File does not seem to mark it, not sure where description comes from

Rear of gearbox. Gear cluster already had hardened bushes fitted. I rebuilt the box three years ago because it was noisy. Counter shaft then was worn in same place. I still have that shaft and I can file that one easily. The latest one does seem harder, file description not seem to mark it much. I pulled the box to fix a leak from the front shaft seal. I had replaced the seal in the bell housing before, to no avail. The shaft surface looks ok. My son has a GT6 with the same leak problem. Must be a design feature. Anyway I am fitting a front bearing with a seal. Had to grind a groove for the circlips.

Some odd occuences and still no life beyond a couple of splutters. Spark is moving and in the wrong place.  Timing it with the gun requires it set as the sensor being at30 degrees before tdc to fire at tdc, but physically it's definitely 90 degrees before.  The vr signal is definitely correct polarity and I tweaked the bracket so it's set square and true with 0.25mm gap. I also increased the earth wire cross section to the coil. Two mistakes I've just noted after putting the car away are that I have been running the ignition signals to the coil pack at 5v, there's a 12v option (via jumpers on the board) this might have been causing a problem, and I had the cranking rpm set too low so wasn't getting the increased dwell to start. I'm not that hopeful that either of these are the cause of the problem, but hopefully I'm eliminating more possibile causes.

What point in the shaft is that - rear of front bearing? Number of possible causes -cheese shaft (as you say). Fitchetts generally decent on quality, but I suspect that all shafts come from the same manufacturer. Is the shaft straight? - there have been problems historically with needle rollers of slightly the wrong diameter that then don’t roll properly causing scuffing and rapid wear. I think that is now corrected at source but could be some still in circulation. How long ago was this box built. - what’s the bearing surface inside the gear cluster like? If pitted/scored/contaminated then you can end up with scuffing scenario again. What made you pull the box apart again?  

This counter shaft has done a mere 6894 miles. New needles were fitted at the same time. It does look a bit like insufficient case depth. A new mainshaft was fitted at he same time. The tip of the mainshaft, which I believe is a weak point, looks fine. New main bearings were fitted to the gearbox at the same time.  It is a Vitesse 2 litre mark 2 Vitesse gearbox in a 2 litre mk 2 Vitesse. The countershaft came from T D Fitchett. Are all new counter shafts the same, or are there some better ones around?

... and remember you can only get it 'so' close (I can't remember the maths at this time of night, but effectively 1/2 a cam wheel tooth)  as you don't have a vernier wheel - it will be fine

Hey Jacob, all looking good, and hopefully you're enjoying the engine build. I definitely don't want to add any confusion - but I would advise setting the cam siming with the crank a few degrees (3 or 4) advanced when fitting with a new chain.  This means that after the initial stretch the timing will be spot on. Take your time, have a large pad of paper to take notes, and remember whether you're measurung cam or crank lift / timing. Once you've set it you can relatively easily check timing on inlet / exhaust against a carefully positioned crank timing wheel

Note to self: type before drinking.

... the flavours of omestically- grown veg explode...