MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - MGB Clutch with MGA 5-speed

As close followers of this board will know, I am installing a new engine following an accident that broke the crank of my old engine. The car is back and looking mostly OK.

With the new Octarine engine comes a 5 speed box. All is assembled (a REAL pain to get the gearbox in even with two of us) and then I put the engine at the weekend.

When I went to set the valves last night, I discovered that the engine would not turn on the hand crank. I swore a bit, and set to to take the engine out and see what the reason is. I took the engine out tonight and discovered that in between the low-starter hole and 12 o'clock, the spring wing of the MGB diaphragm cover has scored a nice arc in the back of the bellhousing. There's inadequate clearance between the two. With 1/8"clearance between the backplate and the bellhousing I can turn the engine 1/4 of a turn before it jams the cover against the bellhousing. I surmise that it jams because going beyond that point the clearance gets even less for the additional 1/12 turn (making 1/3 revolution in total). After that point it must be OK for clearance, because the clutch is symmetrically mounted at three points.

Question is: is anyone out there also using an early B clutch in conjunction with the HiGear conversion - I have been supplied with all the B fork mounting bits so it is clear that I was intending to use the B clutch.

Have to say, Chris Betson has been wonderful in trying to figure out what the issue is, and we hope to get an answer from HiGear tomorrow. We don't know if this is a combination that isn't catered for in the HiGear world, or if it's a casting problem.

It's really frustrating, as although I have all the MGA flywheel and clutch bits still in the cellar, I can't use them without either a different release arm mounting set from HiGear, or getting the bell housing machined to remove the interference between the clutch cover and the bellhousing. And I really prefer to go with the more resilient MGB cover

Ho Hum.
dominic clancy


Dominic,

I'm using a late MGB clutch with no touching problems. As far as I remember you will need a higher block on which the clutch withdrawal lever is pivoting, also this lever must be from a 3 bearing MGB engine. The bellhousing is identical as mine was delivered with the short block for MGA clutch and doing allright after the changes.

Siggi
Siggi

I am at present fitting a MGB diaphragm clutch to a MGA Twin Cam. Although this is not the same as your 5 speed gearbox bellhousing you can have the same problem. The MGB clutch can touch the MGA bellhousing and this requires a small amount of metal to be removed from the MGA bellhousing.


Mick
M F Anderson

Dominic, I have a Hi Gear conversion in my car: low mount starter bell housing with early MGB clutch, lever, and throw-out bearing. No problem with interference between clutch cover and bell housing on my car. Do you have a low or high mount starter bell housing? Best bet would be to contact Peter Gamble at Hi Gear about this problem.
Andy Bounsall

I have a low mount starter 3 main 1800. It has a MGB clutch and a Sierra T-9. It uses the B fork along with the kit supplied by Hi Gear. You must have the proper fork mounting for the B clutch. Talk to Peter about the right parts. No problems at all with mine in almost 10,000 miles.

Jim
Jim Ferguson

Thanks guys, that's what I thought. So it does seem to be a casting issue. It's a low starter mounting, and I do have all the correct B parts including the mounting block with 20mm thickness from HiGear
dominic clancy

One other thought...I wonder if there's any difference in the physical size of clutch pressure plates from different manufacturers? I used an AP Driveline (formerly Borg & Beck) unit.
Andy Bounsall

Dominic, I fitted an MGB clutch with my recent Hi Gear/T9 kit. (I specified this from the beginning to Peter Gamble but my new fork was accidentally left out of my kit.) You need the MGB Mk1 clutch fork. The throw out bearing is also different in the MGA and MGB. The fly wheel fixing has three rather than two dowels, but I presume you already know all these things. (With an MGA fork and throw out bearing my whole clutch was locked up solid!)
In the end, with all the appropriate components fitted my clutch still made contact with the bell housing a little along the top 60 degrees or so of its arc and a little bit of the bell housing casting needed to be ground back a little, as well as a bit off the pressure plate to get clearance.
I'm now very happy with the changeover despite the slight difficulties encountered in the change-over.
T Aczel

Dr T
That's what I think I am going to have to do unless Peter Gamble has another solution.
How much did you have to remove (I'd like to avoid repeated engine in and out jobs). What did you remove on the cover - there's not much meat at all where mine is fouling the bell housing
Dominic
dominic clancy

Well I got hold of Peter Gamble today, and he said to grind the housing back. I must have removed around 5mm of the bell housing wall pretty much all around before I could turn the engine freely without any signs of renewed contact between the pressure plate and the bell housing. I left the pressure plate alone, as I figured any grinding here would create a balance issue that would cause unwanted vibrations.

It appears that Peter was not aware that there was an issue that others had also experienced, so I'll be giving him feedback that fettling is definitely required to use a B clutch within the MGA housing.

Engine is back in and I am pretty much where I was last Wednesday (even set the valves...). Now I just have to align the gearbox away from the RH tunnel wall, fit the speedo adapter which I have modified in line with the recommendations here, and fill the fluids. Judson is still sitting on the bench as I have to make a new stay bracket for it, and the carb appears to be here and can be collected from the Post Office tomorrow. With a little luck, I may just get it all running by the weekend.
dominic clancy

Dominic, Might be worth letting Peter Gamble know that not all bell housings have interference problems with MGB clutch. My kit with low mount starter bell housing was purchased Jan or Feb, 2007 and it works fine. Maybe something has changed with newer castings?
Andy Bounsall

Well I tried the clutch last night, and it feels very strange, and I can't shift gear. I am getting completely fed up with this. This is supposed to be a kit that works, not that I have to take the engine in an out an spend hours messing with it to find out it still doesn't work.

This same clutch was fine in the MGA box.

I'm about to send Peter Gamble a fairly strongly worded mail.
dominic clancy

Could those using a MGB clutch in a MGA advise the clutch manufacturer's name?
I have been looking at AP Driveline (Borg & Beck) and also Quinton Hazell. There are considerable differences in the shape of the pressure plate housing.
Could you advise the clutch manufacturer and whether you are using a MGA bellhousing or one for a T9 gearbox?

Mick
M F Anderson

Dominic, Peter as you know has sold nearly 4000 of these kits around the World, and to be honest I would doubt if he has had many problems at all...from comments made by others (I have bought 4 full MGA kits from him), he quickly rectifies any problems or missing parts. Yours is certainly a strange one! Keep up with the saga.
Gary Lock

Despite a number of other people here reporting that they have also had issues with contact between the clutch cover and the bell housing, it seems that no-one has had any discussion with him about the issue, and therefore he didn't know there was an issue.

I've been in Paris all day at a company event, so having discovered that Peter doesn't have email, I intend to call him in the morning. I'm still extremely unhappy with the whole saga and verging on sending it back and requesting a full refund. It certainly isn't doing for me what it says either on the instructions or on the website, it's just keeping my car off the road for far longer than expected. At this rate and after having the engine in and out three times, I am seriously prepared to put the old MGA box back in and call it quits.
dominic clancy

Dominic, I'm very sorry about your problems, and sense your extreme and understandable irritation loud and clear. I didn't install my gearbox myself, though I called round to check on progress late in the evenings when I could. I just spoke to my mechanic tonight, and his description tallies with what I saw. Basically, once the gearbox, MGB clutch and ancillaries and engine were united, it was possible to turn the combined unit over, but interference in the bell housing was audible. Disassembly revealed that there was slight contact in about the top third of the bell housing (seen as grazing here) that was dealt with by grinding back this area of the bell housing a little and also symmetrically taking off a little from the pressure plate. I'm so sorry I didn't take photos, which had I realised could be helpful, I easily could have done at the time. I also can't tell you which brand of clutch was ultimately used in my car, as it was supplied by a local clutch specialist already set up. (It was slightly modified, without my requesting it, to have slightly higher clamping pressure. Fortunately the pedal pressure's fine.)
My mechanic didn't find the process too frustrating (once the MGB clutch fork and throw-out bearing were fitted), and just considers it as "needing a little bit of fettling". I didn't realise Peter Gamble was unaware that there's a problem, and he certainly needs to be made aware that his kit has issues with an MGB clutch. You however do seem to be having more significant complications than we did however. I would however suggest that you don't give up, as the new-found calm cruising my MGA can now provide, along with the better spread of ratios is a huge improvement. (I do regret the loss of my nice feeling MG box's shift action though. Perhaps this will improve as the rebuilt gearbox racks up a few more miles.)
T Aczel

Dominic,

Which company made your MGB clutch?
The differing results that people are getting may be because of the shape of the clutch cover.
On this post I show an AP Driveline (Borg & Beck) MGB clutch.
On the next post I will show a Quinton Hazell MGB clutch.
There appears to be a significant difference where the cover could touch the bellhousing. This is in the area of the left pivot pin for the plate locating strap.

Mick

M F Anderson

Now a Quinton Hazell MGB clutch.

Mick

M F Anderson

Without dismantling it all again (and I just haven't got any enthusiasm for wading in yet again tonight) I would guess from the pictures that I have the AP / Borg & Beck flavour. It may be.

I have again tried to reach Peter, again without success (even the answering machine isn't on). When I last talked to Peter, he suggested that if grinding didn't provide a solution, he could provide a different bell housing, but I'm no longer prepared to go through yet more trial fittings.

Hats off here to Chris Betson. I talked to him today, and he has suggested that he get a fresh bell housing from Peter, and that he will set it up with a clutch cover on my old engine and make certain that it all fits without any problems before he sends bellhousing and pressure plate down to me. He says he likes happy customers, and I certainly find his readiness to step up and help here more than just fantastic. The only drawback is that it's going to take a few weeks to get sorted because of his other commitments.



dominic clancy

Not quite sure what happened here, BBS seems to have chopped my post:

Should read: Without dismantling it all again (and I just haven't got any enthusiasm for wading in yet again tonight) I would guess from the pictures that I have the AP / Borg & Beck flavour. The pin by the strap is certainly one of the places that was touching the bell housing

I have again tried to reach Peter, again without success (even the answering machine isn't on). When I last talked to Peter, he suggested that if grinding didn't provide a solution, he could provide a different bell housing, but I'm no longer prepared to go through yet more trial fittings.

Hats off here to Chris Betson. I talked to him today, and said that I was going to propose to Peter that he sort me out a combination that works and send it to me. Chris went further, as he has suggested that he get a fresh bell housing from Peter, and that he will set it up with a clutch cover on my old engine and make certain that it all fits without any problems before he sends bell housing and pressure plate down to me. He says he likes happy customers, and I certainly find his readiness to step up and help here is more than just fantastic. He says that the tolerances are very tight, and that he finds a difference with modifying a B flywheel to take an A ring gear gives him an extra 50 thou, and that makes a difference. Why anything would be done to such a tight tolerance is a bit of a mystery to me, but I really appreciate Chris' readiness to get stuck in and get the issue sorted.

The only drawback is that it's going to take Chris a while to get it resolved because of his other commitments, bit if it saves me a number of additional engine changes, I'll just have to be patient
dominic clancy

Dominic, you have my sympathy over this since I know that the amount of abortive work involved is enormous, let alone what it does to your head. I find this a bit scary since in a couple of months time my plan is to order the kit from Peter and use the MGB clutch conversion instead of my MGA clutch. I've already talked with Peter on this problem and asked him to go into this web site and read the contributions. He explained to me that some castings can 'sag' a little but that at very worst a slight amount of grinding back is involved. I should add that this was my understanding of what he said so please don't take this as his words.
J H Cole

I haven't put in a new MGB clutch for quite some time, but I can guarantee you that the pics Mick supplied of a "Borg & Beck" clutch do not look like any of the many hundreds I have installed, nor like the pics in the MGB shop manual. The originals do not have the square shoulder shaped cover main pressing shown; the entire cover is a low rounded dome shape.
The QH shown is more like the old QH, but it's even longer since I used one of those.

I'm guessing that this is another of the problems of the modern corporate supplier/parts shell game, and the bell housing works perfectly well with the "real" clutch it was designed for.

One possibility is to use a TR6 cover with the correct sliding TO mechanism that probably came on the type 9 but was discarded.

Time to start digging out all the old parts I couldn't throw out and find a good rebuilder!

FRM
FR Millmore


Dominic,

this pic shows the clutch I'm using without problems

Siggi

Siggi

Siggi,

Do you know what manufacturer your clutch is?
I notice that the the new flat design, not the domed cover like the early Borg & Beck, allows you to use the MGA dowel pins.
The MGA dowel pins are halfway between the fixing bolts, the old MGB Borg & Beck had the dowel pins adjacent to the bolt holes.
Did you drill two holes in the clutch cover?
Are you using a MGA gearbox or a Ford T9?

See different types of clutches at:

http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/clutch/ct_102.htm


Mick
M F Anderson

With some photos and notes from Mick Anderson in Australia, I have revised a web page to show three different clutch covers and the points where you might find interference. See bottom of page here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/clutch/ct_102.htm

Apparently the old type Borg & Beck clutch had few or no problems in this respect. I have been running the old style in my MGA 1500 (low starter position) for 16 years. This has worked worked cleanly with multiple different housings of early and mid 1500 gearboxes. I have a couple of reports of slight interference with the high starter 1600 type gearbox.

For some time I have been convinced that the Quinton Hazel clutch poses the greatest likelihood of interference. This newest report involving the new style Borg & Beck clutch seems to point square at the new clutch cover instigating the issue, no fault of Hi-Gear, supplier of the 5-speed conversion kits.

Since B&B became AP-B&B and now Magal-B&B, I suspect the old style B&B clutch cover may not be available in the future. Hi-Gear might eventually change the special bellhousing casting (speculation) to accommodate the new clutch revised design. So far I don't know if the QH or new B&B clutches are a problem with original MGA gearboxes.
Barney Gaylord

There appears to be a few incorrect assumptions in Barney's comments that should be clarified and corrected. For clarity, this is a low starter car.

This is not a new clutch cover - it is the one I had in the MGA gearbox, and as it's done less than 30k miles, I figure it's still perfectly OK. It's about 10 years old (I had it for quite a while before I got round to installing the B clutch in the car). The release bearing has also no noticeable wear so has been reused. The friction plate is AP and NOS (I've had it for about 10 years). Until I dismantle it again, I can't be certain which company is the manufacturer of the pressure plate.

So it's not a question of a recently redesigned clutch cover here, I suspect that many others are also using exactly the same cover with little or no interference issues.

Repeated grinding and assembly of the bell housing to the backplate revealed interference around the circumference from 9 to 5 o'clock ( it jammed at first at 12 o'clock, but when that was relieved the problem was evident all the way round where the bell housing does not have a relief for drainage or starter motor).

Then, even when the ears of the cover are no longer interfering with the bell housing, the clutch cannot he operated - the hydraulics appear to have no give, and I cannot shift. This is even though the hydraulics have not been dismantled as part of the change (I simply unbolted the slave and hung it from a cable tie on the chassis). If the dimensions of the bell housing and clutch fork mountings are all correct, this should be no issue at all. The flywheel, clutch fork, bearing are all in good condition, no wear in the bushings, and are all the correct and compatible early MGB parts (except the flywheel which is MGA, lightened and modified to take the B clutch cover). The hydraulics are in as-new condition thanks to the use of silicon fluid from new (and the slave is about 5 years old anyway.

I'll probably summon up the willpower to go and pull everything apart again later this morning (it's pouring with rain here right now) and take a few pictures of the cover and the bell housing so Barney can record the issue correctly.
dominic clancy

Go for it Dominic. You and I have said previously that we can remove fully installed engines in a couple of hours. For the sake of resolving the problem and enlightening us all (including Peter Gamble) it has to be worth the extra 2 hours. The engine has to come out any way, even if you decide to revert to the original gearbox. Also, you cannot waste the money you have spent on the gear knob.

All the best. Chin up. It will come good in the end.

Steve
Steve Gyles

dominic, -- Sorry about all the grief this project is giving you. When you get it apart I would like to see a picture of the clutch cover to identify which model you have before I jump to any rash conclusion(s).

One other thought in light of your current situation. I'm sure a lot of us (including myself) have installed a friction disc backward once in our life. That will prevent the clutch from releasing even when the hydraulics work right.
Barney Gaylord


Mick,

bought it in 2004, assembled in 2005, so can't remember for sure but I think it is a Borg & Beck. Drilled 4(?) holes for the dowel pins in the flywheel as it is originally a MGB clutch.
I'm using a T9 gearbox, high starter position in bellhousing.

Siggi
Siggi

Well I took it apart in record time - just 51 minutes according to the clock on the garage wall. I've really been doing it far too often recently.

There are no markings on the clutch cover that I can detect, so it may be a pattern part. It looks just like the one Siggi pictures.

I have identified the latest issues as follows:

1. The rear radius of the flywheel has been contacting the lower part of the bell housing, which is certainly not a clutch issue, and must be a casting defect. This was between 9 and 12 o'clock.

2. Clutch cover has again been contacting the rear of the bell housing between 9 and 11 o'clock.

3. The shifting issue is caused mainly by the shifter contacting the underside of the access cover - simply making a dent in it when trying to shift. The clutch hydraulics are restricted in getting the fork to move adequately by the clutch fork rubber boot. There's nothing in the instructions about having to metal bash this bit, and I only realised that this was the issue when I took the cover off and found I could move the shift lever easily as soon as it was loose.

In a renewed fit of bl**dy-minded determination to make the d*mn thing work I have again attacked it with the grinder, even more aggressively than before and put it all back together - again in record time (just two hours to fit everything once I was satisfied that the bell housing really isn't going to cause any more interference issues). It's really a big bonus having all the air tools and a good compressor! Then I discovered that the battery is toast, and the local place shuts early on Saturdays.

But everything is in place again ready to refill the radiator (one of the large hose clips has given up the ghost), connect the fuel pipe to the carb and fire it up and see what happens. I'm in Lausanne for the first part of next week, so next update will probably be next weekend.

What's the record the best time for an engine in and out, and am I getting close to breaking it?
dominic clancy

Dominic

Well done. I concede the time to you. I once had the engine out 3 times in a week, but I did not get close to that time. Looks like the gear knob will get an airing after all.

Have you got an odd sized flywheel that may have been the cause of the problem?

Steve
Steve Gyles

Dominic,

You say that the flywheel has been touching the lower part of the bellhousing, but then you say between 9 and 12 o'clock.
Do you mean the upper part of the bellhousing or possibly the upper, rear sloping area?
Your clutch housing is touching between 9 and 11 o'clock.
It sounds like your cylinder block has been line bored.
In this process the mating surfaces of the main bearing caps are planed, making the main bearing seats oval, and then the main bearing seats are bored circular at a higher level in the block
This raises the height of the crankshaft in the block.
This is a problem all too well known on the Twin Cam with the gear driven half speed shaft binding at the gears. Chain driven pushrod camshafts do not have that problem and it may not be realised that it has been heavily line bored.

Mick
M F Anderson

Mick, if they do that, surely it raises the compression ratio?
Art Pearse

Yes, it will raise the compression ratio slightly, but it is really not noticeable. The stroke of the piston is not changed, it does not go as low as previously. The volume of gas being compressed by the same bore and stroke is still the same.
However, the piston now passes slightly further into the combustion chamber, reducing the compressed volume, so there is some increase in compression ratio. You can bring it back to the original point by milling the same amount off the top of the piston, but nobody bothers.
Line boring is very common in engine reconditioning.

Mick
M F Anderson

Dominic

I have a contact who can mass produce gear knobs to your specification at a very reasonable price. This is an example of his 4-speed knob.

Steve

Steve Gyles

I knew you'd find those photos useful Steve - are you posting the one with the alternative to the Shelley jacks?!
Cam Cunningham

Cam

They were all good. Had a chuckle. Some. like the Shelley Jack alternative, were ingenious but b****y dangerous.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Well I picked up a new battery on the way home, and found that although it has the basic dimensions the same as the old one, it won't fit in the tray (and I cut off the mounting lugs as well, so I can't take it back), so I will have to modify the tray.

More serious is that the engine turns over with a pretty strange noise. Closer investigation shows that the starter pinion spring is grinding against the toe board frame. I now have to find a way of moving the whole assembly of gearbox and engine about 1 cm forward. I had suspected that clearance is tight, but I also seem to have little or no clearance between the box and the bell housing. I'd say that everything is sitting too high, but there's no way that can be the case with the mountings all being installed and standard.

I'm going to undo the gearbox mounting bracket and see if I can use my wrecking bar to apply some leverage and edge everything forward.

But the good news is that without spark plugs installed, I can turn the engine over on the crank without any strange dragging noises or indications that the clutch is contacting the bell housing.

The saga continues.
dominic clancy

I was just wondering Dominic if the original shunt that started the whole saga for you may have moved or distorted the engine mountings a little on your car?

It could explain some of your bellhousing / chassis clearance problems.

The clearance on my car is tight and the bellhousing usually "clonks" once onto the chassis somewhere deep down on the right hand side when I operate the starter.

Im glad you are getting close to completing your epic, it will be worth the it in the end, honest.

Colyn
Colyn Firth

Dominic, you havn't commented on Mick's suggestion about the new engine having been line bored,and this being the cause of most of your problems. I'm sure Peter Gamble would be interested as well, as this puts him out of the picture.
Gary Lock

Yes, I'm also curious to know what is the route cause of these difficulties. Mick's suggestion sounded plausible to me, but my knowledge of such subjects is very limited.
Andy Bounsall

Progress report

Tonight I have managed to get the engine and box to sit about half a centimeter further forward.

Adding a washer between the new gearbox mounting plate (the one that supports the gearbox mount) and the supplied spacers creates a surprising difference at the engine end, and has created a clearance all around the bell housing at the tunnel mouth.

I have also used the simple expedient of my trusty wrecking bar to create a extra bit of clearance between the starter pinion and the tunnel frame. The starter is now spinning freely.

So now I *appear* to have the clearance I need.

The new battery managed to last long enough to prime up the oil pressure in the new engine before it died. Not very promising.... it's on charge.

To the line boring suggestion as a base cause, I don't think it can be anything but a contributor at worst. When the caps are planed to allow a line bore, only a minimal amount of material is removed - you are certainly looking at no more than a millimeter, and I would guess significantly less in most cases. Although this may move the crank maybe 1 or 2 mm upwards, I had to remove MUCH more than that all around the bell housing to get a free rotation of the clutch cover, plus more to avoid flywheel contact at the rear circumference of the flywheel. It can't just be down to line boring. it wouldn't be clever to have the tolerances that close in a world where line boring is a pretty standard operation on these older engines.

My guess is that I just have hit a combination of a marginal casting, a clutch cover that would be a very tight fit in a "good" casting, and the tolerances of a chassis that had a lot of variation even when new.

I'm now along far enough that I'm going to call Chris tomorrow and put plan B on hold, as I think this saga may be coming to an end (here's hoping at least).

To the suggestion that the engine mountings have suffered in the prang, there is no sign of damage rearwards of the chassis extension - at least as far as I can see (and with the engine out I looked very carefully at all that.

Here's hoping I can fire it up in the next week!

dominic clancy

It lives!

Sorted out the last niggles (mainly that the distributor drive was 90 degrees out), started it up and it runs and drives. All I have done is reverse out of the garage to have a clean up, and drive back in again once everything was tidy and the floor was dry again, but that short distance went without leaks or apparent contact between any driveline bits and the bodywork.

I'll get the tuning stuff out on Monday evening and tune everything up and hopefully take a turn around the block before I'm done.

dominic clancy

Well done for working through it all Dominic. It'll be interesting to hear your impressions of the new gearbox after you've had an opportunity to drive the beast.
Andy Bounsall

Dom, try not to hit anything, Vin
Vin Rafter

Lol, and mind the speed camera!
Chris at Octarine Services

Dominic

That's good news. Looking forward to your views on the driving experience.

It will also be interesting to see if your new engine runs as cool as the last.

Just been for a morning run in my 1800 5-speed. Lovely sunny but cold morning (about 5 degrees C I guess). I could not get the temperature above 135.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve, here's a gearknob you might like on you mga.

Frank

F Camilleri

Here's another shot.

Frank

F Camilleri

Frank, looks like some kind of medieval weapon! At the same time too modern for the MGA!
Neil McGurk

Frank

No good for the Ford Type 9. Reverse is in the wrong position.

Steve
Steve Gyles


Has anyone a shot of the inside of the GAMBLE bell housing showing the alignment of the fork pivot? ( two options!)

And does the fact that there appears to be no rubber boot to keep the road rubbish out , unlike the original fitted to the base of the bell housing and the clutch fork, worry anyone?
M THOMPSON

This is my shot inside the bell housing, taken when I found a badly worn bush in the lever, causing the thrust bearing to run off centre and cause juddering.

My Gamble bell housing has the rubber boot just like the standard MGA bellhousing.

Steve

Steve Gyles

For completeness, this was the old thrust bearing. You can see how it was running off centre.

Steve

Steve Gyles

....and just to show that the Gamble bell housing takes a standard MGA boot.

Steve

Steve Gyles

Took it for a short drive around the block, and I can feel that the thing just wants to be let free, I can feel it straining at the leash.

I now have to sort out the truly terrible job that the workshop has done on reassembling the wiring - example 1 being that both cables for the horn are connected into the same 4 way lucas connector - no wonder the fuse has blown. I did get the two horns working together (first time that's been the case for years.)

Still need to finish setting up the engine, I need to take it to the DIY garage and use their gas analyser. I have a selection of jets from IH Only North (dead easy to change in the Holley) and will have to spend a few hours playing with timing and mixture to get everything set perfectly. But it is now looking very promising.

The clutch boot definitely wouldn't fit to allow full arc movement of the fork lever, it just creased at the gearbox end and stopped the lever moving back enough. I'm not too worried about the absence of the boot, as the starter also has no cover, and there's never been too much muck in any bell housing I have dismantled.

The release fork mounting can only be fitted one way, so there's no issue there.
dominic clancy

This thread was discussed between 07/10/2010 and 29/10/2010

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG MGA BBS now