Beta Spider 2000 engine rebuild/refurb

[mangocrazy]

I thought we were a bit at cross purposes...    I guess it will be suck it and see whether I have to disturb the gearbox to re-fit the intermediate shaft. There can't be much slack in the splines or they wouldn't do their job. But the bearing has too much play to ignore it and continue with it.

It'll be a learning experience...

[Nigel]

Hi Graham,
The gearbox can stay in place, you won't need to move it.

In my experience, the castle nut won't be very tight to remove ,once the tabs are
knocked back. Try a pin punch on it.

I made this tool from a piece of stainless steel pipe and an old Whitworth socket
for when I did my diff bearings.
It measures 40mm outside dia, and 35mm inside dia. I've no idea if the nuts are all
the same size, but you're welcome to borrow it.

[mangocrazy]

Hi Nigel,

Prescient words! I was preparing for a proper fight when I saw the ring nut, and (as usual) the staking was a pain to remove. In the end I drilled them both out. But when I was cleaning up the nut so it didn't damage the shaft, bugger me if it didn't move... So I got the old pin punches out and sure enough it tip-tapped off without too much persuasion. Better still, the shaft also came out of the centre bearing race with scarcely a whimper. A few taps on the end of the shaft with a block of wood interposed, and out it dropped. So I've just got the bearing to remove from the housing, but that can wait until tomorrow.

Smells of chicken livers cooking are wafting up from the kitchen...  

Graham

p.s. thanks for the comforting words about the gearbox. That cheers me up no end.

[Nigel]

Success! Glad to see it apart.

Out of interest, what does the bearing feel like?
Any roughness?

I've not seen this replaced ever, so I'm quite curious....

edit: if you don't happen to have a new castellated nut, rub down the mating face on
a very flat surface with some wet/dry paper, this will move the locking tab
location to a new position.

[mangocrazy]

Hi Nigel,

It doesn't feel rough as such, but there is definite play within the bearing. It spins very freely, but wear has clearly taken place. The looseness I can feel is definitely out of spec. I'll compare it with the new one from Mark W when it arrives and let you know. While it's all apart I'll get the housing vapour blasted and probably get the shaft and CV flange black phosphated and the triangular plate and bearing collar yellow zinc passivated.

I only intend to do this once...

Graham

<edit> The bearing also left its housing with only gentle use of a 46mm socket and hammer. Didn't even need to apply any heat. All very civilised. Bearing code is 62206-2RS and it was an SKF. Spinning it in my hand you can feel and hear some very slight roughness, which is purely down to wear I think. It's definitely worth replacing.

Good call on the the castellated nut. I don't have a replacement so will use your method to move the staking spot. Thanks.

[mangocrazy]

The intermediate shaft bearing housing has been sent off for vapour blasting, the rotating parts will get black phosphated and the other bits will get yellow/gold passivated. Finally got round to taking some more progress pics and they are shown below. In no particular order we have the oil filter housing and its various attachments, the dipstick holder from above, proof that both water rails are at last mounted on the engine, and my use of stainless builder's band and a P-clip to act as a dipstick holder mounting.

If you look closely you'll notice that some rubber inner tube has been interposed between inlet manifold and dipstick holder in an attempt to dampen any vibes. Once the intermediate drive shaft is back on the car, I think my next challenge will be to statically time the ignition. This should be fun...

[Clifford]

Wow those gold covers look great.
What was the colour gold you used?
Thanks
C

[mangocrazy]

Hi Clifford,

It wasn't gold paint - I had them powder coated, so not really sure what it was called. Most powder coaters have a good range of colours to choose from, but that one really appealed to me. I had it done by a guy in Shropshire near Tern Hill. I can find out the name or code of the powder if you want.

Graham

[SanRemo78]

Did the inside or gasket surfaces get coated? There is a risk of it coming off and blocking oil pathways.

Guy

[peteracs]

Given how pretty that engine looks, I am doubting you actually want to fire it up and spoil the looks……

Peter

[mangocrazy]

Hello Guy,

No, it was only the outer surfaces that were powder coated. The interior surfaces are bare aluminium, albeit vapour blasted. And all screw holes and orifices were cleaned out with a combination of compressed air, a tap or a dentists's probe. It actually took me quite a while to remove small amounts of over-coating so that the gasket mating surfaces were completely clean.

Hi Peter,

Yes, that had occurred to me as well. But It's not just pretty, the metal underneath is better protected so hopefully I can keep it looking reasonably smart even while in use. It will look as good as it can when the engine goes back in the car, but after that it will get used.

Graham

[Clifford]

Thank you Graham. Looks really nice
C

[peteracs]

Hi Graham

I think you are fooling yourself!!!!

Thread started in 2016 and you will soon look at the rest of the car and think, maybe I should tidy up the car to match the engine?

Another 5 years go by……..

Only joking, hope you get it in the car this year and start enjoying it.

Peter

[mangocrazy]

Hi Graham

I think you are fooling yourself!!!!

Thread started in 2016 and you will soon look at the rest of the car and think, maybe I should tidy up the car to match the engine?

Another 5 years go by……..

Only joking, hope you get it in the car this year and start enjoying it.

Peter

It doesn't help that the car is in France and I (and the engine) am in the UK. In 2015 I was intending to bring the car back to the UK to start refurbishment. I'd booked the ferry crossings and we were about 3 days away from coming back when the water pump started squealing its head off. Instead of replacing it myself I panicked and put it into the local garage in our village. Bad mistake.

Long story short, he completely f***ed the engine, bending 7 out of 8 valves when he decided to replace a cam belt which had only been replaced less than 1000 miles previously (see photo below). Fortunately my neighbour in France was able to retrieve the car and put it in my garage while we were back in the UK. Then I had to do an engine swap, bring the original engine back to the UK and start refurbishing it. Since then the car has only run intermittently on its donor engine, so I still haven't been able to repatriate the car.

And then of course Covid happened, further complicating matters. And so I'm now in something of a dilemma. The engine/gearbox is very close to being ready to go back into the car. But I would much prefer to install the engine in the car in the UK where I Have a far better support network. I also want to get the carburation/timing etc. set up on a rolling road before the engine has many miles on it, and that also would best be done in the UK. So taking the refurbished engine to France and doing an engine swap there is not the best option.

But I don't have a garage in the UK. I've made tentative enquiries near me but have so far drawn a blank. I also need to be sure that the car is sufficiently reliable on its donor engine to make the 800-odd miles back to Sheffield without breaking down.

And you're right - there are a fair number of things I need/want to do to the car while the engine is out, which also needs a garage. So for the moment I'm just getting my head down and trying to ensure the engine/gearbox are as good as they can be and await an opportunity to bring the car back to the UK and get stuck in to all that needs doing.

[mangocrazy]

I've been waiting on some parts being fabricated and other parts coming back from the platers, so things have slowed down a bit. But at least the intermediate/centre section of the drive shaft is now back together, with a new bearing and the bearing retainer and sleeve yellow zinc passivated. I also had the mounting bracket vapour blasted and that has come up beautifully. Bit of a shame that it will never be seen in use, but I didn't really want to put it back on in its previous (decidedly manky) state. I decided against getting the shaft black phosphated, as it's in pretty good shape once all the grease and dirt had been removed.

I didn't want to buy another castle nut (even if I had been able to find one), so had to find a way to re-use the existing one once the staking and thread had been cleaned up. Nigel got me thinking with his earlier comment about rubbing down with wet and dry to move the staking point to a different position, but I took the opposite direction and ordered some 25mm x 0.1mm shim washers to have a similar effect. I used 2 x 0.1mm shims and it moved the staking point back a suitable amount (as shown in the photo below), while leaving plenty of unmolested area should I ever need to repeat the process. I really hope I don't have to, but better plan for the worst.

I bought the shims from https://www.modelfixings.co.uk/shim_washers.htm and they have a comprehensive range of sizes available. Highly recommended.

[WestonE]

Hi Graham

Nice work. I assume you have the rubber boot for the coupler? As the splines are greased (moly grease) the rubber boot keeps road grit from sticking and becoming grinding paste.

Enjoy

Eric

[mangocrazy]

Hi Eric,

Yes I do have the rubber boot. It was something of a surprise to find a rubbery thing underneath all the road dirt and grime, but it's cleaned up and ready to go on. Good point about moly grease - I'm a bit confused with the range that's available. Ideally I'd like something I can use for this application and also for packing CV joints when I come to it. Any recommendations?

<Edit> after doing some Googling, it seems to me that this should do the job:

https://www.commaoil.com/productsguide/view/6/212

That seems to tick all the boxes, would you agree? <\Edit>

Many thanks,

Graham

[peteracs]

Hi Graham

Looks like it does tick all the boxes.

Peter

[WestonE]

Yes that will do fine

[mangocrazy]

Thanks chaps.