Morris Minor Owners Club

Thanks, that's reassuring, i'll give it a bash with a small chisel tommorow. 40 years in the back of a garage seems to have made this engine a nightmare to strip down! I'm nearly there now..

Sharp screwdriver did the job. I'd like to point out that the workshop manual says to remove the woodruff key then remove the timing gears. This is practically impossible to remove the woodruff key with the timing gear still on (covering 1/2 the woodruff key). Once I remove the timing gear, I used a little penetrating oil then gave it a tap and it soon came out.

Great success ! I often wonder if the persons writing these Manuals ever actually DID the job...... As part of my job I used to manage a group writing Method Statements etc for assembly of safety critical (and explosive!) items - and my simple test was to sit down and try to DO the job myself following the instructions word for word... It was amazing how often (initially) it didn't work! The lads soon realised I was going to check....

Certainly a serious lesson learned there..common sense prevails. ...and a little experience!