58: Friday 30th October 2009

I was feeling concerned about the taperlock hub having the clutch pushing against it and then moving along the motor shaft, so I went for a rumage through my garage to find a spacer to hold the hub off the motor shaft bearing, so the hub and clutch have something to push against. I came across a wheel bearing that I had from my old Pontiac Firebird Trans-am. I took the out bearing case, dropped it into the motor bearing and then fitted loose, the hub, then the flywheel and clutch assembly. I measured the gap between the flywheel and the adapater plate and it was 15mm. The original engine was 10mm from the flywheel. I have arranged to have 5mm ground off the wheel bearing case, then the distance should be exactly the same as it was on the engine. I have a key being made to fit between the 6.4mm motor shaft key way and the 8mm hub keyway. So with the new bearing spacer and the custom key the taperlock has little to do except just hold it all in place. I feel happier now that I should never need to open it all up to retighten anything. This may seem a bit overkill, but it also a lot of work to fix it later if something goes wrong. Also I got some new bolts (3/8 UNC x 2.5 inch long, hex head) to fix the gearbox outer adapter plate and ring to the motor. The new bolt heads stick up less because of the hex heads instead of cap heads and are 1/2 inch longer so I now have the right amount of thread to secure the adapters and better clearance of the bolt head to the back of the flywheel.