What a brilliant few days with Mark and Jamie in a garage in Carshalton. Mark’s very tidy MGF 143 VVC wanted a few things doing and Jamie wanted a few pointers on his fab project.
So on ‘Big Ears’ (Mark’s car) the following was carried out; replacement of refurbished hydragas spheres, fitting of lowering knuckles all round, new drop links, Schultz underseal after wire brush and painting with anti-rust paint, minor service, fit glass rear window, heater controls replaced, fit reprogrammed ECU, fit front and rear anti-roll bar polybushes, hydragas lift.
Some time ago Jamie had bought himself a Midget (Betsy) as a project and was only 14 at the time. He is now at Brooklands college and as a project is going to transplant a k-series engine complete with a ford sierra gearbox in to it. He bought Alan’s written-off MGF 143 VVC (Peppa) in order to do this. So they had wanted Jon to help him remove the engine and impart his knowledge on how it’s done. So the pair of them set about with the removal and also advising on which bits to keep as spares etc.
They also removed the bell housing today and clutch to see how the other gearbox will fit. Ford Sierra gearbox is interesting as it has also got a full hydraulic integrated slave cylinder that’s mounted inside the bell housing and around the drive spigot. The gearbox that Jamie got has also been adapted to be a slick-shift so as not to have the old Sierra massive movement on the gearstick. From mounting the bell housing it will have to take a smaller flywheel and possibly something like a Steptronic starter motor which is mounted just underneath the exhaust manifold and alongside the engine block, rather than the starter motor being on the other side of the engine and over the top of the gearbox. We look forward very much to seeing how this develops, it’s so great seeing Jamie’s enthusiasm and it was fab watching him get stuck in with his fab set of spanners despite feeling under the weather.
Great to see Alan again on Wednesday afternoon and have a catch-up, then all of us enjoy a lovely evening with the best curry ever!
Thank you so much Mark and Jamie for your lovely company, enjoying lots of chats and laughs, accompanied by festive tunes and a cracking brew!
