Matt Drayer's Journal

It's always amazing how one decision leads to another, and another. The original bendix starter appeared to be dead -- or was it that weird looking remote solenoid contraption with all the wires sticking out of it? Either way, we extracted the unit from the engine like a bad tooth.

After learning more about the bendix starter design and considering our options of purchasing a replacement or going with a more modern design -- combined with the fact that regardless of what we decided this would never be a concours-level example of a 1979 MG Midget 1500 -- we decided to go with a gear reduction starter.

A quick tour of the internet brought us to ClassicCarPerformance.com / BritishStarters.com and before we could say "jumper cables" a new "fully adjustable" GRS was at our doorstep. Onto the shelf it went...and there it stayed...for months...while we stripped, cleaned, painted, and reassembled the rest of the car.

When the time finally came in late Spring to install the unit, we quickly discovered that yes, it would not play nicely with the mechanical fuel pump. Even the "fully adjustable" nature of the mounting plate would not solve the problem. We even ruined the mechanical fuel pump in the process of trying to make things work, thus forcing our decision to install a new electronic fuel pump. Which led to the additional decision to, yes, redo the fuel line, and redo the gas tank, and yes all of these were on the Should Do list, but not necessarily on the Must Do list.

Ah well, this is how projects go!

<br/>Marblehead MG - Episode 34: Gear Reduction Starter