Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Mr Kapri, you mentioned a while ago that we might need a brace under the gearbox as it only bolts to the engine along the top edge. Took this snap while working under the car today. As far as I know the engine's an SD1. Gearbox is a Borg Warner auto. Is it a matching SD1 unit or a P6 one? Should it be braced?

[cunningplan]

never had a brace on mine, was just mounted the same as yours.

[Manky Monkey]

Thanks Tone. I think the earlier boxes were open underneath weren't they?

The rocker cover bolts kindly donated by Derek don't reach through the thicker castings of the new rocker covers, so I need to have another half inch of thread cut on the end of each one -maybe a job for Doc. I'll email you mate. The T handled tops of the bolts fit on splines so they can all be aligned once fitted.

[Manky Monkey]

Took a trip over to Newbury in Berkshire today for a few errands. I dropped the cover of the Pop's heater at BKI Welding to have a blanking plate ali welded in to blank off the unwanted mounting for the demister pipes.
Then it was round to UniMaster to buy some nuts for the exhaust rubbers & to have a new gearbox oil cooler hose made up. This is the third hose we've had made. We've re-routed it several times, trying to keep the hoses clear of the footwell. The thick rubber hoses aren't nearly as flexible as you'd expect. Think we've got it sussed now. It's all a bit wiggly, but the oil cooler feed & return hoses now both run as neatly as we can get them.

[Manky Monkey]

Another couple of trips back & forth to do across Basingstoke this afternoon, so by the time I got back to the workshop I just had time to start work on some mounting straps for the exhaust silencers.
We've already tried a pair of "Cherry Bomb" silencers on the old exhaust manifolds, but they were far too noisy. So we're trying these reproduction International tractor silencers, which I picked up at a steam fair last Summer for 10 quid each. I bent some lengths of 25mm wide steel strap to fit around the pipes on either end of the silencer body, (different diameters at each end), then cut some straight bits to go with them. Loony's going to weld them together for me while I'm at work tomorrow morning.

[Manky Monkey]

Welded up & welded direct to the silencer. The straps are over length at the moment & will be trimmed down later. I happen to have a bag of Austin Mini exhaust bobbins in my spares box, so will use 4 per silencer. Need to sort the manifold collectors out before I know where the silencers have to go, so these will be put to one side for now.

[Manky Monkey]

Back over to Newbury, (the next town up the road), this afternoon to collect the heater cover from the welders shop.
This is a 1950s aftermarket accessory -most cars weren't fitted with heaters as standard back then so you had to buy one & fit it yourself. This one was made by Smiths & is designed to fit under the dashboard. Cost me 16 quid from Ebay. Hot water from the engine is diverted through a circular heater matrix, (like a miniature radiator), inside the car. There's an electric fan in the middle & adjustable flaps on the front cover to direct the heat. This one also had fittings for windscreen demisters.
We didn't have room under the dashboard so decided to make a feature of it by mounting it on the back wall of the cab, between the seats. That meant we didn't need the demister port, so had it aluminium welded up. The ali was a bit crusty & didn't weld particularly well, but then, it is 60 years old. Mr Lunatic filed the welds down flush, proving I'm not the only one mad enough to still use hand files. A quick wizz over on the buffing wheel & it's looking much more presentable. The front flaps are steel so we'll get them chromed, then fit new knobs. Yeah, I know -bling, bling!

[kapri]

Mr Kapri, you mentioned a while ago that we might need a brace under the gearbox as it only bolts to the engine along the top edge. Took this snap while working under the car today. As far as I know the engine's an SD1. Gearbox is a Borg Warner auto. Is it a matching SD1 unit or a P6 one? Should it be braced?

Mine used a brace from that visible bolt and to two forward sump bolts. Even my Pinto and C3 has a brace ther as stock ( one side only) .The big weakness are on BW35 is behind the bellhousing on the gearbox body where it bolts to the bellhousing . I've broken two there, I behind a Rover and one behind a Daimler.

[Manky Monkey]

So you think an L shaped brace from the large top bolt on the bellhousing to the 2 sump bolts visible in that photo? Would that actually make it any stronger? Or from the smaller bottom bellhousing bolt up to the sump?

[voodoo]

I had a P6 that destroyed the lower bell housing whilst doing a daft burnout, damn did that thing make me jump when it went..Voodoo...

[Manky Monkey]

  Got to admit I've never been a fan of burn outs. Always seem such a waste of good rubber to me!

[voodoo]

Yeah I was young and silly and thought it great to fill a car park or the high street in most cases up with smoke lol....also blew a diff in a Rover set up whilst trying to improve my 1/4 mile many many years back.....oh as I said a few days back I will hunt out my pic's of some of my old cars and scan them in and post them....
Like you I love the Commercial classics and had a particular soft spot for the old A55/A60 1/2 tonne pick up's, had 5 or 6 of them over the years oh that and yank trucks...Voodoo....

[cunningplan]

Thanks Tone. I think the earlier boxes were open underneath weren't they?

The rocker cover bolts kindly donated by Derek don't reach through the thicker castings of the new rocker covers, so I need to have another half inch of thread cut on the end of each one -maybe a job for Doc. I'll email you mate. The T handled tops of the bolts fit on splines so they can all be aligned once fitted.

Before you go getting these machined, I am not sure but I think the threads screw out and you can replace them.
Not ony this, they are only a couple of quid each for new ones. I will have a look when I get into work today to see if I still have the ones which came with the engine, its using alloy rocker covers so should be long enough. I bought the other type that the head is fixed (Pound each at the HRDs) as when I was using the type you had on the rover engine, the tops kept falling off (Still might have that set somewhere, (less some tops)) and in the end took the rest off and just used one to keep checking if they were tight.

[kapri]

So you think an L shaped brace from the large top bolt on the bellhousing to the 2 sump bolts visible in that photo? Would that actually make it any stronger? Or from the smaller bottom bellhousing bolt up to the sump?

From the smaller lowest bellhousing up to the sump.  I agree about burnouts, my boxes went on the Daimler when I kicked it down to show a new TR7 who was boss ( yes THAT long ago ) and then the Rover one let go when I hit just over 50 with a rodshop modified prop that set up a vibe.

[cunningplan]

Here you go, got ten shafts 8 with a inch of thread, one short one and a bent long one, also 15 (There must be some other shafts somewhere) Tops. will be in the post in the next couple of days. They all look like the will clean up with a good polish.