Moss Motors, Ltd

Last night the fluids came out, (and went in ). The bonnet is off and stored, the radiator is out, the alternator is sitting next to it AND the carbies on the bench, and the oil cooler is disconnected.

I (we) got much more done last night than I had planned to and that's a good thing. The next good thing is to take Rita's advice so today; I'll be taking my lady and my parents out to lunch to celebrate Dad's 81 birthday. Tonight it's a high school football game. Maybe I'll hit the sprite again on Sunday, and maybe I won't since I'm already ahead of schedule, but I'll tell you, the slave cylinder, U-joint and tranny bolts are all screaming to me, "what...I'm Chopped Liver"?!?! 

I'm getting there...thanks for your shot of inspiration!

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

Looser

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Don't knock it till you've tried it!

OK Choppy, I may be a looser, and you may be a thumbs less ground meat product, but tomorrow at least, I may win!

Now, for the rest of the saga watchers: All the prep work to pull the engine is DONE! I'm just waiting for a phone call from a buddy so that I can go pick up his hoist and balancer.

Now, here's the question, as I recall, the biggest problem in pulling and reinstalling the engine was the motor mounts. The last two times I did this, they just did not want to line up on re-install. Which parts (if any) should I leave attached to the chassis? What's the simplest way? There are the steel brackets on the chassis, the rubber feet above them, and then the bracket attached to the engine. What I'm trying THIS time is: unbolt the passenger-side bracket from the chassis and on the other side, I unbolted the engine bracket from it's rubber foot. The re-install is what I'm worried about. Is there a secret way to do this so the engine just slides right into place without the need for levers or extra muscle to coax it over the mounting bolts?

 

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

Hi Davey,

Good to hear that you're getting in there. I don't know about the sprite engine, but with my B, I removed the mounts at the chassis, leaving the rubber blocks attached to the engine.

There was a fair amount of jiggling - if you can jiggle 100's of lb of engine - to get the mounts to line up. I had the eng. & gearbox supported by a jack from beneath, and on the hoist to allow for reasonably delicate manipulation. It worked more easily than expected.

Anyhow take care, and I wish you speedy progress.

Cheers,

Ed

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I want my MGB

davey,

Over the years I have found that in these situations the best thing is sometimes to leave everything off until you get the engine nearly into place. Then start adding things, and leaving them loose, until it's all together. Then, just tighten into place. Of course, this doesn't work for every component since there are some which won't have any access after the subsequent part is installed. Just a general idea. It's how I work with things which seem to have no logical order. ie: two things seem to need to occupy the same place at the same time.

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Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon

Yes Motorbill, I fully understand your approach having previously employed it several times. I might also add here, that is exactly what I was trying to avoid, but alas, the conventional wisdom rings true, if it works - don't fix it!

Speaking about "fixing things", I was just about to start lifting the engine Monday, when the phone rang. Long story short, instead of pulling the engine, I had to do an emergency plumbing job that required disassembling the exterior wall of a house to get behind a bathtub! You don't want to know...

Barring any unforeseen catastrophes, the engine should be out by Tuesday night, and I'll let all know about the optimum configuration of engine mount disassembly.

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

davey,

My condolences. Having been through a couple of "adventures in modern plumbing" myself recently, I'd rather pull and replace 62 Spridget engines/transmissions than repipe one bathtub. 63, I don't know....

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Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon

[off topic/]

Plumbing, now there's a dark art... I've done a little. It often seems to be fixing the short cuts used by appliance installers. Last time I discovered that to connect the refrigerator to the water supply "they" had used one of those fittings that clamps and cuts into an existing pipe, saving the installation engineer vital minutes - and providing work for the service dept. a few years later... Of course it had started to leak, but now I needed a replacement pipe to the faucet and a T fitting, to avoid the same fate once again. Of course the 40 year old shut-off valve chose this moment to pack up, so I ended up needing to solder a new section of pipe & buy a new valve. It now has proper connections & fittings all round. No short cuts!

This was a good example of what I like, in sarcasm, to describe as "5 minute jobs"... you know, the ones that end up taking all of Sunday afternoon after you resolved to "take a quick look at it".

[on topic] 

Keep us posted with progress on the Sprite davey

Cheers,

Ed

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I want my MGB

Ed, it's called a "saddle valve" and it does meet building code requirements, so technically, it's not a "shortcut" although a ball valve, or even gate valve would be preferred. 

As the son of a contractor and a long time owner of multi-family houses (landlord), I have much more experience with all things under a roof than under a hood! From electrical to plumbing, framing, masonry, drywall and even landscaping; I've been there and done that (several hundred times over my life). The only thing that really irks me is when these emergency jobs pop up!

One year, instead of driving my parents to Boston for a Christmas celebration at my brother's house (Guru - aka Physics Guy), I spent Christmas day replacing 10' of a cracked, cast iron sewer main in one of my houses! Timing is everything isn't it? As I did that job alone in the cellar all day long I laughed to myself because even though I was mired in raw sewage in the basement, I HAD everything I needed to do the job IN STOCK, and I realized that for the other 364 days of the year, the house made money for me! Sometimes, all you can do is laugh!

Ok, enough with the delay...It's time to pull that engine...gotta go! (Unless anybody has some home repair questions for me!)

 

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

Oi! - Back to work you

One difficullty I am overcoming with even simple domsestic jobs is related to having moved to the USA from England - part names.... I head confidently down to the hardware store in search of a stopcock, but after a few minutes of baffled looks from the (very helpful) staff, I come home with a shut off valve! The "standard" stuff looks different from UK standard stuff too. Then there's electrics, with black and white instead of UK spec red and black or Euro spec brown and blue. Shocking!

There's a different language to learn for nearly everything... just like our beloved cars. Luckily I'm a nerd, so I revel in these sorts of details.

Cheers
Ed

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I want my MGB

The brown and blue is also CSA (Canadian Standards Association....I think). In any event, good for you! You not only choose to assimilate into the culture in which you have moved, but you also delayed my engine-pulling endeavor! (I really don't feel like doing it right now).

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

OK...whew...let me catch my breath.

The engine is now secured to a pallet and in the bed of my pick-up! It's off to Bloomfield!

Gotta go........

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

Good effort mate!

Hoping for a quick turn around, Then I can hassle you about getting it back in the car

Cheers,

Ed

 

P.S. you know those 5 minute jobs I mentioned yesterday? Went to change a bulb on an outdoor light fitting yesterday evening... May be able to complete the project tonight

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I want my MGB

THAT is a hassle that I assure you, will NOT be required!

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On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

Hehe! good to hear it. Always so much more motivation to put something together than rip it apart...

Ed

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I want my MGB