Parts donor part 5

And final part I dare say! I left this part of my TR7 story just before Christmas. With only the gearbox and back axle on my list of parts to retrieve from this car. But we wanted to keep all four wheels under the car for ease of moving it around. So back to work on my old DHC shell to remove the original (4-speed) back axle from the ’76 car, and replace it with one of my 5-speed spares. I won’t be using any 4-speed back axles so I have decided to donate this one to the next owner of the body shell (he’ll use the body to re-shell his ’77 car, which is currently under restoration).

The removal of the 4-speed axle from the car was rather straight forward. Which was not much of a surprise, as it was only fitted earlier in the year! With the same being true for refitting one of my spare axles. I choose the axle with the most miles behind it. Which turned out to be the original back axle from ‘t Kreng, with 101.458 kilometres. Only fitting the wheels back on was a bit of a struggle. This was caused by the fact that I had removed the wheel studs from this back axle. And it was rather difficult to reach them from behind to hammer them in place. But I managed to get the wheels back on (with the aid of some mild swearing 😈).

Back to the parts car. Before Christmas I already had loosened all mounting bolts from the back axle. And surprisingly they all come loose fairly easily. By now an extra pair of hands had arrived, making the removal of the back axle (and exhaust) even easier.

The same could be said of refitting the back axle. I choose to first fit the four links to the body and add the axle to the lower links first, with the aid of the trolley jack. While doing this the upper links were tied up against the tank, to prevent them from intervening at inappropriate moments! Only the last bolt put up a bit of a fight to get in place. Which it lost within a few minutes.

With the back axle in place it was time for the final part of this chapter. Removal of the engine and gearbox. Which meant the rear of the car had to be jacked up as high as the trolley jack would go. Then put the axle stands in place (including extra stands under the back axle to prevent from being in the way. This also would free the trolley jack to be used under the gearbox.

For the actual removal of the engine I had borrowed an engine crane from a friend. Sadly though out the previous user, who had borrowed it from him, hadn’t mentioned there was something wrong with it, when he returned it. It turned out to be low on hydraulic oil. Resulting in the lifting arm not even getting level. Let alone reaching enough height to swing the engine out over the nose panel.
Of course that was the moment for the gear box to have a mind of its own. While investigating why the lift wouldn’t go any higher, the gearbox managed to slip of the trolley jack in an unguarded moment. Leaving the assembly on its side at a rather awkward angle in the engine bay, with hardly any room to manoeuvre. Took us about half an hour to get it back in its original position with some sturdy wooden blocks supporting the gearbox. After which there was nothing we could do but pack up the tools, make a to-do-list and head for home. And to return in the following year!
And on the first Saturday of 2021 we returned to the shed, armed with hydraulic oil and a small oil pump. With the oil level topped up, we had a fully functional crane again. The arm’s reach again was high enough to remove the engine from the engine bay.

And yes the chain’s shackles were too long to get the engines angle spot on. But we were able to get the engine over the nose panel and lift the gearbox out of the engine bay by hand. Almost as easy as it sounds. And no damage to the cars bodywork!

Although the body work is in fairly good condition, the sub frame is clearly beyond repair:

Last job, before moving the car on to its final destination, was removing the gearbox, and the clutch cover and plate from the engine. And with that task done, we came to the final task in my “ownership”, loading her onto the trailer and moving her off to a friend, for the next chapter in her life! His plan is to use this overall very solid body shell, to re-shell his current car. But that chapter won’t be written by me. That’s up to the new owner, if he feels up to it!