For the benefit of all who have offered suggestions and were interested in
finding out how this saga ended up, I offer the following
report:
Don't let anybody ever tell you that adapting a GT6 gearbox, and aluminum
flywheel to a 1296 engine is a slam dunk!
Today, I did the following:
1. Had the inside of the clutch disk splines drilled out about 1/8" because the
disk was bottoming out against the ends of the input
shaft splines.
2. Honed out the bearing sleeve from an early Mk1 Spit (shorter than the later
one) so that it would slide freely over the GT6 bell
housing seal sleeve.
3. Installed the shorter sleeve to provide additional free play in the
actuator. This was necessary because the flywheel is thicker
than the stock steel one and located the clutch diaphragm about 3/4 to 1 inch
further back than stock.
4. Of course, the shorter sleeve was too short for proper fit, so I modified
the slave cylinder so that I could locate it further
inside the bell housing and eliminate some of the slop.
5. I had the hole in the center of the flywheel chamfered a bit because it was
bottoming out against the upsized portion of the gearbox
input shaft.
So, there you have it two weeks and an extra 100 bucks of additional machine
shop expense and I am in business. Now I have to finish
putting the interior (such as it is) back in the Spit so I can see how it
performs under its own power. I tested it by depressing the
clutch and moving the rear flange of the tranny. It lets go immediately with
no drag now.
So, unless I run into another snag, I guess Tiny Tim will be debut at Portland.
And Ted, I guess you can tell your Flywheel manufacturer that he's off the hook
on this one!
Joe (C)
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