as i can finnish up the face on the lathe in the 4-jaw

 

after the sawzall had chewed its way through the bellhousing from the ford mercury box,i set the 4 jaw indy up in my lathe,this way i can be sure of having a face that is on the same plane as the mounting face that fixes the bell to the transmission.

sounds a bit OTT-but it means that all the struts i weld on to join the cut bell to the SAE plate [still got to make this]-will be identical.

i have incorporated two requirements in my desighn for the new bell,it has to:

1/ be removeable from either end.

2/ be strong enough to support and hold fast the entire weight of the trans.

it will be strong!

 

PJ,
Looks like your making some good progress but the fingers of the pressure plate look way too close right now. How much will they draw down when its bolted to the flywheel?

 

hi bert,
just getting stuff welded up,aim to work out the flywheel/friction/pressure plate interface asap.
trying to control my excitement,because as soon as this eng/trans is joined together i can get it on some level ground and offer it up to the chassis,releasing a host of other jobs i can get on with.im guessing i may have to cut the firewall-which is a concern as it,s the only really structually sound part of this rusted out old cab,a roll cage won,t be a problem as a friend has a PRO hot rod shop,and he is on side,ideally i will source another cab one day. but this will get me where i want to be for now.

 

Alright PJ, It's been two weeks, did you get the trans and engine to mate up? I'm curious to know if the spacing worked out on the clutch fork.

 

bert,without your enthusiasm i would miss out on getting this thread updated,which would be a shame as it,s a good log of how much work goes into these types of build,so thanks!

tonite i had some help from grant,we spent a good few hours lifting and shimming the motor so that it sits level in the crankshaft plane,then i adjusted the trans to sit at the right height,in a couple of days i will be back and able to bolt the clutch pack complete to the flywheel,then i aim at pushing the trans up as close as it will go into the clutch/pressure plate until it just touches,then back it off .5-1.00mm then i will measure the distance between the machined edge of the bell and the motor bell.this will = A

then i guess i,ll remove the clutch pack , install the [frozen] pilot bearing in the flywheel,and reset the trans to suit A

this will enable me to get the dimentions to finnish the lathe work on the phosphor bronze adapter...i think this will work-any more experienced hands have anything to add ?

pictures early next week-have a great weekend

 

PJ, I don't mean to push but I really enjoy seeing Military trucks getting rebuilt and or modified.
This gives me incentive to continue working on my M37 because my wife claims that I pay more attention to that old truck than I do her. She calls it my "Mistress"

 

my mate,s ol \lady is known as the green widow-any pictures of the m37 ?-i,m a huge mopar dodge fan.
well im all booked in to go \to my buddy,s welding and fab business round the corner on nov 20th,i will take my motor,some beers and my trans down there sat morning,he will let me loose with his plasma cutter,so i can cut the circular flange out to bolt to the motor bellhousing.
i will have the phosphor bronze adapter turned up , this will sit the transmission where it needs to be away from the cummins engine.
then we,ll weld some aluminium spars in place.
after this has all cooled i will check the distances on the 4 datum points i have marked on the engine and the trans,sounds a bit OTT but this is my first time doing this,so im covering all angles.
providing all the measures come out equal,we will finnish weld and then wrap some aluminium sheet around the whole mess and that will do me for a homemade bell housing.
all this will involve some seroius lifting and shifting,all good practice for the next project-
a v6 detroit turbo-mmmmmmmmm came outta m548-gods own pick up truck,i had near 65mph out of mine.

anyhow-here is my cut trans bell mounted up on the trans,the fully assebled clutch pack is bolted up tight and the splined shaft is as far into the flywheel as it will go-

 

next job was to shim the trans back from the rotating mass of the clutch/flywheel-so i got some 3.00mm shims and got everything sat about right-it was important to be able check everything was level so i centre drilled 4 m10 bolts [ the 6bta is metric] and placed them equally around the engine bellhousing,this gave me \4 points to measure from-[ datum ]
i cleaned the grease off the motor and trans and used a paint pen to mark roughly where my datums were,after it dried i used a black sharpie to fine tune the marks.
lastly i got a small ratchet strap to hold the whole mess together for a final check.

 

here,s a better shot showing how the shims are spread evenly and the strap is holding it all in place ready for a last check-
you can just see the cetre drilled bolt head and the yellow datum mark-this enabled me to pull the clutch pack and trans bell housing off,giving me enough room to measure the distance the transmission input shaft needs to sit away from the pilot bearing,using the datums i replace the trans minus the bellhousing ,exactly where it was while fully assembled,i set all my datums at 150mm and marked them as above,i just set a pair of outside calipers to 150mm and it was easy to get it all lined up again.
now i \have this dimention i can get back on the lathe and finish turning up my adapter,but as luck would have it i went to put a fresh blade in my bansaw,and as i tensioned it,the sliding block that pulls the idler wheel op to tension the blade snapped-damn chinese cast iron-[saw was a gift]so tomorrow im down to ' b ert the button ' to borrow his milling machine to make a new one in billet steel-my milling machine is in final rebuild stages!!