In my last installment I discovered the "secret transmission tunnel
access panel" under the carpet and removed it and the "remote gearchange
assembly" (the thing about a foot long that bolts to the top of the
transmission and has the gearchange lever sticking out of it). The
existance of this panel renewed my faith in the car's designers but I
felt it should have been pointed out in my shop manuals. The manuals say
you must remove the floorboards, toeboards, and transmission tunnel. I
say NOT!!
So I go and rent a knockdown engine hoist and hurt my back getting it out
of the car. So far so good. Start pulling the power unit (tm) and see
that it needs to come forward very far so the the rear of the
transmission will clear the crossmember (actually the "ears" for that
BFBolt that goes through the bottom of the transmission). Now, after
having thought about a couple days, I think it might be possible to lift
the rear of the tranny and move it to the left so that it only has to go
forward enough to clear the crossmember and not the additional two to
three inches to clear the ears. I'll look into doing it that way when
reinstalling. To get the engine to come forward enough I had to remove
the crankshaft pulley, timing chain cover, and ISYN, oil slinger. Had
about 1/16 of an inch to spare. It may go back in with these in place if
the shifted rear of tranny idea works.
Next step is to clean it up and remove the crank and take to a good
machine shop to see if it can be salvaged. Then I'll have some more
questions for you kind SOLs. One more thing -- if you forget do drain the
tranny oil, don't worry. It'll all come out when you raise the thing to
about a 45 degree angle. Won't happen again. :)
Kevin Sullivan -- 1960 MGA
Nichols Research Corp.
Shalimar FL USA
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