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Randi

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Today Zack is at the shop removing engine & transmission from one mgbgt to the the other to have a daily driver. All prayers will be appreciated.....he has guidance but he must learn to do this- as we all know. I must drive the other sibling to the ends of the earth(Galliano) to catch a boat off shore as he blew his truck up ......does it never end???? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif
 
Soon enuff, kiddo... but don't RUSH that, 'k?
 
We got the motor out! W00h00.

Our donor car was a 1972 MGB GT, and our recipient is a Rubber Bumper 74 1/2 GT.

We started out the day making sure that our donor motor was actually good enough to bother pulling in the first place. After setting up a gas can and running the fuel line into it, and running a return hose off of the front carb back into the gas can, we hooked up a battery. Unfortunately the PO did not have a key, so we pulled apart the steering column, and pulled the ignition apart so we could start the car with a screwdriver.

We noticed a fire problem in the distributor, and it turned out the hot wire that runs to the points was broken. My buddy Walyn created a wire out of some spare wirestrands laying around the shop, and that issue was solved.

We realized that the coil was intermittently firing up the test light for some reason, so we swapped in a spare coil, and then filed out the points and verified fire to the wires.

Dad came along and verified compression and we attempted cranking her up. Using starting fluid to hopefully coax some life out of the motor, we got her to turn over and rev up to about 2500 rpm and die. Unfortunately, the rear carb seems to be stuck, and no amount of tinkering seemed to make the dashpot operate. But the fact that the motor is good and ready to go put the biggest grin on my face!

The least fun part of the day was getting the pretty-darn-narrow car onto the not-so-narrow lift. Especially since neither 3 of us wanted to defeat the steering lock mechanism, so we hooked the wrecker to the car and after some finagling, we got the car onto the lift.

From there, it was smooth sailing, and we yanked the motor/tranny in about 1.5 hours. Tomorrow we will drop the pan to verify nothing is wrong with the bottom end, unbolt the tranny, check the clutch, and bolt our working tranny on. Then dropping it back into the RB GT.

I didnt get many pictures today but there should be plenty taken tomorrow.

Wish us luck!
 
Hey, Randi.
Have you seen that MGBGT body at Dave's place over in Erath.
Belongs to his Ex or something, but apparently obtainable. Needs very little, I have lusted after it privately thinking about dropping in the beefy front end and an aluminum block V8.
What a great GT cruiser that would make.

Bill
 
When we pulled the motor out of the 72 BGT last night, we thought it would be fairly easy to drop into the RB GT.

However, when we looked at the motor mounts on the RB car this morning, we noticed a huge difference in how the motors mount up.
We actually did have one RB roadster in the salvage yard, but the motor in it had been stripped down a long time ago. Bummer.

Good news is that after letting those carbs sit with fresh dashpot oil overnight, they appear to function fine. If worse comes to worse, I will send them to Joe Curto, but not quite yet.

Once we ran into our brick wall, we focused on little things. Put a brand new water pump I had stashed away, dropped the pan and inspected all the caps and bearings, degreased everything, went and found a Payen Master Gasket set for the motor in my parts pile, and removed all the old gasket material off of the front of the motor, etc.

Hopefully I get to start all over again on Friday. woohoo.

If anyone does have a front engine plate for a RB motor, please feel free to PM me.

Thanks!
 
I bought the gold one for Zack! Linda got the Morgan! He has aquired 4 more and then I bought a red one.......we aren't smart people! I love Dave!! and Menda ,too of course-LOL I hired the youngest for my fire works tent.
 
Zack - if you can wait until after I get back from N'Awlins, I have the plates...its just raining cats'n'dogs today & tomorrow so I coudn't get one pulled & shipped before I leave.
 
No problem Tony

I'll plan on that unless I can get one before the weekend. I know I will be unable to bring the car to the show, but I figured I'd feel a sense of acomplishment by getting it running before the show LOL

Thank you very much!
 
Just let me know Saturday at the show...
 
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