Help mating zf and dart block!!
- Thread starter Pmccooey
- Start date
I believe it applies to all of them. the total length must not exceed 4.7" You are certain your shaft is hitting the end of the pilot hole and not being stopped by the pilot bearing? You also said you got rid of the Safir bearing and are using a bushing?
I also found this newer supplement on ERA's site. It shows 4.8"
Yes, I tried assembling the entire thing with just the ZF - bell housing- spacer - engine and still the same. So every way I measure it there’s just not enough room to fit. Something has to give. Seeing the ERA manual talk about the -2 having a shaft being 1/4” too long makes me feel better because that is the length with clearance I would need with mine. I just wish I knew about this last year when I sent the ZF out to Ron McCall to get rebuilt and gone through so he could have either switched to the shorter shaft or had it cut while it was apart.
Bill Kearley
Supporter
If you're sure about the input, a zip cut and a clean up will cure your problem. Measure everything again. If you have to find a piece of wood dowl and with spacer plate against the block and confirm, keep in mind the spline to clutch disc
Even after trimming the end of the input shaft, I recommend making this pilot bearing for more clearance:
David Garton
Supporter
Pat, Not sure of this comment? You should not have a bushing and the pitot bearing in the crank. Only the pilot bearing that came with Safir kit. If your doubling up that will cause your issue.
Sorry confusing the way I typed that out. No I just have been using the bushing.
Well anyone thats been following this thread I finally got back to working on the car after a long winter of cold weather and getting sick a few times!! I ended up making spacer plates out of 1/8 aluminum sheets. I wanted to do one out of 1/4” but all I got my hands on at the time were 1/8”. Made the two spacer plates, fit them to the engine and installed the bell housing. Checked the distance from the throw out bearing and added one of the thinnest shims in the kit that brought me to 0.125” clearance. Installed the ZF and finally got the two mated!!!! Now hopefully the added 1/4” doesnt come to bite me in the ass down the road in assembly.
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David Garton
Supporter
Pat, I see you have the starter there I would manualy pull the starter drive out and make sure it engauges far enough into the flywheel gear. Better to find out now than later. Hope it works out for you as I know you have done all you can.
David
Flywheel never moved from its original position. The original backing plate that came with the bell housing was mounted behind the flywheel, then my spacer plates were installed, then the bellhousing. So while the bellhousing itself is 0.250” further away from the starter the starter istelf is right on the original backing plate just like before.
Check your throw out bearing gap next as that has now been moved back with your spacers. Curious why you didn't just cut the end of the ZF input shaft?
Yep I rechecked the bearing gap with the new shims. Funny the gap after adding 0.250” was only something like 0.280” (from memory) so the one shim brought it about 0.125” but if I never threw in the spacer plates the minimum gap would have been like 0.030”!!!
The reason I didn’t cut the end of the input shaft off is that shaft is balanced and true spinning at high revolutions. I can’t imagine taking a grinder or cutoff tool and hacking the end off and trying to chamfer a new end on it. It would have to be horrible destruction for the trans. And for the cost of these things it would be better to strip it all down and get a machine scope to do it properly.
I really believe this bell housing is 0.250” too short either way with bad castings or copies of copies being made in manufacture. Just like the interior of it was hitting the flywheel, should not happen. If that bell housing had the extra 0.250” the interior would have cleared fine and you wouldn’t need to hack out the interior to get it to fit.
There was is very little stress on the plates as they are sandwiched between the bellhousing and the backing plate (both of which are aluminum) and the transaxle is bolted to the chasis. Due to the bell housing and backing plate being aluminum the spacer plates would corrode if I used steel.
