Build 15. Gearbox Install
Rather than attach the gearbox to the engine and install together as per the manual, I've decided to install them separately as they do at the Caterham factory. The only tricky thing here is that you cannot just jack up the gearbox to get it in, it needs to be raised in the engine bay and then "slid" down the tunnel part. With the right tools this is quite easy and can actually be done on your own (obviously an extra pair of hands would make it easier but I decided to do this late one night!).
I actually made use of a motorbike jack for this, which I modified by drilling holes in the base and screwing it to a left over piece of sleeper I had of the same size. I then added 4 x 50kg rated castors to the bottom so it can be wheeled about. The actual size of the jack meant that it was still too big to be raised into the tunnel section of the car, and so I cut another piece of wood in the shape of the tunnel so it would slip in nicely. The gearbox also has an awkward bolt and piece of metal sticking out of the bottom so I reused the super thick cardboard that the gearbox came on which meant these bits can sit inside it without damaging them.
The final platform looked as below. Before attempting to place the gearbox on this under the car, I first gave it a test run on it to see it was balanced nicely with respect to it's centre of mass, it turns out that it sat on it nicely without any strapping, and could be raised and lowered really easily whilst being secure with no wobbles. This combined with the extra support of the engine hoist, when attempting the install, meant it was a great solution to getting the gearbox in!
I then used my creeper tray to get the gearbox into position under the car, and positioned the engine hoist at the front of the car, ready to lift the front of the gearbox up. With this in position, and a car jack at the other end, I slowly raised up the gearbox off the creeper. Once it was high enough to clear the creeper, I removed the creeper and then placed a slightly larger piece of wood with card on top underneath the gearbox just in case it did happen to fall! (where the motorbike jack would go). I iteratively did this, raising it up safely, until I could fit the entire motorbike stand underneath where I wanted it to be. Thus safely lifting the gearbox to a nice height.
Once it was on the motorbike jack, I could simply jack it up to the required height, loosen the hoist (although I kept it tight enough for support just in case!) , and slide the gearbox into place!
It was then a case of attaching the gearbox mounting plate to the chassis and gearbox, hind sight I should have done this before the install attempt as it would have made it easier and would not have got in the way!
So I ended up wheeling the gearbox out a bit, attaching the mounting plate to the chassis, and then sliding the gearbox back into place. From the previous post I had the bolts already in place and ready for the mounting plate to attach to, and as with everything hand made, luck would have it that the bolts don't actually go through straight, which meant I had to then loosen one side so the bolts were no longer sticking out, attach the mounting plate loosely on one side, and then screw the other two bolts through whilst holding the mounting plate in place against the chassis!
I kept these nuts loose to allow for movement when installing the engine. I will keep the motorbike jack in place now until the engine is in, the gearbox is connected to the engine, and all the bolts are fully torqued! I don't actually think there is much movement in the mounting plate, even when loose, but every little helps!
By installing it this way, I managed to get it into place without touching the insulation on the side of the gearbox housing and without touching anything else that could have been damaged, so I'm quite happy with this approach. Let's hope the engine slots onto it just as easy!
Timelapse
Centre of Mass Test
Don't lift the gearbox without finding it's centre of mass, this makes jacking it up on a platform super easy!
Summary
