It's a Gearbox!

I was finally able to complete assembling the spare Citroen gearbox the LOONs and I started working with way back on Memorial Day weekend. We got as far as torquing the speedo drive gear, which is also the nut that retains the pinion shaft. Because of an assembly order glitch, I couldn't tighten up the nut (to 120 ft-lbs!) with the crow's foot wrench I had made for this purpose because I had already put on the rear housing. Harry Martens in the Netherlands has had a purpose-made tool built for just this situation, and rather than save a few hundred bucks and take the rear housing off and using the tools I already have, I ordered on up. Due to customs, it took a couple of months to get here. Plus my natural tendency towards laziness, it took this long to finish up.
As nice as the new tool is (and it is a nice piece of kit - it requires a 30mm socket to drive it!), it still won't fit over the speedo drive gear with the 5th gear synchro and shift ring in place. In order to remove that, you have to remove the shifter fork, and in order to remove the shifter fork, you have to remove the selector rail. In the process of pulling all of these bits out, you release 4 spring-loaded ball bearings - one for the selector rail detent and three for the shift ring detents. Of course, they all go in different directions and can bounce and roll a long way on a smooth concrete floor. I knew there was a reason I keep the floor relatively clean. After 45 minutes of rounding up the wayward bearings and 15 minutes of reassembling everything (after torquing the nut), I could put the top and rear covers on.

Four and a half pints of Redline gear oil and the box is ready to go on the shelf....


Or not.

There is a keyway cut into the tail of the pinion shaft. This isn't really for a key. Instead, after torquing the speedo drive gear, you are supposed to take a punch and dimple the drive gear into the keyway to keep it from backing off of the shaft. I distinctly remember seeing the slot and reminding myself to take that step, but I also remember not doing it. So, off comes the rear cover.

A whack with a hammer and a punch....

Clean up the mating surfaces and back goes the cover.


Now for FrankEnSPRIT. I was looking to hook up the oil lines for the turbo. What's wrong with this picture?


It turns out that the orientation of the turbo inlet, outlet, oil and coolant lines is different in the Emme front engine configuration vs. the mid-engine location for the Esprit. Fortunately, it is pretty easy to loosen up the housing bolts and rotate things into the proper position.