MG Car Repair: MG MIDGET 1500 1979 UK RESTORATION, cam followers, drive shaft

Question
Having stripped the engine down on a workmate bench I am now endeavouring to remove the camshaft from the block so that I can replace the cam followers.
The cam followers will not come out of their pockets through the top of the block.They get so far and then all 8 get stuck.Having removed the half moon shaped cam plate and the distributer drive shaft there shouldn't be anything to stop the camshaft from sliding out.The cam followers have been pushed up as far as they will go in the block and do not appear to foul the camshaft or its lobes.The camshaft itself will turn by hand and can be pushed in out of its housing by about 1/4 of an inch but not any further.The camsfaft bearing again appear in order but the camshaft itself wont slide out.I think the end bearing seems possibly to be the problem as you can feel some resistance and a slight knock when its pushed in and out but apart from that  I haven't a clue as to why the camshaft wont slide out.I have even thought of adapting a hub puller to get the camshaft out however I dont want to damage the shaft or the bearings.So if you have any ideas on how to remove the camshaft I really would be delighted as I cannot think what else to do .Regards  Howard Emberson

Answer
Hi Howard.
The engine in a 1500 Midget is basically a Triumph Spitfire unit.  The relevant part of the workshop manual can be found via this link:

http://vintage.mitchell1.com/PClubData/chassis/enis73/V2I735493.pdf

The cam followers should just lift out, and I would guess that the cam cannot be removed until after the followers have been removed.  However, if you are only trying to teplace the followers, then you should not need to remove the camshaft in order to do this.