PROJECT: MGTD-51: Still Searching ...

PROJECT 51: Still searching. In 1982 Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. published a book titled "In Search of Excellence." In the many years that I ran my own companies and dealt with myriad suppliers and vendors, I was always tempted to set my sights lower, and write a more realistically-titled work called, "In Search of Competence."

Brutus has given me enough to fill a volume all by himself, but he's not alone. When I sent my crankshaft out to be reground .010" undersize by an engine machine shop that I had used before and had been happy with, they were forced to send it outside, because their grinder-operator had passed away recently, and no one else was trained on the machine. When they got it back, they checked it, and found that it had been ground below the lowest acceptable tolerance. So, it went back out to be ground down to .020" undersize. (This was over the course of more than two months!)

After I assembled the engine with the reconditioned connecting rods I noticed that it took far more effort to turn the crankshaft than I thought it should have. After much analysis I eventually determined that the rod journals on the crank were not flat! The grinder operator had apparently chosen a narrow grinding wheel, and then not re-dressed its surface for his final few passes, so the edges were rounded, and the journals were .001" or more larger at the edges than in the middle. That is just enough to make the bearings bind, metal-to-metal, against the journals when there should be a tiny gap filled with oil. The shiny areas in the photo of the bearing show where it was binding.

So, I had to take the engine apart, yet again, and have the connecting rod journals of the crankshaft reground to .030" undersize. This time, however, by the shop that specializes in MGs. While still at the shop, we checked the fit of the new bearings with "PlastiGauge" material. This is a thin, precisely-made piece of plastic that looks like fishing line. A short piece is set on the journal, and the connecting rod is torqued down on top of it. This squashes the plastic to a very precise width, depending on how much clearance there is between the bearing and the journal. The bearing cap is then removed, and the width of the squashed gauge is measured against a gauge strip. All four journals showed .0015" clearance; right on spec.

When we encounter the kind of incompetence that necessitated a second and a third regrind on the crank, my wife and just look at each other, and say, "Still searching …"