Milwaukee Midget

[fordboy628]

What I really love about a short stroke crank is strength you get from the overlap of material through the main journals and the crank journals - strength through architecture.

Yup . . .

It'll be a couple of weeks yet - Greg's making a trip up to his preferred balancing provider next week, and I'll make a trip up to gather both the new one and the old 1.4.

Oooooh . . . P A R T S ! ! !

Mark - anybody need me to drop off a crank rebuild in the next few weeks?

Not that I am currently aware of.

[fordboy628]

midget,

Well, it's lookin' more and more like you will be the final Bonneville I/GT record holder . . . . . . . . .

 

[Milwaukee Midget]

midget,

Well, it's lookin' more and more like you will be the final Bonneville I/GT record holder . . . . . . . . .

 

I hope you're wrong - I didn't build it, and I am not continuing to build it - only to have it become some "Last of the Mohicans" homage to a by-gone era.  And I certainly don't want it to be the last MG to have turned a wheel on the salt.

[Milwaukee Midget]

A little Indy update - word's out that Pancho Carter is going to be driving the Leader Card Eagle on Thursday at Indy.  Doesn't get much more Wisconsin than that.

There's three groups of vintage cars that will be doing laps on Thursday afternoon between 2:30 and 4:30.

Should be interesting - they ran a few laps at Madison International Speedway (Oregon, Wisconsin) last weekend.  They're not sure which gearset they've got in it, but I suspect it's a tall set.  MIS is a 1/2 mile paved - they weren't able to get to second gear on the straight, but I saw and heard the camera video, and the old Offy's sounding really sharp. 

The crank is finished and balanced - ready to ship once the check clears.  We'll mock it up and get final deck height nailed down, and then the wallet starts taking the serious hits - liners, pistons, rods . . . after that, most of the rest of it - ecu, cams, injectors - looking to be off-the-shelf.

Problem there is - some of the shelves are in Great Britain . . . 

[Queeziryder]

Chris,
Don't forget you have friends on this side of the pond 

[Milwaukee Midget]

Chris,
Don't forget you have friends on this side of the pond  

And Neil, THANK YOU for that.

But that raises a very vexing question to me.

In the United States, there are dozens of websites, along with eBay, that offer used racing equipment.

My on-line searches in Great Britain have turned up little in cast-off options.

Are there any British based links - similar to http://www.racingjunk.com/ - that might be worth combing through?

Are there areas in Great Britain that are "hot beds" of racing, where checking out the local craigslist site might turn up something?

Or would sharing such knowledge with a Colonial agent devolve closely guarded national intelligence?

I'd like to keep MI6 at bay . . .  

[fordboy628]

midget,

While dropping off some BMC heads for flow testing, the Mini-Maven brought me a donation of some cast off, stock BMC 1275 wrist pins for your K series deck plate.   They are in the "K-pile" of bits here in the "laboratory" awaiting your perusal.     I recall that dimensionally, the BMC pin was the original choice, although the Chevy ones appear to work.

Whatever works best . . . . .

[fordboy628]

One race down, 2 to go, on the REAL SUPER SUNDAY.

[wisdonm]

I hear ya, but I started Saturday morning watching the live streaming of the Nurburgrin 24 hour GT race.

[Milwaukee Midget]

I hear ya, but I started Saturday morning watching the live streaming of the Nurburgrin 24 hour GT race.

And you didn't mow the lawn, I'll bet!   

Trying to find out if any of the historic cars actually turned some laps this weekend at Indy - I'm supposed to have some footage, but the weather on Thursday stunk.

[wisdonm]

Cut that on Thursday. Don't cut on weekends. I did do some landscaping between Indy and NASCAR. Bought 3 twelvers of MGD long necks between F1 and Indy. It's Miller time.  

[Elmo Rodge]

They're still running Miller's at Indy?  Wayno

[wisdonm]

Sadly Indycar has banned them. However, the Indy Motor Speedway museum is full of them and they participated in their historic parade display. Harry Miller was originally from Wisconsin. When he left, he gave his neighbor, Ollie Evinrude, a outboard motor as a gift.  Wonder what became of that. Fortunately the Miller Reunion will be at the Milwaukee Mile on June 24-26 this year.

[Milwaukee Midget]

The crankshaft arrived Thursday - I neglected to bring it home from work, but will do so this week - time permitting.  It is crunch time around here at work - made even more so in that I've taken on the responsibilities of Human Resources.

Did I mention my assistant quit last month?  Nobody to blame for a lack of a replacement than myself, as I now also resource the humans.

But I have been able to make headway on the Frankensprite.  Been working on it pretty consistently most evenings and weekends that haven't been eaten up by work.  All wiring tested well - finally found my schematics and notes.  Built the harness from scratch, sans the Painless flasher kit.  If you put big enough wires on British cars, tie the grounds together well and avoid Lucas products, the lights tend to glow a little brighter, although you lose the ability to utilize the car's wiring as a citronella replacement and a deterrent for mosquitos.

I'd have likely had it started had it not been for the fuel line leaking - an observation made late enough in the evening to push the project off another day or so.

Shooting for British Car Field Day - June 19 - Sussex, Wisconsin.

Also - tore the basement apart looking for a crankshaft pulley for Fordboy - it's a no-show - but I did get the lawn mowed, which complimented Mrs. Midget's fine gardening skills.  The yard hasn't looked this good since I started on the Midget, lo these many years ago.

[grumm441]

Chris,
Don't forget you have friends on this side of the pond 

Plenty of room on our salt lake for you
G