A great company to use

Right – I’ve been getting the chassis prepped and around this time I’m also been getting other jobs done, namely getting the gearbox and diffs checked. I’ve found three great companies in Yorkshire that have helped me and I thought I’d share here.

Gearboxes

I went googling for gearboxes in Leeds and found Stephen Brear. They don’t have a website I can find, so I’ve linked to their Facebook Page. From the first call, they were very friendly and flexible about when I was going to drop my gearbox off. Over I go and pull in to their not inconsiderable yard. They were also very well referenced from what I could find – mainly I think they work for the trade.

Out comes Stephen (I think) and he brings a label to attach to my gearbox with my details on (very reassuring). I complimented him on the professionalism of his approach and he said “we do this for all the straight cut gearboxes … all the race stuff goes in the big safe“. Talk about feeling important.

We then discussed timing and he advised they could do it as a spare time job if I wasn’t in a rush, but call if I suddenly needed the car and they would rush it through. Following on from that, I get a call a week later informing me it’s sorted – no issues apart from a sloppy input shaft bearing that won’t matter when the gearbox input shaft is in the flywheel.. Then he rounded it off with “see you this friday … all in £40 – we’ll buy the team fish and chips with it on Friday”. Bargain.

Differentials

I also asked Brears if they handled diffs, and got a resounding No. Not in a bad way, but in a we know what we do well, and that’s what we do sort of way. They recommended Transaxle Services in Halifax. Again a company without a website, but a great guy to call. Super helpful. I dropped it off yesterday (in a secure drop off spot – I couldn’t get there during office hours) and called in today to see if it was there and had been collected.

Better than that, I got a really enthusiastic conversation about the slightly greater backlash in my diff than necessary, and the fact that it shouldn’t be a problem on the road, but should definitely be sorted for circuit use.

I’ll be done in a week, and i was reassured it wouldn’t be a major job – fantastic service.

Powder Coating

The chassis needed blasting and coating, and having taken a recommendation I went for CAS Coatings in Bradford. What a top bunch of guys. I dropped the chassis off behind their workshop which is in an old yorkshire mill. Once I’d done that and found my upstairs to the office, I got a very friendly and professional welcome. These guys are very busy and seem to move quickly wherever they go. We talked colours and requirements. I knew the  chassis was too big for their blasting facilities, so it needed to be outsourced. I was expecting at least a week’s wait. No chance – 3 days later it’s blasted and I get a call to come over and put the release tape on the parts I want to not have coated where I’m going to be bonding CF structural parts in place.

I got there and the chassis was laid out for me. They even checked the tape to be sure I was using the right stuff. It took an hour to tape up and then off I went. 2 days later it’s coated. I haven’t been able to collect it yet but the price was brilliant.

Candy Blue, no less.

So, I ordered a pair of these from eBay the other day – and they came. They’re bigger than they looked in the photo.

engine mount on ebay

This is the photo from eBay. I thought “hmmm – that’s probably a 10mm bore hole, and that’ll do nicely”. They’re nicely made – machined from solid and the bush is very secure in there – no complaints.

 

 

 

Below is the reality … they’re HUGE.

IMG_3156

 

That’s a pound coin on top. The bore in the bush is 15mm, and the mounting holes are 14mm. Far too large for my needs. I will have to decide what to do to reduce them.

 

I’m thinking of borrowing a friend’s lathe and machining a set of inserts – the mounting bolts only need to be m8, and you can’t buy a m15 bolt. I can either ream it out to 16mm or make an insert and take it down to 10. 3mm thickness in the walls will be more than sufficient.