TOYOTA GEARBOX AND ENGINE FITMENT
The next stage was to prepare the engine for fitment into the chassis and the
installation of the Toyota gearbox.
I stripped off the red paint on the block and cam cover, the block being re- painted
black.
The replacement engine came without a flywheel, so the original one was sent away
for re facing.
On its return (£35 from RMES Ltd. 01788 542670) I checked it against the clutch
cover supplied by Conversion Components. I soon found that two dowels situated at
12 and 6 o'clock located the original cover, whilst the conversion had three located at
12, 4 and 8 o'clock.
I made and fitted a blanking dowel, this was locktighted and hammered into the now
unused 6 o'clock position.
I then fitted the cover and secured it into place with the fixing bolts, new dowel holes
were then drilled into the flywheel through the cover giving an accurate position of
the new dowels.
The engine was fitted into the chassis using new mounting rubbers.
I obtained a gearbox from a scrap yard (£250) off a Toyota 3.0 litre Supra (non turbo)
that was of 1989 vintage with approx. 1 16,000 miles. The car was a MOT failure with
clag and chicken wire all over the wings. I also ensured I had the prop shaft as the
sliding joint on the output shaft is required.
The new bell housing was fitted, along with the spigot adapter, clutch fork etc. and the
box fitted to the engine, all went together very well with no major problems.
The only item requiring extensive modification was the rear gearbox-mounting
bracket, this was to accept the original Toyota rubber mounting. Unfortunately the
rubber on mine was becoming unbounded, to be safe I bought another one from Toyota
(I paid the price of £75.68 after being resuscitated by the counter staff).
The gearlever that came with the box was very unsightly and did not look in keeping
with the rest of the car. This was due to it being long and very broad in diameter, on
closer inspection it appeared to be made in two halves bonded together with rubber
bushes. I threw the lever into a fire, this separated the lever in half which resulted in
the height being a third shorter and leaving a thin shaft as found on many 60's cars.
I finished it off by painting the lever black (although you could chrome it) and fitting
a chrome gear knob from Halfords (£41, again having to be picked up by shop staff).
The rocker covers were then sent away for polishing (£60 the pair) and refitted.
To complete the engine I have fitted a set of plug leads from six cylinder Jags located
in scrap yards, they are very similar design to the Daimler having very deeply
recessed spark plugs. However you need to raid 3 Jags for the correct length of leads,
even so this only cost £10.
