MG Midget Madness (i.e. It was either this or kill it with fire)

GySgtFrank · 05-13-2015, 12:19 AM

Doing the trial fitting. I'll try to document what I ended up doing as thoroughly as I can, in case anyone else ever wants to give this swap a go. I haven't been able to find any build threads on this swap that were very complete. Lots of questions on how others did it, but they didn't share.

Things are even tighter than I thought. I needed some room up front as the front of the rotary is more squared off and wider than the 1500.

1. original front cross member:

1. original crossmember by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

2. sliced, hammered down, and re-welded:

2. sliced and welded by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

3. Trimmed and completed front cross member:

3. completed crossmember by Kevin Frank, on Flickr

Gained 2.25 inches of room up front so I can set the engine down between the frame rails. It looks like I'm going to have to do some clearancing on the rails and the heater box area to the back of the engine as well.

Slides · 05-13-2015, 05:21 AM

Are the shifter distances you are talking about with the shifter shaft shortened and shifter housing moved forward of standard on the mazda boxes? Everyone does it to rx7 boxes here in aus to fit into the older rx bodies.

05-13-2015, 12:19 AM	#1
GySgtFrank Professional Stick Poker Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Stafford, Ks. Posts: 1,016 Rep Power: 16	Doing the trial fitting. I'll try to document what I ended up doing as thoroughly as I can, in case anyone else ever wants to give this swap a go. I haven't been able to find any build threads on this swap that were very complete. Lots of questions on how others did it, but they didn't share. Things are even tighter than I thought. I needed some room up front as the front of the rotary is more squared off and wider than the 1500. 1. original front cross member: 1. original crossmember by Kevin Frank, on Flickr 2. sliced, hammered down, and re-welded: 2. sliced and welded by Kevin Frank, on Flickr 3. Trimmed and completed front cross member: 3. completed crossmember by Kevin Frank, on Flickr Gained 2.25 inches of room up front so I can set the engine down between the frame rails. It looks like I'm going to have to do some clearancing on the rails and the heater box area to the back of the engine as well. __________________ 1988 N/A SE 2+2, dead stock and staying that way. 1979 SA22C stock? Not so much. http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...ad.php?t=15585

05-13-2015, 05:21 AM	#2
Slides Rotary Fan in Training Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: NSW, Australia Posts: 39 Rep Power: 0	Are the shifter distances you are talking about with the shifter shaft shortened and shifter housing moved forward of standard on the mazda boxes? Everyone does it to rx7 boxes here in aus to fit into the older rx bodies.