Nick Jones Posted August 23, 2020 Author Posted August 23, 2020 Have an RX8 5 speed I’ll never use...... Quite big mind..... though surely smaller than the 6. Will do a pic later.....
Nick Jones Posted August 23, 2020 Author Posted August 23, 2020 Unmolested box in the background. Easy conversion moves the remote forward the distance between the bolt holes - 104mm. (yellow) I think you could just about get 175mm and retain the original selector mech (orange) To match Triumph you need 240 mm (red). It's less easy...... Meanwhile, at the other end I've been making more swarf, And now have a ring I can bolt the BH to... The middle is still in the ring as I have more turntable machining ops to do yet. 1
zetecspit Posted August 24, 2020 Posted August 24, 2020 That really helps to understand where you are going with this. Thank you. Looks like real progress is happening on the adapters too. I can see a new cottage industry springing up!
Nick Jones Posted August 24, 2020 Author Posted August 24, 2020 13 hours ago, zetecspit said: I can see a new cottage industry springing up! Will need to get alot slicker at it or I'll starve for sure! 1
Nick Jones Posted August 28, 2020 Author Posted August 28, 2020 Have now finished the adapter ring. Quite happy with the way it turned out. There was a certain amount of fettling required for the final fit but once that was done it dropped into place nicely - and, pleasingly my centering ring dropped into place without any further messing about..... I made a lot of swarf...... ring finally separated The players...... ring in place and centered It’s away to be welded now..... Time to revisit the selector mech..... 2
RedRooster Posted August 29, 2020 Posted August 29, 2020 How did you do the circle? Manually or does the machine have a 'mode'? RR
Nick Jones Posted August 29, 2020 Author Posted August 29, 2020 I’ve got a rotary table. Not a great one but it works. Useful bit of kit though I’m not sure it’s supposed to be used like this. This project represents the outer limit of what fits on the machine....... usual story of me trying to run before I’ve learned to walk properly.....
Nick Jones Posted September 8, 2020 Author Posted September 8, 2020 And welded..... he did a great job Beginning to have a plan for the concentric clutch too, though I’ll be checking this little lot all fits together and onto the engine before investing. The shift mods are coming together too, though some way to go. 1
Nick Jones Posted September 11, 2020 Author Posted September 11, 2020 So the welded object went back on the mill to be faced flat and to length. Some fettling was also need to remove excess weld from a short arc at the bottom before the bell would fit. After checking that the bell did pull down flat and snug, the front casing was re-united with the rest of the gearbox And the bell fitted Then, in order to try it on the engine to check fit and concentricity I needed to make a sleeve to match the input shaft Spigot OD to flywheel hole ID. These turned out to be rather close in size and odd sizes so the quick and dirty route was to split a short length of 15mm copper pipe. Flywheel pushed on to prove the concept..... Then the flywheel was bolted on the spare engine and the gearbox fitted straight on........ .....Phew. It works. I will get the flywheel machined to take a ball race as used by Mazda though it will probably have a smaller OD than the actual Mazda one because a) I'd like that to be the same as the Vitesse one (Toyota bearing is a bit smaller) and b) the Mazda one would need a bigger hole than I'm comfortable with. Happy with this bit. Now we have the concentric clutch (not too hard) and gear selector mech (fairly tricky) to deal with. Then things like speedo drive, mounting and whether there is actually any chance of it fitting in the car without major hackery..... 1
mpbarrett Posted September 12, 2020 Posted September 12, 2020 Nick thats looking very good. If it works I can see a new Somerset Gearbox industry starting up... mike
rustbuckit2011 Posted September 12, 2020 Posted September 12, 2020 Clare Rule of Crapengineering Uk makes a concentric clutch adapter for KL V6 to mx5 gearbox conversions. I have it from her that it will work with the standard mx5 set up too. https://m.facebook.com/groups/325857401135776?view=permalink&id=732106240510888 Should take you to the files section. I've attached file to here too but I'm not sure itll open. Easy enough to make by the looks of it. CONCENTRIC_SLAVE_CYLINDER_KIT.pdf · version 1 CONCENTRIC_SLAVE_CYLINDER_KIT_COLORED.pdf · version 2
Escadrille Ecosse Posted September 12, 2020 Posted September 12, 2020 That all looks very 'made at the makers'. Most impressive
Nick Jones Posted September 12, 2020 Author Posted September 12, 2020 Thanks all, and especially Arlo for posting those pics. I was aware of the Crap Engineering stuff, but had only seen the single sanitised pic that appears on her website as I don’t do Facebook. So the ones you posted offer much more detail. I can make that. Would be interesting to know if the exact donor for the concentric slave is named anywhere other than the vague “Corsa” given in the website. Though I do have to keep in mind that I’m not using a Mazda bellhousing or clutch cover......
rustbuckit2011 Posted September 13, 2020 Posted September 13, 2020 TMCS00093 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Concentric-Slave-cylinder-Astra-H-J-06-16-Corsa-C-D-03-15-Meriva-Zafira-05-15-/192380198580 This is the one I'd say. The difficult bit for the above cylinder is that it requires a machined channel for the O ring seal that sits under it. I was looking at a toyota 2014/16 CSC013 one for my mx5 engine swap. I dont know the specs however as I haven't pulled one out at the wreckers yet to check. There will be plenty of others that will likely work
Nick Jones Posted September 13, 2020 Author Posted September 13, 2020 Thanks again. Agree there are probably many that can be made to work. I need to go to the scrapyard also...... But the baseplate will likely take the form shown in the pics.
Nick Jones Posted October 5, 2020 Author Posted October 5, 2020 I haven't been entirely idle on this. I've been at the mill again, lightening surprisingly hefty chunks of steel in a very specific way..... Trying to recreate this "proof of concept" that Chris knocked up from objects found in the scrap pile, which actually worked, in a more robust manner. The harder part is the knuckle that goes on the selector rod. This has a socket for the ball on the base of the gearlever which rotates it in an arc around the selector rod to select the gate and forward/back to select gears. In front of the socket is a set of ramps which interact with a sprung ball plunger to define the gates. This is a chunk of steel that started at approx 40 x 100 x 60 having the first of the angled ramps put in A second, opposing ramp is then cut on the other side. This one has a step in it as we need to divide it in two to separate out reverse Basically, the bottom of the V defines the 3/4 gate with the ball plunger centering it. To move the lever either way towards the other gates you are compressing the plunger Forming the rest of the shape Doing things in the right order and not cutting stuff off too early to leave myself with nothing to hold required a certain amount planning...... The still somewhat rough finished object tried on for size.... In this pic you can also see the support bearing block on the left. There is an oilite bush in there and there will be oil seals. I may yet use a linear bearing if I can find one the right size Still a way to go but I reckon I might build the enclosure/gear lever housing before I invest any more time to make sure it does the job. Hope so - there are quite a few hours in this.
Nick Jones Posted November 6, 2020 Author Posted November 6, 2020 So, I am still working on this. The MX rear housing lost a bit of weight on Sunday when I chopped most of the mount for the backbone frame off it. That was a bit of a game. May be some more to go..... ........although, I removed the tunnel cover today (still a horrible job!) and discussed the matter with my tape measure. The tape measure had a good laugh......
Nick Jones Posted November 7, 2020 Author Posted November 7, 2020 Wrestled the gearbox out this afternoon. What cow of a job. Never taken one out of a compete GT6 before. In deference to my pale coloured interior I took seats and carpets out, which was just as well as it took me a a fair bit of pushing and shoving (and some cussing) to learn the sequence of moves that get it past the heater nozzles - not alot of spare room there - Vitesse is very much easier. Anyhow..... that allowed this to happen: Triumph 3 rail/D-type vs. MX5 NA (with bits missing) Then....... there's no way the MX box is going in the car without the engine coming out or a big chunk of tunnel coming out (and I'm not ready to take that plunge yet). However, the rear casing comes off pretty easily and the tape measure can accurately tell me where it needs to go..... .... which is here .... and it slots right into place, albeit with very little room to spare. Underneath Looks might it might just go. Low compliance mount needed though! Also, speedo cable access looks to be between improbable and impossible and tending to the latter..... I'm feeling more positive about it than I was yesterday 1
Nick Jones Posted November 8, 2020 Author Posted November 8, 2020 This gives an idea of the scale of the cut needed to the tunnel..... Note the white line on the sound deadening with the MX5 arrow pointing at it..... If I were to do this (still on the fence pending a successful outcome to the shifter mods), I'd carefully cut the whole chunk out as one and weld an overlap strip to it so it can be put back with bolts.
Mark Posted November 8, 2020 Posted November 8, 2020 That's a big chunk to lob off, but bolted back on, it would be hard to notice. Didn't appreciate how long the gearbox is compared to a Triumph. Short prop needed. My daily driver for the past eight years has been a mk1 eunos.
Nick Jones Posted November 8, 2020 Author Posted November 8, 2020 Yeah, it is very long, though irritatingly it doesn't need to be - most of the tail housing is empty!
Escadrille Ecosse Posted November 8, 2020 Posted November 8, 2020 That is a very big chunk to cut out! Do you need to take it off? If the front end of the propshaft is a sliding joint then you don't need access for bolting that up. Realise it means that without doing so getting the gearbox out is also an engine out but with the handbrake in the way anyway a gearbox removal will be a bit of a bu@@er regardless. And getting the gearbox out of the back of the six is a lot more work that with the four. Especially with the GT6 heater box and the extra cold air outlets - as you have now found out.
Nick Jones Posted November 8, 2020 Author Posted November 8, 2020 It's not that big a chunk - and only tin. Plus the handbrake comes off in about 30 seconds Frankly I'm not even remotely interested in an arrangement that requires engine removal to access the gearbox/clutch. Especially as this will have a concentric slave. Remove bonnet, then best part of 250 kgs of engine and box..... and you'd still have to remove half the interior Yep, I have done gearbox removal on every other Triumph (bar TRs) and none as awkward as this, though the 1500 Spit box must be a fairly close second given that it weighs as much as a small planet. Was no fun hauling it in and out of my Herald as I recall. Still contemplating OD repair..... but it would still be a noisy, leaky fragile thing.
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