Flywheel and Starter ring query

My car is a 1973 Plus 2 130 with a 5 speed Lotus gearbox. I have the engine out at the moment and have removed the flywheel. I have just noticed that although there is one dowel hole in the crankshaft flange within the pattern of 6 bolt holes there isn’t one in the flywheel. There are just the 6 bolt holes in the flywheel, no dowel hole. There is a roller bearing in the centre of the flywheel to carry the forward end of the gearbox input shaft. Is this correct the flywheel?
Also, the reason I removed the flywheel is to replace the starter ring gear. The current one is chewed up and I believe has been fitted the wrong way round on the flywheel. The chamfers on the teeth are to the ‘engine’ side not the ‘gearbox’ side. Am I correct in this?
Also when I come to fit the new ring gear, will I be able to fit it using several deft blows as well as using the cooker to heat up the ring gear (max temp 230 C) and putting the flywheel in my domestic freezer overnight (with permission of course from SWMBO)?
Thanks in advance for any asssistance

Hi, with regard to the fitting of the ring gear, I’ve used exactly the same method many times, and the ring gear virtually falls on, with hardly a blow from a hammer !

Simon,
It is correct that there are seven holes in the end of the 6 bolt crank, 6 threaded for the bolts and one blind hole with NO dowel in it.
If you are are useing the standard Lucas starter you are also correct that the chamfered teeth are at the gearbox side of the flywheel, I can’t tell you about the spigot bearing never having worked on a 5 speed box but the early (4 speed 4 bolt crank) used a roller bearing which was changed to a needle bearing on the 6 bolt crank (4speed box)
Brian

Hi

I have a +2S 130 5 speed also, and have just fitted a T9 box to it. The lotus box equipped 5 speeds have an insert in the flywheel which carries the spigot bearing. The 4 speed cars don’t have an insert and use the spigot bearing that’s in the end of the crank shaft; if you take a look you’ll probably find the crank spigot bearing is fitted as well as the flywheel spigot - mine was. I tapped out the flywheel insert when I fitted the sierra T9 box, as the gearbox input shaft length was too long for the flywheel mounted spigot bearing. It’s all gone together nicely now.

Your flywheel sounds the same as mine. I have photos if helpful.

Re the starter gear chamfers, for the standard starter the chamfers should, I believe, face the gearbox, as per the previous post. I’ve fitted a pre-engaging reduction starter motor, in which a little gear wheel flies out from the starter motor and meshes with the teeth before any torque is applied. So the chamfers are the wrong way on mine now; I don’t have the same requirement to avoid teeth being destroyed due to the gentle way the new starter motor operates. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this; I was not advised to reverse the ring gear by Matty’s when I bought the starter motor from them.

Re the holes in the end of the crank, I expected there to be a dowel so when I removed the flywheel I had to spend some time matching up stains on the crank flange and flywheel to ensure I’d put it back correctly - the engine rebuilder hadn’t put marks on - a silly mistake on my part not to check for marks before taking it apart, but it seems to run nicely now.

I wonder if you can help me with something. I’ve just run the engine for the first time and found a few drops of oil have come out of the clutch housing. I think they’re from the engine not the gearbox. This is a big surprise to me, but is it a cause for concern; am I likely to get oil onto the clutch, or is this pretty normal? I need to take the engine back out of the chassis before the body comes back, so could strip out the clutch assembly again and find the source and try to repair it, but if it’s not a concern I’ll leave it; lots of other jobs to do.

Sean.