One thing that I did finish was to make a block-off plate for the clutchfork window in the side of the bellhousing. Because I'm using a hydraulic throwout bearing, there is no clutch fork in my setup, and the window where the clutch fork would pass through leaves a gaping hole in the side of the bellhousing.
I decided I would prefer to close that up, so I made a block-off plate. I got a piece of steel from Lowe's, 3-in. wide and 3/16" thick. I cut off a length of it, and started trying to shape it to cover the opening in the bellhousing. First I bent it to curve from the side of the bellhousing around the back of it. But, where the back surface of the bellhousing is flat, the side of it is curved. To try to match the curve of the side of the bellhousing, I laid the edges of the side of my cover on the open jaws of a bench vise and started hammering the inside of it. I was actually very surprised by how effective this was in shaping the cover to fit the bellhousing.
However, where the cover curved around the side of the bellhousing and transitioned from a flat surface to a curved one, it left large gaps along the sides of the curve. To try to close up those gaps, I cut slots into the sides of the cover, and folded the sides in to close up the gaps. At this point things were looking good enough that I decided to take a couple pictures:
You can see that I had already rounded the corners of the back side to clear the mounting ears of the transmission. If you look at the pictures of the bellhousing above, you can see that I had also already drilled and tapped some mounting holes for the cover.
The cover wasn't quite wide enough to put bolt holes in it. I couldn't find a piece of steel that had the thickness I wanted and sufficient width for bolt holes. So my plan was just to notch it for the mounting bolts. I notched it and made a test fit:
Not too bad. I was honestly amazed at how well this thing was coming together.
So, there are two hydraulic lines to the hydraulic throwout bearing. One is the pressure line wihch actuates the bearing, and the other is the bleed line. I needed to make a couple holes for these lines to pass through. I checked to see where the lines "wanted" to run to, and then drilled holes in those locations:
A technician at work volunteered to weld up the cuts that I'd made in order to shape it:
Next I painted it. I used POR-15 for rust prevention, as I have on so many other things with this project. Actually, I painted it, then I found out that one of the bolt notches wasn't in quite the right place, so I wallowed it out a bit. Then I painted it again, and then I found out that the steel was a little too thick for the grommets that I wanted to use to seat properly. They kept wanting to pop out. So then I beveled the edges of the holes, to create a thinner surface for the grommets to grab. Then I had to paint the cover again. I was applying the last coat of paint when I dropped the darned thing on the floor, right into a pile of steel dust under the bench grinder. This resulted in quite a bit of cursing, but I decided it wasn't important enough to clean it all up and re-paint the cover again. I just wiped it off as best as I could and then finished applying the last coat. As a result, the cover now has a bit of "texture" to it.
I had some grommets that I was able to stretch enough to get them over the fittings on the end of the hydraulic lines:
Everything went together pretty well for the final installation:
While I had the engine and transmission off the frame to mess with the oil pan, I also decided to do a little more work on the hydraulic throwout bearing stuff.
First, a photo of the inside of the bellhousing, with the cover plate installed. Here you can see the throwout bearing in red, and the two hydraulic lines running out through the cover plate:
When everything is finally installed on the car, there should be a hard hydraulic line running to the pressure line, and that will keep that line from hanging free and flopping around. But the bleed line won't be attached to anything. While I had everything apart again, I decided to make a clip to hold the bleed line in place a little better.
I went back to Lowe's and picked up some stuff that looked like it would do the job. I got a clip to hold the line, a long bolt, a steel spacer, and a couple of nylon spacers that fit perfectly inside the steel spacer.
The steel spacer was oversized compared to the bolt, so I put the nylon spacers inside the steel spacer and drilled out their inside diameter to fit the bolt. I checked to see roughly where I wanted the clip to go, then I drilled and tapped a hole for the bolt in the side of the bellhousing. The clip was a little bit oversized for the hydraulic line, so I removed the rubber that was on the clip, and replaced it by wrapping a piece of rubber hose around the hydraulic line. This all worked out pretty well. Photos of the final installation below.
Like I said, there are a few open issues that I still need to finish up before the chassis goes back to the body shop. These include the oil pan/steering clearance, exhaust header installation, and finishing front and rear suspension installation. Also probably some things I don't know about yet. More on all of that still to come.
