Still rattling on with the jobs when I can find time. This evening, I grabbed a few hours and set upon doing the little things. First of all, my car has a brace that fits between the gearbox and the engine mount. I can only think that this was removed from later cars as the replacement gearbox came with a large plastic cable holder fixed into the bolt hole. I removed the cable holder and tried the bolt for the brace but the thread was so badly corroded, it didn't want to fit. So, I cracked out my Lidl tap and die set and cleaned up the thread;
This worked a treat so I'll be able to use the brace.
Another job was to fit new drive shaft seals to the replacement gearbox. I'd been advised by Project Puma experts that the last thing I wanted was to fit the gearbox to find that the seals leaked, so I ordered a new pair up.
A tight fit but I managed to find a copper pipe cutter just the right diameter to use as a drift. Seals in!
Then I turned to my struts. The nearside had been removed to enable the removal of the gearbox, so I set about changing the springs back to standard Ford ones from the hated Eibachs.
One side done, I moved on to the other which was still on the car. It came off nicely but I ran out of time to replace the spring tonight.
I've been promised help to refit the gearbox next week (everyone seems to be on holiday but me) so further progress will be limited until then, but I'll be buying a flywheel locking tool so I can get the new clutch on beforehand.
Too late for Ford Fair, but least the work is progressing I suppose!