MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Flywheel ring gear removal

Hey all,

I've searched the archives and looked in the manual but cannot find any info regarding the removal of the starter ring gear from the flywheel.

Any secrets/suggestions? I was thinking of cutting it off but didn't want to bugger up the flywheel.

BTW I found an early B flywheel with the 3 dowels which resolved my B clutch conversion issue.
Thanks to all who helped!

John
John Bries

John. Take it into a machine shop. They will split the old ring gear off using a chisel. Then, they will heat the new ring gear, install it on the flywheel and allow it to shrink in place for a tight fit. You can do the same thing yourself, but, these people do a number of ring gear replacements every year and most of us do one or two in a lifetime. Thus, they have a much better chance of getting it right the first time. Last time I had it done it was very inexpensive because I used the shop doing the rest of my machining for the rebuild. Something like $20. Les
Les Bengtson

John,

The suggestion by Les is the best course of action if you have not done it before. A few dollars well spent.
Just for interest, the normal way to remove a ring gear is to drill a hole from one side to the other below a 'valley' of the gear and then firmly hit a chisel placed in that valley. The ring gear will snap.

Mick
Mick Anderson

Removing the ring gear is usually not that difficult. Support the flywheel on some blocks of wood and hit the gear at intervals with either a hardwood or brass drift. Try to keep it coming off equally all round and there should be no problem.

Putting on a new one is harder as it is important not to overheat it. The last one I did went into the kitchen oven at 220C (you'll have to convert that to degrees F yourself)for about 15 minutes and went on remarkably easily. Needless to say the kitchen "owner" was out at the time.

Malcolm
malcolm asquith

Hi folks. It is much easier to fit the ring gear to the flywheel, if the flywheel is chilled in a freezer, overnight before the ring gear is installed. With the flywheel chilled, and the ring gear heated, the installation is eased considerably. Glenn
Glenn

John,
Check out Barney Galord's site mgaguru.com.
I recently did this for the first time. It's quite easy. You can use a dremel tool after drilling in the valley to ease cutting with the cold chisel.
I didn't freeze the flywheel, just heated the flywheel in my charcoal grill.
Jonathan
jonathan

A way of judging the heat of the ringear is when it will just melt soft solder. By the way NEVER knock the ringear off because it also removes a small layer of metal and the new one can work off in use. Also many flywheels have a couple of thou.lip and you will remove that too. Denis
DENIS

Ablolutely agree with Denis on this one. DONT knock the gear off. Furthermore the ring sits in a groove that makes it impossible to knock off. Drill it as suggested and split with a cold chisel.

Now I've fitted several ring gears without problem heating the ring by various methods but if you haven't done this before and are not 100% confident about your ability to fit the ring then take it to your local engine reconditioner or even a blacksmith and ask him to fit it for you.
Iain MacKintosh

This thread was discussed between 19/11/2004 and 23/11/2004

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.