Reaction Plate Bolts

[ALAN COCHRANE]

Hi Everyone

Well after a long wait I've finally got the gearbox and flywheel back from the specialist. The gearbox was treated to a new set of bearings and what a difference it's made to the play in the input shaft. I'm very happy with the result.
Anyway I turned to the job of replacing the four reaction plate bolts after noticing that the two on the driver's side had damaged threads. At the moment there's no tension on the torsion bars because I've disconnected the bottom ball joints on each side. Despite this the bolts still need a firm tap with a drift to remove them. Is this normal?
I also noticed that the holes in the torsion bar fixing plate and the corresponding ones in the body tub do not line up perfectly again is this normal? I was thinking of grinding out the body tub holes to allow the bolts to slide through and into the reaction plate-is this acceptable?
I don't want to end up damaging the threads on the new bolts if at all possible.

Cheers

Alan

[Jeremy]

Alan,
When I fitted Rob Beere's reaction plate to my (rebuilt) body I didn't expect it to fit, and it didn't. Robs instructions say that, given manufacturing tolerances in the 60s you may need to enlarge some of the holes to make it fit. I also noted that the bushes welded onto new plate protruded a bit more, making it about 1mm longer overall than the original. So I did a bit of careful grinding of the bushes and opened up the holes slightly on the chassis rails. There isn't much leeway because of the tubes inside that prevent the box sections from being crushed, but it was sufficient.
Otherwise there was no way it was going to fit. A bit of gentle tapping feels OK to me but if you have to wack it that doesn't sound good at all.
They call it fettling... probably a lost (unnecessary) art in this day and age....
All I can say is I'm glad I did it before I put the engine in...

[rswaffie]

I also upgraded to an adjustable reaction plate and had to spend some time with my Dremel and various grinding bits to get it to fit. As in other posts, the bushes needed grinding down and some of the holes in the plate didn't quite line up with the body flanges. Only slightly, but enough to need grinding to fit.