I just slipped it in, now I'm satisfied.
Yup, the gearbox is in, single handed and without drama. I came back from looking at bathroom fittings with the wife (that's the other major project going on at the moment) and decided to get into the garage and get stuck into the gearbox fitting.
I'd had a chat with Dave Pearson about how the hell I could get the gearbox in on my own - it was just too damn heavy, big, cumbersome, etc for me to get it in. Dave explained that what I needed was a pry bar to lever the gearbox - explaining his single handed technique as putting the bar under the gearbox drain and then levering it against the chassis rail, this would take the weight of the gearbox and allow me to push against the flange and slide it in. If you slip the gearbox into third you can rotate the flange and line up the splines with the clutch. The addition of a stud in the top hole on the back of the engine means that you can "hang" the gearbox on this stud as you push it in.
Well armed with this info it took me about 60 seconds, yes I get in there, using the jack handle for leverage (I haven't got any pry bars) it just slipped in with a satisfying thud.
RESULT!
I then struggled with the bell housing bolts, starter and the overdrive mountings but it's all in there now. I didn't have very much time to play with so I didn't actually get much else done but I'm quite happy with todays achievements - now all I need to do is find all the studs and nuts and bolts I took off the engine - can I find them?? Not a chance!
Grrrr
I'd had a chat with Dave Pearson about how the hell I could get the gearbox in on my own - it was just too damn heavy, big, cumbersome, etc for me to get it in. Dave explained that what I needed was a pry bar to lever the gearbox - explaining his single handed technique as putting the bar under the gearbox drain and then levering it against the chassis rail, this would take the weight of the gearbox and allow me to push against the flange and slide it in. If you slip the gearbox into third you can rotate the flange and line up the splines with the clutch. The addition of a stud in the top hole on the back of the engine means that you can "hang" the gearbox on this stud as you push it in.
Well armed with this info it took me about 60 seconds, yes I get in there, using the jack handle for leverage (I haven't got any pry bars) it just slipped in with a satisfying thud.
RESULT!
I then struggled with the bell housing bolts, starter and the overdrive mountings but it's all in there now. I didn't have very much time to play with so I didn't actually get much else done but I'm quite happy with todays achievements - now all I need to do is find all the studs and nuts and bolts I took off the engine - can I find them?? Not a chance!
Grrrr
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