1960 Austin A35 van revisited

What about using wills rings? You have probably already thought about that and discarded the the idea but would it not work well?

Managed to find a nice ,light ,steel flywheel. Made some remark about AP racing twin plate clutches being pretty expensive these days and promptly got given this setup

Well, that’s not entirely true, the clutch plate I bought to see if it fits the splines. The problem with buying bits all separately as opposed to say a complete engine and gearbox, is there are always parts you are unsure of. The gearbox input shaft splines being one of them. Google is all fine and well, but sometimes you do wonder. The splines, according to google ,are 7/8”x20. Now, that’s where I start getting nervous, as 7/8” is only 0,225mm bigger than 22mm and why would a Japanese company be using an imperial sized spline on a fully metric gearbox? Metric bolts, metric bearings etc? Did the person who measured the splines, actually measure properly? Were they old school imperial, used to measuring in Twelfty thirds and assumed, after measuring with a cheap and nasty plastic vernier gauge,that it was 7/8”? Well, for the price of a clutch plate  it was worth a chance,just to check. And, in this case, truth is stranger than fiction…the Japs did indeed use an imperial sized input shaft on this gearbox. Bizarre….

Shiny bits are hard to find for this 🤣

You could build a polisher?!

Did manage to get a bit further over Christmas

Put the block in the mill crank side up and continued measuring, after first getting it clamped down so it was 100% parallel to an axis of travel

Got the info I wanted and some that I didn’t 🙁

I now know where all the bolt holes are….

And I also now know that the block is twisted and needs to be linebored 😕


Landed up with this which I have now had lasercut to double check dimensions. Will come in handy when I do the dry sump. 

It must be cool to have an engine small enough, and tooling big enough to do some of your own engine work.

Notwithstanding the skill too.

Shame about the twist in the block though, I wonder how that happened, or is it a case of "they all do that Sir!"

Well, all the holes were cut in the template size for size. Everything fits perfectly. Cut outs for the crankwebs to be enlarged

Also got a set of under piston spray jets I will need to fit. Going from the standard forged rods to H beam ment there is no longer an oil way from the big end to the small end of the conrod. The block lends itself to fitting these as there is a gallery with bosses cast in the block. I just need to drill and tap them. Found these secondhand as I think they have a pressure valve in them, they won’t squirt under low oil pressure conditions. Would have thought it wouldn’t be too much to ask of the seller to clean the oil out of them before sending…guessi was wrong 🙄

That was my initial plan, to fabricate a block strengthening plate between the block and the dry sump. However… seeing this block is in need of a line bore, I am toying with the idea of making a complete one piece bearing block girdle to replace the separate main bearing caps . Not fully decided yet. Want to look at the other block that is in need of collection in Derbyshire first before committing to that idea. If that block also needs a line bore, then you know which direction I will most likely take 🤣

Haven’t had a chance to fetch the other block yet, probably will only happen in a couple of weeks time. Did start looking at something else much longer term for the van….🤔
Just to satisfy my curiosity 🤣🤣