The Girth

Accusing me of enjoying a joke laden with sexual innuendo is akin to accusing a polar bear of being white. On Friday a number of items arrived:
* The big parts orders containing the new press-on hoses to make fuel lines, the new breather for the valve-cover, and the fuel pump installation kit.
* I was able to retrieve the new custom Ford-to-AN clutch line.
* The new, shorter, driveshaft.

The transmission connects the engine to the driveshaft. The driveshaft is what connects the transmission to the differential. The differential connects the driveshaft to the wheels. Different manufactures have different opinions on how to best perform this task but they all have what is essentially a pipe connect the back of the transmission to the front of the differential.

The new driveshaft fit perfectly -- lengthwise. In automotive engineering as in biology, a 'shaft's two most important attributes are length and girth. From the factory BMW's have extremely small shafts. They are both short in length and narrow in girth. Fords are quite the opposite. A Ford driveshaft tends to be reasonably long and have a pretty solid girth. When I went to bolt up the driveshaft to the transmission and the differential, it was not possible. The driveshaft was hitting the floor of the car.

After a few "Oh, shits," a Coke and some "really good ideas," we settled on making a few spacers that allowed the transmission to be dropped 1/2". This let the driveshaft bolt up but left some pretty minimal clearances. I did a little more research and found that most people selling kits are selling 2.5"-diameter driveshafts while mine measures in the neighborhood of 3-3.25". Luckily the driveshaft is pretty easy to swap and the conclusion is that it will make itself fit over time. That, or the shaft will bend and we'll need to get a new driveshaft made anyway.

More encouraging were the fuel lines and clutch slave-cylinder mounting. The fuel lines were the easiest part. Using the appropriately purchased adapters we were able to get these ready to run in less than an hour. I haven't installed the fuel pump yet but it appears that the fuel pump swap will be one of the few well-documented processes I will be undertaking with this project.

The slave cylinder may yet again be a bit of an issue. I had the custom line made to convert from the Ford to -4 AN believing that I could get pretty much anything to eventually convert to -4 AN. What I probably should have done was remove the BMW line and then make a conversion from the BMW metric brake-line fitting to the Ford part. I may need to have the line re-cut and re-crimped with a new fitting if I cannot simply purchase an adapter or small set of adapters. Off to Custom Hose Tech again.

Custom Hose Tech will also need to help me with the power steering line. Those guys are going to start recognizing me by scent by the end of this project.