Saturday 23rd May - A very long, very hot, but rewarding day!

I had a very early start this morning as Dave Maton was coming up to help install the Lotus engine and I had a few jobs to get done before he arrived. The first job was to install the new engine mounts and this was straight forward and didn't take long. 
Next was fitting the dynamo bracket as I thought this would be a lot easier to do whilst the engine was out of the car. Again, this was fairly easy although I did have to re-cut the thread on one of the bolts as it wouldn't go all the way into the block. 
Dave arrived just as I finished this job and after a brief chat and catch up we mounted the gearbox onto the back of the engine. Before we joined the two properly, we had to adapt the spacer plate with a bit of cutting and grinding. Due to the new alloy sump and the new rear crankshaft seal plate, the original spacer plate doesn't fit properly, so it has to be adapted.
With this done we then got the engine crane ready and lifted the engine and gearbox into the car as one lump. It wasn't too bad a job and we had it done fairly quickly. 

The gearbox is a 2000E item only with a remote gear change so this had to be removed before the gearbox was fitted in the car and re-fitted once in the car. (Which isn't easy!)

The split propshaft was next on the agenda and the centre bearing bracket has to bolt through the floor, which means moving the carpet out of the way. This wasn't too bad a job though and again, we had it done fairly quickly. 
We decided to bleed the clutch next, but this is where our problems started as the clutch pipe didn't seem to want to screw into the brand new slave cylinder. With numerous attempts all failing, we then removed the slave cylinder and managed to persuade it to behave once it was on the workbench! 
Eventually we had a working clutch with no leaks, so with our confidence restored, we decided to bleed the brakes as well. 
However, before bleeding the brakes, we had to adjust the handbrake. These cars were fitted with a 'self adjusting' system, but like every other car built in the sixties, these never work, so we had to adjust the brake shoes manually. After doing this we then bled the brakes. This took some time as the car has been fitted with all new brake pipes, rebuilt callipers, new rear brake shoes and a rebuilt remote servo as well as refurbished clutch and brake master cylinders, so the brake fluid had some ground to cover before it reached the bleed nipples. Eventually though, it all came together and we now have a good brake pedal. 
While I was tidying up, Dave fitted the starter motor and by now it was around 4pm and my garage was extremely hot. Before we gave up and because we are both big kids, we wanted to see what the engine looked like with the newly refurbished twin 40 Weber carbs on, so we put them in place without bolting them on properly. I have to say, it does look good and I cant wait to hear the car running. There's still quite a bit of work left to do before then though. What a buzz that thought gives me though. 😁