Engine Back In And Some More Progress.

It's been a great weekend! I got home on Friday afternoon and set about getting the car ready to accept the engine. The first job was to fit the new clutch fork rubber gaiter, a job which is a lot more tricky than it appeared. In the end, the only way to do it was to take the fork out of the bell housing, remove the release bearing then swear the boot into place before fitting it all back together. The engine mounting parts also got a couple of coats of Hammerite satin.

With that done, I wheeled the engine out to the car and eventually got it to slide back onto the gearbox shaft. It took about an hour of jiggling but eventually it went back as it should and I could do some of the nuts and bolts up to hold it in place.

Next I fitted the engine mountings which had dried in the sun, using new nuts, bolts and washers all round.

On Saturday, I nipped over to the MGOC to buy a few miscellaneous parts, including a bonnet seal, more fixings, air and oil filters etc.

Today, I got on with fitting the carbs, manifolds, oil cooler, radiator, etc. You can see what's what in the pictures. I also partially assembled the pedal box with the rebuilt mastercylinders.

Finally, I stripped, prepped and painted the various brake / clutch lines that I'd taken off the car, along with the starter motor. The latter required a really good clean and repaint - it's a bit of an over-kill really because it will have a black plastic cover over it once I've re-fittted it to the car but at least I'll know it's as tidy as the rest of the bits I've refitted!

Here are the pictures: