Thanks Bob, and Larry, for the useful tip. I scribed a
line across all three pieces, then decided to have
another go at those damned flange nuts. Took out my
trusty bottle of Liquid Wrench - only to find that it
couldn't be inverted enough in the confined space.
After turning over the whole house, finally found a
small paint brush to apply the magic potion.
After a lot of pushing and shoving with the ring end
of the wrench (I was trying to use the open end
before), the propshaft is now disconnected - at both
ends. Its virginity should now remain intact. The
engine really will be out tomorrow morning.
There were a couple of quite funny moments yesterday
during the strip down. The clutch clevis pin had me
foxed for a while until I realised what had happended.
The pin resembles a single-cylinder crankshaft-it had
become so stepped.
The other one was the removable cross member
supporting the gearbox (supposedly). Supported the
gearbox, unbolted the cross member, lowered the
gearbox, went for a cup of tea since I knew the next
part would be a swine. Came back and wiggled the cross
member, it just crashed to the ground!!
It was chock full of dirt, rocks and gravel and the
rubber gearbox mounts had completely disintegrated.
Since I have a new cross member that came with the
rebuilt tranny, I was thinking of growing a few nice
flowers in the old one - just as a conversation piece.
Hopefully tomorrow I can take a few photos of the
bottom end with the oil pan removed and post them on
my website.
Thanks again,
James
One very sick 74 MGB.
--- Bob Howard <mgbob@juno.com> wrote:
> James,
> Sorry to read of a bad day, made so by a
> protruding connecting rod.
> Yes, you can separate drive shaft at the sliding
> joint, though it's
> not the preferred way. Carefully mark the two parts
> of the shaft so that
> you can get the splines back together in the same
> place. Mark front
> part, then the round nut, then the rear shaft
> itself. Mark all three
> places, because the round nut will be loosened
> during cleanup and
> reassembly of the shaft, thus it won't be a good
> reference point for
> reassembly.
> Those flange nuts can be awfully tough to turn;
> wrench handles never
> seem to be long enough.
> Bob
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