Gearbox X member

[Si Richards]

Hi Daggers

Yes it was about time for an update I've been pretty lax. I have got some pictures of it which I'll dig out and post up. Away from my computer for a couple of days but will get it done ASAP.

Cheers
Si

[seajayare]

i have the same weird alloy brackets with my kit. I think they are something to do with IVA and the rear view (wing) mirrors that are supplied (ex a motorbike I think) I think they hold the mirrors out from the body. Don't remember where I saw them in place but I think I have seen them somewhere. if I find the picture I will post again I took me 18 months to get round to unpacking the car and it is now laid out on the garage floor whilst I work out what I actually have! So only a few hours in I reckon you are flying along!

chris

not sure who owns these pics so apologies to them but there is a pic of the XI looking like it is passing its IVA and i think you can see the mirrors on those brackets:

http://s1348.photobucket.com/component/ ... a50c42.jpg

[Si Richards]

Good spot there Chris, I made my own ones up but may have a look and see if these work better. The car is owned by Elva11 and I've seen it in the flesh and its a lovely car with some interesting mods. He had an escort rear axle which looked much more substantial than the midget.

Si

[Westfield 129]

Not much rhyme or reason to the packaging of the kit parts. Left front upper arm was packaged with the transmission install kit, brakes with the electrical... The brake lines were taped to the body shell packaging, and nearly got tossed...

Stuff was missing... That came about a week later by parcel post.

'Sure glad that we don't have IVA here for kit and component cars. I still have a lot of IVA bits left over...

Have fun!

[Daggers-xi]

Just had confirmation from Westfield that alloy brackets are for SVA mirrors.
Daggers

[seajayare]

Daggers, did they give you a clue as to where to fix them?

On the car in the photo I posted a link to the brackets were vertical with the mirror hanging off of the side so it looks like the bracket is just raising the height of the mirror, but the bracket is drilled top and bottom (I think) not side and bottom so it looks like it is designed to be holding the mirror in the same plane as the bracket is fixed to the car (ie 90deg diff to the one in the picture). Looking at the IVA manual it looks like it is covered by the Indirect Vision section and that is not easy to follow but it doesn't seem to have a minimum height requirement

chris

[Daggers-xi]

Chris,
In short no.
The answer from Westfield was to an email listing a number of items that were missing from the kit, and I could not seem to find these alloy brackets on the BOM.
It turns out that they were but I mistook them for the post IVA mirror mounting brackets.
For ref. On the BOM these alloy brackets are shown as Westfield prt.nos "4623027 Mirror MT Brkt-W/Fld XI"
Have the carpet fitters in this morning but will be in the garage this afternoon and will investigate.

Daggers

[Si Richards]

Hi Daggers

I have found a picture of the gearbox mount on the plate just prior to painting and then installing it. I fitted it after installing the engine and box as found it was easier to lift the back of the engine then bolt the plate with the mount already fitted to the chassis then lower the gearbox down and bolt it all up. It was fiddly very painful and helps if you have child sized hands and I did lots of measuring and card templates to get it just right but it does what it needs too once in place.

Cheers
Si

[Westfield 129]

How about fitting the mount to the transmission, lifting it into position, then affix some two sided foam tape to the mount and press the plate into position?

This will give a positive indication of where the mount will be sitting on the trans mount plate. Once the transmission is lowered, you can scribe the mount position on the plate, remove the tape and drill... This should take about 15 minutes (maybe less), and greatly reduce the time needed to make templates, and eliminate the need for small hands, as the plate can be fitted prior to lifting the trans into position as you describe. The trick will be bolting in the plate, but if you drill and tap the welded fittings, you can use larger bolts, and no nuts, making the whole installation from beneath, with an air wrench. Lock washers or flat washers and safety wire can ensure tightness.

I would also suggest an alternative of welding the nuts to the chassis, but tapping the welded plate mounts is actually a bit easier, and requires no repainting. Also, it is easier to check for mount tightness when doing the annual checks.

I would tap for fractional bolts, so that all of the major chassis bolts are fractional in size, eliminating the need to carry two sets of wrenches to the car when building. I pretty much eliminated the metrics from the chassis/drive train installation. Much easier to work on the car that way. While I love metric fasteners, and have a full duplicate tool set for metric fasteners, I prefer to work on a single car with a single set of tools. Much easier clean up at the end of the build day... Also, I can use aircraft grade AN hardware, which is far superior hardware, especially for the suspension components.

[Daggers-xi]

Si,
Thanks for photo, will try the Assy method suggested by Jan and see what happens, this will not happen for a few weeks as engine is not here yet.
Chris,
Please find attached a photo of the alloy wing mirror bracket with mirror attached. As you can see the two mount to body holes are vertical when the bracket is attached to mirror. When I held the bracket to the body the two bracket mounting holes aligned with the holes for the windscreen. As the windscreen is not fitted to the body for iva I assume this allows mirror mounting without drilling extra holes.

Daggers
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