Spigot (pilot) bearing and my crankshaft woes!

Spigot Bearing 
I removed the motor from the stand and transferred it to the hoist so that I could work on the flywheel end. The first step was t renew the spigot bearing. This was in a sense the start of my woes! The manual states that the spigot bearing should be recessed 9.5-9.8 mm from the flanged end of the crank- I placed a flat edge across the flange and measured the depression of the spigot. Allowing for the thickness of the straight edge, to my surprise this one was inserted only 3 mm! I assumed that this was installation error and intended to fit the new one deeper.

Spigot bearing in position in end of crankshaft.

I removed it easily using the blind bearing kit from Draper- so much nicer than bashing out with grease and a plunger.

Select the right size collet

Insert and tighten to expand and lock

Attach slide hammer and remove!

The bearing came free very quickly- just 4-5 taps of the slide hammer.

The new bearing needs to be lubed with shell Retinax suitable for constantly rotating bearings. I think it comes pre-lubed but to be sure I worked some more in. The new name for Retinax is Gadus (I preferred the old name!) and its this red stuff. I worked it into the bearing.

The spigot has a rubber seal inside at one end. When fitting the seal should face outwards so this means the end with the embossed writing should face away from the motor.

Inserting spigot bearing note rubber seal oriented away from the motor

I used a small plug spanner to tap the spigot bearing home. The bearing requires Shell Retinax LX2 (now called Gadus S3 V220C 2) or similar for lubrication; a grease suitable for bearings in constant rotation.

 I used a spark plug socket to fit the spigot bearing but I was surprised when it bottomed out at only 3 mm depth.... and this Dear Reader is where everything comes undone and pigeons come home to roost.... I have the wrong motor!

The spigot bearing in the motor removed from the car was recessed to the expected 9.5 mm

Crankshaft end (flywheel mounting flange)- motor as removed from car; manual transmission

Crankshaft end (flywheel mounting flange) - Rebuilt Eclat auto transmission motor 

What is worse, the end of the crank looks suspiciously different. Obviously I couldn't make this comparison until I had removed the motor from the car- but now the difference is blindingly obvious.

One ray of hope (and the argument that originally pursuaded me to proceed) is that the flywheel from the auto (rebuilt) motor has apparently been dismantled to remove the flex plates present in auto setups and the centre discs of the flywheel show signs of having been re-attached. This and the insertion of a spigot bearing into its crank would only have been done for use with a manual gearbox- so that's good!

Centre plates flywheel from manual car- rivets melted and flatted as original to secure.

Centre discs Auto motor flywheel, held by new rivets (not flattened), discs slightly loose.

However, the motor number shows that this was originally the motor for an Automatic Eclat. These cars didn't have Toyota gearboxes but firstly BL and later Getrag units. The first Eclat-Excels would have been Toyota I think,  but it is very possible that this motor was never made to mate with a Toyota gearbox at all- and that's really bad!
However the question now arises as to whether it will fit so I tried to take some measurements.

Firstly, the crankshaft flanges extend beyond the case mounting flange by 2.5 cms in both cases- measured using a set square across the flange and a ruler to the case edge.

Set square across the crankcase end flange, ruler to case mating surface

25mm protrusion

Since these protrude to the same extent from the case, the depths of spigot bearing drilling then become significant.
Secondly, I determined the drilled depth using a drill bit close to the size of the gearbox shaft- in this case 14 mm. This was inserted into the spigot bearing until it bottomed out and then scribed using a straight edge across the drilling.

Straight edge across close fitting drill bit

The striations resulting from the penetration test.

This showed that the drilling in the auto crankshaft was some 3.5 mm shallower than that in the original manual crankshaft. Hope still lives though as even this reduced depth is greater than the sleeve length on the gearbox shaft and consequently  However, it seemed possible that there might be sufficient clearance in the drilling, although there remains the possibility that there may not be enough in the smaller conically machined recess. The gearbox shaft might bottom-out in the crank boss. Compared with the automatic motor the sleeve should be interacting with the spigot some 6 mm further in and if it jams on the crank boss this would stop the cases fitting. I was unable to determine exactly how far the gearbox shaft protrudes past the gearbox bell house mating surface (and therefore how far it needs to penetrate into the crankshaft), as I lacked a long enough straight edge. Given the shallower drilling for the spigot bearing I suspect that these effects will combine to mean that the gearbox shaft will not have enough room to slide suggestively into the crank.

Still... proof of the pudding etc. First thing is to try and fit the motor as it is- fingers crossed! I dont feel like doing this twice so I will refit the flywheel and clutch first just in case Im lucky!!

 I have found a company who should be able to machine the crank in position for about the same cost as a replacement crankshaft- but of course it would save me the trouble of re-stripping the motor and rebuilding it, so this will be my fall back position.

Readers... COMMENTS AND HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS WELCOME.

Remove and check clutch and flywheel, Slave cylinder and Release bearing swap. Refit camcovers and ancillaries.

Once the old engine is out, I have to remove the flywheel and clutch which will need to be refitted to the new rebuilt motor. Before I can do this I need to remove the rebuilt motor from the engine stand (which currently blocks access to the rear) to the hoist. I can then remove and insert a new spigot bearing into the crankshaft end before mounting the flywheel and the clutch. I am hoping to use the existing flywheel since the one that came attached to my rebuilt engine was in poor condition. However there is a question mark over the ring gear on the existing flywheel since this could have suffered some strain turning the motor on the starter whilst the valves we're jamming piston movement.

I have a choice of clutches since I have bought a replacement part-used one and also the clutch in the car is I believe in good condition anyway.  I will fit whichever  one seems best.

Removing and renovating the clutch release bearing

The clutch release bearing is held on the clutch arm by 2 clips.

Clutch operating arm, release bearing clipped in position. Note sleeve on the end of the gearbox shaft is slightly longer than the shaft itself- this is the pattern "C" in the manual, earlier motors were apparently altered to fit this pattern so mine apparently is correct

It unclipped easily and detached as a composite of hub, bearing and thrust face washer which are all pressed together. According to the parts list the outer end of the arm should attach to a spring- but there was nothing in my car so I will need to investigate further.

Inside bellhousing, 1 clip and release bearing removed. The second clip remains on the clutch operating arm

Release bearing

The bearing did feel a little rough and there was some axial play. When fully opened this allowed a 16 thou gauge to fit between hub and bearing. I decided to fit a new bearing to be safe.

There was some play in the bearing and when pushed down one side, the opposite side opened up a gap that would accept a 16 thou feeler.

The hub was released using a 28mm socket to tap the hub down and out of the bearing whilst the bearing rested for support between the jaws of a vice  (ie not held in the vice).

The thrust face washer was removed using a screwdriver to ease the washer out of the bearing.

New bearings are

NSK 40TKD07 Metal Shielded Clutch Thrust Bearing 40x67x19.7mm

 and available from bearing suppliers at a few pounds less than specialist Lotus suppliers. Well worth it if its the only part you need in which case the mailing costs are much lower if not absent.

The thrust washer fits into the recessed face of the bearing, position...

... and press. I found the washer fitted with only hand pressure.

The thrust face washer clips into the bearing (recessed face) using hand pressure.

The hub is pressed in using a vice or bench press.

Pressing the hub into the bearing

Finished CRB assembly

Removing and inspecting the clutch and Flywheel
The clutch plate was removed from the flywheel by unscrewing the peripheral nuts. The components were also inspected, the friction plate appeared brand new, virtually no wear and surface printing still legible. Its not easy to see if the pressure plate has been changed. Both these components were very similar to the condition of the newer used parts I had bought.

Clutch friction plate from the car- seems nearly new, writing still clearly visible and plates at virtually full thickness

Pressure plate from car- seems OK but there's no obvious way to test this.

Flywheel on motor removed from car

The flywheel left on the motor after removing the clutch was in reasonable condition but not excellent. There was some surface rust and marking but I don't think anything too drastic.

I detached the flywheel from the motor using a ratchet gun  noting the position of the indicated edge line when the motor was at tdc on cylinder no 1. The flywheel was compared with that removed from the rebuilt motor. There were minor differences in rust but both were soaked in DeoxC and cleaned up well. There is a side mark on the edge of the flywheel- I am assuming that this is a balance mark but I don't know. I believed the crank and flywheel are balanced separately- otherwise you couldn't change just one. However if possible I will use the flywheel original to the rebuilt motor just in case and I did make a similar note of striation position when I stripped.

Just to check ... no 1 piston at TDC and...

Position of side mark on flywheel

Finger indicates position of side mark with motor at TDC no 1 piston.

Slave cylinder replacement
I replaced the clutch slave cylinder. Removal is simple (2 bolts) but it wasn't as straight forward to replace with the new cylinder because the pipe union was seized onto the pipe. This meant I couldn't swivel the attachment to get a good hose run and so prevented positioning.

Old slave cylinder in position

New clutch slave in positon

Pipe seems to exit closer to chassis now than previously. I need to check how the gearbox is positioned when the motor is attached to be sure this pipe isn't damaged. Renovated arm  installed.

The clutch hose  terminals were eventually freed using penetrating oil, a vice, heat and a lot of patient wiggling. I worked some antiseize grease up under the union nut to stop this happening again.The slave could then be fitted easily but the pipe run was still a problem- it seemed to be a bit too close to the chassis- although the gearbox will obviously move when the motor is refitted. This will need checking once the motor is back in as the gearbox might crush it against the chassis. I cleaned inside the bell housing and checked there was no sign of gearbox seal leakage and then was then able to refit the cleaned and repainted clutch arm but I put off re-fitting the CRB itself until I was ready to replace the motor as it will simply rust if left exposed.


Installation Alternator PAS pump and cam covers.
 In preparation for refitting the motor I test fitted the alternator, pas pump and water pump pulley plus any adjustment brackets. I will need to detach some of these now the mountings are sorted so that I can Loctite the aux pump pulley. Refit and retension the cambelt and finally hard-fit the ancillaries and their belts.

I also fitted the cam covers using the rubber gaskets I had bought years ago for my old Elite. These are fitted dry. Stretch the centres over the retention pips in the centre of the cam housing arches. There are holes in the gasket to locate here.

Reusable rubber gasket (Kemp autoparts)

Camhouse centre arch central pips locate into rubber gasket which can then be smoothed down both sides as the cover is fitted.

The gasket then folds down under the cover and is positioned carefully to make sure it was positioned evenly and not disturbed as the cover was tightened. I fitted standard washers with new SELOCS beneath them.

tuck edges of the rubber up as the cover is lowered

... including the ends

Tighten evenly checking for smooth and even fit- don't let the rubber sag out of the join.

Both covers installed

However I didn't tighten these down at this stage as I am aware that there are several clips etc that need to be attached to them and I don't want to over compress the selocs too early if I will need to unscrew them again. I will tighten them later- I did check with the supplier who didn't have a torque setting for the screws with this gasket- just tighten until it "feels right"!! Great for old hands- little more problematic for me I think!!

Everything looked OK at this stage so I went ahead and removed the belt and reattached the distributor/oil pump pulley with loctite retaining compound before refitting the belt. I then fitted and tensioned both drive belts to ancillaries and tightened all bolts.

All ancillaries fitted, tightened and tensioned

I am however concerned that the alternator drive belt does seem to pass very close to the tensioner fastenings on the block and I may need to file a bit more clearance here or re-position washers.

Very little clearance in alternator belt run

Removing the motor

The observant amongst you will have noticed that I have started removing the motor on several occasions- there are a number of past posts that hint at these moments!  Each time I get close to tackling the extraction I somehow find myself distracted by other tasks.  There are several reasons why I have continually avoided this subject. Basically, I'm a bit worried: working alone it is a little bit frightening and my fear is of getting stuck half way. There are added obstacles: the car is parked on a sloping drive making the extraction angle a little more severe. I have little room to roll the car back meaning its closer to the garage than I would like and the door frame or overhang might block the crane at a point too low for successful withdrawal.  I have at least now fixed the hand brakes and the car shouldn't roll back- but I do not wish to do lasting damage to myself, the motor, or indeed the fabric of my garage! However, this time  there is no getting away from it: I have to remove the motor. The time has come and the evil moment can be put off no longer.

The first thing I did was to buy a new crane. My old one was a Clarke 1 tonne model, and I felt this had neither the reach nor the lifting capacity for a large motor such as that from the Excel (especially if I should ever want to lift an unstripped motor/gearbox combination). I bought a new crane from SGS; it's a 2 ton model, and although it's not a specifically long-reach or high-lift version, the specs suggest it does have the capacity to do job. The first thing I did was to put this crane together- largely a matter of judgement as it came without assembly instructions! I have requested them but nothing has arrived (SGS please note)! I downloaded some for a related model, and with a bit of comparison between these and the parts manifest, I was able to assemble it. This one has the further advantage that it is freestanding when folded and does not require wall space for storage.

Crane assembled and in folded position

So the story so far, you may recall that the motor in the car has already been stripped down quite considerably. The head has been removed, the entire cooling system has been taken out along with the  alternator, power steering and water pumps. The inlet manifold although still in the car is simply laid to one side. I have also detached the left hand engine mounting although it is still in position on the bolts. The right-hand mounting is still attached. So my plan is to put a sling around the engine,  and then unscrew all the bolts holding the block to the gearbox bell-house. Take up the strain and then remove both engine mountings before pulling the block forwards to release it from the gearbox shaft and raising it with the crane. This should leave the gearbox in the car which will be supported by a transmission jack from underneath.

There were a couple of things I had overlooked though:
The starter motor was the only remaining ancillary in position

I had put off removing this because the copper contact studs tend to strip when they are threaded with the nuts.

Connections to starter motor- note partially stripped copper stud on solenoid connection.

The starter is held on by two bolts, unscrewing these and the contact freed the starter completely

Starter out, note additional block-to-bell-house bolt remaining- which was also removed.

 I disconnected the throttle cable from the carburettors in order to remove the inlet manifold- this had seemed complex before I could see the connection clearly- but is actually very simple; just a slip fit on the nipple to trunnion.

Somehow I had also missed the oil pressure take-off line- inexplicably this turned out to be 1/4 W/W!

Next step was to fit the crane sling to take up the weight of the motor in readiness for lift.

Positioning the hoist- arm length seems OK

Sling crossed under the motor- cant go far enough forward at this stage though as the engine mountings are still attached.

I was then able to apply a little upward force to take the strain before  unscrewing all the block-to-bell housing bolts. On my motor there didn't seem to be a full set. After removing the two starter mounting bolts (and the extra bolt described above) there were left just these three across the top of the block...

 ... and two at the bottom. None were really tight and all easily removed.

Removing the RHS bottom bolts- 1/2 extension and a UJ, LHS bbolt visible

I think that there should be more of these bolts and this again points to a hasty reassembly of this motor for sales purposes- and the subsequent breach of the sale of goods/trade descriptions acts by the LBPO.

The next step was to remove the engine mounting legs by unscrewing the three bolts that hold the leg to the block

Sling installed- note three engine mounting bolts that need to be removed.

 ... and the two bolts at the base flanking the rubber foot. I undid these ....

... from below! They seemed new again suggesting this motor has been out recently.

The legs were completely removed allowing the  sling to be re-positioned around the shaped sump in order to stabilise the lift

 ... and spaced out a little more evenly around the block- note LHS engine mounting now also removed.

At this point  I placed a Draper transmission jack under the gearbox to support it. Now there was nothing holding the block to the bell-housing and the plan was to swing the motor forwards, slipping the gearbox shaft out of the crank spigot bearing and freeing the block.  In the past motors I have dealt with this task has been relatively simple, but in this case it was difficult- the block and bell-housing seemed welded together! One of the tricks at this point is to pump the clutch which can then push the whole motor forwards. Sadly, in my case the clutch hydraulics were  inoperative. I had just changed the clutch M/C so I added fluid to this but as the slave was still leaking (it was my intention to change it after removing the block) I was unable to generate any force this way. I was forced to resort to a mallet and a wooden block to tap on the sump either side of the two rear lower bolts, and on the mouldings surrounding the auxiliary housing site in order to tap the motor forwards and break the seal. In the end I also needed a tyre lever inserted from below in the space between the where the two lower mounting bolts had been, and to tap a screw driver into the join between block and bell-house from above.  It took over an hour but eventually the motor started to move and finally slipped right off the bell-housing.

 The hoist was ideal for this work and I was able to withdraw the motor before raising it clear of the body. The protection on the bonnet wasn't even troubled!

I did have some problems with the slope of the drive and had to chock the crane wheels so that I could pull it progressively backwards (and uphill) with no risk of it sliding forwards and smashing the motor into the car's windscreen. I also needed to lower the jib to get it under the garage door but there was enough space to do this and I eventually lowered the motor for temporary storage in the garage. I will start to remove the clutch and flywheel later.

View inside the bell-housing. Clutch release arm and bearing. Note transmission jack beneath. The bellhousing and gearbox shaft did seem a little too greasy- I think too much copper antisieze used here. I have ordered some no fling Lithium molybdenum disulphide grease for the shaft and the release bearing hub on reassembly.

This is the view inside the bell-housing- the gearbox shaft does seem rather greasy and gritty.  I know that the gearbox is a Toyota item and so I have been assuming that it will have no problems. However, I will check for signs of front seal failure after I have removed the clutch bearing and actuating arm.