UN1 bell house adapter plate

[Josh]

The dowel pins are very important to have lined up properly as mentioned. The delorean has two dowels on the transmission, on the sides of the bellhousing.
Failure to properly line up these dowels or just simply not installing them can cause damage to your transmission, the input shaft coupler is usually the first item to go.

With this in mind, the tolerance of any laser or waterjet cutter is adequate for the placement of these dowels. No need to have the whole bolt and dowel pin pattern machined to a thousandths of an inch.

[opethmike]

The dowel pins are very important to have lined up properly as mentioned. The delorean has two dowels on the transmission, on the sides of the bellhousing.
Failure to properly line up these dowels or just simply not installing them can cause damage to your transmission, the input shaft coupler is usually the first item to go.

With this in mind, the tolerance of any laser or waterjet cutter is adequate for the placement of these dowels. No need to have the whole bolt and dowel pin pattern machined to a thousandths of an inch.

Pffft, what do YOU know about engine swaps?

[Josh]

No one is safe from the wrath of MIKE

[opethmike]

No one is safe from the wrath of MIKE

Or my gas.

[SS Spoiler]

Agreed on need for dowel pins to align engine/tranny.
I put a new five speed in my car just before going to DCS
Vegas at Palace Station. Talking with Don Steger and Dave
Swingle I mentioned that I had to shim my starter motor
to get it to work. They both looked at each other and
said "dowel pins" the starter fits in a machined hole and
can't be misaligned. After carefully driving back to MN
I was able to put the pins in without dropping the tranny.

[Nicholas R]

The UN1 bellhousing has 3 dowel pins; 2 that are mirrored on either side of the input shaft just below the top 2 bolts, and one in the area of the starter. I agree with Josh 100%. Of the 3 adapter plates I've made, one was waterjet cut and post machined (counterbored/tapped/etc.), the other 2 were CNC machined. I have full confidence in their accuracy. In general, CNC/Laser/Waterjet operations tend to have an accuracy of .001-.002" which is plenty for this application. The only caveat is that it's only as good as the CAD or G code. Get that right and you'll be fine.

[DMCMW Dave]

Thank you for this info.

Now I will have a very good starting point to begin this journey(into madness).

Isn't this the car that was supposed to be electric? (Sorry - the name online doesn't have much to do with your real world name)/

[David T]

The UN1 bellhousing has 3 dowel pins; 2 that are mirrored on either side of the input shaft just below the top 2 bolts, and one in the area of the starter. I agree with Josh 100%. Of the 3 adapter plates I've made, one was waterjet cut and post machined (counterbored/tapped/etc.), the other 2 were CNC machined. I have full confidence in their accuracy. In general, CNC/Laser/Waterjet operations tend to have an accuracy of .001-.002" which is plenty for this application. The only caveat is that it's only as good as the CAD or G code. Get that right and you'll be fine.

There is more than one way for errors to creep in. The first one is measuring inaccuracies. Next is the actual code. Now add the tolerances of the CNC machine. Rounding inaccuracies. Conversion errors. Some of the errors will be cumulative and some may cancel out others. The safest way to do this, especially if you are only making one, go ahead and make the plate and once you make it, position it on the motor, center it and then pin it. You should have enough room to move it if you leave the bolts slightly loose, measure and tap it into final position, and then pin it. if you don't have enough room to move it you can always drill out the bolt holes slightly to gain a bit more adjustment. If you can get a hold of someone's code who successfully made an adapter plate, that can save you some steps. Of course their code may not work on your machine so you might have to go the same route they did and have the same people make you a plate. This assumes you are trying to make the same transmission fit to the PRV that they did of course (and that they did it right!). It isn't Rocket Science but it does have to be done accurately.

[opethmike]

Dude, seriously, you DO realize the two guys you're lecturing have both done their own very successful LS swaps, right?

[delgato]

Isn't this the car that was supposed to be electric? (Sorry - the name online doesn't have much to do with your real world name)/

Yes it is.

This is why I have to custom make an adapter plate.

I also have to make a coupler for the electric motor shaft to the trans shaft.

What I have done was to get ahold of an old PRV crank shaft and cut the end off.

After I cut the end off I rounded it a bit. A lot of work.

Next I will take it to a machine shop to round it perfectly and add the motor shaft hole with a key way and set screws.

The other end is already perfectly set up for the fly wheel and trans shaft. I want to keep the manual cluch assembly.

I work at a metal fab shop with a lasers and precision turrets and other cool stuff.

I plan to make some tester pieces there. The final product will need to go to a machine shop since we can not laser 3/4" or 1" thick aluminum.