sprite engine

[a8pte]

need help please i have bought a midget engine and im going to use the original gearbox so do i buy a complete clutch plate for a morris or a midget,any suggestions please .

[bmcecosse]

Depends which flywheel you have - if Spridget fly then you need Spridget clutch..........

[a8pte]

bmcecosse have sent a pm

[AntB]

If you're retaining the 1098 gearbox you may want to be aware that it will last between 18 minutes and half an hour with the sprite engine in there.

Been there, got the tshirt.

[MarkyB]

Been there, got the t shirt.

And a heavy right boot I suspect, I ran a 1275 with a standard Minor box for many years.
I was very aware that it was a slightly weaker box and didn't hammer it in 1st.

[plastic_orange]

I helped a mate fit a 1275 Midget engine and box in his Minor in 1976. The original box lasted just a few months, so we just fitted the minor box back on it. It never gave a bit of bother and it lived on after the car was scrapped a good few years later.

Pete

[AntB]

I was very aware that it was a slightly weaker box and didn't hammer it in 1st.

it's not first that goes, it's second. and it wasn't just the size of my boot, the guy who used to fix up my car warned me when i uprated the engine that the 1098 gearbox was only rated to around 50 horses, so i ought to be careful. that guy was Chris Street, so i figured he knew what he was on about

[Innovator]

I think it was 7 gearboxes in a year with my 1275cc when I was 17. Used to get home from school, get the engine and box out before tea and have the car back on the road for 7.30.

Then when the 2 litre Fiat went in it was B series diffs that kept going ..........

[AntB]

Yup, I could do one in an hour and half by the time I replaced my second type 9 'box

[bmcecosse]

Ooooh -I thought Type 9 boxes were 'bomb proof'?

[WPR678B]

Ooooh -I thought Type 9 boxes were 'bomb proof'?

They are a much stronger box than the Standard Minor one, but i have covered about 80,000 miles with the one i have (and that was secondhand of unknown milage when i fitted it) but that now is pretty worn and sloppy!
I suppose everything mechanical has a limited life and threshold for abuse at the end of the day!!
I think you would be hard pressed to destroy one attached to an A-series unless you are driving like a *%!+

[AntB]

Perhaps I ought to have mentioned that my 1275 was (I discovered after the flywheel bolts sheared) a 1340cc engine with a fast road cam, lightweight pistons, double valve springs etc etc. The fast road cam was obvious from the way it drove, obviously the capacity increase needed the head to be taken off it. Head had valves like dinner plates

I was sold it as a 1275 midget engine from a racecar by the (slightly iffy) R+C Motors of martock (long since out of business) and my parents gave me the engine as an 18th birthday present.

The first type 9 'box that went in was s/h, it was replaced with a recon 'box until the (non wire- ringed) crank bolts failed.

Both were good 'boxes, although the first occasionally crunched like a wrong 'un from day one.

[bmcecosse]

Never heard of crank/flywheel bolts shearing! And 'light weight pistons' ????

[MartinB]

Cranks for high power/high revs normally need to be dowelled to stop the crank/flywheel bolts fretting. I had to do this on my Fiat 2 litre and is normal practice for these engines when modified. Are the A series crank/flywheels dowelled? (I know the mini ones are on a taper so are not).

[AntB]

Never heard of crank/flywheel bolts shearing!

They do, and it ain't nice when it happens

And 'light weight pistons' ????

Like those made by Omega pistons? They've been around for donkey's years......

[bmcecosse]

I don't think Omega pistons are especially light - they are strong though. And yes - the Spridget flywheel is dowelled to the crank.

[MartinB]

If the spridget flywheel is dowelled to the crank then there is no way the flywheel bolts should shear off.

[AntB]

Two options:
1) Either it happened, my car had the flywheel fall off the back of the engine after driving it from home to the top of the eastern road in portsmouth in early 1999 with the crank left in such a state that I had to bin the engine and fit one out of a scrap marina bought from Phil Burge's scrapyard in Henstridge* or
2) I made the whole thing up.

I'm sticking with 1) ;)

*the guy from the RAC was first of all really impressed that the car hadn't had something really awful happen to it, and then hacked off that he had to trailer the thing 100 miles back to my parents' place

[bmcecosse]

Obviously -the dowels were missing. If it was a Marina crank using a Minor flywheel - there would be no dowels. Even so - if the bolts were pulled up correctly with the recommended spot of Loctite, it would be MOST unusual for the bolts to shear.......

[AntB]

as far as i can remember it was a spridget crank, spridget flywheel, 2 litre pinto clutch and cover and 1600 type 9 box, or those last two were the other way round, 1600 clutch and 2 litre 'box. the tab washer was clamped over the bolts, which had been torqued and of the knackered bolts i remember retrieving some of them had obviously come loose as a result of just unwinding and at least one was cleaved straight in two.

chicken and egg situation. did one of the bolts come loose, some of the others follow and the other cleave, or did the bolt for some reason cleave and the others then just come loose and pop out?

who knows.

bellhousing stood up very well to having a flywheel lobbed at it. but then it was number 000020 of Chris Street's own, so that goes without saying

/thread drift.