Fan Belt Blues

Morgan +4

Butch fettles some Morgan sheetmetal

The yellow Morgan +4 is wintering over with us so that we can sort out the loose ends and do a general debugging.  Wednesday we brought it back in so Butch could install the rear passenger compartment panel that closes up the back of the car.  This panel was inadvertantly left out during the painting process, and by our running total,  about a third of  the time on this car has been installing and adjusting things the paint shop forgot to do.  Meanwhile we’re still waiting for some dry roads so we can catch up on our road test work.  We haven’t been able to do any since well before Christmas.

MG TD engine, left.  MGA engine, right

Warner & the XPAG

Also on Wednesday Warner finished up the MGA 1500 engine, which by virtue a set of MGA 1600 pistons, has grown some useful extra displacement, and he’s now into the first of three MG TD engines in our queue.  The MGA engine is upside down on the right, with the final coat of paint only minutes old.  Warner didn’t waste much time shifting gears, as he can be seen here making his final checks on the TD engine prior to commencing assembly. As of the time of this writing, the crankshaft, connecting rods & pistons are fully installed and his next task will be to establish the cam timing.

fanblade & fanbelt

More work of the geniuses: The fanbelt won't come off

On our Cavalcade of Continuing Complications with the red TR3 which is Butch’s current favorite Bete-Noir, we are dealing with the consequences of a phenomena known as ” A Little Knowledge is A Dangerous Thing”.  We strongly suspect that the same highly skilled technician at Tax Man Motors in Missouri who was responsible for the potentially lethal brake & steering work had half of a good idea about improving the cooling capacity of this red TR3 too.

That’s a later MGB six bladed plastic fan down there, and it’s probably useful improvement over the original four bladed metal Triumph fan.  Butch thought it would be a good idea to replace the worn out fanbelt that was apparently overlooked during the fan installation, but Darn The Luck, there’s not enough room to clear the old belt from between the radiator and the fan blade.  A quarter inch is all we need, but we finished up tonight trying to decide whether to pull the front sheetmetal off the car to get the radiator out of the way, or whether to unbolt the engine & transmission and move them back half an inch.

We’re hopeful a better solution will be in hand tomorrow, so stay tuned.

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