Right then. Here's the actual update. Got into the shed around 9am and pulled engine and trans apart to find alignment problem. Found none so I tried again. Got stuck a half inch out again. Pulled it again. Got stuck again. Stopped. Thought. Went to another bolt shop [this time with an example of my missing bolt(s)] to discover they're a 13mm x 1.5 pitch and NLA. Awesome. It's important to note that no other bolt on the F will fit. I know because I have two of them there. So I start thinking about the bell housing and the gearbox and how it's all situated and I begin thinking about tapping and drilling and grinding cast braces [only a whisker to buy some real estate] as I drove home to the shed. Got there and looked at the gearbox. It was then that the great bolt hunt began.
Shane pointed out to me the exact industrial bin that the cleaned up bolts went into. So I dove head first into that mthrfkr. I think the natural habitat of the abandoned bolt is the very
very bottom of whichever bin it's in, but soon I found the stash and began comparing to the one firmly in my grasp. I started a pile of similar sized and pitched bolts and about twelve bolts in I let out a great roar. I found that poor little guy amongst discarded beer bottles and empty paint tins. He was so far from home. Awwwww.
I took my bolt collection back to the truck and swore that anyone cleans up my ******* bolts - borrowed shed/help/expertise or not - I'd string 'em up then and there. Cleaned the thread out and presto - it worked. So now I had three factory bolts and and one close-to-factory bolt.
It was around about this time Shane stuck his head in my corner and pointed out THAT MY CLUTCH WASN'T ALIGNED. I undid the pressure plate bolts and aligned it by eye, tightened them back up and married the two halves home. I used the bolts to pull it home but this time the crank pulley was free enough to turn. Of course it was, the bloody input shaft was actually home! Around about this time I began scratching around on the floor amongst my new bolts collection [courtesy of the JJ Richards bolt storage facility] and I actually found another 13mm x 1.5 pitched bolt. I don't know where it came from or how or what but I whacked that sucker in before it could change its mind, its pitch or go and get lost again. Attached the chain to the motor-trans assy. [I get to call it that now], popped the gearsticks and jacked her up.
Shane got re-involved at this point and we began the careful task of lowering and rolling the engine-trans assy.
in place. Had to drop the drivers side bell housing ear off as the mount is a bit of a PITA to get up and over, but we got it in and got the pax side mount bolted through and rested it on the front two mounts. It was then that I used a bottle jack to jack up the bell housing on the drivers side, reattached the DS bell housing ear and landed that one too. Two down, two to go. As per Shane's advice I took the chain off the crane and attached it to the front of the engine only, giving me more manoeuvrability. Undid the bottom side of the engine mounts so I could align the top side into the front ears, got half a dozen threads turned and called it a day.
Now is a good time to let everyone know I've never pulled an engine before and I've never changed a clutch. When I did my frame-off BJ42 back in 2001 the drivetrain stayed in the frame. So yeah, lots of lessons learnt over the past few days. Lucky I had Matt, Andrew [sneaky], Pete [84TROOPY], Shane and the rest of 'Mud or I'da been up s***s creek in a barbed-wire canoe. Oh and sneaky - your air tools are safe and dry.
