Fork out, gearbox back in

Spent the past three late afternoons getting to the bottom of the bent fork problem.

The fulcrum on it is made of a separate metal element, which has just had enough. I removed the bolts on the gearbox on Sunday night; removed the propshaft (tightest bolts ever - and turning them meant applying torque to the rear wheels ... :( ), exhaust downpipe and separated the box and retrieved the fork. At last it's out!!!

The little bugger did indeed have a totally perished fulcrum, it was totally bent inside the cavity. I carefully pulled it out, and set it up right so it wouldn't be doing this again in a hurry. I'm glad I did this, bodge jobs would've failed with the metal I was using. The fulcrum is very strong metal! It's another case of 'throttle body gasket' again. I was using tin (from a tin can) which knackered the first pedal application. The pics aren't the correct adjustment, I did that after:

• Pulled out,
• As it should be,
• Attached to the release bearing.

Tonight I greased up the correct areas on the fork and put it back in. Aligning the box and the engine this time was a synch, as was mounting the box onto the body. It needed a jack and a bit of muscle lifting it. It's one of the reasons a car is heavy, and it's not easy lifting it into position with one hand, and bolting it up with the other, while making sure the shaft sits correctly in the flywheel. A couple of takes, and I managed everything. No fuss this time around it all bolted up properly, and I even -finished- everything, apart from torqueing the necessary bolts.

As with every job on the car, everything that is fixed, something else breaks. The old clutch slave cylinder bound on the housing - how it did this? Funk knows!