Manumatic restoration

Details

Written by Stephen Tickell

In 2017 Mike and Pam Willan acquired a Magnette with original Manumatic installation, which had previously been seen for sale on ebay a few years earlier but then disappeared. As well as the usual Magnette restoration, Mike is intending to repair and rebuild the Manumatic system so he can enjoy two-pedal motoring ! However he plans to fit a more powerful 5-bearing 1800cc MGB engine. 

Mike has worked on classic motorbikes previously, and isn't daunted by the number of different parts in the system (see photos), or the challenge of mating it to a 5-bearing which probably nobody has tackled previously. He's already done the fabrication of sump (with 5-bearing flange) and oil pickup and is now working on the centrifugal clutch and how to fit it to a flywheel different from the original - it's not totally clear whether Manumatic Magnettes had a heavier than normal flywheel in order to smooth the engagement of the clutch. The centrifugal mechanism itself requires strip-down, cleaning and reassembly, a process to which the official service manual devotes several pages !