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With the body and chassis apart, it was also time to pull the drive train.


On the face of it, you’d think it would be easy enough to haul the engine and box out with it this stripped down.


The headaches become a bit more apparent from this angle:

  • Vacuum tube crossmember to sump clearance
  • Exhaust manifold to chassis clearance
  • Transmission shift tower positioning between chassis rails

  • Decided this wasn’t going to work, so pulling the manifold off was more sensible. Interesting there is a redundant bracket and threaded fitting for a handbrake cable on the passenger side, presumably this is for LHD markets.


    Not a lot of clearance around the oil filter and pump.


    The starter motor and bell housing are actually in between the chassis tubes.

    As well as the tight fit, there are some other foibles of note.

    Don’t know why this section is so corroded compared to the rest of the chassis. These are the threaded bosses which the screws on the top of the transmission tunnel / bottom of the fascia panel thread in to.

    This is not a standard gearbox mount as far as I can tell. A section of solid bar has been welded on to the lower rails, slotted to allow the handbrake cable to pass through, and threaded to accept a rudimentary rubber mount.

    All of this would be because our car isn’t running a normal Elan spec 2000e Ford derived gearbox. Our car has a 5sp ZF box more commonly found in droopsnoot Firenzas.

    With the body shell off the chassis, it made some parts of the strip down process a lot easier. Everything in the nose area could now be accessed with the body raised to chest height and standing in the engine bay.

    The brake servo is mounted front left, with the vacuum feed T’d off the line in to the vacuum tube on the chassis. On the other side, the little solitary horn, should probably have checked it worked before removing it actually!

    With those removed, next up was the headlight vacuum pods. The front left was evidently replaced when the car received the questionable quality accident repair on that corner.

    As far as I remember, the headlights worked before parking up. That being said, a conversion to electric actuated units is quite common. Still a decision under debate.

    Also got a new toy for my home garage

    Crafty Footwork

    Grabbed some pics today to better answer a question raised on Pistonheads regarding the master cylinder orientation on the car.

    On the face of it, they would look to be the wrong way round, with the brake and clutch cylinders positioned in the opposite order from the pedals.

    This is due to the limited space available on the outside of the engine bay due to the inner wheel arch.

    I’ve also highlighted the throttle cable with the red arrow in the picture, this enters the cabin vertically above the pedals.

    Here we have the pedals out of the car.

    At the left hand side, the bracket with 4 bolts goes through the bulkhead and these bolts mount the master cylinders in the engine bay.

    The clutch pedal attached directly to the piston rod from the clutch master cylinder. The clutch pedal rotates freely on its own.

    The brake pedal is mounted on a rotating sleeve which actuates the brake master cylinder piston via the small lever at the far left, which also has the white plastic attachment for the brake switch on it and the return spring.

    The accelerator pedal is also on a sleeve with the long lever connecting to the throttle cable underneath where it enters the cabin, so pressing the throttle pedal towards the bulkhead, move the lever down and pulls the throttle cable down vertically.

    Clever way around the problem of mounting the master cylinders in the limited space available without ending up with massively offset pedals.

    Chassis Clean

    With the rolling chassis free from the body, I was able to give it a good look over from all angles for the first time.

    Clearly the diff has a leak and the oil film from this has combined with road grime to create a thick greasy film all over the casing. Also a ridiculous build up of muck on the tail of the chassis.

    Decided the most sensible course of action, so I had something I could touch without immediately getting filthy, was to wheel her outside and let the jet wash go to work.

    Disconnecting the prop to let it roll freely confirmed the diff’s nose seal is leaking quite significantly.

    Cast off rubber gloves used to plug the engine’s openings and any areas I didn’t want to risk getting wet. Even though I wasn’t spraying the engine itself, it’s a sensible precaution.

    Something quite cool and militaristic about Spyder’s branding on the chassis!

    Ultimately neither snow foam, nor G101 was meaty enough to de-cake the diff housing but the rest was a lot less grotty and allowed me to properly inspect the condition.

    Chassis Overview

    After splitting the body from the chassis, the first order of business was getting the notebook out.

    Logging the spacers on each and every body attachment point. Although they will likely be getting change as part of the bodywork overhaul, it’s a useful reference.

    I say spacers, that’s glorifying the situation a touch, big old washers would be more accurate, anything more than a 3 stack got a tack weld applied to hold them together.

    There was some sizeable differences from side to side down the backbone. These 2 plates are on opposite sides of the transmission tunnel, where the roll cage mounts.

    Also the slight issue of some butchery on said plates!

    Video showing the variety of spacers and the state they were in…

    First time the shell had been off the chassis in probably near 40 years. Bit of grot and grime build up!

    One interesting thing that was immediately noticeable was the massive improvement on the door fit with the body released from the chassis. Suggests the spacers were all to pot and the shell was being bent or twisted. Don’t have shots from the same angle unfortunately but think this shows just how big a difference it made.