>The 2 bearing "twisted wire" cranks on a lot of early British cars
certrainly
>aren't up for much abuse, but it is amazing what folks did with some of the
>Austin 7's, or what MG did with the M, C, and J types.
Actually, what kills most J cranks (of the "twisted wire" persuasion) is
UNDER-revving. Most cracks occuring in these cranks happens when the engine
is asked to pull at less than optimal revs. The harmonic vibration sets in
at fairly low revs, due to the two bearing design, with the attendant
problems Roger mentions.
I recently had occasion to drive a 750 cc C type MG Monthery Midget and
compare it with my own J2. Except for a propensity to top out a bit early,
the C type's stock of revs just seem to never end. The same is true on my J.
This doesn't seem to be true of any MG engine made after the OHC pre-war
cars. But then, after 1935 when Cowley took over, they were accustomed to
building low-revving touring salons - not the highly tuned race-bred
varieties being then produced at Abingdon.
Oh, to drive a K3!
Regards,
Lew Palmer
lew.palmer@uci.com
'32 J2
'50 TD
'59 MGA
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