Type 9 gearbox nose welding

Well i finally plucked up the courage to cut into the gearbox casting. I could not take out as much as i wanted but 99mm is a good start to get the gearlever poking out in the correct place.

The cutting and first session of welding took nearly 5 hours. Mainly because i have never welded aluminium before, it took at least an hour to get my welder set correctly so that i could produce some decent welds. I will have to go back and finish the welding soon.

I will strip the gearbox of it's selector shaft this week end and hopefully get the shaft machined at work next week. I will then try the mechanism to see if i still have 5 forward and 1 reverse gear. If this is ok a good degrease and spot of paint should ready the box for it's adapter plate.

Taking of which i did say the design was likely to change and yep it has. I was trying to get the clutch release cylinder clamp as part of the plate, this now look less viable. I am following the route of modding the existing clamp by inclining the cylinder away from the gearbox. I will have to weld more material to the bosses on the clamp and file to and angle and relocate the mount holes so that everything lines up. Now this setup will never be perfect but it will work well.

Once the clutch slave cylinder issue is sorted i will finish the design of the adapter and get on with making it. The only cloud on the horizon that i can see is i can't find a supplier of M12x1.5mm cap head screws. If i cant get them yet another redesign of the adapter plate will be required.