rubber washers would be a good idea for vibration damping. cheers! The bracket just unscrews (on mine at least) so no problem there. I'll make an arm rest eventually too, for longer journeys. Could just attach to the plate on the right hand side of the door.

Chris' laser alignment tool turned up today, so I had a go at seeing what's what in the way of straightness. I started off with just seeing where it was without me moving anything, engine mounts in (what I thought was) in equal position.



Too high, an slightly to the left. After some adjustment, I got it centred.



It's central left and right, but it still needs to come down. I raised the front of the engine with the jack, and low and behold it was dead central. Thus, Dai's front mounts are too short, like what Chris and Dai were discussing. 3mm spacers up front are needed, and everything will be well. Picking up the new prop tomorrow, so should be running by the weekend. I'll probably make various different sized spacers and experiment, to get the engine height perfect.

Now, who wants to help me with taking out a gearbox?

oooo! lasers!! I would help, if I lived near you...lol

hopefully it all be fixed, have the prop company paid out for the box?

Awesome stuff dude! How did the gearbox look? Dai's mounts are definately 3mm too short, they don't include the metal hex which is exactly 3mm in thickness!

Chris_C wrote:they don't include the metal hex

This isn't fair. Witches are expensive you know.

Woah. Longest time I haven't updated this.

I've been in and out of the prop company's doors a fair few times these past couple of weeks, trying to find out why the prop isn't balancing right. At first, we thought it was just unbalanced, but it was re-balanced to a tolerance of 6.3, which is bordering race accuracy, according to the prop chaps. So fitted, and it still doesn't balance. A few days ago we got the chance to look underneath the car on a lift, and it was found the using a micrometer dial, the rear coupling flange was 0.5mm out of centre. So the prop itself is fine, it's this coupling that's throwing everything out, as it never spins centrally. Plan of attack is for the company to re-do the flange coupling, but to centre it now using my old 1.4 clutch output shaft. this will mean that the flange coupling is pretty much dead central. The other coupling will be check for alignment also. Furthermore, the prop will again be checked for alignment and be re-balanced.

While the gearbox was off, I managed to get the diff welded, it's pretty anti-social now, skipping round tight right and left handers

For now, I'm running a standard prop I got when the old box failed back in Manchester. It all goes on and works fine now that I've got the engine properly aligned. (Thanks Chris!!) The box I was very kindly given by Foggy is doing really well, and no whines yet, as it had supposedly done 200K miles! (foggy told me it might whine a bit).

It's also been a long long time since I just went for a drive. It was a nice evening, so I went for a blast. Up the the Avon gorge look out point first.







Which gives you views like this:



The went to Avonmouth down the road, which gives you views like this:



It's cheesy and gushing, but I felt so free and calm when I drove today. It was brilliant.

sweet mate, welded with a williams that must be nuts!!

Not gonna lie, it steps out a lil easier!

i need a valver! i coudnt think of a better satisfaction than driving a quick 340, and killing some boy racers in it

jon is your valver thread conversion thingy ha finished yet?? as i need to start parts collecting for a valver conversion but im not sure on all the stuff needed.

Yeah it's half finished. I've got all day tomorrow off so I was planning on trying to finish it off then. At the start of the guide there's a link with a list of the bits and pieces needed to do it. It lacks detail though so I'll need to put more stuff in it. If you do need any help, just gimme a shout.

lovely shots! Good to hear you've found the problem, bet its not been a cheap few weeks for you.

Picked up the laseriser this morn from the post office chap (at least, I think it is, not opened it ) Thanks bud.

Let me know how you get on, I'm very interested. I've been meaning to post up more valver related findings in Fakes thread but work is killing me atm and not getting the chance to properly.

Good news jon, glad to hear it's getting sorted! And not at a massive expense.

Brillant that you've found the problem, its always easier to fix if you know what it is!