> I now have the engine out of the little blighter, and am about to start
> stripping it. I was wondering...first gear is a little noisy (whines) what do
> I need to replace ?? I might as well do it now the engines out...but I do NOT
> want to rebuild the trans. aswell...I won't be able to afford luxuries like
> potatoes and water otherwise!
What year Midget, Marcus? If it's got chrome bumpers, not to
worry -- all Midgets made through September 1974, with a VIN of
less than (not equal to) GAN5UE154100 have straight-cut first
gears, which make noise. They're also non-synchromesh in 1st,
which is why it's so difficult to shift down while rolling.
If it's a Spitfidget (that is, a Midget with a Spitfire engine,
GAN5UE154100 and up, made after September 1974), then it has the
four-synchro gearbox. I seem to recall that this gearbox is just
noisy; after all, it's a teeny little car, with the only sound
deadening material between you and the 'box a few rags of carpet
on a steel tunnel. I'd say drain the fluid out of the box and
inspect for big pieces. The fluid will be a gold-green slurry
of bronze powder suspended in motor oil (for the early 'box, you
use the same weight of engine oil as you do in the engine, not
unlike the Mini, where it's not only the same weight, it's the
same actual oil); a little of this isn't bad. If there are largeish
chunks, pieces of needle bearings, or suspicious foreign bits in the
oil (up to and including Jimmy Hoffa's Teamsters membership ring),
you might want to park yourself in front of the local grocery
with a hand-lettered sign (in used motor oil, daubed with a greasy
finger on the inside of a Castrol case), "WILL WORK FOR CAR PARTS."
Other than that, just keep the oil topped up and fresh and it
should be okay for a few years yet.
--Scott
From rwg1@cornell.edu Tue Sep 11 11:47:05 2001
From: (Roger Garnett) rwg1@cornell.edu
To: (British Cars) british-cars@autox.team.net
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 16:08:55
Subject: Re: movie cars
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 12:32:42 -0400
From: <twakeman@apple.com>
Subject: Re: movie cars
I never saw War of the Roses a second time. I could tell that was a real
Morgan getting demolished and could not stand to see it happen again. Its
not quite like the dead people who gome back to life after the director
says cut. Rogers story about it being rebuilt was interesting. But the
way it was crushed, I would say the person is vintage racing a Morgan that
had the Triumph engine that was in another Morgan that was crushed in a
movie. If all you have is an engine, a commision number, and maybe a rear
lamp or guage to start with, is the resulting car really the original that
the engine was fitted to???
TeriAnn
- But what about the baclk XKE herse that went off the cliff to
explode on the beach below while its owner walked away playing a banjo-
|