Listers,
I have, at last, solved the problem and it now turns freely and, in fact,
starts and runs! The answer came from lister Rod Shepherd of Queensland,
Australia (How great is this list!?). He suggested that the clearance
between my Smitty pilot bearing and the input shaft may be too tight. I
pulled everything apart (again) and had a look. The pilot bearing adapter
bushing was flush with the flywheel face. However, after reviewing the
Smitty manual (again), I noticed something odd. My pilot bearing adapter has
a flange or shoulder of about 5 or 6mm thickness. The pilot bearing is flush
with the face of the bushing which results in the pilot bearing not being
flush with the face of the flywheel but 5 to 6mm proud. The diagram in the
Smitty manual seems to indicate no such shoulder on the bushing.
Thinking I may have been sent the wrong bushing, I tried to give Smitty a
call but a message on his machine said he will be away until October!
Not knowing what else to do, I had the flange machined off of the bushing,
reinstalled it so that the whole thing was flush with the flywheel face, and
put everything back together. The engine turned freely and in short order I
had it running. What a fabulous sound! However, I now have another couple of
problems that I need some help with:
1) I do not yet have the drive shaft connected to the rear end. I have
noticed that with the engine running and the Toyota shift lever in neutral
the output shaft still turns. I can stop it if I hold the drive shaft with
my hand but it takes a little bit of force but I am pretty sure that if the
driveshaft were hooked up that it would not move the car forward at all.
This tells me that it is actually out of gear but that there is some sort of
remaining connection/friction between the input and output shaft. I am not a
transmission wiz and honestly don't know if this is normal but it does not
seem right. Does anyone know if this is a problem?
2) During the 20-25 minutes that I was running the engine, a great deal of
oil appeared on the garage floor. It was an oil patch about 10 inches in
diameter. The oil is dripping from between the engine and the rear mounting
plate. With the engine running and warmed up it looks like there is about a
drop per second. I am assuming that this is excessive. Before installing the
Toyota transmission, it leaked (it does not have the improved seal mod) but
not nearly as much as now. Could this be caused by a faulty or improperly
installed rear mounting plate gasket?
Thanks,
--Michael
'55 BN1
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