Yes, this time it's in and is staying in the car!

You want to make sure you have the rear tranny mounts loosely installed on the car. And you may find, as I did, that following directions didn't work as easily as doing it "my way". So play around with finding your best way to put it all together. Also, the rear mount varies from model and year of car.

Here's what it looks like put together & in the car. Black arrows point to where tranny attaches.

The easiest way to put gear oil in the tranny is once it's all installed. Then you just remove the plug by the back-up light switch, put the flange in the rear and pour the gear oil in the shifter housing. When it starts to come out of the plug hole, it's filled.

Making sure I don't forget!

This next item deserves a BIG picture because the setting is so critical. The shoulder on the rear flange should measure a minimum of 1/2" and a maximum of 7/8" from the rear seal. You want to make sure the driveshaft doesn't push the flange shoulder into the seal damaging it or pull the flange out so far that it creates a whipping action that damages the seal.

The red marks & yellow line indicate the minimum & maximum distance. The blue mark is 1/2 way and where I positioned the flange for taking the driveshaft measurements.

The driveshaft is another critical component. Back in January, Herman called to tell me that he just had a club member lose his tranny because the driveshaft moved the flange back into the rear seal. Initially it caused an unnoticed minor leak but while on a trip the seal finally failed, dumped all the gear oil and destroyed the tranny. Since then he's caught a few others before they failed. The problem varies from model to model and is worse with those cars that have lots of rear suspension movement or have worn engine mounts. The root of the problem is that the rear tranny flange is a slip (it slides onto the output shaft splines and can move in & out) and the stock Triumph driveshaft also has a splined slip that allows the driveshaft to move in & out too. Herman supplies a locking collar that keeps the driveshaft from collapsing but there's nothing to keep it from expanding. Many people think that the threaded cap on the shaft is also a locking collar but, in fact, it's just a dust cap. When I brought my driveshaft to the shop, he tightened that cap as much as he could and then easily pulled the driveshaft completely apart. The driveshaft shop also agreed with Herman that you should NEVER have two slips in one driveline. As a result I went with a new solid shaft that included new u-joints, yokes & flanges and balancing for $210. If you plan on doing this conversion, budget for a new driveshaft custom made to your measurements. And, I stress, every car will measure a little differently. When we installed the engine, we positioned it as far back on the new engine mounts as possible to allow for ease of fan belt replacement. Then I also had a Nissan differential installed using the Goodparts' kit on all new Nylatron bushings. As a result my flange to flange driveshaft length was almost an inch shorter then the one Al Gary had made up at about the same time.

A perfect fit eliminates any worries!

OK....... back to the tranny. Time to get the shifter housing installed, hook up the braided line to the M/C, install the speedometer cable and attach the bleeder valve.

Make sure you grease the shifter top and cover.....it's metal on metal!
Yellow area points to the overflow fill plug.

Herman provides some nice SS braided hoses for the clutch M/C and for the bleeder valve as well as a long length of speedometer cable and a custom bracket.

Here's 2 views of the bleeder hose. The bell housing has a threaded hole for the bracket.
Speedo cable routing out of the connection, through the frame and then under the tranny to the other side. Keep the bends real gentle or the speedometer reading will jump around.
Here's the speedo cable bracket. I had to bend it to get a fit I was happy with.

Before you can bleed the clutch you need to install the Clutch Pedal Stop Bracket.......... this nifty little device is what determines when you clutch disengages and prevents you from overextending the t/o bearing. Herman's original kits came with a bolt that you had to correctly position behind the clutch pedal and then drill a hole in the firewall to attach it too. This new bracket takes all of the guesswork out of the equation.

The bracket is nicely machined for a perfect fit.
The bracket mounts on the bottom servo bolts. Pretty ugly pedal box........ that's what leaking  brake fluid will do when you brake m/c lets go!

Bleeding The Clutch

So here's how Herman told me to bleed the clutch...... pay attention because it's not what you think:

1. Remove the pedal stop bolt

2. Let the bleeder valve hose hang straight down

3. Fill m/c with brake fluid - use ONLY DOT 4 fluid. DO NOT use DOT 5 Silicon fluid!!!

4. Open the clutch bleeder valve

5. Pump the clutch until fluid flows in a nice steady stream

6. Don't empty the m/c or you'll have to start over again.

7. Shut the valve and refill the m/c

8. Repeat steps # 4, 5 & 6

9. Don't overfill the m/c. Leave it about 3/4" from the top. As the clutch wears down, the fluid will rise higher in the m/c

10. Reinstall the clutch pedal stop bolt

You probably noticed that there was no mention of getting all of the air out of the system. Herman swears by this process and doesn't worry about bleeding until there are no more air bubbles. He said it's a self-adjusting clutch. And I can tell you that my pedal has great feel.

Setting the Clutch Release Point

OK...technically, you aren't setting the release point. You're going to set the pedal stop bolt just past the clutch release point. Run your tranny through the gears and feel how easily it shifts. It should shift just as easily once the engine is running and the clutch is disengaged.

Start with the stop bolt screwed out as far as it will go and still stay in the bracket. My car was on jack stands so I just started it in 1st gear and tried to shift into 2nd gear which it did with some effort. So I screwed the bolt in a turn or two and tried again. I kept doing this until I could easily shift through all 6 gears without any grinding or heavy resistance. The best grinding tests are 1st and reverse. Once I could easily go through all the gears, I turned the bolt in another turn and locked it down.

Now that I'm driving the car I have to pay attention to fully depressing the clutch pedal to get a nice easy shift. If I try to shift with the pedal only partially depressed, I get a "drag-like" feel which tells me the clutch is full released.