The Dark Wob

No. Threaded rod.

Take one of your bellhousing bolts with you. And you want a couple of nuts too that you can spin on.

I like your new profile picture Rev. A vast improvement over the last one. What's it from?

I successfully removed the gearbox. I'd lifted one of these boxes before, so knew their weight, and they are heavy lumps in spite of their compact size. But, lying on my back under the car I knew I only had a limited amount of strength in that position, and the more I looked at it, the more frightened I got. With the engine sump supported by one jack and a block of wood, my trolley jack was used to strategically support the gearbox. I levered it backwards and the mainshaft appeared, now I could let the jack down slowly. Unfortunately the bloody thing went awry and was very precarious, but I managed to get it down safely in one piece.
Next the bellhousing had to come off to allow access to the clutch. That was straightforward enough. With that out of the way I began to undo the clutch pressure plate to flywheel bolts, slackening them off evenly and by opposites so as not to strain it. I was eager to see the flywheel, if it had been scored by the slipping clutch.
It looked good, and I ran a fingernail across it. Perfect, thank fuck. Time to inspect the clutch plate.
This is the pressure plate side.
Which is where the wear is greatest. Right down to the rivets and has been for some time.
The flywheel side meanwhile was worn but not dangerously so. I'm happy with that; here is the evidence I needed to arrive at the 'it's fucked' verdict.
The clutch plate, from what I could see after rubbing off the grime, had 2 red springs and the rest black. The pressure plate has 9 white springs. This is interesting, because the workshop manual states the driven plate should have 6 buff and light green springs. The pressure plate with 9 white springs is correct.

My replacement clutch has the correct colour driven plate springs, but 9 dark green pressure plate springs. But it was sold as correct for this car and the seller showed me the part number book references. I won't be re-using the old pressure plate, but I do wonder about the differences in springs and how this will play out on the road. I don't want to be removing the gearbox again for many, many years.

This pic was taken from a 1974 AA Drive magazine, a publication I can strongly recommend. 1967-76 ish, A5 size (readers digest) and very well written. This one has an article about the problem of abandoned scrap cars where a mid sixties 2CV is dumped and then burnt out, and a 1965 S Type 3.4 is dumped and gradually robbed. Just 9 years old.

The clutch plate is possibly fucked one side because its been sticking on the splines.

Interesting. I note the workshop manual says the splines must be lubricated before installation.

But not too much.

Because if you use too much lubricant, the centrifugal force will splatter it onto your clutch plates and slippage will thusly ensue, uhuh.

Graphite is best - used to use very soft lead from a pencil. SRSLY.

I am now in the unfortunate position where I am pretty much without transport despite having 3 cars here. The only decent car, the Allegro, which I can always fall back on, is hours away in Wales. Bloody hell.

As a quick round up what's up with the Mog and Midget?