yoeddynz

Ha. So pretty much the day after I had cleaned up that old alternator up and got it running on the engine the second hand replacement for my original unit turned up in the post.

It came with a 3 month warranty so I'd better check it works before stripping the engine of its ecu etc.

Started to fit it and oh..

Poos. It wont fit. So I took it apart, along with the original..

Discovered its just the front housing that's different and I can swap them across..

So while its apart it would be rude not to clean all the parts up and polish it all (tempting fate just a bit...)

Fitted to the engine and started it up. Yay - it works and it looks great, which is really quite important given its right there, in the middle on display.

I'll keep the other one in storage just in case I need it one day.

Now I could strip the engine back down, removing all the cooling, wiring and fuel lines that I had installed just for bench testing. Then I removed the transmission and put the engine back onto the engine stand 2000, stashing it away because its gearbox tinkering time.

This Leone transmission has a few little issues that need sorting out in order for it to run in reverse rotation and not potentially turn itself into an expensive insinkerator or coffee grinder. I could probably get away without doing these modifications because the box is overbuilt for the application but I wanted peace of mind.

  Remember I had acquired the two gearboxes, 1600 and 1800 items, before getting the engine. Ages ago, in fact 4 years ago I think!!!   I had wanted to know if it was feasible to run these boxes in reverse.  This pic I posted up way back then gives a good idea on what's going on inside...

I had already worked out some of the issues back then and knew what I was up for. With more study I found a couple of other areas that need addressing. Here's another bit of wonderful scribbling I did this evening..

The pink arrows show the new axial forces that are being imparted onto the main (driver) shaft and pinion (driven) shaft.  The circles are areas that I think needed attention to make sure it doesn't throw it toys from the cot.

1 : the blue circle. Under high torque loads this area could possibly create the sound of nashing teeth but with much messier consequences.  The top left one being the third gear driver wants to move to the right and clip the teeth on the bottom right second gear. In normal rotation they would move apart. There's 1mm of clearance there which is probably enough tbh. But I wanted a bit more and had already worked out how I could get it with no other issues and just a bit of tool making. Which is fun.

2 : The yellow circle. This ring was no going to take thrust loading. It is a strong ring and has a deep groove but I wanted to make sure there was no way it could ever shift.

3 : the green circle. In this area there is a thrust bearing that also acts as a neat little oil pump and squeezes oil through the gear hubs/bushes. Under the new loading the thrust aspect is removed but I still wanted to it pump oil and it was going to be the wrong shape to do so in reverse rotation.

So I set to work and checked off each job. I made a bolt holder for ease of reassembly - several different sizes and lengths.

Once apart I started with the gear side clearance. First off I needed to split the mainshaft assembly down. 4 years ago I had out of interest tried using a puller on the spare 1600 box, which shares the same layout and design but with smaller parts in many cases. The puller didn't work. But this time round I have the rather handy workshop press I made. I just needed some extra tooling to do this job. Starting with some press plates...

Allowing me to carefully press the shaft out...

Because I'm not posh (or rich) enough to own a surface grinder I needed to make one. Yes its a bit basic but it will work. I made this...

Which allowed me to do this....

I ended up with this gear having the 0.5mm more clearance I wanted. Super happy with the result.

Now onto number 3 - the little oil pumpy thingee. I went to my friendly engineering workshop in town and got a big lump of 4140 steel. I drilled it out...

Machined out a ring which had to be an exact width. Just in case it needed finishing after the hardening process I made an abor to take it..

I carefully machined it to the right profile, cut the sides down and filed the shapes in, just like the original but in reverse. Happy it was going to work I heat treated it. I have not done any heat treating for over 25 years since I spent a fair bit of time in the blacksmith department while doing my apprenticeship. But it wasn't a super loaded critical component and just had to have a durable hard surface. I didn't take any photos. Hannah was there helping as I carefully heated it up with the oxycet to the austenitic stage and agitated it in some lovely rice bran oil (because I can be posh sometimes) then slapped it in the oven to temper it...

Following morning I polished it. It came up sweet and the old file test showed it to be as hard as the oem item.

You can see the reversed design here...

Here's a little vid I took showing it in action...

While stripping the mainshaft down I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that this 1800 box has needle bearings in all of the gear hubs unlike the 1600 box which uses bushes on the mainshaft. So oil starvation would not have been as much of an issue but I'm still really happy I did this modification.

Last issue to sort was number two - that ring on the bearing. It would hold fine I'm sure but if could make it bulletproof then why not - it's just a bit of extra machining. I started with another lump of high tensile steel and machined out a ring to suit...

This fits over the other ring and then the main thrust plate that sits over the bearing was machined out to suit my reinforcement ring. Its all held in place by the end housing which I have yet to fit.

All the potential issues covered I set to cleaning out the casing and then started reassembly. In doing so I discovered that the original axle seals are sided on these boxes. They have those helical lines on the lip surfaces which aid in pulling/pumping oil back into the oil side of the lip ( the lip does not actually touch the steel when the axle is moving and in fact runs on a tiny bed of oil) which I had not realised before I'd bought plain lip seals from an engineering supplies. This pumping capacity is shown to be twice as high in helixed seals. Subaru fit left and right handed items. But I'm running mine in reverse. Luckily the originals were in excellent condition anyway so I machined up a stepped tool, popped them out and swapped them to the other side.

The diff axle seal surfaces came up good after a clean. Cute little diff..

I'm now about ready to put some 3 bond gloop on the case half and drop the other side in place. Its looking all very nice, clean and shiny in there...

Motueka.  Last of the proper Ferraris in my opinion. It's a manual too.  Lush. Before they went complex and ugly. 

Edit : it's almost as nice as one of my favourite of all ferraris - the sw20 rev3 gt-s turbo in yellow. 

 

Couldn't stop there. Need a place for coffee mugs.. 

It's a nice little spot now. We are owed a whole load of macrocarpa from a customer so will soon build bench seating along the back. 

 

Approved by Kevin..