The V8 Owners Forum -

okay,so i now have my t5 gearbox in stock and the rv8 from a 3.5 efi auto

i have the bell housing and need to sort out a few bits.

i will be making the adapter plate soon from 12mm thick aluminium plate,is this the right thickness?i have heard of people using 5/8 inch thick aluminium.

my plan is to get the flywheel from a 3.5 manual engine setup,a 2wd rover clutch,as in,the borg and beck one

that will leave me with the spigot bearing to sort and the clutch fork assembly

am i missing anything from the equation?

i could use all the help in the world...believe me

Hi
real steel do a rover v8 to T5 bell housing wouldn't this be easier and cheaper in the long run? or have a hunt around on various TVR forums and buy one of the tvr t5 to rover ones.
Mike

kiwicar wrote:Hi
real steel do a rover v8 to T5 bell housing wouldn't this be easier and cheaper in the long run? or have a hunt around on various TVR forums and buy one of the tvr t5 to rover ones.
Mike

i got a bell housing that was supposed to be for a t5 ages,and its not so i will just make an adapter plate,not a huge job

i will still have the job of sorting out the clutch bits to do

You have to decide adaptor thickness given input shaft length available, bellhousing depth etc

Nobody can decide for you.

And if you do make an adaptor, make sure it is absolutely 100% aligned for the input shaft into the crank spigot bearing, or the hearbox and clutch may not last very long.


In the interests of longivity, I'd be buying a proper bellhousing.

As a matter of interest, just how do you make certain the two are popularly centred if you don't have that data? Are fixings always on the same radius from the centre on all boxes and engines?

If you start with a V8 auto bellhousing then 12mm plate as about right because the auto housing is a little shorter. If your starting with a manual housing (you dont say what you actually have) then you will need to watch out, as Stevie said you need to get the length right so the input shaft sits into the spigot bearing fully. As for aligning it you just need to measure all the bolt holes to the centre of the crank and work out the datum points. Time consuming but not difficult. Most of the free CAD programs let you import a picture so you could do that, scale it and overlay your datums on that pretty easily, print it out, centre punch the holes and start drilling and cutting from there.

DaveEFI wrote:As a matter of interest, just how do you make certain the two are popularly centred if you don't have that data? Are fixings always on the same radius from the centre on all boxes and engines?

Thats quite easy, The T5 has a concentric spigot and the Rover Auto bellhousing have a concentric bore, so you can clock off both, there are other ways to do this with a non concentric centre bellhousing, but people would laugh at the way I did it,

thanks for this so far guys

i will have no hassle marking up and lining the centres up

ye may laugh but i will be doing it first in halfinch plywood before doing it in aluminium

i will check which bell housing i have,i cant remember

the show goes on

If your engine and box are both out of the car then drain all the oils and stand the engine on it's nose so the flywheel is horizontal.
Then once you have mounted your bellhousing to the engine you can accurately line up your template so the spigot is centred on the pilot bush and also measure for depth of spigot penetration, clutch plate position, etc. Once you are happy that all is straight nd centered you just need to transfer the holes to your template, drill them out and refit to check it all and then make your final plate.
It could be a bit of a fiddle getting in the bellhousing to see it and measure up, but it worked for my BW35 to LT77 conversion with the auto bellhousing.

i picked up an interesting tip from Leepu on chop shop on the telly about making templates for engine bit

put a film of oil on the engine where the bellhousing goes onto,put paper down on it so it sticks and then punch the holes with a centre punch,remove paper and transfer to sheet of metal or whatever

knacky idea,i've used a few times on tractor bits too.

unstable load,good idea you have there
i have a bit of sorting to do first as i have 2 seperate input shafts for the t5,different lenghts,so i will see which fits the clutch best and then sort the spigot bearing which will need to be bushed or changed to suit the shaft and bearing

i dont want to go buying new bits and get them wrong so thats why i am collecting s few scrap/secondhand bits

That tip for the gaskets is good. You don't even need the oil, If you use the ball end of a ball pein hammer gently over the holes it actually cuts them to size and very accurately, too. Then slip in a bolt or 2 and flip the hammer over and use it to gently go around the edge of the part to clip the gasket to shape. With practise you can get it very close to perfect.

My old man taught me on tractor bits, too......

My T5 spigot bearing is a Range Rover one drilled out to suit the T5 shaft (14.9mm or something). Trouble is I think there are 2 versions and I can't remember which one I started with ! Probably this one:
http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-614263

Mike

seight wrote:My T5 spigot bearing is a Range Rover one drilled out to suit the T5 shaft (14.9mm or something). Trouble is I think there are 2 versions and I can't remember which one I started with ! Probably this one:
http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-614263

Mike

thanks for that one
the plot thickens