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

[GySgtFrank]

Another necessary modification. The permanent transmission crossmember is too high to slide the transmission into the tunnel. Technically all it really needed was to be notched so the transmission would clear. However a non-removable crossmember makes it a royal PITA if you need to drop the transmission. With the permanent crossmember you have to pull the engine and transmission in one unit to get it out of there. I went ahead and removed the center section of the crossmember and will fabricate some plates for the ends and bolt the modified section back in so that I don't compromise structural integrity.

original:

trans crossmember - original by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


removed:

trans crossmember - removed by Kevin Frank, on Flickr


Now to try fitting it back in there. It doesn't appear that the transmission tunnel is going to require much modification to fit the NA transmission. I would imagine that the turbo transmission would be a different story as the NA trans barely fits.