Gearbox and Engine Installed

I got the gearbox in by myself. My brother-in-law Fred helped me install the engine. It took us four hours to finish the job. If you know what you are doing it can be done in an hour.

Once the engine was off the engine stand and hanging on the hoist, I could install a new pilot bearing, the flywheel, and the clutch.

The difficult job here was getting the old pilot bushing out. After trying several methods a 3/8" NPT tap screwed in did the job. Good thing as the old bushing was broken in two.

New clutch bolted on.

Starting to install the engine in the frame. Lots of pushing and twisting.

Two happy guys!

Windshield Wiper Motor

These pictures show rebuilding the windshield wiper motor. This mainly involved clean up. The only parts replaced were the brushes and the red wire from the motor to the self parking switch.

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Gearbox Rebuild

These pictures illustrate some of what is involved in rebuilding the MGA gearbox. All parts except the gears were renewed.

It looked to be a formidable task at the beginning. But once you get into it everything makes sense. I assembled and reassembled it so many times, checking out clearances, etc. that I think I could now do it blindfolded.

Must have been hard shifting with this mess in the shift lever.

The ball bearings on the input shaft and mainshaft were replaced with new. The lay shaft and needle bearings were replaced. The layshaft and mainshaft thrust washers were replaced. All seals including the speedometer drive seal were replaced. Rusted parts were sandblasted, everything else was cleaned in solvent.

Now this can go on the engine and the engine and gearbox will be ready to go in the car. Yea! major progress at last.

Clutch-Gearbox

As a start to rebuilding the gearbox I did the clutch slave cylinder and throwout fork first. As usual, everything was dirty, worn out, and seized.

Notice the wear in in the following picture in the old clevis pin and clutch fork pushrod. These were fixed with new parts. The clevis pin end of the clutch fork was also worn to an oval. This is a 5/16" hole but was badly oval. I drilled it out to 3/8" and then pressed in a 3/8" OD X 5/16" ID bushing, good as new.

Now to tackle the gearbox itself. I am waiting for parts to complete the rebuild.

Rebuilding Carburetors

Many British Cars are equipped with SU carburetors as is my MGA. This series of photographs shows some of the steps involved in rebuilding these carburetors. In the following photo, note the yellow arrow. This is pointing to the carburetor's fuel bowl vent/overflow pipes. If the fuel bowl overflows, which it sometimes does, then these small pipes are to drain the raw fuel safely onto the ground. However, some idiot has cut them off so that raw fuel will drain directly onto the very hot exhaust manifold. Naturaly I had to correct this mess.

This is what is inside. These are the old parts most of which were replaced with new parts.

These are all of the old parts cleaned and all of the new parts. Now, if I can just get everything back where it belongs.

Well, everything seems to fit OK. Note the repaired fuel vent/overflow pipe.

Here are the carbs back on the engine. Note the yellow arrow indicating the repaired fuel vent/overflow pipes. This is the proper termination so that fuel overflow goes safely onto the ground. Air cleaners installed. This completes the engine and it is ready to install in the frame.