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back to that '59 A

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: back to that '59 A
From: wzehring@cmb.biosci.wayne.edu (Will Zehring)
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 09:22:08 -0400
Don Daves writes:

>One question raised by Kai Radicke I can answer - there is no overdrive 
>on it.  It has the shortest shift lever I've ever seen, it's kinda 
>neat.

I used to own an A that I had put a B engine into.  In fact, it was an 18G 
engine out of a rotted pull handle B (so near, and yet so far!), and in fact 
I put an airpump head on it (big valve, too).  But mine was not a '59, it 
was a '60.  Anyway, the virtue of the 18G engine is that the original A 
tranny mates up to it perfectly.  Spline dimensions are the same as on the 
original A 1600/1622 engine, and the backplate is identical (I think).  No, 
an OD tranny is unlikely, because the A's tranny tunnel/frame won't 
accomodate it (at least not w/o some mods I'd guess).  That's why I used the 
A's box in the first place; I don't think the early B 4-speed will fit in 
the A's tunnel either.  Besides; the brace points are all different.  OTOH, 
at the Twist summer party a year ago someone was selling fiberglas 
floors/tranny tunnels for the A that will accomodate the MGB OD tranny 
(probably both the early and later styles).  

I also put HS4s on the thing.  They are much more civilized carbs than the 
HS's on the A.

Did it all matter: probably not much.  By the book anyway, the 1600/1622 
engine wasn't that far off from the 1800 in HP/torque.  I don't remember, 
but is the A's rear axle ratio higher than the B's?  Sort of limits what you 
can get, in terms of top end anyway.  

So, I tend to agree with Kai, its an early B engine with a late B head and 
I'll toss my 0.02$ in by predicting its a stock A tranny.  The short shift 
lever sort of puzzles me.  The stock A tranny shifter doesn't seem short to 
me.  Probably the PO shortened it him/herself so as to convince him/herself 
that he/she was making quicker shifts so he/she could blow off all those 
fuelie corvettes!

Will "hey, wan't there something important that I was supposed to be doing 
today?" Zehring

p.s.  Wow, top that sig, Mark J!  two lines!


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