The continuing joys of vintage racing an LBC...
Last weekend I settled in to perform my between race maintenance
following racing at the mini/sprite challenge. Retorqued the head,
adjusted the valves, changed the oil, tightened loose driveshaft and
suspension bolts, general clean up. During this process I noticed
that the gasket between the engine and transmission worked its way
about two thirds out on the front of the engine
I called my trusty mini expert, who opined that it was the first
time in 20 years he had seen a gasket do that. (For those not
knowledgeable about minis, the engine is bolted securely on top of
the transmission and the bolts go through the gasket) Apparently,
the use of high compression and 8000rpm causes the engine and trans
to move about a bit where they join and can force the gasket out.
The solution, which I will perform over the winter, is to retap all
the 1/4" holes for 5/16" and use allen bolts. This holds things
much more securely.
This is a HUGE pain, because, the only way to fix it is to pull the
engine, pull the flywheel and transfer case, separate the engine
>from the transmission and put in a new gasket. I guess I am getting
better at the job, however, and last night it took me less than 2.5
hours to pull the engine(it will take twice that too get it all
reconnected).
Now, I am trying to pull the flywheel. The ultralight flywheels
tend to stick themselves on the end of crank, resisting strongly any
efforts to pull them. I cranked the flywheel puller down very
tight, heated the flywheel with a torch and banged on the back of
the flywheel with a BL special tuning adjustment tool(5 pound
sledge) for about 45 minutes. Nothing happened. Tonight we are
going to dig out and try my friend's killer puller which is some
sort of factory puller and is very heavy duty (comes with chains to
restrain flying flywheels). Sure hope the flywheel has not welded
itself on to the end of the crank...I do not really need to buy
another flywheel or crank.
More on this saga later.
Jim
jfuerstenberg@dcmdc.dla.mil
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