Thread: Helpfull Things

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1. For what it is worth, an MG Midget has no frame and the monocoque mount for the transmission requires that you pull the motor to change the clutch or transmission. However to do that you have to disconnect the driveshaft and then put it back into the trans spline when you get the motor and trans back in. Sooo you need to reinsert the floppy driveshaft into the spline in the back of the trans but the front universal just keeps flopping around. I ran into this when I replaced the universals on the driveshaft. Then a pro mechanic from a sports car agency showed me how to wrap a bunch of masking tape around the front universal to hold it straight and then all you have to do is hold the drive shaft like a spear in one hand and rotate it slightly till it slides into the trans spline. The universal goes up into the monocoque X-member and is totally hidden from view but when you get the car running again the weak tape just fragments and the pieces fly around in the X-member hole but who cares, you can't see them anyhow. This trick should work anytime you need to get the drive shaft into a spline on the rear of a transmission.

2. Two days ago I had to get two bolts up into the bottom of the radiator mount through the front spring channel but the spring is already pretty much filling up that space! I got it together because the bolts are drilled for cotter pins so I put a piece of wire through the hole with about a 6" tail on the wire and fed it up into the hole and then pulled the bolt up through the hole from the bottom where only a child's hand would fit. Fortunately a 9/16" box wrench with a zig-zag offset handle just fit into the space between the spring and the frame channel enough to hold the bolt head while I tightened the nut on top. Should I mention that I tried other methods for at least 30 minutes before I thought of the wire idea? Without that cross drilled hole it might be possible to wrap small wire into the bolt threads for the same idea, but the drilled holes really helped.

3. Most folks on this Forum are essentially Master Mechanics so my adventures are just a result of inexperience and/or stupidity but one other adventure had to do with installing the front buggy spring on my dropped axle. It think it took three or four tries but finally I got it by attaching the shackels at one end of the spring and then going to Lowes and buying the biggest C-clamp they had which turned out to be just barely big enough. The C-clamp was just big enough to tighten down on the middle of the spring to flatten it and make it stretch out long enough to get the shackels on the other end. Of course during the process at least two of the tries involved the C-clamp slipping off and the spring kicked like a mule. Fortunately I got the shackel attached on the third try without breaking my arm!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

1. For what it is worth, an MG Midget has no frame and the monocoque mount for the transmission requires that you pull the motor to change the clutch or transmission. However to do that you have to disconnect the driveshaft and then put it back into the trans spline when you get the motor and trans back in. Sooo you need to reinsert the floppy driveshaft into the spline in the back of the trans but the front universal just keeps flopping around. I ran into this when I replaced the universals on the driveshaft. Then a pro mechanic from a sports car agency showed me how to wrap a bunch of masking tape around the front universal to hold it straight and then all you have to do is hold the drive shaft like a spear in one hand and rotate it slightly till it slides into the trans spline. The universal goes up into the monocoque X-member and is totally hidden from view but when you get the car running again the weak tape just fragments and the pieces fly around in the X-member hole but who cares, you can't see them anyhow. This trick should work anytime you need to get the drive shaft into a spline on the rear of a transmission.

2. Two days ago I had to get two bolts up into the bottom of the radiator mount through the front spring channel but the spring is already pretty much filling up that space! I got it together because the bolts are drilled for cotter pins so I put a piece of wire through the hole with about a 6" tail on the wire and fed it up into the hole and then pulled the bolt up through the hole from the bottom where only a child's hand would fit. Fortunately a 9/16" box wrench with a zig-zag offset handle just fit into the space between the spring and the frame channel enough to hold the bolt head while I tightened the nut on top. Should I mention that I tried other methods for at least 30 minutes before I thought of the wire idea? Without that cross drilled hole it might be possible to wrap small wire into the bolt threads for the same idea, but the drilled holes really helped.

3. Most folks on this Forum are essentially Master Mechanics so my adventures are just just a result of inexperience and/or stupidity but one other adventure had to do with installing the front buggy spring on my dropped axle. It think it took three or four tries but finally I got it by attaching the shackels at one end of the spring and then going to Lowes and buying the biggest C-clamp they had which turned out to be just barely big enough. The C-clamp was just big enough to tighten down on the middle of the spring to flatten it and make it stretch out long enough to get the shackels on the other end. Of course during the process at least two of the tries involved the C-clamp slipping off and the spring kicked like a mule. Fortunately I got the shackel attached on the third try without breaking my arm!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don, your information on the MG transmission reminds me of a friend that I bought his 61 Corvette after he sliced the passenger side fender, and the lower grill section. He then bought a 66 Jaguar xke yellow / white convertible top, camel interior. This was 1968 I tried to give him some advice, when you go out to the bars don’t take the Jag. After bouncing off the guardrail he did a number on the passenger side of the car. Not too long later when the car needed a new clutch he thought he would save $200 by doing it himself. It was more complicated then he thought and the car sat in his garage until the early 90’s I wanted that car but you know how it goes one day someone else came along, and he let it go.

Richard

These are all great! It doesn't matter if you are a master mechanic or not there is always something to learn. I hope this keeps going, the longer people think about this, the more will come out.
Ken