Re: Hard plastic transmission covers - anyone usin
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Do you have to remove the gear shift handle to remove the tunnel?
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Not necessarily, but it might help make the job a little easier and it's not difficult to remove. First unscrew the shift knob and slip off the shift lever boot. Under that is a single horizontal nut and bolt that retains the shift lever assembly in place. Loosen it and remove (theres a large, but not terribly strong spring in there, and watch for an anti-rattle ball or plunger and smaller spring down in the "business end" of the shift lever). Seats have to be out, too, along with the dash support yoke and some pieces of carpet.
I too have the plastic cover (not sure if it was purchased from Moss, TRF or VB.... one of them, probably the same item is sold by all three) and highly recommend it. Much better than the original fiberboard one that was still in my car (which was ugly and just starting to give up, agian, but still functional thanks to being heavily reinforced years ago by soaking it in fiberglass resin and applying one or two layers of glass cloth in key places, inside and out).
On the new cover I got, mounting holes along the flanges weren't drilled, just "dimpled" for approx. location. Makes sense to me that each cover needs to be drilled while being fitted, to accomodate slight variances in these old cars and/or any small change that, say, replacement floors might have made.
I also modified the new cover by adding access plates for OD controls and speedo cable. An early TR2/3 owner might want to add a g'box dipstick access hole, too. Smaller holes needed to be added for OD wiring harness. The larger access hole to lube the front u-joint was already cut in the cover I got. (Did later cars not have greasable u-joints, so perhaps Triumph did away with this access hole in the cover? I dunno, but a later car owner would need to order a rubber plug for it, assuming all the plastic covers have this hole pre-cut.)
The two piece gearbox cover comes from Racetorations in England, if I recall correctly. I don't have one, but have seen it and a minor gripe I have is that it's split in such a way that the dash support yoke still needs to be removed in order to lift off the rear half (the most likely half to remove for partial access to gearbox, IMHO). I would think it could be split instead rearward of the dash support yoke, to give even simpler use.
It would be pretty easy to modify one of the one-piece covers into a two-piece. Maybe a flange of wide flat aluminum could be bent to fit, riveted to one side and fastened with spire nuts and bolts on the other side, or similar. I haven't done this, altho I've thought about it. I'd check for clearance issues before getting out the saw and starting to cut. Also, some sort of sealing would be needed in the joint, to keep heat and fumes from entering the cockpit.
Some sort of reflective heat and noise insulation would be a good idea on any of these covers. I dunno if truck bed liner would accomplish the job... might be good for noise, but not have any heat insulating properties. However, there are now spray-on versions of both heat and noise insulators available. In the right order, they can even be used together. Check with local high-end auto body shops, last I looked the stuff was very pricey in gallons and larger quanjtities, and you don't need a whole lot for this job.
TRF's gearbox cover fastening and sealing kit is also very good. Everything in it is an exact repro of the originals that were on my car and the kit was very complete. I haven't compared with any other vendors' kits, if they offer them.
I can't say anything about fitting carpet over the new cover. There's none in my car at present. But it should be fine since the g'box cover so closely mimics the original.
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