The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (February 1 - February 15, 2020)
Sunday February 1, 2020:
Sitting in the rain most of the day. When the storm broke around 3-pm we headed north. By late night we were about 300 miles on close to Lake City, FL.
Monday February 2, 2020:
Spent most of the day in Lake City. In the evening we turned west on I-10 as far as Lamont, close to Monticello. We had in mind to stop and have a chat with a friend near Monticello, but he wasn't answering the phone. Late night we headed more west to land just west of Tallahassee. Two things here. First the temperature gauge pegged, and coolant was steaming on the right side of the engine. Not a core plug. Looked like steam from the water pump gasket (not likely), or pump seal (maybe). More likely from the lower radiator hose connected on left side of the pump, and spraying gently under the pump to the right side. Perhaps leaking at the hose end, like a loose hose clamp. More likely another failed radiator hose. Leave it for morning.
 And we had parked next to something strange, but vaguely familiar. This turned out to be a Toyota Prius
Hybrid with some additional aero bits added on. The tail end was extended at least three feet for a more teardrop shape, and I guess it had an extended bumper (but all in all kind of crude looking. Smooth wheel covers, and wheel arches faired in close to the tires, but maybe Duck Tape holding the fender fairings in place. And flexible skirts below the body sills that would touch the road with the slightest bump. It looked like a lot of work for a small improvement in what was already fairly good aerodynamics, and aesthetically not very appealing, but I can appreciate the effort. I just hope next year's new car models don't look like this.
Monday February 3, 2020:
Water the radiator this morning, didn't take as much as I thought it might, only 2-1/2 quarts. So yes there's a leak somewhere, but maybe not too bad, so press on. A short cruise into NW Tallahassee for breakfast where we soon got a call from last night's intended visit, Jerry Horton from Monticello, FL. He was inbound heading for Home Depot, but said to stay put and he would come to us. By the time he got to us we had figured out the WiFi didn't work, so we all moved to another breakfast haunt, still in Tallahassee.
Okay get the camera. Here we get pictures of Jerry's new acquisition, a nice baby blue MGA 1600. Story here is the car was in the same family since new, low mileage, passed from father to son, and recently restored by son with an eye toward perfection. They changed out the break-in engine oil at 125 miles, likely to do it again around 500 miles, but it hasn't gotten there yet. Don't know why it was on the market, but Jerry bought himself a show quality car for a very good price. Pardon me for a moment while I take a bunch of pictures and drool.
Everything as original, including the fuel gauge next to the speedometer (quite often changed). That's the original Ice Blue tonneau cover now faded toward gray, but likely has some of the original hue tucked inside some folds. Notice the gaskets between rear light plinth and rear wing are silver (not black). Correct puffy boot lid seal, but a miss on the spare tire carpet cover that was originally Hondura vinyl (difficult to source). Nice paint detail in the boot, did someone say clear coat? Need to vacuum out a bit of blasting media that has worked its way out of some hidden crevice after painting.
Beautifully detailed engine bay, including all of the correct style hose clamps, HT wire connectors, and temperature sensor pipe routed correctly. The dynamo end plates were originally red (look nice in plain alloy), and the cooling fan should have been Safety Yellow by this time of production, but I don't think a concours judge would discount those items.
Very nice assembly alignment. Chrome wire wheels were not factory issue, but are a period correct accessory item. All correct chrome bits in all correct places. Drool some more.
Plan on heading more west tonight, appointment in Panama City Beach tomorrow.
Tuesday February 4, 2020:
Up early and head west with one short stop to water the engine. We had an evening appointment for a club meeting with Bay British Cars at Triple J's Steak House in Panama City Beach, FL. Been here a few times before, nice bunch, about 18 people including ourselves. Some discussion about a Snowbird Fest car show next Friday, which we will miss due to another commitment. But I did get to do a 10 minute review on what we have been doing for the past few years.
Wednesday February 5, 2020:
One morning appointment cancelled due to someone's medical appointment. So we checked into the Bay British Car Club workshop (long story from prior visits). Today there was a big Healey and a Bug Eye Sprite under restoration (I think the big Healey was here last year). Also five cars under wraps at the stacker hoists.
I was here today specifically to change the water pump in our MGA. Did a quick pressure test and found water draining from the bottom weep hole in the water pump, so that was pretty conclusive. Drained the water outside before moving the car inside for mechanical work.
My inventory list said I had a water pump, and that list had been precisely detailed last April, so pretty sure it would be somewhere in the trailer. Having replaced the pump a few years back, this one would be a more recent acquisition for a spare. But a bit puzzling was no record of having purchased one in the past few years. When I dug it out of the trailer the spare water pump was painted Ford Blue, so I suppose it was the gift of a used part from some friend (may be able to look that up in the travel log). So now we get to find out if it is any good.
Straight forward job, just grunt work, so not too long to remove the radiator and water pump and get it back
together again. There was a slight delay for delivered pizza lunch break. Filled with water, run a minute and topped up with no air space, switch off. Then apply 10-psi for pressure test, and wait. No pressure drop after five minutes, so the "good used water pump" appears to be a winner. Clean up and put tools away.
Meanwhile the guys were working on another MGA that was just trailered in for the day. Electrical problems, couldn't get a new control box to work. Always test the generator first, so we did, and the generator was good. Reconnect wires to the generator and control box, fire it up and check voltage again, and it was working. Give it a shrug and three cheers, and get on to the next problem. Oh, and tell him the fan blade was installed backward.
Clutch not working, even though it has all new parts, not enough travel of the slave cylinder. This turned out to be a sticky piston in the master cylinder, fully depressed but only returning half way. Since it was completely assembled, the solution here would be to inject fluid into the bleed nipple to push the master piston back. Hopefully once the fluid circuit is completely filled and the master piston returned it will work okay. I think they didn't find a tool to inject fluid, so not fixed yet. The car went back in the trailer to return home.
After closing up shop we headed back east, stopping in Tallahassee for fuel and dinner and WiFi break to process photos and notes for the day. A bit farther on we stopped for the night near Lake City, FL
Thursday February 6, 2020:
Mostly a travel day, couple of food and fuel stops, hit a Walmart or two for anti-freeze and oil, and a Napa for oil filters and radiator caps. Finished late night in Fort Myers, FL.
Friday February 7, 2020:
Back at Tech Central in Bonita Springs today with a few cars needing help. At first glance it didn't look very British, but things were better around the corner.
The Jaguar XJ6 needed a new alternator, new part in hand, but not an easy fix. The alternator is hiding under
the air conditioning compressor. Oops. We thought maybe accessible from the bottom, but no luck, sway bar in the way and no access to the rear mounting bolt down there. After a bit of internet searching and a phone call, the AC compressor has to be dismounted and be pulled up some to get access to the alternator. Apparently this has to be done just to adjust the alternator drive belt? Uh, remind me not to buy a Jaguar. After an hour or two the owner decided to put this off for another day for further thought.
Then a look at the MG Midget with brakes finished, now trying to finish up the hydraulic clutch. New master cylinder, slave cylinder and slave hose, should be a piece of cake. This morning they replaced a fractured hydraulic pipe, re-using the original end fitting flare nuts. Then getting very frustrated, not bleeding properly. We finally discovered that the new pipe joint to the new hose was not sealing, with the pipe physically loose when the flare nut was bottomed out. Turned out the new hose has a deeper threaded port in the output end. Looks like this needs a longer flare nut, or another new hose in original form. Bummer about replacement part quality. Another "easy" job put off for a different day.
Then on to the silver MGB we were fiddling with last week when we ran out of time. Two issues here. Since last week end the engine has been running like crap, misfire, backfire, hardly driveable. That turned out to be a dirty contact in a connector for ignition switch harness near the steering column, too hot to touch. Cut out the connector contacts and butt splice the wires together fixed that problem.
Then some diagnostic work to figure out why it was using a quart of oil every 100 miles, even though it was running fairly well otherwise. Spark plugs were tan and dry, good start. Compression test not so good, 120, 90, 70, 120-psi. Putting a little oil in #2 & 3 brought compression up to 120 and 190 respectively. Say WHAT? Must be a bunch if carbon in #3, and the piston rings are definitely shot. Someone still thinks that lots of oil spitting out the tail pipe might be from worn valve guides, and we now have new umbrella seals in hand. Put it back together and make appointment for Sunday to install umbrella seals on the valve guides. If by chance that might cut down the oil consumption, then the major engine work may be put off for a while.
Break for lunch, count a dozen noses, lots of people go home, but we get to chat with a "new" member of the group. This guy used to be a member, hasn't be here for three years, but stopped in to renew his membership. He lives only a few blocks away, has an MG TF in nice condition. Done for the day, off to catch up on WiFi stuff.
Saturday February 8, 2020:
Only one other guy at Tech Central today, and he came to feed the cats and do a little work on his Midget. Jerry was off racing, at Daytona I think, but the shop was open, so I took advantage of the empty hoist to do a little work on my own car. Mostly simple grunt work, oil and filter change, and a lube job, and drain water to install anti-freeze in the cooling system.
Part of the lube job came to changing a Zerk fitting on a tie rod end from straight to angled fitting, so I can grease it without removing the wheel. Hopefully one day I may find a second tie rod end with a Zerk fitting.
And since I recently procured a new oil filler cap, original style (that had been back ordered for nearly a year), I got that installed as well (and tossed out the temporary vented MGB plastic cap).
Last night I received the electronic copy of February issue of the CMGC newsletter (late this month), so spent the rest of the day converting it to web page format, but not finished yet).
Sunday February 9, 2020:
A short trip to North Fort Myers today to help Bob Puttbach install umbrella valve seals on his MGB. We had a top side only valve spring compressor tool that looked the business, but seems to need 3 or 4 hands to work it. Having used one before, I can tell you it sort of works on single springs, but will definitely nol lock in to lift dual valve springs. Front and rear rocker arms get removed from the rocker shaft. The other six rocker arms get a sideways push and rotate 90 degrees to get out of the way.
The trick then is to push 10 feet of small clothes line cord through the spark plug port, then rotate crankshaft to bring the piston up to hold the valve heads in place. Easier said than done, but some fiddling usually gets it to work. Then a little tap on top of the spring compressor tool to break the split cotters (valve locks) loose, after which R&R of the spring to install the new seal and getting it back together is not so tricky. Still not as easy as it sounds, so we killed four hours before the job was done and we got it back together and running again.
Then we were off to visit Fred Stankovich in Punta Gorda, FL, and check out the restoration work on his long term ownership 1958 MGA 1500. Short story is his ex-wife beat the crap out of the car with a skate board, which later led to a complete body restoration and repaint. It now carries an MGB 1800 5-main bearing engine and matching gearbox, no mechanical tachometer drive, so the original mechanical tach is in the boot while an MGB electric tach is in the dash (not yet working). Some discussion on how to modify and wire up the electric tach, and how to get the speedometer re-calibrated to work with the MGB gearbox.
Nice 7-blade nylon fan and plastic fan shroud from Moss Motors. Will wait to see how that works out.
The short story about the "JET JOC" license plate is that Fred used to fly tail number 2 with the Blue Angles. Looks like jolly good fun to me, and I recon it was for him too. He wanted to give me the autographed picture, but I have no place to store it, so our best bet is a nice picture of the picture to post on my web site. But we did sit down for a nice chat over a bowl of chili before heading out for an evening stint on WiFi.
Monday February 10, 2020:
Spent much of the day finishing upload for the CMGC February newsletter to the club web site. Also a couple of time consuming tech questions.
Tuesday February 11, 2020:
Lots of tech questions today. Posted a new tech page on the multiple evolutionary changes of the MGA rag top during production. Three frames, three canopies and three front wood bows. Also chatting about changes of headlight design, faulty replacement wiper arms and wheel boxes, oil pumping volume and windage trays, and shimming inboard tie rod ends.
Wednesday February 12, 2020:
Posted another new tech page this morning concerning crankcase ventilation for the MGA Twin Cam engine. And a page for another variant of MGA, the Hanomag F20 van built by Mercedes.
Thursday February 13, 2020:
More discussion on MGA Twin Cam engine crankcase ventilation, and a private dialog on how to fix an old Land Rover fuel gauge with broken internal wires.
Friday February 14, 2020:
Tech Central again with a rumor that someone would be pulling the engine out of Magnette. Well that didn't happen, but someone else ended up pulling the engine out of an MG Midget when they couldn't get the clutch to work.
Someone cleaning and painting a set of RO-style wheels for an MGB.
Fixing a horn contact on the steering wheel of an MGB. --
Beginning disassembly of an MGB tube-type rear axle for any parts that might be recyclable.
Disassembling riveted rub strips from MG TD running boards in preparation for restoration work.
Reassembling carburetors on an MG Midget. I suppose half a dozen projects was enough for one day.
Saturday February 15, 2020:
After some catch-up work and some advance planning, got a late start. Headed east, and 6-pm landed on the east coast this time for a visit with George Engelhardt in Boca Raton, FL. He has a 1958 MGA (1500) with some electrical problems with turn signals. After giving up trying to fix a temperamental turn signal relay, he bought a new one, but problems persisted. On our way across the state we called a couple of times, no answer, left a message. On arrival I rang the door bell, and he was home. Apparently he had his phone switched off while he was napping.
Try this and that while pushing a test light around for 10 minutes, and we finally figured out the brand new "electronic" relay unit from Moss Motors was bad right out of the box. It had a faulty relay that would not click for right turns. I think the two front turn signal lamps are cross cross wired, but we ran out of time before tracing that fault. George and his wife had a fixed appointment tonight, so we may resume with this issue tomorrow.
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