Gearbox cross member

[Peter Cresswell]

Hi everyone,
When did they put the gearbox cross member onto the gearbox during the assembly line? In the book 'Those were the days... MG's Abingdon Factory' on page 55, there is a picture of the engine being installed into the car on the assembly line, but a handrail is in the way of seeing if the cross member was attached as the engine and gearbox unit is lowered into the engine bay. The text for the previous picture states 'engine and gearbox mounts were fitted, and the engine hoisted above the car to be dropped into position'. So when did they fit the cross member to the gearbox?

I am currently overhauling the engine, gearbox and overdrive, and getting closer and closer to putting the unit back into the car. When I took it out it seemed impossible without removing the gearbox cross member first which means there is a difficult job of fiddling about under the car to refit the cross member.

[Ian F]

Good morning Peter, can't answer your question I'm afraid, but there must be someone still out there who can. I've had the engine/gearbox/overdrive out of my BGT a couple of times and remember it being clearly best to do this without the gearbox cross member in place. Is there a distinction here between "gearbox mount" and "gearbox cross member"? The cross member is quite a big piece of steel! From memory I think I put the various fasteners back in slightly differently to original to make fitting it all together a little easier.

Ian F.

[Peter Cresswell]

It is the cross member that is the problem. I have looked at it whilst it is off the car with a view to re-engineering it, and decided that although it could be done it was more hassle than the slight gain in ease of fitting the cross member to the car.
When I took the engine and gearbox out as one unit, it quickly became obvious that the cross member would have to be removed as it is longer than the distance between the chassis rails. It was then a panic to unbolt the cross member from the gearbox whilst the unit was dangling on the end of the crane. Having done this without marking the direction the various parts faced, an added complication is that there are 36 combinations of how it all goes together again (see the youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATJRTtRRKl8). There is very little space to fit the various parts of the mounting to the cross member once it is back in the car. Hence all the cursing in the video!!!

BTW I have modified the cross member by drilling two large holes that give easier access to the nuts on the mounting rubber blocks on either side of the gearbox, but it is not a job I'm looking forward to!

I can't believe they had all this hassle on the production line at Abingdon, hence my question!

[Ian Dixon]

I have now done this 3 times, I have drilled larger holes in the cross member which allows a deep socket to access the mounting nuts that holds the mounts to the cross member and makes it easier to release the cross member from the mounts and leaves the mounts on the gearbox, it is also necessary to elongate the holes in the cross member to allow the mounting threaded bolts to pass through the cross member at an angle, you then need to install flat washers under the lock nuts to cover the elongated holes, makes the job a lot easier.