My Voigt 5-speed conversion

[1owner69Elan]

Put the missing bend on the front edge of the transmission mount to clear the case. Presumably a bit stronger than cutting the notch.

The metal brake could not handle the small flange so this was done as a cut and weld.

[Foxie]

Put the missing bend on the front edge of the transmission mount to clear the case. Presumably a bit stronger than cutting the notch.

The metal brake could not handle the small flange so this was done as a cut and weld.

Should have been done like that in the first place !

[steve lyle]

Put the missing bend on the front edge of the transmission mount to clear the case. Presumably a bit stronger than cutting the notch.

Cool! (but mine is lighter )

[1owner69Elan]

Added lightness!

[steve lyle]

Arg.

I finally got the first test drive in today.

To jump ahead to the punchline - no fifth.

The longer story:

I think it was last Sunday evening that I got the engine put back together and started it up. It, of course, took a bit of cranking for the mechanical fuel pump to get gas to the carb, but nothing extraordinary. I had done an oil and filter change as part of the prep, and it seemed like forever (maybe 5-10 seconds?) at idle before the oil pressure got off "0". And I got spooked when the engine sound changed intermittently - it sort of sounded like the water pump was periodically running dry (this after adding just short of 2 gallons of coolant).

Anyway, that spookiness, and other life obligations, got in the way most of the week. I pulled off the pulley belt one evening and hand turned the water pump - no issues.

Today I ran the engine with and without the belt for awhile - I couldn't tell any difference in the engine sound, and the "pumping dry" sound never came back, so I went forward with the first test drive.

At this point I have no gaiter on the shift lever - it has plenty of room to move in the opening - totally unrestricted.

I jacked up the car to get the trolleys it's been sitting on off and noticed a puddle of oil underneath the rear tranny mount. Jeez, what now. No idea how it got out - the fill plug is firmly seated. The rear end of the tranny is in the tunnel, so any oil coming out past the seal somehow would be unlikely to come back to the mount, I would think. Hmmm.

Since I knew it had 2 l of oil, and only about 4-8 ounces on the ground, I went ahead with the test.

Shifting into R, 1, 2, 3, and 4th was all good. It whined a bit more in reverse than the stock one did, but nothing all that unusual.

The big issue was that when I shifted into fifth, even with an extra bit of oomph, it didn't fully "lock in" - almost immediately, or sometimes immediately, I got a grinding sound.

And to top it off, no reading from the speedo.

I've got an email off to Alan re: the above, maybe he'll have some ideas. Meanwhile I think I'll have a drink.

[gjz30075]

Arg.

Meanwhile I think I'll have a drink.

Or two . Is the prop shaft a sliding spline into the tailshaft of the trans? Maybe the welch plug got
pushed out if the shaft went in too far? Fluid will come out of that area.

[1owner69Elan]

Rather disconcerting report.

a. Unidentified oil leak.

b. No fifth.

c. Speedo not working

The no fifth gear is particularly worrisome. I noticed just testing the gears in the dry, uninstalled box that 5th was hard to find/engage. Maybe others with experience with the Voigt box can comment.

Right now, I think I'll join you in that drink.

[steve lyle]

Is the prop shaft a sliding spline into the tailshaft of the trans? Maybe the welch plug got
pushed out if the shaft went in too far? Fluid will come out of that area.

Yes, sliding spline into the tailshaft of the trans. There was a machine screw over the edge of the plug, so it would be really weird if that was the leak. There's a pic earlier in the thread...

[steve lyle]

I left out the good news. The shift action is light. Throw is long, but that's because the lever is long. This lever could be a lot shorter and it would still be a light shift action. Should be no problem shortening it to stock.

[Mazzini]

Rather disconcerting report.

a. Unidentified oil leak.

b. No fifth.

c. Speedo not working

The no fifth gear is particularly worrisome. I noticed just testing the gears in the dry, uninstalled box that 5th was hard to find/engage. Maybe others with experience with the Voigt box can comment.

Right now, I think I'll join you in that drink.

My Voigt box was of an earlier design.

a. No issues with leaks

b. I had issues with 5th because the standard gaiter couldn't cope with the additional movement required, the rubber bunched up like a spring in fifth causing the lever to pop out of gear when powering off. No issues when the gaiter was removed, but I may have had to cut away about of the surrounding GRP to allow additional movement.

c. The speedo gear housing is eccentric and has to be 'on cam' for it to work. Unless Alan supplied you with a standard item (like he did to me). The bad news is that you have to remove the box to fix it. I do not believe it to be possible to get to it with a Lotus chassis.

[1owner69Elan]

Steve,

Not sure if this is helpful or not, but I took a closer look at my Voigt box where the gear lever fork slips over the selector rod. There is a plastic saddle that the gear lever fork slips into and over. In my uninstalled box, my plastic saddle already looks beat up (knackered). I may have managed to do this myself as I was checking the gear ratios on my box and rowing through the gears.

It appears that the locating tab on top of the saddle, to keep it from rotating, is gone (snapped off) on mine. Mine rotates freely. You can see this tab in the brown saddle in the photo below, from another source.

As well as picture of the part.

I will be replacing this saddle on my box with a new plastic one or the alternative brass/bronze one (although those, while more robust, apparently can be noisy and better for racing applications). I am going to order both types.

You might want to check the positioning of the saddle (and its condition) and lever fork engagement on your car. Seemed like I might have been able to install the lever with the saddle out of position which resulted in the shift lever behaving strangely when trying to find 5th gear.

[1owner69Elan]

A few more bits of information:

I finally received the gear box plug that was missing on my case. This was a second shipment from Alan. The first one never arrived. The plugs (with an extra one) are as shown.

The salient point is that these slip into the bore loosely.

They would need to be sealed as they are not an interference fit. Note that another post showed an interference welch plug.

I had also purchased a nominal 9/16" aluminum rod to make my own plug. The OD of the rod is 0.570" while the supplied plugs are 0.560".

The rod is an interference fit while the plugs are not.

In an enclosed note Alan recommends using some Loctite on the plug.

I may use my rod instead of one of the supplied plugs because of the superior fit.

Steve, presumably you have the smaller plug as supplied. I looked at your photos and there may be evidence of some sort of sealant being used - a bit of smear and some dirt ? Perhaps this smaller plug is not sealing properly and leading to your oil leak? It is interesting to me that Voigts put the retaining screw on the outside of the case to keep the plug from falling out - a tell-tale that the plugs are not a tight fit. Why not Loctite, and presumably a tight seal, with no need for a retention screw, as Alan recommended in his note to me? He made no mention of placing a retention screw.

[englishmaninwales]

I’m sure Voights give fitting instructions, but this might be helpful when fitting a T9 gearbox, from BGH Geartech, (I’ve used his modified T9 g/b for years for my Caterham) especially advice about the gasket and sealant, it’ll leak from the selector rail at the front of the gearbox.
(Oil, of course is everyone’s personal choice!)

Malcolm

[1owner69Elan]

While not a critical issue, I decided to replace the copper clutch bleed line supplied by Voigt with a flexible line. This will give me some options as to the mounting up top. Makes accidentally crimping the line less possible, as well.

I also did not like the grommet provided for the bleed line to seal dust out of the bell housing. Rather poor fit as can be seen. I found an oval clutch line grommet (for a Jeep) that I modified to fit better in the hole.

Voigt grommet:

Modified Jeep oval grommet:

Minor bits, while I stall taking on the task of installation. Anxious to hear a resolution of Steve's issues.

[steve lyle]

I talked to Alan on Monday, let him know about the 5th gear issue and the other issues. He had Mark there as well. It was a very constructive conversation - no defensiveness, all just wanted to understand what was happening and begin to figure out what to do.

Best guess for the leak is that I hadn't sealed the shift lever plate, and for all I know didn't have it bolted down securely. I think that's likely, since I have a hard time coming up with another scenario that could leak that much oil that quickly. Per the Voigts, 5th throws up quite a stream of gear oil directly under the shift plate (sounds like they have experience with that).

They were stumped about the issue with 5th - apparently haven't seen quite that problem before. They went off to run some tests on units they had on hand.

Today they called back - their not sure exactly what the problem is, but it's almost certainly an issue with the 5th shift fork. The tranny will have to come out and get opened up to diagnose exactly the issue is and fix it. We talked about my wrenching experience, including rebuilding a couple of manual trannies, we're both comfortable I can handle it. Alan will be providing some diagrams and directions in the next day or two (as well as a replacement reverse switch), and we'll negotiate some reimbursement for my labor. So, here we go again with an engine pull....

I'm wondering about how to avoid pouring almost 2L of gear oil on the garage floor - the tranny has no drain plug, and I expect the oil will come pouring out the output shaft opening when I pull the yoke. Any ideas?