I learned a good lesson today. Don't buy rebuild kits until you've
taken things apart. I went ahead and ordered rebuild kits for my brake
calipers and rear cylinders and THEN started reading the manuals which all
said don't rebuild if there's any sign of wear, and THEN started taking the
things apart and finding evidence of pitting and wear <sigh>. I've
occasionally done this sort of thing before, and just said, "ah, screw the
manuals, what do they know anyway?" But this time that little voice in my
head told me I'd probably rather lose the $60 or so in parts than a few
limbs to a brake failure.
Now I can't work on my brakes cause I don't have any parts in, and
I'm waiting for my hydraulic lines to come in, and I'm waiting on new paint
for my dashboard, and I'm supposedly getting my engine back from the machine
shop this week, but I'm sure you all know how that goes, and I don't want to
take my transmission apart cause I'm still looking for an O/D. Anyway, I've
been getting anxious to do something.
So, I measured the lobes on both the new and old cams to see if they
were the same (Hey, it's SOMETHING!). Well, unless I measured wrong
(Possible, I'm going to go take the measurements on the old cam again
tomorrow with a more familiar micrometer) I got a lobe height of about 1.38"
on all the lobes of the old cam, and 1.32" on the new cam. Unfortunately
the stats in the manuals don't give me lobe heights. The closest thing I
could find was valve lift. Does anybody ever actually measure cam lobe
height? Do any of these numbers sound familiar? Does Anybody know how to go
from valve lift to cam lobe height, or is it not that simple?
Anybody have any great suggestions on what I can work on while I
can't work on anything? And don't anybody in the know say my Spit's engine,
because I'm currently denying that the crankshaft is bad. Hey, ~2 PSI oil
pressure at 60 MPH isn't so bad, right? (And it only rattles when hit the
gas :-) Besides, nobody on the MG list would tell me to work on a Tri***h
now would they?
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Jeremy DuBois jer@thlogic.com
Manager, Info Systems http://www.thlogic.com/~jer/
Thermalogic Corporation '60 TR3A, '74 MGB, '76 Spit
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