This sort of thing drives me nuts, especially since I have a very limited amount of time to work on my MG Midget. You’d think if you order a part from a supplier that it would be a suitable replacement for the part you are replacing.
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Big thank you (not) to Victoria British.
Well, second gear finally went south in the ’70 Midget. Being a tad low on funds I decided to use the transmission from the ’69 which has become the parts car for the ’70. While I was at it I cleaned up the engine compartment some and traded the stock exhaust for a LCB (long center branch) exhaust header which should improve the performance of the 1275 cc engine. The swap was completed over a long weekend when the temps were in the mid to high 90’s. Lots of breaks were taken for swimming and spending time with the family. Next weekend I’ll wrap this up and hopefully get a chance to put new front brake pads in.
Pictures documenting the swap are on flickr
After overcoming our radiator woes at the last minute with a well planned day off from work, a Sawzall & grinder, we were able to enter our car in the Triangle Classic. This had been a goal of ours all along and I really didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off. Thanks to the Spridgets listers for all their advice and support and my son Clay for coming up with the idea in the first place.
Click on over to flickr to see how the day went.
Here’s a few photos of what I had to do to get the correct radiator – fan clearance on the new ’70 Midget. It’s a hack and won’t win any awards but who really cares? I just want to be able to drive the car without destroying any more radiators and fans. It’ll probably have to go to the frame shop if I want to use a standard cowl someday.
With a Sawzall and grinder I cut off the left and right flange from the cowl and notched it around the uprights that were tilting backwards. I also relieved the back of the fan by a little less than 1/8″. Any more than that and the back of the fan would hit the oil separator. I also replaced the engine mounts. The combination of these things improved the clearance from about 3/8″ to 1 1/16″.
Tomorrow I take it on a test run out to the Triangle Classic British Car Show in Raleigh. Hopefully we’ll make it there and back without any more problems.
 dry fitting cowl |
 drilling new holes |
 location of new holes |
 routed back of fan |
 new engine mounts |
 all back together again |
