Gearbox extension housing bush

[marode]

Hi friends!
I did a gearbox overhaul while i had to wait for my engine parts to get ready. After fitting a new bush at the end of the extension housing I was not able to insert the drive shaft (cardan) again, too tight. Obviously I should have grinded the bush to the measurement of the shaft after fitting, this part seems not to be ready for use when you buy it from stock. I could not find a word about that in the manual, also no figures to what size it should be grinded. Can anyone help please? How much bigger than the shafts end should the diameter be?

[AHM]

It should fit - No reaming needed.

[marode]

hmm. It did not fit. I had the cardan shaft on the car and was trying to fit the gearbox with no effort. So I took the cardan out again to check, if it would be possible so fit. I could not insert it easily in the extension housing, so I used little force with a small hammer and a piece of wood. In doing so, I pushed the bush inside the housing and ended up with opening the gearbox again and taking out the gear selector shafts again to allow the extension housing to be removed. Then I destroyed the new oil seal at the end of the housing, which I now have to order from UK to Germany... As you can imagine, I was very exited to begin the hole procedure nearly from the start again. Maybe I will just fit the old bush again, luckily I did not discard it.

p.s.: just to be clear, I am talking about this part: http://www.burtonpower.com/tailhousing- ... 2e602.html

[CBUEB1771]

I have replaced this bush before and had no problem fitting the shaft, the ID of the bush after pressing-in was just fine.

[patrics]

Hi
I had this problem ended up removing the bush from the old iron housing and fitting that.

Regards
Steve

[AHM]

Yes - Same thing.

I got mine from TTR - it was a genuine Ford one.

[RichardHawkins]

Marode,
Sorry to hear of your difficulties. I have not had this problem with a Lotus Ford gearbox but I have with a Morriss Minor. I reamed the bush to create clearance. In the absence of any specific data as to the correct clearance required, normal engineering practice is 1 in every 1000. So a shaft with a nominal diameter of 30mm would require a clearance of 0.03mm

Hope this helps,
Richard Hawkins

[marode]

Just to conclude this topic: the tailhousing bush does fit in, there is no reaming needed. I had ordered a new one and this time I paid more attention to ensure the surface of the extension housing is free from any scratches and the bush flushes in without being twisted. Fits like a dream now.