It is indeed luck. It only occurred to me halfway through fitting it that I didn't know which way it ran. I had to look at diagrams of the bike's drive train and work it out.

I've seen the subaru engined car on snail, it is one solution but I don't think I like it.

Because the engine's quite tall the cylinder heads only just fit under the wings, both vertically and longitudinally. But it does mean that as it is at the moment, the engine is higher than the box, so lifting the back of the box might not do too much harm.

This was the first trial fit, it's now got about 1/2" of clearance.

Today, I 'av mostly been...,
Ever since I bought the car it's looked a bit scabby under the rear side windows. That didn't really bother me, but it leaks a bit and that does.

See doesn't look too bad at first glance,



But I knew that there would be horrors lurking underneath the rubber, and I wasn't disappointed. Now I remember why I've been avoiding this for 6 years.



And once I'd cut off the rusty bits there wasn't that much left. At about this point I started wishing I had a repair panel.



And yes there is a bit more light in the bottom of the boot well than there should be.

There's actually an old shell at home in the undergrowth, and as you can see it's seen better days,


Although ironically it's window frames are in far better condition than my car. They're just not quite good enough to use as a patch.


And to save anyone(Neil) putting the plate through DVLA's vehicle enquiry, it's been there @15 years.

For a man of your talents...



For a man of my talents...

I have the Perfect Solution to rusted rear windows!



BTW, where did you get your surge tank & what capacity is it, 1ltr?

Harley

That sure is the best solution;) You got any pictures of the work in progress? Isn't it hard to get the curve right? Lot's of filler is needed I guess?

It's a good solution, but looks like a lot more work to me.

The surge tank/swirl pot next to the battery, not sure what the capacity is, I made it myself, but I would guess it's around a litre. I don't think they need to be that big even, it just fitted in the space.

A few thoughts.

Even if the engine were to turn the other way could the diff not be fitted upsidedown to counteract that?

And fitting a 5spd g box without lifting it above the rack or having the engine hanging over the front bumper, could you not use a back axle with a section in the middle cut and refabricated to mount the box into, and then use a rack from something else mounted above it? Your column would need modifying but it's not standard anyway, and maybe include the electric pas off of one of those corsas that custom car people seem fond of.

How's the bodywork going?

I seem to recall that was one of the major niggles on Petes/Geoffs old Alfa engined Super. I believe they used the Alfa rack bolted above the gearbox which (once again) I believe led to all sorts of bump steer and handling problems.

I'd still go for a high geared four speed over a GSA 5 speed personally anyway. We never had any problem with it being too long or too short geared and we used to tow with it without any issues. I would've thought the BMW engine has the grunt to pull a long legged box?

When the thought occurred to me that the motor might spin the 'wrong' way flipping the diff was the only solution I could think of, but it wasn't something I wanted to have to try. Consistently putting torque through the box in the wrong direction might not be good for it, I'd be worried that it might make things unscrew, or put axial loads in the shafts that the thrust bearings weren't designed to cope with.

I've spent a while trying to find a way to reposition the steering rack so that the middle of the front axle could be rearranged, perhaps for a much longer 4wd box or something. But Citroen knew what they were doing when they designed the front axle. The only place to put the steering rack inner ball joints where it won't result in bump steer is on the same axis as the arm bearing, slightly in front or behind won't make much difference, but above or below should be avoided.
I've tried to work out a way of mounting the rack higher on the bulkhead but dropping the inner ball joints either side of the box, but this would lead to another issue. With the rack so far behind the wheel line, moving the inner ball joints outboard could result in the inner ball joint, outer ball joint, kingpin line, becoming very straight on the inside wheel at full lock, which would amplify any play in the joints, and at worst could result in the outer ball joint going over-center, which would be disastrous.

What looks like the best option at the moment is to have a bellcrank just inboard of the arm bearing and have the trackrod operating forwards and backwards to a repositioned steering arm.

Hope you followed all that!