Milwaukee Midget

[Milwaukee Midget]

Looks like you can click on the pic and the video comes up.



Here's the direct link if it doesn't work on your computer.

http://s361.photobucket.com/albums/oo58/milwaukeemidget/970%20Spec/?action=view&current=DSCN4426.mp4

Yeah, the neighbors love me.  Good thing the Packers don't play until tonight, or I'd be lynched.

Won't idle below 2250 - I'll blame a 310 degree cam on that.  But there is definitely something to be said for a balanced reciprocating assembly.  You put your hand on the valve cover and it feels like a kitten with a really loud purr.

Still needs a good dial-in - I'll read the plugs when they cool, and I need to find an exhaust gas analyzer, but today, I can't complain.

[Moxnix]

Audio is good here in Webster Groves.

[Elmo Rodge]

Yum.  Wayno

[4-barrel Mike]

Get that clutch bled and take her around the block so that the neighbors can properly share your joy! 

Well done! 

Mike

[Dr Goggles]

There may be some way you can get the right fittings so you can extend the bleed port on the slave cylinder with a piece of line . Then there is always Grumm's favorite...the tire valve on top of the master cylinder.

Oh yeah....it sounds great.......congratulations......

[Milwaukee Midget]

Get that clutch bled and take her around the block so that the neighbors can properly share your joy! 

Well done! 

Mike

Maybe I'll wait until the game starts.  Even the cops are more interested in the Packers than some crazed lunatic in a car with no brake lights and no muffler. 

Audio is good here in Webster Groves.

Max, if it sounds half as good as your broadcasts, then I'm in good shape.

Thanks, all.  The thrash continues.

Lynda - Oh, yeah, I've had about a half a jar of the Milwaukee Midget Dills this week.

Available at Smith's in Wendover and everywhere in Beerhaven.

[Tman]

Thats one pissed off 4 banger!

[Milwaukee Midget]

Details, details . . .

Clutch is bled - seems almost right, but I still have a kink in my neck from rolling around yesterday attempting to bleed it.  I need to come up with a remote bleeder later this week - this job is gruesome.

Anybody have any idea what type of threads bleeder valves typically have?  Are they straight or pipe?

Tweaked the carb tonight - richened up the idle a turn - seems to have smoothed out some.  Once it was up to temp - and it isn't overheating like last year - I could stand back and not have to blip the throttle to keep it running.

I also clamped it down tight against the manifold.  The kit has this arrangement where the gasket has rubber O-rings, and there are springs between the flange and the nut to isolate the carb from vibration.  I don't think I'm getting enough vibration from this thing to warrant risking another vaccum leak, so I clamped it down tight, and the emulsion tubes be damned.  I've owned a lot of four bangers, including a few with counterbalance shafts, and I still can't get over just how smooth this thing is.

I'm going to order up another couple pair of main jets, just to have some ammunition.  Kurt, my Snap On man and drummer extraordinaire, has an exhaust gas analyzer I can snag from him for a weekend.

The plugs looked good, but I need to run it somewhere to be sure.  Let's face it, 5 minutes of idling and dead revving are not going to give me an accurate read.

Top is touched up and installed.

[Dr Goggles]

.  Let's face it, 5 minutes of idling and dead revving are not going to give me an accurate read.

like um, where the motor goes when it's under load.....you've got that torque strap on it right?

Ya know, If I'd been kickin around in your shed with you under that car...after I'd stopped laughing .....I'd have gone and got the Cojones rubber band.....nothing quite like a BIG guy working under a LITTLE car

[38flattie]

.  Let's face it, 5 minutes of idling and dead revving are not going to give me an accurate read.

like um, where the motor goes when it's under load.....you've got that torque strap on it right?

Ya know, If I'd been kickin around in your shed with you under that car...after I'd stopped laughing .....I'd have gone and got the Cojones rubber band.....nothing quite like a BIG guy working under a LITTLE car

Car sounds great Chris!!!

[Milwaukee Midget]

like um, where the motor goes when it's under load.....you've got that torque strap on it right?

Ahh, someone in the "English Cars as a second language" class HAS been paying attention.   

Okay, I'm just an adjunct professor - no credentials, just a wealth of questionable experience.

Simpler than that - I cut off and drilled out the two studs embedded in the mount, then drilled through the motor mounts into the brackets on the frame and pulled it all up tight through the front engine plate with 3/8 grade 8 bolts and lock nuts.

To further stabilize it, and help keep it from shifting forward, I took two forged eye bolts, cut down some bronze bushing inserts and made a hillbilly heim joint out of it, and then mounted them through the top brackets that hold the steering rack in place.  The threaded end, I mounted through two more holes in the motor mount bracket.

It's clearly more stable than I am.

[Graham in Aus]

Anybody have any idea what type of threads bleeder valves typically have?  Are they straight or pipe?

I've owned a lot of four bangers, including a few with counterbalance shafts, and I still can't get over just how smooth this thing is.

AFAIK The bleeder valve is a straight thread 3/8 x 24 unf ?, doesn't the bottom of the valve have a tapered point and seats in the body of the clutch slave cylinder? http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-606733A



I watched the video again the short stroke / oversquare thing is awesome, that's why it seems so smooth (plus a good balance job I suspect!) Maybe all other A series are just rough!  :-P

[Graham in Aus]

Hey I found some stuff for you! 

http://www.british-cars.net/mg-midget-sprite-technical-bbs/clutch-slave-cylinder-2010050915334421170.htm

http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?3,1775330

The first one looks a simple install....... 

[Dr Goggles]

Hey I found some stuff for you! 

http://www.british-cars.net/mg-midget-sprite-technical-bbs/clutch-slave-cylinder-2010050915334421170.htm

http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?3,1775330

The first one looks a simple install....... 

Well, there we go....... another handy trick when puting it together in a system that has a high point like it sounds the Midget does is to start with the slave full of fluid , connect the line to the slave but then have it loose at the MC, then force the piston back until the fluid seeps from the MC connection, if you're lucky the MC slave line will be of a lower volume than the slave. I had this as a continuing problem in a beater that I drove which seemed to have had more engine swaps than oil changes......it was a bastard thing to bleed and I eventually worked out that was the simplest sure fire way to nail it...

I'd go with the remote bleeder though for the Midget....one trip to the hose and hydraulic people should sort it out....the flexible line sounds like a good idea too, they're easier to do up and get in the right place.

[Milwaukee Midget]

You know, as old as this thing is in its design, and as ubiquitous as they are, when working on one, one must remember that the Midget/Sprite started out as a bin car, and one not too far removed from a kit car, at that.

The engine, transmission, brakes, rear end, suspension - all out of the Morris Minor - all production pieces that were never intended to be put together in a package this small.  It was Don Healey's aim to make a cheap sports car using as many production pieces as possible, in a simple stamped psuedo-monocoque that could be thrown together quickly and easily.

To that end, it's a raging success.

To those of us who, 53 years later, are cursed to have to work around his workarounds, well, there are times I'd like to punch old Don right in the puss.