Moss Motors, Ltd

Very sad news.

I really hate to say this, and I hope that I'm wrong, but... Since the transmission is otherwise OK, meaning it shifts fine through all the gears, then you must be looking at a clutch or flywheel problem.

Don't take the engine out on my account though...wait for other, more experienced contributors. 

---

On their death bed, nobody ever said, "Gee I wish I'd spent more time at work!"

'68 Sprite 1275
'76 Midget 1500

I am posting this with the hopes that it keeps someone besides me from pulling their hair out.  I have been getting  " squeeks " out of the car .  Started with the Trunion and A frame bushings.  As the A bushings were in bad shape I moved to the back of the car and replaced the rear spring bushings, spring pads and the spring eye bushing.  Since I had most everything disconnected I thought I would do further inspections.  I also replaced the gasket that matches the hub to the half axle as it was starting to leak.  How that paper gasket lasted all these years is beyond me.  As I had everything apart , and I clean everything as I go , I thought it a good time to investigate my vibration that I had learned to live with up to now.  I had the wheels assembly balanced twice prior.  One guy put large weights on the wheels and the issue still remained. Another guy put small weights on the wheels and there could not have been more than 200 miles difference between the two.  Since I explained to the last one my issues I assumed his balance was the correct one. That led to the driveshaft rebuild , with no positive results.  Fast forward to today.  I took the wheels to another shop and asked them to spin the wheels with the already installed balance weights.  This led to the wheels were out of balance and out of true.  So remove the tires and off I go 100 miles to a wheel shop.  You might be able to guess but the wheels were true and had no issues.  I further researched on the net and found a comment from a fellow ( I wish I had a name to give credit to )  that these wheels were Lug centric and not Center centric.  What I needed to do was find a " Old guy " who remembered when wheels were balanced on a machine that used the lugs to attach them to the equipment for balancing.  Back to the last shop and asked the question of are you a old guy.  The answer was yes and he did remember when wheels were balanced that way.  Back on the machine and a few visual adjustments and lo and behold the wheels seem to straighten out and require very small weights to get in balance.   Another interesting fact , and you can determine which is more important, is that in cleaning the brake drums I noticed what appeared to be a casting flaw.  It looked like a slight crack that did not go through to the other side of the drum.  It followed the curve of the bolt pattern where the wheel would attach.  As I sighted down the drum it was obvious that this area of the drum was bowed outward toward the tire. There is no way the wheel could have mated flush with the drum .  A perfect unbalanced system !  After all is said and done the test drive gave a ride that I did not think this car could give.  I hope this helps someone else and sometimes we can be our own best detectives.......