Shift lever question

I was just thinking (dangerous, I know!)
Will a Magnette shift lever fit an early MGB 3-synchro overdrive box?
Enquiring minds want to know!

Cheers,
Rich

BTW: Had ginty out for a 25 mile drive today and he ran great.
The frost plug stayed in place but there was some weeping out of the crack in the block so I'm glad the new engine is almost ready.
I got the second coat of paint on the short block today and finished porting the head yesterday. :)

I have a ZB and a 64 MGB gearbox in the work shop. They look identical externally
but I havent looked closely at the gear stick department. I will when I get down there and let you know.

The biggest isse would be the length of the bottom section from "ball to ball". If one is longer or shorter than the other it won't work right. I found that out recently while installing an OD into an early B. That B had an early shift lever in a 4-synchro tranny and we swapped it into the OD thinking it would work, but had no 1st or 3rd gear as a result.

Good info, thanks guys!
Not a big deal, I was just curious.
Cheers,
Rich

BTW: Jeff, I just packed up the bolts and will mail them tomorrow

I'm still waiting for that radiator to show up, but when it does your window trim will be on its way!!!

No hurry Jeff.
I'm very occupied with the engine build right now.
I should have my EDIS unit within a week so that's a go. :)

Rich

Here's the engine so far
When the ARP studs arrive the head will go on
When the lifters arrive the side cover will go on
When the oil thrower arrives the timing cover will go on.
Nuthin like a little anticipation!

Rich

Rich - The answer to your question is yes. I put an 3 syncro OD box in the Magnette that we has some years ago and it worked fine.
Cheers,

Sweet! I'll make you a "plug" for the distributor hole if you're planning on running dual coil packs? Then you can mount the coils in the stock distributor location and many folks won't even noice that the wires aren't coming from a distributor!

Thanks Dave, That's good to know!
Jeff, I was wondering about that. Is the coil pack vibration/heat proof? That would be the ideal mount. I was considering mounting the pack under the battery shelf to keep the modern thing out of sight but if you are able to make up a proper plug that would be better.

Rich

The Ford coil packs are pretty tough, and if you have an OEM Escort bracket, its not to difficult to mount in the distributor location. In fact, I use one to hold the plug in place and use the existing clamp bolts to hold the coil pack to the block (on a prototyping motor.) Basically, they're epoxy packed coils so heat and vibration are no big deal.

I just got work that my radiator construction was delayed a few more days s the shop could fab a bunch of race radiators. The race season is upon us!

Dave,

Re, the 3-synch o/d box in the Magnette... A 4-sync o/d box requires a huge expansion of the tranny tunnel - mostly, I believe, due to the size of the shifter remote. Do you recall how easily the three-sync went in. Except for the o/d, it's pretty much the same gearbox as the original Magnette, right? Do you have to use an early MGB backplate to put the starter in the right place?

Thanks,
Allen

The previous owner of my engine modified the backplate to use a pre-engaged late MGB starter. As you can see there is also an alloy spacer between the starter and backplate. The use of the pre-engaged starter does mean that I will have to use a late MGB inverted oil filter.
Having taken measurements it looks like there will be plenty of clearance for this larger starter. I could go to one of the new geared starters but I would rather spend the $200. on other stuff!


Rich

Sorry about the cockeyed picture.
That's kind of hard on the head!
Here's a better one,

Rich

D'oh!

Allen - I kind of cheated, I put the main shaft from a three syncro OD MGB transmission in the Magnette transmission. Then I bolted the OD and the MGB tail piece on to it. I had a machinist modify the cross member to match the mountings for the MGB tail piece and fit the transmission in place. I did have to cut the tunnel to accommodate the shifter remote and as I remember I had someone modify the cover piece from a MGB to fit the top of the hole I cut. I bolted the whole thing to an early 3 main bearing MGB engine and put the backing plate from the Magnette engine on it so everything mated up real well and as I remember, the sump from the Magnette fit just fine on the MGB engine. It all worked out quite well and was a great improvement to the car. There was a booklet available back then that documented various modifications to the Magnette that I got hold of after having done the engine swap that would have saved me a lot of time if I had gotten it before doing the mods. I don't remember the name of th ebooklet or where I got it, but I'll bet that someone on the Magnette Register web site will know what it is.
Cheers,