[Spridgets] Question about mating the transmission to the engine

[Richard Ball]

Richard Ball <rich_ball at mindspring.com> wrote:

>David,
>Don't use the bolts to pull things together.  A while back I ended up rebuilding a Datsun 5 speed for a friend who did the same thing.  In this case it damaged the input shaft bearing which seized up on him half way to Portland.  The heat caused by the bearing seizing up at freeway speeds damaged the input shaft, other bearings, snap rings, and a synchro ring.  The cause of all this was that the hole in the crank and the pilot bushing were not correctly matched and the shop that rebuilt his engine used their best BFH to make them fit, which deformed the ID of the soft pilot bushing.
>In my friend John's defense this project was his first attempt at anything mechanical and he did a beautiful job restoring his MG TF farming out what he had too and doing/learning the rest.  In this instance, learning the hard way
>
>Rich Ball
>'76 Midget
>Everett Wa