Please can I start just by saying I know I have posted a couple of threads moaning about my recent autobox failure, insurance issues, etc. Please disregard them and don't post on them now. The insurance company is sorted, the parts are being collected, and a manual conversion is in progress. This thread will be my work-in-progress, dedicated to this. So I'd be really grateful if we didn't go tooooo off topic

So this afternoon I decided to assault my MV6. The auto box failing once, was enough, failing twice, too much. Time to manualise.
So - Car raised up on axle stands. (Please note the 3 tonne jack has not been used to lift on the crossmember. It's simply resting there as a 'get out of jail free card'. Take no chances under these things).

Next job was to remove both Cats. I'm not going to lie, the downpipe nuts were a barsteward, and the good old Irwin grippers had to come out along with Mr Breaker Bar. The mid section joints fancied a fight too. Ran out of plusgas, and no wheels to get to hellfrauds, so had to make do with WD40. Was better than nothing.
But here they are. The Offside one is a little worse for wear, and won't be re fitted, as I can source a much better one.

Then it was electrical connectors, gearbox cooler pipes, and little bits of faff, which I didn't bother to photo.
Then off with the propshaft: (Ignore the drive plate in the background, pics taken retrospectively! More on that later).
Off with the 6 bolts holding the Torque Converter to the driveplate, being careful not to let crank turn anti clockwise (not pictured)
Now, put bluntly, with all the crap out of the way, it's time to lower the box off off it's supporting rear mount, and drop the box and TC together on the ground. I have to hold up my hands, I wasn't toooo gentle with lowering this one, knowing it's going straight in the skip.... here it is removed from the car:

With the prop and autobox out of the way, now a nice bit of room up under here! I will have to get under here to pop the rivets out for the auto gearstick assembly.

Here is the flex plate removed from the engine. Given the noise I wondered if I'd find this broken, but it was all intact and hunky dory...

And here you can see what it's left behind - the rear crank part of the engine. This is a great opportunity to have a nose around the back of the engine and look for leaks:

It's sadly not hugely clear in the picture below, but there is evidence my rear crank seal has been leaking. This will be sorted before it goes back together. (They're not cheap, but you'd be daft not to use it, or use anything other than a genuine seal, given the location and effort involved to get to it)

That's pretty much it for tonight, although I did decide to do a little post mortem on the box to see if I could work out the failure mode.
Torque Converter. Looks ok, no bits came out of it, but I don't know of an easy way to test or be sure:

Bellhousing off:

Front thrust washer. Expected to find this in bits, but was fine:

Collection of clutches.... nothing here that would cause the awful noise..

Spragg clutch assembly. This didn't feel too great to turn, but hadn't fallen apart like the one on my previous autobox!

Sadly won't be any more updates until The weekend now, as I've got a lot of other stuff on. But I am collecting the parts from Robsey on Friday evening, and I do need to crack on and try and get this nailed on Saturday, because I desperately need my wheels....
Not bad considering I didn't sleep last night
