YakkoWarner
Jedi Warrior
Online
Some call Scooby and the gang because I found a real mystery in my MGB.... I got (with much help) the engine/transmission out of the 1970 B that is well past my skill level to save. Before installing it into the 1973 body, it makes sense to do the clutch and release bearing while it is sitting on the castor pallet with everything easily accessible. So I removed the starter, pulled all the bolts for the bellhousing with the transmission supported on a rolling jack and started sliding the transmission back from the engine, and as soon as I had about 1/2 inch gap between them something fell out. I finished getting them apart (the input shaft was really stiff trying to get it out from the clutch) and everything looks intact, but I have this extra mystery thing that fell out. It is a metal disk about the size of a Kennedy half dollar, thickness of a fender washer. Possibly stainless steel based on appearance/lack of corrosion/weight. It has a approx 3/8 inch hole in the center, and 3 very fine (1/64 or even less) holes about 1/16th in from the edge - 1 at each 120 degree interval around the circumference. There were also some bits of what could have been a rubber seal, but based on the curve of them they were too small to have been remnants of an engine oil seal or transmission shaft seal. Plus there was no oil on the flywheel or backplate of the engine. It is somewhat worn around the edge, so it probably had been loose in there when the engine was last run almost a decade ago. It seems too large to have fallen out of the clutch (it doesn't fit through any of the gaps) but I have not yet pulled the clutch off the flywheel (that is next weekend). All the bolts and fittings inside the bellhousing on the transmission are present and accounted for, the hole in the mystery part is too small for it to have been anything that went on the main shaft itself. I don't intend to pull the flywheel from the engine, and I can't see anyplace where this could have come from on the engine side behind the flywheel. I cannot find anything in the exploded parts diagrams that looks even remotely like this disc/washer/whatever. It didn't fall off of the starter that I can tell, since the starter is intact and doesn't have anything that size or shape on the end that goes to the flywheel.