Really getting tired of this..

[GroovyCarrot]

My engine rebuild project which was meant to be done well inside two weeks has now dragged itself kicking and screaming through the entire summer. I've had a starter motor seize, big end bearings locking up, driveshafts falling apart all over the place.. and now, this afternoon, as I was about to finally lower the (replacement..) engine back into the bay, I noticed that the 5 speed box takes a different mounting bracket to my old four speed box, which I don't have, so I couldn't fit it. -Really- sick and tired of the whole thing now...

I've spent five weeks now borrowing other peoples' cars..
Remind me never, ever to even consider a project like this on my only set of wheels again.

Rant over, thanks for listening..

[madmatt]

guess what its not the only problem u gonna have

changing from 4 speed to 5 speed on early mk2s
you need the anti roll bar from the 5 speed car the 4 speed anti roll bar is shorter and rubs on the end casing causing gear box oil to flow out like a tap and u need to cut the inner arch out or the end casing will rub on the arch i know i had to do it

[dubs]

I noticed that the 5 speed box takes a different mounting bracket to my old four speed box, which I don't have, so I couldn't fit it.

if i dont need the mount i'll send it down to you, didnt realise they were different

[Tahrey1043]

im gonna print this and show it to my mum

you cant beleive the ear bending im getting over "giving the car too much attention" just because of swapping seats & guages and attempting a home service.......... (oh and being on here a lot! but its not all motors here izzit)

hey... mums... yknow i could be trying to rebuild the engine

IN YOUR LIVING ROOM


best of luck mate

[GroovyCarrot]

Dubs, thanks -so- much, that'd really help me out.. sorry, I would have asked for it but I didn't realise they were different

Madmatt.. please, please say that's only an issue with pre-1986 mk2's? Ie, the ones that were built before the 5 speed box was brought in? Mine's a late C reg, built after all of the changes were made, I'm just hoping that was one of them...

Tahrey, what's wrong with giving the car too much attention? Bring your mum out here, let her talk to mine for a while and she'll go home appreciating what an easy time of it she's having
Either that or my mum will confuse her for your girlfriend as she did when dubs came on saturday

[GroovyCarrot]

Madmatt, you scared all kinds of crap out of me this morning Luckily, having compared it to a couple of 5 speed mk2's in the scrappy, it seems mine was one of the first of the later versions, and I've just managed to coax the engine and box into the bay with not too many problems The anti roll bar seems to be the same as the cars with 5 speed boxes as well. Hopefully. We shall see when I actually bolt it all down, anyway.

For now though I'm going to celebrate a small victory by making myself some breakfast, I'll deal with the rest of this mess after that..

[madmatt]

u will still need to change the anti roll bar i thought it would clear and it looks like it does but dont

[GroovyCarrot]

You're absolutely sure? Mine looks identical to the 5 speed cars in the scrappy.. I've got the engine in place now anyway, and it doesn't look like it's catching on anything... I'll double check in a minute. I've never done anything with anti roll bars before, are they hard to change?

Dubs, if you haven't already sent it, don't worry about the engine mount, I managed to get one from the scrappy this afternoon for a couple of quid, so all's well on that front

It's beginning to make progress now.. just waiting for a new set of head bolts to come so I can swap my head onto the new block, and then it'll be pretty much done

[dubs]

Dubs, if you haven't already sent it, don't worry about the engine mount, I managed to get one from the scrappy this afternoon for a couple of quid, so all's well on that front

ok mate, but lets us know if you need it anyway, doesnt look like im gonna need it now

[GroovyCarrot]

Cheers.. hopefully I should be sorted now, the scrappy's just got a mk2 coupe with a 5 speed box in it, and it's not been buried under other cars yet so I can get underneath it to support the engine, get bits from the bottom etc. I'm hoping the fact that I left it sitting up on piles of bricks will encourage them not to bury it any time soon

Madmatt, there's about an inch clearance between the anti roll bar and the gearbox with everything bolted down.. surely that's enough?

[Gareth_GT_Hatch]

Its an issue if you have a car that has a mechanical headed engine (about 10 bolts on the cam cover) seeing as yours has 3 (from the pic) it means its a hyraulic head and thus has all the other revisions (like a 5-speed anti roll bar on all models and a hole in the inner wing for the wider gearbox. Which engine mount isnt the same?

[Tahrey1043]

mebbe it was a 5sp before you bought it, the gearbox went, and the only thing they could afford to swap in was a recon/scrap 4sp?

way to go on the mum looking good enough to be girlfriend thing..... though if im to guess at your age mine might have just scraped it at the same time.
(oooh what am i saying of course she's gorgeous ... just in case she's lurking the forum which i HIGHLY SUSPECT HAHA GOT YA ahem)

i coulda told you about the different mounts however thats the one good thing that the morcombe scrappy pointed out, that i'd need the mount and the gear linkage, even though they never sent the bloody things.

hows it going today? running yet?

(i think its bad to be spending too much attention on the car as apparently over the last 3 months i've done nothing but, and "with a different one i wouldnt".... funny, didn't notice that, I know i've spent maybe a bit over the odds with it (time and money) recently but it wasn't masses - far less than i wanted to because of work/rain/etc - but it may seem that way to a casual observer who's working most the time im home and home most the time im working, and bearing witness to me fixing/playing with it in my spare time and coming on UKP/Porka as a main internet activity)

[GroovyCarrot]

It runs!!!



Happiness

Only one thing left to do.. work out where on earth the main alternator cable plugs into Looks to me like it's meant to connect to the main starter cable, but that seems very illogical as surely all the time the alternator is running, the starter motor would also be running? Unless the starter switch is on the earth cable rather than the live cable... Can anyone tell me where it's meant to go, so that I can get on with driving it again?

Ironically, the engine's actually running rougher now than it did when it started I think it's just the tappets being a bit sticky though, having been stood for a long time.. might need a bit of adjustment if they don't smooth out.

Anyway, yes, after over a month of being stressed at it it's finally back in and running again, so I'm in a great mood

Gareth, yeah, it's a 1986 car, one of the first hydraulic ones so the gearbox fits fine, and the anti roll bar seems to have a good bit of clearance around the gearbox so I presume it's designed to take it. The mounting I was missing was the front gearbox mounting, the one that bolts onto the passenger wing, it's different between four and five speed boxes.

Tahrey, I have a feeling that you'd spend a fair bit of time fiddling with it whatever car you had, so I doubt getting a new one will make much difference I know it wouldn't make much of a difference to me.. except for the fact that the polo is so easy to work on compared to most cars of it's size..

[Gareth_GT_Hatch]

the big thick cable from the alternator to the starter goes on the same terminal as the big thick cable from the wirirng loom

[GroovyCarrot]

Ah, that's alright then.. still doesn't make sense to me logically, but as long as that's how to make it work I won't question it I'll do that last little bit tomorrow morning then, and then I'll take it out for a celebratory spin