The V8 Owners Forum -

I'm trying to put my car together but I'm having problems. It is a Rover V8 attached to a Renault transaxle, with an adaptor plate. I don't know the history of the car or the adpator plate set up. My problem is this:

When I mate the gearbox to the engine/adaptor plate and I look down through hole for the the clutch arm at the top of the gearbox, the end of the primary shaft on my gearbox is not long enough to go into the spigot bearing on the flywheel???? The adaptor plate is 15.5mm thick and I have measured the distance from the front face of the bellhousing to the end of the shaft, then from the mating face of the adaptor plate to the front face of the spigot on the flywheel where the shaft locates and the shaft will be about 2mm short!

I bought the kit part built - so I know nothing of the history. Are you supposed to get longer shafts when you use and adaptor plate? Or should I make up a top-hat spigot bearing or something? The strange thing is the car ran and drove around my farm when I got it!!!!! Now when I put it back together the shaft doesn't make it to the engine. I'm stumped.....maybe it never did make it to the engine and the release bearing etc was holding it in place. The shaft does seem to have had some wear and the release bearing is wrecked (it's only run for about 30mins in its whole life so far.

Two other questions:

1) Where do I go to get Renault gearbox spares
2) How do I identify my gearbox, as there seems to be a few numbers in different places?

Thanks guys, hope you can help. I'm typing this in desperation, covered in gearbox oil........

Of course when the clutch is engaged then it will hold the input shaft fairly well, certainly well enough to drive the car. It may not be centered perfectly though.....

I guess you could either extend the input shaft, or make a spacer to move the flywheel closer to the gearbox.

Chris.

Two other questions:

1) Where do I go to get Renault gearbox spares
2) How do I identify my gearbox, as there seems to be a few numbers in different places?

This is a reasonably common GT40 setup in the UK. The GT40 forums have loads of stuff about Renault boxes and links to the companies concerned. We also have a member here (Ian Anderson) who has the same engine/box in his '40 so he might be able to help out.

Cheers,

Ian

I made a Top Hat spigot bearing to allow the input shaft to have support when I fitted my Toyota Box on the back of my RV8,
Im thinking the adaptor plate is quite thick, as a rule of thumb, all thread forms obtan max strength at 4 rotations of thread, [6 in ally] Im wondering if the plate could be reduced in thickness to help with your clearance problems, perhaps helicoil the threads in the plate if you are unsure

ian.stewart wrote:I made a Top Hat spigot bearing to allow the input shaft to have support when I fitted my Toyota Box on the back of my RV8,
Im thinking the adaptor plate is quite thick, as a rule of thumb, all thread forms obtan max strength at 4 rotations of thread, [6 in ally] Im wondering if the plate could be reduced in thickness to help with your clearance problems, perhaps helicoil the threads in the plate if you are unsure

I've not seen many adaptor plates, but the few I have laid eyes on were a lot less than 15.5mm. More like 10mm, or even 6mm if made from steel

Still got to sort out a spigot bearing for the Pievan, but the adapter I made was 28mm thick, but then I did cut down the bellhousing by 17mm.

With a hacksaw

http://www.spagweb.com/v8mini/pievan/pie_adapter1.htm

Hi and welcome to the world of the GT40 and all it's related issues!

Just got back from holiday so apologies for not answering earlier.

I have sent a Pm with my contact details if ytou want to chat things over but yes you should have the bearing in the end of the crank and it should fit with the gearbox shaft - loads of possibilities exist from different shafts (better quality metal and all as the primary shaft is the weak point on the Renault box, well tat and the overhung 5th gear)

Thrust bearings seem to be "consumable" items on some units and eat themselves up quickly but there are now work arounds out there that give more reliability.

Other than that a bit jet lagged at present

Ian

Gearbx id is easy

At the rear of the box is a set of bolts

On one of the bolts should be a tin tag washer thing with a munber like
UN1 -06

These then put you at the exact type and ratios you have.
BUT the washer / ID tag is often removed on rebuild and not replaced - silly French not stamping it on the box itself!

Best spares outlet is Chris Cole - if the engine needs built it is probably better to let him do the complete job - he has all spares available and can set it to your requirements including LSD if needed (Or 6 speed too)


Cheers
Ian