Not really suitible for reuse
A screwdriver doesn’t always make a very good lever. I’m guessing that one might have been used to deaccession this crankshaft pulley from the engine. Fanbelt life is likely to be affected by its reuse so we’ll track another one down or ask Ken Booth to turn a new one for us on his N.C. lathe.
Too bad the teardown engineer didn’t use the threaded holes on eight side of the pulley center to draw it off.
Butch pulls down the Jaguar Mk IX steering box
Interestingly, at least to us, it wasn’t the first time to the Prom for the Mk IX power steering box. Butch can be seen here pulling it apart.
Inside it was a small marvel of precision close tolerance machining from the 1960’s, but it’s a pretty good bet that the blue RTV silicon sealer dates from more recent times. Butch is working here in a plastic tray so that the myriad ball bearings, small springs etc. don’t migrate too far from the workbench.
Steve was working downstairs on the preliminary assembly work on the MGB engine you see here. After painting the inside of the crankcase with GLYPTAL insulating paint and cleaning & chasing all the threaded holes in cylinder block, he began the build process by checking the main bearing clearances (.002″) and the crankshaft run out at the center
Steve installs an APT VP 11BK camshaft
main bearing (.00025′). These figures are well within our acceptable range, and since this is a standard diameter crankshaft, it gives you some idea of how really well some of the shops at the failing British Leyland Motor Corporation were still able to hold a tolerance as the business began to fall apart in the mid-seventies.
On the bench behind the engine you can see the connecting rods which have been glass-beaded, balanced, full floated and the big ends re-sized, all of which brings them to our standards for reconditioning. “Full-Floating” makes these connecting rods suitible for use with clip retained piston wrist pins which substantially reduces the friction and therefore heat that can be generated at the high RPM this engine will be capable of turning. In this case the pistons are from JE, made to our order.
Very sharp-eyed obsrvers will have taken note of the XPAG-TD oil pump behind them, part of our next engine build up.
Seen Friday: A German Gran Turismo returns to its elements in Rhode Island
