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Re: MGA purchase and restoration book?

To: dmeadow@juno.com
Subject: Re: MGA purchase and restoration book?
From: barneymg@juno.com (Barney Gaylord)
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 02:01:30 EDT
Trivia time !!!

On Wed, 24 Sep 1997 21:56:02 -0500 dmeadow@juno.com writes:

>.....  My factory workshop manual certainly does include the engine
removal process.  The problem is that it begins with removing the seats
and carpets!  The workshop manual only details how to remove the engine
and the transmission together (hence the necessity of removing the
seats).

And, it also isn't necessary to remove the seats, carpet, floorboards,
and tunnel to remove the engine and transmission together.  At least not
for most MGAs.  I pulled the engine and gearbox together once just to try
it for convenience.  It works, but it's still easier to pull the engine
first.

Whether the tranny comes out with the engine or not, you need to remove
the carpet from the tunnel around the shift lever, then take out about
eight #10 screws, and remove the shifter cover from the tunnel.  You can
then remove the four 5/16 bolts securing the shift extension and remove
same from gearbox.  The gearbox can then be removed with or without the
engine attached, without removing the tunnel.

There are two reasons why the MGA Workshop Manual specifies to remove the
tunnel.

First, for warrantee reasons, it was intended that you should not
disassemble the gearbox if returning it for warrantee service.  That
would include not removing the shift extension, and you have to remove
the tunnel to get the gearbox out with the shift extension still
attached.

Second, very early models of the MGA did not have the shift cover as a
separate and removable piece on top of the tunnel, so you couldn't get
the shift extension off of the gearbox without removing the tunnel.  To
allow for that option, they would have had to print another section in
the manual to differentiate between the models with and without the
tunnel cover.  I think it was a matter of not having to reprint the
manual so early in the production run.

Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude

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