Engine Alignment

[Guest TerryBarry]

Hi,

I thought that I was getting somewhere this weekend.

This is a 2B with front wishbones and will have 4 into 1 exhaust.

Placed engine and gearbox into chassis - engine mountings into holes in chassis plates and gearbox centralised between upright tubes (as recommended in video)

BUT front end of engine is sitting over to the left hand side ( when viewed from drivers seat - if I had one) and the crankshaft pulley bolt is about 12 mm off of the centre line of the car. Is this normal on a 2B ??

Should the crankshaft run down the centre line of the chassis ?

As I see it if I hook up the propshaft like this the u/j's are going to be working all the time correcting the offset and resulting misalignment.

I could enlongate the engine mount holes to move the front of engine over to the right but will this compromise clearances for the exhaust / servo / steering shaft further down the construction road.

Any suggestions gratefully welcomed.

Terry

[Guest Ant]

Mine is off to the passenger side too. I reckon it's supposed to be like that. Room around the steering shaft, manifold and alternator is like gold dust so don't change it!

 

When I first noticed it on my 2B I spoke to the guys who I work with about it. Apparently there have been lots of production cars in the past with the engine slightly over to the passenger side. Partly for room, and partly to balance the weight as a car is regularly driven with only one person in it. I'm not sure about the reasoning here, but I can't see it being a problem. Use the adjustable shocks to level the car up once it's nearing completion.

 

Ant

[Guest johnboymac]

not sure if it helps, but on the subk - richard mentions in the video that the engine is not straight or in the middle, but the propshaft allows for this. - could be same with the 2b.

[Longboarder]

Viewed from above your setup is roughly five degrees out at the front propshaft UJ, rear straight. If you have room, move the gear box mount 3-4mm to the left and you will end up with about 2-3 degrees at both UJ's which will be fine. I doubt if the horizontal angles are any better. When you think about it a morris minor will travel London to Birmingham with one skinny driver and back with four lardies and the UJ's cope with the 100mm change in the rear axle position.

 

Nigel

[Guest TerryBarry]

Many thanks Gentlemen,

I've decided to leave it as is re' the engine mounts - I've moved the gearbox mount over a little bit.

To hedge my bets I've drilled 4mm pilot holes in the engine mounting plates which I can attack with a 11 mm drill from underneath later - if deemed necessary (and possible)

I've now fitted the propshaft - seems OK.

I must admit I had not looked at the horizontal alignment - by comparison the vertical mis-alignment is peanuts.

Cheers

Terry

[Longboarder]

Just had some further thoughts on this subject. A single Hookes type U.J. with a constant rotational speed input through an angle does not have a constant rotational speed output. They are fitted in pairs with the second joint mirroring the first to give constant speed output.

In practice this means that if you can't arrange the engine/gearbox axis in exact alignment with the differential axis then you should try as far as possible to make these two axes parallel. (see pic) Otherwise you introduce a torsional vibration in the prop and diff as they literaly speed up and slow down a little bit twice each full revolution. You would feel this as a buzz and possibly a noise, proportional to road speed. Try to do as below in both vertical and horizontal planes. (note shortened sump has been fitted backwards by some idiot )

Sorry to take so long to post this.

 

Nigel