Ourdoors we were just enjoying some sun while waiting for everyone to show up. The patient inside is a late model rubber bumper MG Midget with the Triumph Spitfire 1500 engine. Once we had a quarum it didn't take long to get down and dirty.


Removing the grill and air cowlings to get the radiator out was half the work. Draining fluids, disconnecting wires, cables, hoses and bolts wasn't too bad. But the following hour of pushing prying and pulling was a bear. The 1098 and 1275 midgets with the A-series engines are a breeze compared to the way this TR Spitfire engine was stuffed into the late model Midget. Having the entire exhaust system welded to the headers didn't help matters


Once on the floor, it wasn't very hard ro remove the gearbox and attach the replacement unit. The gerabox rear rubber mounts are commonly shot from long term soaking in oil.


Then there was more prying and pushing to get the engine back in the car. Disconning all the exhaust system hangers helped a lot, and didn't take much work to reinstall. By mid afternoon it was all reassembled and back on the road. The test drive left some questions about function of the syncronizers, possibly a lubrication problem after the gearbox has sat in long term storage, but that would be worked out later. Final picture shows the reason for needing the work, broken teeth on the reverse idler gear. With a few parts this looks like a good candidate for overhaul at a future tech session.