• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Fixing Things

Share this page

jhorton3

jhorton3

Jedi Warrior
Country flag
Offline
Finally have time this weekend to work on Midgie. Fixed one of the major oil leaks. For some reason the braided oil pressure hose developed a leak on the block side connection. Looked like I'd cut a main artery! With replacement not a drop leaked.

Tomorrow I plan on working to get the static timing back. Not looking forward to it as I'll have to unbolt the motor mounts and jack the engine up so I can get a socket on the damper pulley bolt. I'll probably be posting quite a bit tomorrow asking plenty of questions.
 
Whoa!! It's not necessary to jack anything up to turn the engine over by hand.
Pull the plugs, chock the wheels or apply the handbrake, gearbox in neutral.

Apply pessure on the alternator belt, put a wrench on the alternator pulley nut and turn to your hearts content. Much easier. Someone will suggest pushing the car, or rocking it while in gear, but my method is easier, and it's much more precise.

While you're there, it would be the ideal time to adjust the valves, too.
Jeff
 
That's a good tip Jeff... I usually do the "push the car method". Maybe I'll try this one next time

Thanks
Tony
 
Bugeye58 said:
Whoa!! It's not necessary to jack anything up to turn the engine over by hand.
Click to expand...
I've been jacking up one rear wheel in 4th and turning the wheel. Your suggestion sounds a lot easier Jeff.
 
Plugs have been pulled, I've tried getting the alternator belt as tight as I can possibly muster, but the alternator pulley method will not turn the engine at all. Just slips under the belt.

In regards to putting the car in 4th and turning a rear wheel, do you keep one wheel on the ground? If so which wheel do you turn?

Last time I tried this the only way to get TDC was unbolting the motor mounts from the frame and putting a floor jack under the engine. Lifted it up enough to where I could put the large socket on the damper bolt and a breaker bar to turn the engine.

Might try the wheel approach tomorrow, but have a suspicion the jack will find it's way to the front and under the engine.
 
Just outa curiosity....how much compression has that thing got?
 
It's been a while since I did a compression test, but I think all 4 were around or over 120.
 
Thanks for the tip. I'd been eyeballing the crank nut thinking "what kind of modified wrench am I going to have to make to turn that?

We pushed or pulled the car to get the distributor to a high point to set point gap on my first Sprite.
 
Just jack up one rear wheel, doesn't matter which, pop it in 4th, then turn the jacked up wheel in the direction of forward travel with the other wheel on the deck. That'll turn it over.
Chock the front wheels because you'll want the handbrake off.
 
I think I'd be looking at that alternator belt for glazing. I've never failed with this method, even with a fresh, tight engine. Are you pressing on the belt with one hand, or trying to tighten the adjustment to get it tight enough? I've always just pushed down on the belt.
Jeff
 
New belt. Tried both ways of pressing on the belt and taking a pry bar to take what slack I can get out of it, but pulley still slips underneath.
 
I've ALWAYS used Jeff's method. Should be able to turn ANY engine by hand this way with the plugs out. Tension the trailing side of the belt with one hand and it shouuld grab easily. If it's so tight you can't turn it there's "somethin' goin' on" more serious than just timing. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/shocked.gif
 
I've tried the bump start method with a remote starter switch. The problem is I always overshoot, so I want to have a bit more control to get to TDC.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]If it's so tight you can't turn it here's "somethin' goin' on" more serious than just timing.[/QUOTE]

Guess my little tongue-in-cheek question wasn't pointed enough (I realized the'd removed the plugs)....if the belt slips, either the wrong belt is on the pulley (i.e., glazed, incorrect width, etc) or the pulley is worn something awful (& it that wouldn't charge is correct), or there's something wrong inside the engine.....if the belt doesn't work, I'm wondering if turning a wheel will.

Bumping the starter has always worked for me up to the last little bit then the belt trick brings it on over.
 
tony barnhill said:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]If it's so tight you can't turn it here's "somethin' goin' on" more serious than just timing.
Click to expand...


Bumping the starter has always worked for me up to the last little bit then the belt trick brings it on over. [/QUOTE]

That is the way I have always done it too, w/o any problems!!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif
 
Back
Top