The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (November 16 - November 30, 2019)
Saturday November 16, 2019:
After last night's fiasco(s) with failed alternator and broken wheel rescue, at least we got to sleep in when the alarm clock also failed. Nice morning with some sun so we drove 90 miles on to Clinton, Tennessee. A bit too late for breakfast so time for lunch. Then get on the phone to find another spare alternator. Looks like a good bet to make Indianapolis tomorrow by daylight, and we got the (currently failed) alternator at an O'Reilly Auto Parts in Indy last year, so that's where we were hunting. As there is an O'Reilly warehouse in Indy, it was no problem to get one on order for Saturday evening delivery, so we can pick it up on a Sunday (tomorrow), and get it exchanged under warranty. Three cheers for O'Reilly Auto Parts. Mid afternoon by then so take the rest of the day to catch up photos and notes, email and BBS and a bunch of piled up documentation chores. Late night run north for overnight stop in Georgetown, KY.
Sunday November 17, 2019:
Up early for breakfast and haul out north again. I thought we were going through Frankfort and Louisville, but the Garmin GPS sent us north by Cincinnati before west to Indy. Supposed to be shorter I guess, but took some side roads and didn't save any time. Fuel stop just before destination, arriving Indianapolis early afternoon, supposed to be plenty of time when the stores closed at 8-pm.
 Got the royal run around from O'Reilly Auto Parts. Arrived at the designated store near east side downtown Indianapolis, where we expected to find our new alternator waiting for us. One guy at the counter was nice enough to assist loosening the pulley nut that had previously been tightened with an impact wrench. Then got out my slide hammer with three leg puller to extract the press fit pulley and the fan to keep. Otherwise no luck as the new alternator wasn't ordered, so still in the warehouse. We hustled several miles over to the warehouse/ distribution center, where we were told they don't sell to the public here. They then made a call and sent us to the nearest O'Reilly retail store, just a couple miles away, to return the failed alternator and get an exchange receipt. Then take the receipt back to the warehouse where they had the new part waiting for us. So, four stops at O'Reilly to exchange one alternator. Just made it under the wire as the warehouse was closing at 3-pm. Good thing we hadn't stopped for lunch.
Quick stop at nearest Walmart to pick up a gallon of antifreeze to replace what we put in the E-type a week earlier (and a couple more trivial items). Then time for a late lunch as we watch the daylight disappear. Late night run 120 miles north to stop just shy of Merrillville, IN.
Monday November 18, 2019:
Early start with a cool but sunny day, not particularly hungry, so skip breakfast and drive on two hours to the near western suburbs of Chicago. Got an hour back with change of time zone, Eastern to Central time, so just in time for late breakfast. This time of year dark falls here about 5-pm. We ambled into Mack's Golden Pheasant Restaurant in Elmhurst for 6-pm dinner before 7-pm meeting with Chicagoland MG Club. Having driven 900 miles from South Carolina to make this meeting, we were hoping it would be worth the trip. Just seemed kind of important to make this personal appearance to shine a light on the truth. Hang on as the story gets longer.
The meeting began with customary new members or guests, current car projects, staff reports from treasurer,
librarian, driving events
past and upcoming, and finally my turn to do a webmaster's report (which hadn't happened in a membership meeting for several years). Good news is the CMGC web site is doing well, very well indeed. If you use an internet search engine to search for "MG club", our Chicgoland MG Club web site appears very near top of the search results, maybe even item #2 on the first page, and you don't even need to mention Chicago (although this may depend on you geographic location when you do the search). The point is, we have a world premier web site for MG club, and we have never paid a penny for web site development or search engine promotion. This happens simply because we have a web site with 20 years development containing lots of useful information that people want and need. Good info draws more visitors, which improves search results, which draws more visitors.
The second point to make is not quite as "pretty". A few months ago I was told that the club was getting a new webmaster, and that I would definitely be "out" (to put it mildly). I take this as a wonderful announcement, as I have been waiting more than 19 years for the club to get a real webmaster so I could be relieved of this "temporary" assignment I have been handling since early 2000 (when the prior webmaster had abandoned the post). I hope the new guy has some staying power. When I asked who the new webmaster would be so I could assist in the transition, there was no response. This immediately worries me some if they don't want me to talk to the new guy, as this is likely to result in a rocky transition.
There was also mention that there was to be a new web site on a different server, which to me makes no sense at all, as we for years have had exemplary service at competitive rates with our current hosting company. Trying to save money is certainly not an issue, as cost of the current server account and domain name registration is just under $200 per year. That translates to $0.07 (seven cents) per month for each currently registered club member (235 current members). This is one of the least expensive things this club pays for, and has a very good benefit to the club for spreading our cause world wide, and for recruiting new club members. As such, I felt it was minimally necessary to remind management that we already have the world premier MG club web site, so it may be difficult to make any beneficial improvements, but it could be very easy to screw it up, especially if they might omit some of the current information content during the transition.
There was a short breather break to chat and time to sell 50/50 raffle tickets. This was followed by a feature presentation about our upcoming "Cruise To The Rock" on Thanksgiving morning, which is to celebrate running of the first automobile race in America on Thanksgiving day in 1895. This is a stirring event with Frank Duryea having produced only one hand built car winning the race against a pair of factory sponsored Benz cars, already running for a few years, brought in from Germany, one of which had previously won the first automobile race in Europe. We like to do Cruise To The Rock with tops down on Thanksgiving morning in Chicago, to honor the original race drivers who ran their race in the snow with no tops on their cars.
After this wonderful presentation the meeting resumed long enough for the raffle drawings. Then just as with last month's meeting President had gavel raised in hand while asking if there was anything else to be discussed, at which time I had to jump up and remind the crowd that there had been no call for old business or new business, and I had some "old business" to discuss.
So I finally had a chance to follow up on last months last minute announcement about next year's dues changes. As recent as 2015 membership dues were $25, and everyone received a print copy of the club newsletter. There was an issue where the club newsletter had evolved from a one ounce monthly newsletter with minimal cost to a two ounce magazine format publication with nearly 100% higher cost to print and distribute. So for 2016 we had the greatest dues increase in the history of the club, increasing 40% in one swat from $25 to $35. That may have been reasonable, as long as it was intended to continue the larger magazine format of the newsletter, just because it's nice and we can. But knowing this is the largest single expense of the club, there was to be some effort to wean people off of the print copy and receive it electronically, vaguely hoping to reduce expenses and keep more of the dues money in the treasury. So the offer was if you forego the print copy you can reduce your dues payment from $35 to $30. Some people did, many more did not, seeing a pretty good deal to get 12 issues of the printed newsletter for $5 when it cost about $30 to produce. This doesn't mean the club was losing money, only that they didn't get to keep the $25 extra that the "electronic" members would be contributing.
So four years on only 75 members had changed to electronic format while 160 (68%) still received the print copy. I had been sending messages to management once or twice a year with the fact that the "electronic" members were greatly subsidizing publication of the newsletter to benefit the print copy subscribers, which was a significant incentive not to unsubscribe from the print copy. Now when they finally got the message their "solution" was the next greatest increase in dues in history. Subscribers would have their dues increased $20 (57%) to $55 per year, while "electronic" member would get another $5 reducton of dues to $25. This would make a $30 spread between subscribers and non-subscribers, so the subscribers would have to pay full fare for the cost of the product they would receive. That part of the equation was finally correct, except for the next point.
When you have 160 x $20 dues increase you get $3200 annual dues increase. For the "electronic" members, 75 x $5 decrease gives a $375 annual dues reduction. Collectively this adds up to 3200 - 375 = $2825 net annual dues increase, $12 per year for every member of the club. Since actual club expenses did not change overnight, this means the entire $2825 increase would go into the general revenue fund, having no relationship to cost of the newsletter. Also, since the subscribers would now pay exactly the cost of the print production, it no longer matters who may subscribe or not subscribe. If everyone declined the print copy, and everyone paid $25 dues, it would have no impact at all on bottom line for the club. This makes it obvious that the club would keep the full amount of this new dues increase for 2020 and continuing in future years. Newsletter subscribers now have 120% dues increase since 2015. If you don't subscribe, you have dues same as 2015, but now you don't get the printed newsletter that you have been paying for all these years.
Incidentally, the club is also swimming in cash reserves, currently a bit more than $100 for every member of the club, at least double what is needed for long term financial security of the club. I as a concerned club member want to know what they intend to do with all this new revenue that they are picking out of members' pockets. Management's explanation is that this was discussed in Board meetings, and this is what was decided. This is what they do, making decisions for the club (even though they allow no clue to the membership about what they are doing).
I tried halfheartedly to make a motion to reduce basic dues to $15, not to further increase the already bloated cash reserves, and also give currently paid members one year free membership. This last point would draw down the cash reserves by $3535, a small move in the direction of a reasonable balance amount. That didn't float as it was determined that the small number of members at this meeting was not a large enough quorum to make such a ruling on behalf of the full membership. But of course it is perfectly legitimate for a few Board members to make such changes with no public discussion and no explanation to the membership. I wanted to amend my motion to make it a non-binding referendum and membership suggestion to the Board to reconsider their decision. Apparently I was ruled out of order, and the meeting was instantly declared closed. This means the motion was summarily denied, no opportunity to amend it, no opportunity for a second or any discussion or any membership vote.
Tuesday November 19, 2019:
After last night I am sure I am now on someone's personal s**t list, but sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe. As the saying goes, "something is rotten in Denmark", or more accurately, "rotting from the head down"), or if it smells rotten it probably is. I can't wait to see how this will be reported in the meeting minutes to be published in the next newsletter. Meanwhile we are sitting out a rain storm in Naperville, IL today, catching up with these notes, intending to head on back to Indiana tonight. ... And yes, we did end up very near Indianapolis by late night.
Wednesday November 20, 2019:
Up early enough for breakfast, first spot had dining room closed for construction, second spot had food buy no WiFi. We wandered over to see a friend Eric Nelson in Zionsville, Indiana at 10-am with his '62 MGA 1600-MK-II. Been here before in April 2016 fixing HT wires, points, distributor base clamp, float valves, choke linkage, control box, brake work, and soe electrical problems. This time we notice Eric's son has a 1960 Ford Coupe with rumble seat for his pet project. Go kids.
This time around Eric had recently replaced a faulty (new) starter switch (third one that failed in 400 miles). The master cylinder was out, and a new one was sitting handy. He also noted the screen wipers had never worked in the four years he has owned the car, so we should take a look at that problem while the space was open, and he did have a brand new wiper motor handy. Test light and jumper wire revealed all wiring to be good, but wiper motor dead, so get to work unscrewing brackets and disconnecting the wiper motor for removal. As usual we couldn't get the motor and bracket out without removing the brake and clutch pedals, so begin the battle to remove the pedals.
Bronze bushings were firmly glued onto the pedal steel sleeves, and the steel sleeves rusted to the pivot bolt, so no way to drive the bolt out of the assembly. Solution was to bend the brackets slightly away, then Sawzall through the bolt twice and also one of the steel sleeves in the process. That got the pedals out. I had new steel sleeves and bushings in the magic trailer, but the old bushings were still good. Had to run to town for a new 3/8x3 hex head bolt, and grab some pizza to take back for dinner. By that time it was past dark so we called it a day and will take after it again tomorrow.
Thursday November 21, 2019:
Up late, slept in, went into town for breakfast 10-am. Back to work on Eric's MGA around noonish. With the pedals out of the way, undo the flare nut from driver pipe to gearbox, extract motor assembly from its hideaway, and muscle the drive cable out of the tube. Then remove cover from gearbox of old wiper motor, extract c-clip and parking commutator brass contact finger, lift/remove the connecting rod, and extract the drive cable. Then clean old dried grease off of the cable, re-grease it, shove the cable into the drive tube, run it back and forth to clean dried grease out of the tube and wheel boxes until the cable moves freely.
Once the cable moves freely, yank it back out and assemble it into the new wiper motor gearbox. Then proceed to
transfer the mounting bracket from old motor to motor, which is where we ran into the next problem with rotten rubber grommets. After digging a new wiper motor mounting kit out of the magic trailer, we found the rubber grommets were missing. I recon I had used the rubber grommets for my wiper motor replacement back in April, and we haven't placed the next parts order yet. Grrrr.
We called the local Brit shop to inquire, but no wiper motor mounting kit in stock. Back to the hardware store looking for rubber grommets, but no such luck, as these are special extra thick with small bore center hole. So we did the expedient thing, bought some rubber cork style stoppers for material and went back to work to make our own rubber grommets.
Clamp the hand power drill in the carpenter's vice with a 1/4" drill bit, and drill carefully on center from both ends to meet in the middle, making a press fit 1/4" hole in the rubber stopper. Mount the "cork" on a long 1/4" bolt with flat washers and a hex nut, and chuck it up in the hand drill. From here you can grind it down to desired diameter with a coarse hand file or a hack saw blade or circular sander while it is spinning. This time we took advantage of a small wood working band saw running to remove material from the stopper, hand sculpting it to correct diameter, adding the center groove, and cutting it off to correct thickness.
In the end we made two new grommets to install along with one old one that was still serviceable, got the new wiper motor attached to the mounting bracket, shoved the cable up the pipe, got the motor lashed into place and pipe coupling nut connected.
We also connected the three wires and gave the system a test run to verify the wipers work (for the first time in four years he has owned the car). Whew!
Then we could get back to the task we wanted to start yesterday, installing the new master cylinder. But first boost the clutch and brake pedals into place to install the new pivot bolt, pivot sleeves, shaft spacer, pedal return springs, and install a new rubber pedal excluder (compliments of the magic trailer). By then it was dinner time, call it quits for the day, and we will be back in the morning.
Friday November 22, 2019:
Late start today, find old master cylinder (hiding where it should be on the MGA parts shelf) and transfer clutch
line adapter fitting to new cylinder. Then find the mating banjo bolt, on the floor no less (must be a miracle), and dig some copper sealing washers out of the magic trailer. Fair amount of fiddling to get threads, pipes, and bolts aligned but ultimately got the new master cylinder and pushrods installed, all adjusted and waiting for circuit bleeding.
Had a little time to fiddle with my car, so gave it a scheduled lube job and did a compression test. Pressures look okay, a little sooty on spark plugs 2 and 4 (bit of a mystery). Looks like we will be staying over one more night. Don't know if we will be doing anything more with Eric's MGA, but tomorrow likely be heading south.
Saturday November 23, 2019:
On the road again! Heading south, lunch in Memphis, IN, dinner in Bowling Green, KY. Making arangements for another visit to northwest Florida. Some inquiry about computer modeling a Judson supercharger in a race car. Anyone have mounting dimensions and space requirement for the Judson? Expecting to be near Nashville, TN tonight.
Sunday November 24, 2019:
Stopped just south of Nashville last night, then didn't move far. After a week of dreary overcast, cold and rainy weather, we are enjoying a sunny day for a change. Involved in an extensive tech chat about wiring a power jack negative ground in a positive ground car. I would rather not, but occasionally someone is avid about the idea of doing this. Another long tech chat about inverted oil filters and oil pressure time delay on start up. Wasting much of the day in Cornersville, TN. Late night run left us in Calara, Alabama, just south of Birmingham.
Monday November 25, 2019:
Hour and a half run south this morning, bailed off the interstate after Montgomery, landing on US-331 in Luverne, AL for late breakfast. In the evening we headed another hour and a half south to stop at Ponce de Leon on FL81 near I-10.
Tuesday November 26, 2019:
Up early, another hour south to the Gulf coast, short stop for breakfast, and we met Charlie Schott at the car club shop space in Panama City, Florida. Another phone call, and we re-route to visit Bill Wright east across the bridge but also in Panama City. Bill has a TR Spitfire. Report is it cranks but won't run, unless it gets a whiff of starter fluid. This might be a side effect of stale fuel. Also a report the it may run for a block or two and then quit, which sounds like a fuel supply issue. So we wanted to checked fuel flow first. I found the original mechanical fuel pump had been bypassed, and a new electric fuel pump with a small fuel filter had been added in the boot. No need to start the engine yet. Pull fuel hose off the carburetor, hold it in a bucket, switch on ignition, listen to the electric fuel pump running, but only a few drips of fuel came out up front. Okay, fix the fuel supply problem first.
Pull hose off output side of the electric pump to give it a try, but only the tiniest trickle here. Pull hose off of inlet side and plug it. Unscrew fuel filter and blow through it, resulting in free flow, no obstruction. Really? Must be a clog in the tank. Remove plug from hose right under the tank, and get only a tiny dribble. Blow hard on the hose, more than once, and finally get bubbling into the tank, and then a flow of fuel out. Lots of crud in the tank, to be fixed later. Put the hoses back on the fuel pump, switch on to check fuel flow up front, and get nothing. Say what? Has to be another clog in the pipe from rear to front. Pull outlet hose off pump,and blow hard on the hose, no flow at all. Fire up air compressor, and apply higher pressure to hose on pipe going forward. First try, no flow. More diligent second try finally produced a loud POP followed by a slug of fuel and rusty sludge up front. Ah, finally a clear pipe. Reconnect hoses at fuel pump, switch on and get plenty of fuel flow up front. Bet still needing to have the fuel tank cleaned.
Reconnect hose to carburetors, switch on, fill carbs, no leaks, time to try firing it up. Twist key to start, loud click from solenoid, but no cranking. Poking around with test light reveals the solenoid working fine, and we had power to the starter motor input stud, and good ground for the starter and engine, but no cranking. Bummer, dead starter motor, and we will not get to hear this one run today. Leave owner and his son to remove the starter motor while we head off to another task.
Second service stop today would be a visit to the hobby shop of Russ Dean, west back across the bridge in
Panama City. The car we came to see today was his MG TD, not running. Asking a few questions, it sounded like lack of fuel. Switch on revealed no ticking of the fuel pump. Test light shows power and ground, no ticky. Disconnect power wire from pump, remove end cover, touch power wire to input stud, get one tick. Touch, touch, touch makes tick, tick, tick, but it would not tick more than once for each power on cycle. So the SU fuel pump has suffered old age failure. I figure the pump diaphragm has become stiff, not giving enough travel to allow the contact points to click over center, so the pump needs to be replaced or rebuilt (owner's choice).
Then we had a chance to scout around his shop to check out more of his toys. I lost count after bout 15 cars and a few motorcyces and scooters. The blue one is a Vespa, while the white one is an Italian copy called a Stella.
Notice the TR3 in the far left corner. This one had a case of no start, which turned out to be a case of no choke. Pulling choke cable full out did not produce any choke motion at the carburetors. This was soon corrected by adjusting length of the choke cable at the carburetor end, after which full choke and crank fired it right up. Then running rough, one carb was very lean (hardly firing), while the other carb was a little rich (wanting to gallop), resulting in a galloping misfire condition (very bad running). A few minutes of fiddling set that right with generally standard tune-up, but still sluggish throttle response. So around the other side I gave the distributor a slight twist to advance ignition timing some, after which it had wonderful throttle response wanting to head out on the road. I had a fond smile for the Mallory Dual Points distributor, as until recently I had run one of those in my MGA for 30 years.
After a lunch break we were off to visit Willem Van Dijk in Panama City Beach, FL. I didn't realize while we were waiting at the gate that the tall house right inside to the left was Willem's place (backed up to a marina). We parked on the right while Charlie Schott parked on the left. The entire lower level of this place is a large garage space with high ceiling and two garage doors either side of the entry stairway.
Just inside the left door was the Willem's MGA 1600 Coupe, accompanied by a nifty little Fiat 500 with very original looking 500cc engine.
Ahead of those were a low mileage Corvette ZR1, a Jaguar E-type, a vintage Jaguar sedan, and after we crawled around a little, the MG PA (woo-hoo).
Stepping over to the right side we were in the workshop space where we found out Willem is really a TR3 guy. The white one up top is a nice driver car. The scruffy looking one below is being resurrected after a very bad head on collision. The power unit goes with that car, and yes there is another TR3 back in the corner. Could you get all that stuff in your basement? I think his wife parks her car outside? Hummm.
Back to the MGA Coupe. Ths was reported to eat ignition points very quickly with the contacts closing up after just a few minutes around the local streets. A few cycles resetting the points and more shrinkage ran out of adjustment range. Experience says this is likely caused by incorrect ignition coil with low resistance on the primary winding causing excessive current draw, so we measured coil resistance. Sure enough, it was about 1-ohm where it should be around 3.2 ohms, so would have been pulling 12 amps when it should be 4-amps. A few minutes groveling around in the magic trailer produced two sets of points and a good coil to be installed later.
In the meantime, Bill Wright and his son dropped in with the failed starter motor that was extracted from the Spitfire (remember this morning?). We took a few minutes to open it up for internal inspection, finding badly worn brushes and matching worn down commutator. This one needs a rebuild at an electric motor shop (unless it turns out to be cheaper to buy a rebuilt one). Put it back together and send them on their way, and we were off for the night.
Wednesday November 27, 2019:
I suppose I should mention this is my wedding anniversary today, fond memories all around.
Back to the club workshop in Panama City, FL today. Since our last visit here the building had changed hands between two club members, and half of the space had been rented to another tenant, but there were still plenty of toys in here, at least nine cars including three big Healeys.
We were here to check out Charlie Schott's (running) Austin Healey 3000. In February 2016 we were sorting out wiring to get the overdrive to work, and in February 2017 fixing some ignition problems. Now the overdrive was not working again. Report was that the accumulator had been replaced, because it was a regularly reported internal leakage problem, but that didn't fix it. Figuring we would have to get underneath to check it out, we moved another AH project car off the hoist to get Charlie's car elevated. Turns out the OD solenoid is on top on this one, and the tunnel was already loose to be easily removed, so maybe the effort getting it on the hoist was for naught.
We spent some time sorting through the wiring diagram again, thinking there must be an error in the Brooklands Manual wiring diagram where it shows thd kick-down switch connected in parallel with the manual OD switch, so OD would never switch off. Disconnecting one wire on the kick-down switch disabled the switch, but allowed the manual switch to operate the OD solenoid, but OD still didn't work. When the accumulator was replaced the linkage for the solenoid had been fiddled with, so we read all instructions and reset the adjustments, but it still didn't work. This one has a cross shaft to operate a cam inside with solenoid arm on left and an alignment arm on right (notice drill bit used to fixture the alignment arm during set up adjustment).
That was time for lunch break and a head scratcher session when we thought the Brooklands manual may have another error in the set up instructions. After lunch we ran over to Charlie's house to get the Driver's Handbook, hoping that might give a little hint on the operational function, but it didn't help. When the shift lever hung up once we had that out to install a new split bronze bushing on the bottom end.
As a last resort we loosened the linkage for the solenoid, so were able to manually operate the control lever on the right side of OD unit while driving, but that didn't work either. Final conclusion is something inside the OD unit not working, like oil pump or accumulator or not holding hydraulic pressure maybe, so the gearbox would have to come out of the car for service. Not good news, but at least a pointer in the right direction. Occasionally through the day we had a few club members drop in to visit, but not much time to chat. One more visitor in the evening as we were closing up shop, and that killed the rest of daylight. We then ran 50 miles north away from the Gulf coast up to I-10, and another half hour east before we stopped for the night.
Thursday November 28, 2019:
Happy Thanksgiving. Holidays always screw up our activities, so I recon we will just be taking the day off, sitting in Tallahassee, Florida today. Some discussion among the MGA Twin Cam group on location of screen washer jets on the MGA. I may have to revise a tech page. Received a good picture of a new special manufacture "ghost main" crankshaft, which is a crankshaft shaped like a 5-main bearing part but with only three main journals machined, and the two ghost mains slightly enlarged and not machined for greater strength. These are popular for a race engine where durability is more important than cost. Made a new tech page for this on.
Friday November 29, 2019:
Sneaking a little farther south, Live Oak, FL today. Looks like we just made an appointment for me to be guest speaker at Portland Oregon All British Field Meet in Portland, Oregon next Labor Day weekend, September 4-6, 2020.
Saturday November 30, 2019:
More south, Ocala, FL today. Had a good question about MGA front suspension today. Someone wanted to know if a top swivel link could be used in the bottom position by grinding the bump stop extension off the side of the part. Best guess is "yes", so I think he will try it and report back later.
|
