Thread: Rebuilding Sid

I am afraid that you look to have assembled the clutch shaft to the fork incorrectly. The manual specifies how to do this, making it clear that it is possible to get it wrong (reading between the lines!)

What I would be inclined to do is to drill a second set of holes in the coupling sleeve to accomodate the incorrect position of the shaft. This is not going to be easy, as the sleeve is hardened, but it is probably easier than removing the gearbox!

That was my assumption. Re-reading the manual my guess is that the forks were not tight up against the bearing and so they are now locked onto the shaft in the wrong position.

As there’s no body on the vehicle I’ll pull the gearbox. My concern about drilling the coupling (apart from the access) is working out exactly where to drill. It might not be 90 degrees, it could be 80 and if I’m off, adjustment will be a pig.

Thanks all

Yes drilling the sleeve is not easy , it is extremely hard , few years back I drilled the sleeve out O/S to fit a larger pin, burnt out around 20 drill bits even using cutting oil & very slow drill. When I did the freshen up recently I replaced the shaft , pin & sleeve . It would probably be quicker to pull the box in the long run.

With no body on the vehicle - yes! box out!

Well mystery solved.

Gearbox out

To be honest engine is easier, wish I had gone that way instead, still I’m down to half an hour so practice does make perfect.

Problem obvious once apart,
The forks ride on a splined shaft, get those misaligned and it’s stuffed.

Going back over the instructions, for future reference, holes in linkage should be in line with (ie parallel to) and not level with the bearing. Despite there being two lines on the drawing,one parallel, one pointing towards the bearing. Now I’ve taken a gearbox out I can see how that can be misread.

Gearbox finally went back in this week, work has been busy.

When reassembling the box and clutch levers, once everything was pointing the right way it was easy to get thee pins in. Should have realised at the time that it was to difficult

Now onto bodywork.



Door pillar fitted.



I spent some time transferring over the old reinforcement plate, has to move the bends a bit to get it to sit nicely and most of the holes line up. Thought the extra steel would be good but I’m also guessing the holes in this are going to be right.



Extending the panel



All in temporary, I had to make up new captive nuts and also cradles to hold them.

I had planned originally to patch repair but as I’ve taken it apart, there was a layer of rust between each joint so happy with the change, not happy with the number of spot welds that needed to drilled out. It will get welded tomorrow then onto the other side which only needs a foot well.

Bulkhead welding now complete


Passenger footwell took a bit of messing. The repair panel bends did not line up at all the shape of the existing bulkhead, not having a metal bender (assuming I could even flatten the panel nearly) would mean the new panel would look like a dustbin lid at the end. So I chose to section the panel
Ready to weld, there are two pieces there with two full length welds to do.



Welded. Finally getting to grips with the old 3 phase Migomag 315 I pulled out of a demolition site. Huge amounts of power.



Next stage is filling and sanding.

It’s also been a week for cheap new toys. Picked up two sets of newish whitworth spanners and a socket set today off Facebook. Would have been great during gearbox build.

Also found a clearance item at super cheap auto,

Pro brake flare tool, they have then going for $140 ( from $350) delivered. Quality of the flares is a million miles from the ones I made using the cheap tool.

On brakes I found a place in Adelaide selling copper nickel line and original fittings so that’s getting close.

Sid’s Been a bit neglected of late, work has been a bit nuts this last month.

I did get the brake lines in.



And there’s been a lot of prep done on the bulkhead ready for a week off (or maybe 6) over Easter.

I have been stocking up
That’s the paint, and there’s a box of parts on its way, if the worst happens then Sid and I will be self isolating for the duration.