Lucky-7 Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 I looked at mine yesterday and there is no issue. Geez you would think by loosening the 4 bolts on the trans mount plus the two on the trans itself it would have enough movement. Did you loosen the motor mounts also, when you tried this? I would take the trans mount completely off and see if you can get the clearance you need. Then you may have to die grind the holes in the mount just enough to get it away from the frame. The two big ones that go into the trans not the for little ones hold the mount to the frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted March 30, 2020 Author Share Posted March 30, 2020 I looked at mine yesterday and there is no issue. Geez you would think by loosening the 4 bolts on the trans mount plus the two on the trans itself it would have enough movement. Did you loosen the motor mounts also, when you tried this? I would take the trans mount completely off and see if you can get the clearance you need. Then you may have to die grind the holes in the mount just enough to get it away from the frame. The two big ones that go into the trans not the for little ones hold the mount to the frame. Yep, mounts attached to the chassis and the bolts holding the engine to the mounts were all loosened and a crane used to take the pressure off. Even moved the crane around the front and both sides while using the load leveler to see if I could get movement. Next step is to use a floor jack to support the transmission and remove the bolts holding the transmission mount to the chassis. I want to see what happens to the alignment without the mount holding things rigid, in particular whether the transmission moves away from the point of contact on its own. I may also have contact on the left hand bottom rail as described in that Lotus7 post. I can't see a gap but it is hard to tell if it is resting on or just above the insulation tape. I also reached out to two of the guys that posted to see what they learned between then and now. One has 650 miles without issue but the other is still waiting to have his inspected for licensing so only knows what it feel like at idle. What I don't know is how experienced either are and whether they have a good point of comparison as to what it should be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky-7 Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Just for S&G, try it with the all the mounts loose and disconnect the engine host completely. Maybe you can move the tail of the trans with a pry bar that way. Mine sits just above the that tape probably 1/8"-3/16" above the foil covered rail. It's definitely a super tight fit while the other side has plenty of room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 After disconnecting the transmission mount entirely from the chassis I was able to shift the transmission to the right. Reconnecting the mount to the chassis moves it right back to where it was before. The only way to create a gap would be to grind the holes in the mount for the bolts that connect to the transmission, and grind the transmission so that it can move in the mount as it is a cradle design (picture below). This is clearly how Caterham designed it so I'm not going to fret about it any longer. Thank you all for your suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sf4018 Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Shouldn't the rubber on the tranny mount be on top? Maybe the pic is misleading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 Shouldn't the rubber on the tranny mount be on top? Maybe the pic is misleading. Basically you have a metal hammock suspended in rubber which in turn is inset into the mount. When installed it looks like this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sf4018 Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 Looks like it's pretty fixed except for the transmission slots forward/aft. Maybe loosen the engine/transmission mounts, shift the gearbox forward in the slots of the transmission mounts as far as possible then tighten this then the engine mounts? It may give a little more room. Anyways, good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 2, 2020 Author Share Posted April 2, 2020 This thread needs a little sex! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowss7 Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 Beautiful! When your battery dies there are lots of nice smaller low profile options available. You can lay them down as well. Remember to add lightness! Good luck with the first test drive. . Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pksurveyor Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 The Banner battery has a lifespan of 3 years if it stays on a battery maintainer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky-7 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 As you can see in the picture the mount is offset (more flange on one side than the other), I wonder if you spun it 180 degrees, there by moving the trans more towards the passenger side. Just a thought, I don't know what the ramifications would be on the console and shifter from up above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 As you can see in the picture the mount is offset (more flange on one side than the other), I wonder if you spun it 180 degrees, there by moving the trans more towards the passenger side. Just a thought, I don't know what the ramifications would be on the console and shifter from up above. Thanks Lucky-7. The cradle is asymmetric, so can only attach to the chassis one way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) Three weeks since my last post, but not a whole lot has happened in that period. You might think that working from home would provide more time to work on the Seven, but COVID-19 is making for some long work days. Anyway, next step up was plumbing, both oil and cooling. None of the fasteners were provided to mount the oil tank and it took a few days to get the parts. Then I discovered that the return hose to the expansion bottle wasn't included, and then two of the four bolts to mount the radiator were MIA. You get the point, two steps forward, one step back, but eventually everything was assembled except the electrical connection to the coolant temperature sensor in the submarine. I didn't have small enough gauge terminals, so another online order and I was able to assemble this: Why is this significant? Well one end of that cable has a M5 ring terminal for attaching to a stud on the submarine. The submarine is located above the bell housing, or more precisely above the hole in the bell housing where the clutch hose exits. To my calloused fingertips a M5 nut is tricky little thing to handle, and sure enough I dropped it and I bet you know the rest. I figured that the nut probably fell to the bottom of the bell housing and would be accessible by simply removing the wedge that protects the flywheel. Well the nut was there alright, behind the flywheel but in plain site. All it should take is a little fishing with a magnet, right? Well that little nyloc M5 nut is about 1mm too large to fit through the gap between the bell housing and flywheel. Hmm... okay then, time to resort to my favorite wire-fishing trick using string and compressed air. I fished a string through the nut, tied it off, and then blew air into the bottom of the bell housing with the expectation (okay, hope) that the other end of the string would emerge from the hole where this whole mess started. Almost worked, about half of the string made it before getting hung up. My younger version would have spent another two hours trying to get that string to do what I wanted, but this version recognized it as a fool's errand and decided it would be fun to pull the engine. Not only would I have the opportunity to experience pulling an engine from a Seven, but I would get a chance to become more proficient at putting it in. Edited April 27, 2020 by Pokey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) As suspected the second time was a lot easier, with the whole process of disassembly, removal, separating the transmission from the bell housing, reinstalling and reassembly taking less time than just getting the engine and transmission installed the first time around. Want to see what happened to that nut with the string attached? Yah, I'm an idiot, but I've learned to live with it. Having said that, while I truly did enjoy pulling the motor, I prefer not to repeat my mistakes so plugged that hole. Edited April 27, 2020 by Pokey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) This was the only way the fan could be mounted. I was a little unsure until learning that the fan pushes instead of pulls. Edited April 27, 2020 by Pokey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) This was interesting. The throttle cable had slop, and the method to address is to bend the throttle pedal. I had to bend mine a lot as you can see in the following picture, roughly three-quarters of an inch. Edited April 27, 2020 by Pokey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) At this point it seemed like the appropriate time to put the nose cone on to see if there were any fit issues. Edited April 27, 2020 by Pokey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 (edited) The wheel is on in the previous picture to aid in looking at colors for stripes I'm considering. Edited April 27, 2020 by Pokey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 Time to attach the steering columns, and since the steering wheel has a quick release I put it on at this point too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokey Posted April 27, 2020 Author Share Posted April 27, 2020 Today was rear diff day. I had read that this could be a frustrating task but for whatever reason it seemed to go okay. Having a motorcycle jack certainly helped. The only hitch was the lower mount threads were in bad shape. Bit puzzling, but rather than fight it and risk damage I dropped the diff and ran a tap through both sides. After that it went well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now