August 3, 2020.
August 3, 2020.

August 3, 2020.

With the front suspension, steering completed for the minute, I returned to the MPCNC, It was clear that the issues were coming from machine slots that were the same size as the cutter, so chatter in the tool causes it to bounce off of the opposite face of the slot grab and get out of control, the two failed parts below show the issue.

I overcame this by forcing it to machine the slot at 1.5 times the width of the tool, basically this kind of fakes what happens with trochoidal milling, I think I’ll need to switch to CAM software that supports that, probably Estlcam the first part with the wide slot strategy worked…

As did the next bit which is the block off for the cold start injector which is no longer needed.

The same program was ran to cut the gasket for the plate, the material being held down with tape.

Here’s all the bits ready to go.

With that attention then turned back to the drive train, I’d made a mistake in the design of the transmission adapter plate as I made all the holes for the studs to hold the transmission on M12, however one of them is a 10mm hole in the gearbox. That meant making up the odd stud shown below from a M12 bolt and cut the M10 x 1.25 thread on the lathe.

Next was properly bolting on the flywheel an flex plate, the flywheel and adapter plate were made at least 10 years ago now, so I’m struggling to remember some aspects of what I’d checked etc in the fitment previously. Below shows checking the run out on the face of the flywheel, I checked this and the radial run out too, also the ring gear which I believe I got within 0.03mm of true, the only specs I could find on the web were showing a max of 0.5mm, which I thought was an astoundingly high number.

New flywheel bolts meant for a 3RZ-FE engine were used (Toyota part number 90910-02116). These were torqued to the 3RZ-FE spec, these are a one time use bolt, therefore I checked everything repeatedly before doing the final torque.

With the pressure plate on, the adapter plate fits over the flywheel, I think this was the first time I’ve had it all together to this extent.

An then with the transmission attached. It is not possible to fit this into the car in a single piece, the aim here is to make sure it all fits and the clutch works before goes in the car. I’m using studs on to the adapter plate due to the limited thread engagement into the plate. This makes it an incredible pain to get the transmission on, so working out the order of fitment for everything is important as it will only be harder doing it in the car itself.

The next thing to do check that the clutch operates correctly, measurements on the slave cylinder distances appear to make it look like it should, but I really don’t want to get to the point of it being int the car bolted up to find the clutch will not disengage or some other issue. The next job for me now is to determine how to activate the clutch in a reasonable way, where it sits now.