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MG MGA - negotiating

Hello Members,

I had a rebuild done last summer (2013) on an original MGA block and motor to install into my 1958 MGA 1500 Roadster and took the car up to Autoweek in Monterey, CA to attend the Concorso Italiano (in the non-Italian corral)around the end of August. On my way back home near Los Angeles, the motor failed and I have given it back to the shop where the engine work was done. That was in the first week of September and the mechanic still has the car. He has pulled the motor and sent out for a new crankshaft, bearings, and measuring the rods, etc. Still, the car is sitting there nearly three months later and I am patiently waiting to achieve some 'priority' recognizing this is an unprofitable warranty repair. Any suggestions how to prompt my mechanic? Or shall I just lay back and wait it all out. If anyone has had warranty repairs I am curious to know what your experiences have been?

Stephen Lofaro
Simi Valley, CA
Stephen Lofaro

How did it actually fail? Has the engine builder admitted liability for the failure (in writing). When you say you had a rebuild done, did it include crack testing of components, what were the warranty conditions? These engines are 60 years old and many have unknown early history - without extensive testing and measuring it difficult to warrant against failure.
Mike
Mike Ellsmore

There has been a problem with new MGA crankshafts. Moss and VB had some that were cleaned up to .o10 and they included bearings witrh them. VB sold one to a personal friend that the hole for the pilot bushing was not deep enough to accept the primary input shaft. It held the transmission approximately 3/16"away from mounting up.
It's [possible that your engine builder is running into the same problem.
Sandy
3:0:5^110:0:5^127:0:2

My original contract has a written warranty, yes, Mike. The failure as he explained it to me once he had the engine open was a lack of lubrication at the #3 and #4 bearings with #3 taking the worst of it and that the crankshaft was 'toast'. The mechanic has accepted liability to a certain extent...he says I drove the car too long after I saw the oil pressure drop which is a specious argument at best. He actually told me that we were "okay" and if he had a problem with the job he would never have started working on the motor again. So he has it in progress, and I guess I just have to be patient. I just never imagined three months later I would still be waiting so it is becoming a nightmare.

He has a new crankshaft from Moss motors with the new bearings...he now claims there is an issue he was dealing with regarding the mounts to the flywheel because the bolt holes were not lining up correctly and that was a bigger issue than the fact they came at .010 from Moss. I am not sure of the technical issues around this or how he has decided to deal with it.

I wonder if your friend has run into this issue as well, Sandy?

Thanks,
Steve
Stephen Lofaro

Sorry to hear of your problems. I can't really help with your current mechanic, but if you need a recommendation for future work then let me know. There are some good, honest guys still in the area.
Steve S

I spoke to my mechanic today about progress on the rebuild of the rebuild. So it seems the issue is with the location of the mounting holes in the new Moss crankshaft to the flywheel and he had to enlarge them...drill them out or 'enlongate' them to use his term... and he has fastened them temporarily with nuts on the what would be in the engine side or inside of the flywheel. From what I can glean in the conversations, he wants to weld the bolt ends to the crankshaft to secure them and this has been holding him up. And he further says HE will weld them or send them out for welding and then send the unit out for balancing. REALLY...

Steve Lofaro
Stephen Lofaro

Sounds like a backyard mechanic just over the border?
Gary Lock

Yeah - Something (or somebody) dodgey there
I'd be contacting Moss to see if there is a legit. problem in the area of the flywheel bolts and if so get them to correct the problem or at least advise you what to do about it in writing, for your own benefit and also for warranty reasons - I can't see them covering a crank that has been messed with -- willy
I realise you are sort of stuck with the guy you have,but after this has been all fixed up I'd be finding someone else to do your work as our Steve S suggests there are still some good guys about
Really. as soon as there was found to be a problem with the crank it should have been sent straight back instead of being fu---d about with
William Revit

Moss had a memo on this issue a while back. The idea is to rotate the flywheel 30 degrees and drill/tap new holes in between the original ones.

They had put a stop on sales of these parts in favor of selling some other ones that were okay. The ones with holes on wrong locations were to be held in reserve until such time as there might be no other parts available, at which time they might be sold with an instruction sheet telling what had to be done for the fix. I suppose there may be a few of the bad ones already sold and somewhere in the public domain.
Barney Gaylord

This thread was discussed between 21/11/2014 and 09/12/2014

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