Milwaukee Midget

[Dr Goggles]

Hey, rest assured I enjoyed every one

[Crosley]

I am a bit late to congratulate your team on this record....

You will not remember me, we chatted briefly at SpeedWeek when the car ran much slower.    

I've owned a few Morris Minor cars with the A series engine. I drove my Morries the same as you do... wide open throttle, shift, wide open, shift.. although I usually was at 45mph,  if I was on level ground.

The comments by Fordboy sums it all up:  "Details" ...  the front end  alignment, the lube changes, warming up the lube, tire psi , brake changes... it all helps!

[Milwaukee Midget]

midget,

Just a thought.  Prior to totally dismembering the 'K', we will need a couple of measurements:

1)   Crank hub to rear of block face dimension.   Needed to engineer new billet crank to use existing BMC 'A' flywheel, starter, gearbox, input shaft, etc.

Okay, let's get started on the Kettle -

The length of the Grenade from the front of the transmission plate to the tip of the damper bolt is 18 3/4".

The length of the Kettle is 19 1/4" from the edge of the back of the engine to the front of the drive pulley - no damper - recessed bolt in drive pulley.

From the transmission plate to the edge of the steering rack is 20 1/4".

So there appears to be the possibility of using the ribcage transmission with the Kettle without having to relocate it.

Ah, yes, boys and girls - the madness is starting ALL OVER AGAIN . . . 

[Milwaukee Midget]

Ahhh - an impending nightmare.

All of the conversions I've seen are right hand drive.

All of the conversion kits I've found are available in Great Britain.

So now I've got to figure out headers . . . which exit on the left . . . right where the steering shaft lives . . .

Ahhhh . . ., I'll figger it out . . .

[4-barrel Mike]

So convert the Midget to its natural RHD.   

Mike

[Milwaukee Midget]

So convert the Midget to its natural RHD.   

Mike

Mike, I was thinking along those lines, but that's really putting the cart before the horse.

If I go with a custom exhaust header, I'm thinking I may just wrap it around the backside of the transmission and run it through the driveshaft tunnel.  Huffaker does that with their road racing Spridgets, and it might let me lower the thing another inch or so.   

[4-barrel Mike]

You could always offset the Kettle to the right.  More room for the exhaust & better weight balance side-to-side.

Mike

[Milwaukee Midget]

You could always offset the Kettle to the right.  More room for the exhaust & better weight balance side-to-side.

Mike

 

Possibly.  I seem to remember B-Body Mopars had an inch or two of offset.

The MG EX135 offset the whole drivetrain, actually at an angle that was made up at the rear U-joint.

Mark, just a few more measurements for the archive - overall height of the Grenade 22.75 from pan to the tip of the oil inlet on the valve cover.  Depth of pan from the crank centerline to the bottom - 6 1/4"

I've got to replace the head on the Kettle to get an overall height - I'll hit that later.  Still need to remove the cams to get a valve-to-piston clearance measurement.

I'd better get humpin' . . . we've only got 691 days.  I'm pretty certain most of those will be sitting around waiting for the crank . . .

[Peter Jack]

Chris, I had a fairly hefty friend who used to road race a Sprite. He got a right hand drive rack and used to convert the car to which ever side was advantageous for the circuit he was racing on. All the brackets were already on the car to mount the steering and pedals on either side. It might be worth checking out. It's a pretty simple solution. His car was a bugeye Sprite but the later cars appear to have the same chassis.

Pete

[fordboy628]

midget,

Just a thought.  Prior to totally dismembering the 'K', we will need a couple of measurements:

1)   Crank hub to rear of block face dimension.   Needed to engineer new billet crank to use existing BMC 'A' flywheel, starter, gearbox, input shaft, etc.

Okay, let's get started on the Kettle -

The length of the Grenade from the front of the transmission plate to the tip of the damper bolt is 18 3/4".

The length of the Kettle is 19 1/4" from the edge of the back of the engine to the front of the drive pulley - no damper - recessed bolt in drive pulley.

From the transmission plate to the edge of the steering rack is 20 1/4".

So there appears to be the possibility of using the ribcage transmission with the Kettle without having to relocate it.

Ah, yes, boys and girls - the madness is starting ALL OVER AGAIN . . . 

midget,

Thanks for taking the time to do the measurements.

With 1" clearance and a 1/2" adaptor plate, sounds good.   Might be tight on a couple of bits, but, what the heck!!

 
Fordboy

[fordboy628]

So there appears to be the possibility of using the ribcage transmission with the Kettle without having to relocate it.

midget,

Not so important, UNTIL, I inform you of the latest development:

Jim Fletcher, of Period Performance Developments in Gilberts, IL has graciously offered to loan you the use of a close ratio ribcase gearbox fitted with Hewland Mk VIII dog engagement gears.   In return, the car will need to carry the PPD logo as a sponsor.

BENEFITS:
1)   We will be able to select ratios for progressive drops throughout the gears.   Top will remain 1/1 I believe.
2)   Retention of gearbox location and mounting.
3)   Rpm range between peak torque and peak bhp can be engineered narrower.
4)   We can "bump up" the peak bhp curve.

NEGATIVES:
1)   Only 4 speeds, not 5.
2)   The fact that it is a 4 speed MAY (most likely . . ) require a higher speed push start.  Say 50/60 mph. (?)
3)   Well, he will want it back . . . . .

This is all, of course, subject to your final approval.

 
Fordboy

[fordboy628]

Ahhh - an impending nightmare.

All of the conversions I've seen are right hand drive.

All of the conversion kits I've found are available in Great Britain.

So now I've got to figure out headers . . . which exit on the left . . . right where the steering shaft lives . . .

Ahhhh . . ., I'll figger it out . . .

Well I seem to remember you mentioning something about a commercially available header for the 'K' engine in a Midget, in England.    I'll have to conclude that it is for RHD, since they drive on the wrong side of the road over there . . . . .   

As a "street" header, I think it would have been unsuitable for a race engine.

In reality, you were probably in for a custom header for this application.

Gird your loins, and your wallet . . . . .   
 
Fordboy

[fordboy628]

midget,

Here is a link to the Vintage Racing Rules Forum.   About vintage road racing mainly.

But I have started a couple of technical threads, one of which is about your 999cc "Grenade"

http://www.vintageracerules.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/9721/999.7cc_BMC_'A'_series_Land_Sp#Post9721

A very interesting thing is, that once again, the world is proven to be a small place.   Check out the post by Peter Krause and the link he put up.

There are also several links from the VRRF back to your LSR.com Build Diary.    You are FAMOUS!!!!!   

Now you just need to get your cats in some of the Build Diary photos, and post them up on YouTube.   Then the money will start rolling in!!!!!   
 
Fordboy

[64Midget]

Chris and Mark Congratulations on the Record it was well deserved, if thoughts about turning your MG to right hand drive all you need is a
left hand drive Morris Miner steering rack we did one for road racing a number of years ago.

Once again Congratulations

Bud

 

[Graham in Aus]

all you need is a left hand drive Morris Miner steering rack we did one for road racing a number of years ago.

I suspect there might also be a bit of an issue with the roll cage! 

Not so simple!