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MG MGB Technical - Crank nut locktab washer - should I care?

Probably, but hear me out.

After a misfire on the commute this morning, I had a quick look and realised the points gap had closed up. It was going to take two minutes to adjust, until I span the engine with the socket spanner still hanging on the crank pulley nut. It whipped off the radiator bottom hose, and undid the crank pulley nut.

Bizarrely, I have a spare crank locktab washer in my box of bits (have I been messing with MGs too long?), but it's lashing with rain and I'm meant to be somewhere else soon. Is this a job I can leave for a few miles or should I just get on with it, taking into account that this clearly isn't my day for being a mechanic?
SteveP

Hi Steve

Dog it up and do it properly later.

Peter
peter burgess

Thanks Peter, will do.
SteveP

Steve, you have just invented a new way of undoing that nut, which is legendarily hard to loosen.
Art Pearse

Using the bottom hose, maybe, but using a longer shaft on the inner wing is 'normal'. But if you undo the nut with the rear wheels on the ground, in first and with the handbrake on you shouldn't need to do even that.

It's the alternator pulley nut that is the bugger ...
P Hunt

SteveP. Glad you got it sorted. My experience is that an impact wrench (1/2") will remove the crankshaft pulley nut, the alternator pulley nut, and most other nuts which need removing. With the alternator pulley nut, and with the flywheel to crankshaft bolts, I made up sockets that do not have the tapered lead in on the inside of the socket, allowing the socket to better grip the hex nut. Works quite well.

Les Bengtson

I had an instance when I rebuilt my motor a couple years ago where I reused the localtab inside the timing cover. Reinstalled the motor, everything was fine for a couple trips, then while showing the work off to a club member, the motor started making a very strange 'CLUNK-clunk' noise (sort of like an old oil can). Clearly coming from the timing cover.

Figuring that can't be good, I took the cover off, only to discover the mangled tab laying in the bottom of the cover, and and a bunch of marks on the inside of the cover.

It would seem the tab had broken off, and had been flying around inside the cover.

Much easier to replace the locktab when the motor is on the bench.
Steve Aichele

This thread was discussed between 22/01/2010 and 27/01/2010

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