The gearbox came out nicely and I sent the friction plate away to be relined.
With the gearbox off I replaced the release bearing and cleaned the bell housing as it was filthly, The pressure plate and flywheel where actually in good condition so with the friction plate relined It should be good for a few more miles! and whilst waiting for the relining to be done I sorted the fuel lines out, rebuilt the fuel pump, made the exhaust up and came across a nightmare with the distributor whilst changing the points!
On removing the distributor cap to service the points and fit a new condensor I noticed the contacts where fused together , and then that the moveable plate hadn't been secured properly explaining the backfire which split the old silencer! I've decided its a convinient time to get rid of the contacts and convert to a fully electronic ignition system so will be using te kit supplied by http://www.classicheads.com/ .