Day 125 and Counting

Last Sunday was 125 days from my planned "ready" date to have the 1953 MG TD on the road for break-in and testing. With the help and guidance of "brother" MG Vintage Racer Manley Ford, we pulled the engine in about four hours and accumulated a workbench full of grimy bits and pieces. Some of these went into plastic bags; some were too big and just got piled.



Despite the lack of vacuum lines, heater hoses, power steering and all the miscellaneous plumbing that goes with air conditioning, removing the motor from an automobile is a job that always seems to take longer than one would think it should.  I had prepared Morris by removing the hood, headlights, grill shell and radiator so as to allow forward clearance. I disconnected the carburetor linkage and took away the intake and exhaust manifolds. I unbolted the generator, oil cooler and filter adapters. The distributor came out and I began to wonder if I knew where I had filed the instruction on how to set up and "time" the Crane electronic spark trigger I had installed 15 or 20 years ago.  This could be interesting at reassembly time.
I was lucky to have Manley's guidance. Over his many years of owning MG's and racing an MG TF and a very quick and well-developed TD, he has extracted many a motor. Although I was sure we would have to remove the interior and floorboards, he assured me the metal tunnel and "remote shifter" tower were all we would have to disturb in the cockpit. We later discovered the steering column gets in the way when you have a right-hand drive car. So that got pulled up and back. By 4:00 PM, a big piece of British cast iron was sitting on the floor in his shop and we were greasy and tired. It was the perfect moment for a couple of bottles of Old Speckled Hen, a beer long associated with MG cars and the town of Abingdon where they were traditionally built.

Once home, I packed up the voltage regulator to send off to Wilton Auto Electric in New Hampshire, where the electro-mechanical innards would be unobtrusively replaced with solid state electronics to insure trouble-free management of the original generator's rather meager output charge. I feel like the work has begun!