My Lil’ Red Wagon finally got its motor. Since I don’t have a lift in my garage (wouldn’t that be nice), I hooked the transmission up before the installation. I discovered that the length of the early ‘A’ type comp trans combined with the motor makes for one very tight fit. Tilt the motor, lower the motor, tilt some more, lower some more, wiggle to the side, repeat ten times, and it finally dropped in. Just don’t try it with the radiator in or any accesories hooked up. I had to extend the trans tunnel hole rearward about six inches to make room for the shifter. Then I discovered what most 510 owners already know, you have to remove the steering box to install longtube headers. The number three primary tube still hits the steering box, so a little more fitting is still required.
Thanks Steve. I was close to giving up on putting the motor/trans in together. First I tried straight in, then motor right/trans left, still didn’t work. Finally motor left/trans right and max angle on my balance bar gave me less than an inch clearance at both ends. It will never happen again unless I want to strip all the accesories off beforehand.
I scored the CVs cheap (of course). A friend of mine switched diffs on his CSL and had to go with unequal length halfshafts, so his old ones were just sitting around ;-)
Troy
Troy,
I haven’t looked at your site in awhile. You have made great progress. This post made me laugh because I attempted to put my new 710 motor and gearbox in a few months ago and finally gave up as I had already installed the aluminum radiator, painted the car etc. Took it back apart and did it the old fashioned way. (I do have a lift and a trans jack so I can’t whine)
You are going to have to change the name of your blog as this build has gone way past “Racing on the cheap” BMW CV’s? come on….. :-)
Keep up the good work!
Steve