With the gearbox refurbished and the Engine complete with a new sump it was time to join the two together. We took the engine off of the stand and refitted the flywheel. Mondeo's are front wheel drive thus they do not have a spigot bearing fitted to the flywheel. MT75 gearboxes effectively convert the Zetec engine to rear wheel drive but require a spigot bearing to locate the end of the gearbox drive shaft in the flywheel. We had taken the opportunity to obtain one from Westfield and fitted it earlier during the conversion from automatic.

Fitting the clutch was straightforward. We did not have a centering mandrel but improvised with a broom handle and a piece of aluminium tubing plus the Mk 1 eyeball, to centralize the clutch. It took a little while to get the gearbox shaft and the flywheel spigot bearing aligned but once located they suddenly slid together and were fitted.

I had earlier had a talk with Chris Masters at Westfield and Phil Stewart at Road and Race, about clutch release bearings. Westfield makes a modified one by fixing a spacer to a standard Ford release bearing. Phil had said that clutches could be a problem. Certainly D & J had had some problems with clutch adjustment, according to their web site. Chris recommended that we do a trial fit of the gearbox and check the free movement of the clutch release arm.

If it is more than half way down the opening in the side of the gearbox then the modified released bearing is needed. Not surprisingly, when we tried ours, with the standard release bearing, it went all the way down to the end of the box and the release arm became disconnected. We already had a standard release bearing; we had obtained from our local Ford agent. Westfield would not modify our bearing so we had to buy one. As the picture on the right shows, the modified bearing is considerably thicker than the unmodified one. We slid the new bearing over the input shaft and sleeve, reconnected the release arm and fitted the rubber dust cover in to the aperture in the gearbox.

During a visit to the factory to discuss engine mounts and sump modifications I had taken the opportunity to closely inspect the engine and gearbox combination with Chris Masters. On the Mondeo the starter, motor is fitted on the RHS. of the engine. On the MT75 gearbox, the starter motor fits on the LHS. The MT75 bell housing, once attached to the engine, leaves openings where the original starter motor fitted and at other points around the periphery, exposing the back of the flywheel. Westfield does not bother to fill the gaps. I asked Chris why? The flywheel and rotating components within the bell housing create enough turbulence to prevent any dust and dirt from being sucked in, was the explanation. Andrew and I were uncomfortable at leaving these openings and had contemplated making a sandwich plate to fix between the bell housing and the engine block to fill in the gaps. We had actually purchased a piece of aluminium, when Andrew came up with a solution. Searching through the "Haynes" Sierra manual Andrew noticed the Sierra sandwich plate. Obviously, this would match the MT75 gearbox and the position of the starter motor, but how would it match up to the Zetec engine block? We decided to take a chance. Andrew went to the Ford agent in Reading and ordered one (Part No: FINIS 6559240). 24 hours later we had a sandwich plate. When fitted between the Engine and the gearbox it completely filled in the gaps, apart from one on the upper RHS, where the original Mondeo starter motor used to be. It was simple matter to make a plate to fill in the last remaining gap.

Once engine and gearbox were fitted together, we tested the free play in the clutch release lever, from memory about the thickness of two fingers, well within the acceptable limits.