Re-fitted the Transmission this weekend now that the lower gearbox mount is out and I have more room - in order to get to the next step. Goes in so much easier - first go this time. Lifted up the combo to the horizontal and bolted it into my mount. All seemed OK - except some key interference that will need more work.
(1) The factory cable abutment bracket for the selectors pushes against the firewall. The transmission itself is within 10mm of a few locations around the firewall so cannot go back any further. If I get custom cables made up, that is probably just as well since I'd need to make up a new abutment bracket. The most alarming bit is that the current bracket rubs against the fuel feed line. We wouldn't what that to be rubbed through now would we. So we have to add another bracket to the fabrication list. And it looks like this one needs to be made pretty robust - 5mm plate at the least.
(2) More alarming is that the selector mechanism actually fouls on the passenger side engine mount bracket. It was oh so close in terms of measuring and fitting, but now when it is in it's final position, I need another 10mm of rearward movement - which is not possible as above - and around another 20mm of height to allow for the mechanism to lift to select between 1/2, 3/4 and 5/R. So some metal will have to come out of the existing bracket, and I'm going to have to find away to re-enforce what is left.
These photo's hopefully show how near yet far away I am from having the selectors work properly:
(a) Looking down into the Trans mount with the mount bush removed (jack under gearbox). Of note, I have opened the wiring loom and pulled out the reverse-connector so that it now reaches the top of the box - and the connector is identical by the looks of it since it just slides on. I'll have to re-cover the loom in wrapping. But you can also the see the selector spindle is hard-up against the mount.
(b) For this one I wedged my phone down the side of the mount, to show the spindle hard up against the side of the mount, and how the horizontal part of the mount interferes with the vertical motion of the selector. The raised
ABS module on my new bracket is top-left.
(c) This view down through the gap between the
ABS and the mount bracket from above gives you an idea of the extent of the challenge.
(3) There's a 3rd point of interference, which when everything is bolted up tight on the passenger side engine mount, the transmission is hard up against the lower chassis rail. If I lower the trans by 10mm I can get my 10mm chassis clearance. This would also give me a bit more clearance at the selector.
All in all, not an impossible task, but it sure is tight, and it's going to take some fine tuning to get this to fit. And I haven't ever really started on how I'm going to fabricate the lower mount yet.....
Lukeyson