The EX "A Quick Build" is now the New Protracted Build A35

soooo glad you are back on this , its the coolest thing (nearly) ever!!

Well done mister "B" I LIKE THAT, Having another afternoon on it today, thats after I have made dinner, been for a walk with the boss along at Pett Level. and probably frog Marched thru Morrisons

I think this van is possessed, or at least, dosent like me.
I have spent 3 days on my back under the van faffing about sorting the exhaust, at least that fits where it needs to go, Phew, Few of you will realise how diminutive these A35s are, in my world everything clears by about 2mm, or less
So, lets get the prop in while I have a sore back, again the prop is a pain, 1, Because it has a dog spline, so it will only fit in one position, 2, it clears the tunnel by the aforementioned 2mm, 3, Im a grumpy old git when things start testing me, 4, it squeezes around the exhaust as there is a small factory made exhaust tunnel that is sort of the prop tunnel too, that gives me ground clearance BUT where the original exhaust was 30mm, my one is 55mm, so it encroaches into the prop tunnel,
If you remember I had to raise the engine by about 25mm, this , in turn has moved the gearbox, thats OK, just made a slight difference in the flange angles, that should not be an issue, After lots of swearing I get the nose into the gearbox, bolt the prop up, Ooooh that was easy for a change, got it right first time, now, for some reason, I cant turn the prop any more than 10 degs, clamber out from under the van, and put the gearbox on neutral, try turning the prop, it still won't, lots of swearing again and carefully looking around the exhaust, it now looks like the prop front UJ is clipping the tunnel, put a jack under the gearbox, take the crossmember off, elongate the crossmember holes, bolt it all up together , manage to get the prop back and centralise the gearbox..... HOORAY, no GRRRRRR, the prop still won't turn and its not, and nor do I think it was itouching the tunnel in the first place ... WTF..... where do I go now, and why has the box locked up I will try and get the gear lever out and see if the selector pin has broken, but I cant understand why it should, the box was fine before I bolted it to the engine and into the van

I had a weekend off the damn thing, Went back out there today fully intending to pull the engine and box, split the box and see whats occurring the gearbox is pretty unusual in as much you split the gearbox lengthways, apart from the tail housing

images.app.goo.gl/j5e3Qo8Ry5yoR5vQ6

So, I line up all the tools I think I will need, get the lay down mats where I need them, pull the prop, around the tail shaft there is a pressed steel cup, Im guessing to stop any oil spray, it was a touch loose, so I removed it, this revealed the tail shaft actually sticks out 25mm beyond the lip seal, Mmmmmm------- I have an Idea, out come the 18" pipe piers, check check and double check its in neutral, back under the van, Got where Im going yet. attach the pump pliers carefully to the tailshaft, pull down on the pliers and I get a partial heavy turn, far too heavy, im turning the engine over too, check the lever is in neutral again, and it is, get back under the car, pipe pliers attached again and using a real techie term, wanked back and fro, still turning the engine over, then BANG, it releases, my knuckles punch the bottom of the car, now the shaft turns dead easy, the gears seem to select, all I can think is a synchro cone had jammed, Now I have refitted the prop, and still need to clearance the tunnel slightly, but everything now turns over without going "clunk" Yippieeeeeeee

Result on the release! It must be an age thing but ive started to think ahead when doing stuff like that knowing something may slip or give way quickly so its glove time!

I thought that was a sock? Been getting it wrong all these years, no wonder I find it hard to tighten my nuts...

*note to self to purchase some gloves for tool cabinet... 

😅

Back again, had an afternoon out on the Van, been doing loads of silly bits.
Many months ago I located the battery in the false floor below the load floor, its quite low, and I managed to find a low Gel Battery that fitted in the space, great, took the battery out a few months ago and put it on the bench, 30 seconds later, it was laying broken on the floor, big hairy gonads, or words to that effect, ok, I will order one, sorry, thats obsolete, days of trying drew a blank, so typical of my luck at the moment I was Gifted a pair of Batteries by the lovely Mr Bravo, which happily fitted in a old box I was going to use for another job, now located on the floor hiding the battery.
The floors in these vans are built with bolt in floors, a bit crappy really, but thats what it came with, and its only half length, it dosent go past the middle of the wheel arches, the rest is ply. the steel floor was pretty dented and distorted, I was fortunate to find another straight abiet Rusty, and disposed of the old one when I moved, made a new ply one for the front end, and Hated it, not sure what to do with this, so it has been left in the van for ages, Imagine my surprise when I found the old steel floor, ... in my new Garage. ? Plan B, chopped the trailing edge of the old floor and dropped it over the other floor where the ply would have been, Think this plan is a go'er,

Im having trouble with adding pics for some reason, they are all loading from my phone in some odd format

Normally they arrive on the computer as Jpeg, but these latest are arriving from my phone as a HPIC, using airdrop