Morris Minor Owners Club

Rope round and tied to the battery clamp is fine.

Removing the rad is no big deal, either, and gives some much needed room, pus relieves the concern about accidentally bashing a hole in it. Just take it out! Having done the engine/trans in-and-out a couple of different ways, I side with Roy- much easier as a unit.

I'm suggesting only engine here - to get at the clutch.....

It took me about 2 hrs. to take the engine out and on to the bench, 30 mins to strip off the ancillaries such as radiator, dizzy, carbs, starter motor, and fan blade, the same again to undo the front engine pillars and similar for the gearbox to engine bolts, the rest to manipulate the engine out. I used a bit of rope to support the gearbox.
If you have hands like a brick layer you might find it difficult to remove the gearbox bolts as you see here.
[frame][/frame]
[frame][/frame]
As I attempted to separate and turn the engine I found that the pillars were a restricting factor and would have to be removed, it might have been easier to leave them in place and undo the nuts to the mounting rubbers, still you live and learn.[frame][/frame]
David just for you here are a couple of pics showing the engine transverse and the space you have to work in. As Roy said there is enough room to replace the clutch, since it was on a hoist I put it on the bench.
[frame][/frame]
[frame][/frame]
[frame][/frame]
Now with engine on out we can immediately see the problem, this nut was working loose as the locking tabs were useless, and looked fairly useless on the other 2 as well, so only 2 of the 3 arms on the pressure plate were working, here is the offending area on the left.
[frame][/frame]
and a close up
[frame][/frame]
Because the the force by thrust bearing was not being distributed evenly it has started to disintegrate as you see here.
[frame][/frame]
Will be on to the suppliers Monday morning

Good grief....well done! Great pictures - thanks for posting them.

Very well done!
Congratulations on keeping a very clean house.
David

Took delivery of my replacement clutch, guess what. Checked the offending nuts and tab washers, when assembled with the plate and flywheel you could undo the nuts by hand Knocked the tabs over and re-fitted the engine. All's well in the world again.
NO NEED TO SAY WHAT ADVICE TO GIVE.

Like I said earlier, if you have an old pressure plate that works use it.
Incidentally I notice that you were working with a 948 clutch, is there enough room with a 1098 clutch which is considerably deeper?

Mike I didn't have the 948 pressure plate and I still use the 803 gearbox. A 1098 clutch is as you say deeper and would give you less room which is tight anyway. I believe you could just about squeeze it in but it's tight, Roy seems to suggest that it is possible, no problem if the front is removed of course.
Up and running again now.