It is with a mixture of fear and relief that I have removed my Black Cab gearbox once again. And also a mixture of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream and Smirnoff vodka.
Fear as I have no idea really what I’m doing, and there’s a huge fear that I’ve irrevocably destroyed a piece of vintage English motoring history. Relief as after hours on skype with me da’, I’ve finally diagnosed the problem with the clutch re-installation. The problem, quite simply, was me and my eagerness to build a bearing press from a few G-clamps and a plank of holed wood.
I’m glad that after much conjecture, the problem was simply that I had forced the release bearing too far onto what I am hereby naming the thrust bearing chariot. The upshot, if none of this means a whole bunch to you, is that I was forcing a spinning flat piece of metal onto a thin-walled circle of steel, rather than an expanse of flat graphite designed for the job. Which explains the fingernails on blackboard noise and the faint whiff of smoke when I tried to get her going again.
So it was with a sigh of relief that I called Kip Motor to order a new release bearing. How I laughed as I forked over the $53 and looked back at the post where I said I wouldn’t need another thrust bearing until 2031.
Two hours fifty two minutes it took me from starting my time lapse photography to wrestling the nekked gearbox to the mat. A new personal best. One I hope not to beat before 2031.