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 - Low mount starter doesn't fit on 18GB

A friend came over the other evening and helped to swap my newly rebuilt 1800 (18GB) engine into my '56 roadster. I've been busy today refitting all the ancillary equipment and all was going well until I tried to refit the starter. My car is an early 1500 with the starer mounted low. I've used a low mount back plate which was machine to take a rear oil seal. The 18GB engine has a small protrusion in the block right next to where the starter mounts that wasn't present on the old engine (see photos). I'm not sure what to do now. I'm thinking that I'll have to do some grinding, but of what? Can I grind eneough off the edge of the starter to make it fit? Do I have to grind down the protrusion on the engine block (I'm not sure what's behind there)? Has anyone else done this swap and if so, how did you solve this problem?

Here's what the edge ofthe old engine looks like.



Andy Bounsall

Here's the same spot on the new block.



Andy Bounsall

This pic shows the starter not fitting from underneath.



Andy Bounsall

Since the starter is the interchangeable part (if you ever need to change it), it is best to grind off the bump on the engine block.
Barney Gaylord

While I agree with Barney about interchangeability, I think I'd like to know why that bump is there and how thick the wall is before I started grinding on it.
Shame to mess up that nice paint job!
GTF
G T Foster

Yes GT, that was on my mind as well. Does anybody know the answer?
Andy Bounsall

I would try posting on the B forum to find out what the bump is
dominic clancy

I was a small step ahead of you Dominic as I'd posted the question on the B board already. For the record, the responses were:


From Daniel Wong...
"I believe that bump is where one of the backplate mount bolts screws into. Reach a finger into the starter hole and feel for the bolt head."

He's right. If you look at the photo of the old block you can see the head of the bolt that's there.


From Chris at Octarine Services...
"Yes - you need to grind that bump down to clear - you won't compromise stregth as per Daniel's post, the bolt spacing is the same as your old block"


So it looks like I've got some grinding to do. It's just a shame that I didn't know about this beforehand. It would've been much easier to grind with the engine on a stand prior to installing the back plate. Oh well, hopefully the next one to do this swap can learn from my oversight.
Andy Bounsall

I ran into the same problem when I tried to bolt the starter onto my 1800 with the low mount plate. After consulting with several folks, I carefully ground off the lump, with the engine still in place, using a 4" grinder. I just took off the minimum to fit the starter, and have had no problems.

Ken
k v morton

I had to grind to fit on my conversion some 4 years ago with no problem to date ,be sure to grind off just enough to allow the starter to slide in.
Trevor Burnett
t burnett

For the sake of completeness, I thought I'd finish this thread off with a post grinding and paint touch up photo. I used a 4" angle grinder to take the bump down just enough so that the starter can slide in.



Andy Bounsall

This thread was discussed between 19/04/2009 and 21/04/2009

MG MGA index

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