Now that the radiator was out of the way it was easy to start removing some of the other pieces from the engine I knew I would want to rebuild or replace. With the radiator out of the way getting the fan and water pump off is easy. As the hoses were pretty firmly stuck onto the three way water connection, I decided to removed it at the water pump as one piece. I started with disconnecting the heater hose from the long copper pipe that runs near the carburetors. I would eventually remove the copper pipe. If you are lucky you will find a brass plate that provides the firing order of the engine. Keep this safe for re installation. You will need to remove this plate while removing the pillar that holds the throttle cable linkage.

The fan belt drives the water pump of course – so that had to be removed and will be replaced. The tension for it is provided by the generator. I knew I was going to want to clean the generator and replace the brushes, so I would be completely removing the generator. In this model of MGA the coil is held on top of the generator by a bracket. So, the coil comes off at the same time as the generator.

The car still had its original metal fan. It was still the original yellow. Unfortunately these fans can develop cracks and send blades flying into the bonnet or other areas in the engine compartment. The metal fan will be replaced with a safer and more efficient plastic one. Once the fan is off it is easy to remove the water pump pulley-cover and then the water pump itself.

I also knew the thermostat cover was rotten and that I would be replacing the thermostat – so out these would come. Wow, was the cover ever rotten inside.

Finally, I unbolted the carbs. These still had the original heat shield. However the original throttle return spring and its mount had been replaced by a long spring that was clipped onto the heat shield. I was going the renew the gaskets in the carbs, and would also put int he proper return spring.

As I progressed with this work the engine compartment was starting to look pretty sparse!