I love the project. But I have to agree with not mounting cable to body and I've done some hairy crap before. I understand that its tight in there and you aren't done with the install yet. When I put the V8 in my Vega I found that the sledgehammer came in quite handy to make more room. You won't need to adjust the tunnel much and the carpet will hide the adjustment nicely.
Take your time and the solution will come to you.
Best of luck

 

This is the quality of weld you can get from a gasless MIG. All I have done is remove the slag with a hand wire brush.

 

Gear Selector Cable mounting bracket TAKE 2

 

I count my self luck I decided to replace the trans now. As I was getting ready to machine the converter mounting holes I noticed some marks in the flywheel.

So I got some fine sand paper and a flat block. DAMN the flywheel is cracked. I'll have to talk to a transmission shop and see if I can get a custom flex plate.

 

Could have been nasty Warren.

 

That pic raises an interesting question regarding Jaguars use of dowells. I notice your flex plate does not have provision for them yet both my original '89 5.3 ltr and the '94 6 ltr flex plates had provision for them although the later example did not have them fitted. Jag dropped their use but all the cranks l have seen, even quite late ones are machined to take them.

 

The way its cracked would lead me to think something was out of alignment. It did not look like the trans had ever been out of the car, but who knows.

I do need to find the cause before I bolt everything back up.

I'll carefully measure the TC run out and alignment when I replace the flexplate.

 

Good catch

 

Repaired the flywheel cover with HTS2000 aluminium brazing rods.

 

looking good

 

Looks great. I knew it would come to you

 

Warrjon, I did a bit of googling (as I expect you have anyway) and apparently such cracking is not that uncommon, and seems to be what happens to all flexplates eventually. Depending upon your engine number some are still available from JCP apparently, earlier ones are not:
+ From Engine (66783)

 

My car has 260,000 km on it so that's entirely possible. My guess is the trans input shaft bearing.

Also I weighted all the TH400 (with oil drained) parts including mounts and the 4L60 is 12kg lighter. The TC and drive shaft are 3kg lighter and this is reciprocating mass.

 

I picked up another flexplate from Norman Lutz this week, and it was interesting the first few he picked up were also cracked, albeit far less than mine.

 

agree warron ,way back 1994, i weighed my 400 vs 700R4 and 700 was around 25/30 lbs lighter, and my small diameter converter was almost 1/2 the weight of the big V12 400 converter!!

talk about rotating mass reduction, i listen to engine response , and it is quick, going up in rpm ,but most noticeable coming back to idle quicker!

 

I have driven my brother's 800hp Shelby and it comes back to idle almost instantly.

I have been keeping track of the weight reduction, including my engine build and it looks like I will be reducing rotating weight by at least 5kg. 3kg (possibly more as the internals of the trans are lighter) from the trans and 2kg in pistons and rods. The Chevy pistons are about 30-40g lighter than the Jag and the Rods will be nearly 100g lighter.

 

Replacement flexplate on the Mill ready to slot the TC mounting holes.

I turned up a pin that fits in the collet chuck and centres the chuck and cutter in the hole. Move the bed to the other end and center the other hole so when I mill the slot it's straight.







I sanded the flexplate with emery cloth then scotchbrite to remove all of the edges on the nicks and edges.

 

Doing this again I would have had the torque converter modified for the TH400 bolt pattern rather than machining the flexplate.

 

I thought I would add some info on the spacers and TC snout pilot.

The aluminium spacers are 1.000" thick. The pilot is 0.980" from the crank and I have machined a 0.002" taper on part that goes into the crank to make it easier to install. Just wack it in with a plastic hammer.

 

Almost there. Last test fit. I must have had the trans in and out at least 10 times, getting good at removing and installing.




I am not a big fan of in radiator oil coolers, so I bought a heatsink oil cooler. and plan on mounting it in front of the radiator. I need to relocate the connectors and pull the bonnet off. So I'll wait until the trans in and the car down on the ground. I also bought a Magnefine oil filter I plan on installing before the cooler.