The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (December 1 - December 15, 2021)
Wednesday, December 1, 2021:
Little morning chore, adding a tech page for retrofitting MGB front tappet cover oil separator vent to the MGA Twin Cam engine.
 Off to visit All British Car Club of Volusia County at The Grille at River View in New Smyrna Beach, FL. 18 people, including the two of us, and it looked mostly like a dinner meeting. But apparently they had a rather informal election going on in the background, along with a lot of dinner chat. And we got to watch the draw bridge cycle a couple of times for passage of some high masted sailors.
But we did make an appointment to head over to a Tom Walters' garage condo in Port Orange, FL look at his MGA. Well, he did have a few other toys tucked in there.
There was a brief inspection of an MGA cylinder head that had a few small cracks, mostly in the area of valve seats, apparently more practical to set it aside and find a replacement.
Then we got down to why we were here, checking out a clutch problem on the MGA. He thought it was an"over-center" problem where it would initially release, but then begin to re-engage and drag when the pedal was pushed farther down. Well, no, it was more like just not fully disengaging, not enough travel of the slave cylinder relative to the master cylinder, which means probably still having some air in the system. So we had some discussion about different (maybe better) bleeding techniques.
Sneaking up on sundown, time to tuck into a known good WiFi spot to bring you these photos and notes.
Thursday, December 2, 2021:
Cruised on north and west over night, sitting in Tallahassee, FL by lunch time. The publisher copy of the CMGC December newsletter came in this morning. Spent most of the day working on transcribing it into HTML code for the club web site, but only half done, so need to finish that tomorrow. Heading more west late night.
Friday, December 3, 2021:
Scheduled morning visit with Gary Kundey in Niceville, FL today. Niceville is down on the Gulf coast smack in the middle of Eglin Air Force Base. We met Gary two years earlier in Columbus, Georgia when I tweaked the triple Weber carburetors and fixed a coolant leak on his Jaguar E-Type. He spends at least one week per month at his duplex here in Florida. We came to check out his very nice MGA 1600-MK-II which he has had for a least 25 years. Restored early on, and driven a few hundred miles per yer, it still shows well.
Not much to find at fault here, except I did spot some missing rubber isolator parts on the rear license plate mounting. I guess he also likes Peugeot, as he has a couple of those sitting around, and I think they both have diesel engines. Had an extended sit and chat for a while before it was time to move on.
Then we hit a local auto parts store for a few bits. I ordered a set of copper core ignition wires for a V8 (which will nicely service two 4-cylinder distributors), but will have to return later to pick up the special order parts. More important, I really wanted to buy the little breather air filter to stick on top of the valve cover, intending to keep oil out of the front air cleaner. Also small package of rubber plugs and caps to get the 1/2-inch cap to close the connector on the air cleaner when I removed the vent hose.
More work on the club newsletter in the evening, about 90% done, carry on.
Saturday, December 4, 2021:
1-PM appointment with some friends and members of Panhandle British Car Association. We had missed their November club meeting, and no club meeting in December, so this was a special gathering just for us. We met at the garage of Paul and Mollie Reese. This place used to be an old fire station in Pensacola, FL, so it's pretty big, That's Paul's MGA in the front hall.
It is not only a garage, but also decked out with club room and lots of nice human facilities, and toys all around.
The MG TD was getting a work over and rebuilding the engine, preparing to get it back on the road.
A very nice Morgan Sport barrel back roadster came in a bit later. I think it is an F-Series, 1951 or 1952 model, last year of the three wheelers, this one having the in-line 4-cylinder Ford engine, just before they began making the Morgan 4-4 (4-cylinder 4-wheels).
As the party was winding down we had a quick look at Paul's MGA, and a new starter switch. Claimed to be "new old stock", but not. The white insulator raised my suspicions, but at least this one was "Lucas Made In England", so maybe better than recent Chinese knock-offs.
Just enough time late evening to finish the CMGC newsletter (with a big sigh of relief).
Sunday, December 5, 2021:
Kind of a late start, but day off to catch up with the fan club (or just rest maybe). First WiFi spot had no wall power (where it did work the day before), so we had to move on when the computer battery went dead. Second place was okay.
Monday, December 6, 2021:
Off to a good start. Posted a new tech page for Converting The Standard MGA Body To Twin Cam Specification. Also another new tech page for more information on the clutch for Twin Cam.
Early afternoon side trip back to Niceville, FL to pick up the spark wires we ordered last week. Then we got a call and took off again a bit before planned (skipping lunch) heading for Panama City, FL to visit Charlie Schott's new garage space. Arrived slightly after 4-pm to a locked door. Follow-up phone call revealed an emergency when Charlie left 15 minutes before we arrived. Okay, off to find another WiFi spot
Tuesday, December 7, 2021:
Late morning trip back to Charlie Schott's new condo garage in Panama City, FL. Nice place. Every guy should be entitled to his own man cave. On site only 2-1/2 months and not finished yet.
And the back door, club logo all over the place, and about to become the new mailing address for the Bay City British Car Club. First step inside reveals (or hides) Charlie's 50's vintage Jaguar under the tarp.
There's his Austin Healey 100 (MK-I) in primer paint. He wants to install the complete interior in that one before sending it out for professional external paint job. Kind of surprised me, but he thinks the risk there is a better idea than trying to install the interior after painting. And there was a MG TD that only got passing interest as we were on to something else. The TR6 is in for repairs (for a friend). Some funny electrical issues here, like turn signals reportedly work, but no tail lights, a blown fuse, at least one heat bubbled wire, a couple of broken wires, all kind of befuddling as it killed the rest of the afternoon.
The front side marker lamps must be British car replacement parts made in the USA because the wiring color codes are wacky. Where Lucas dictates that ground wires are black and parking light wire are red, American think Black is a hot wire while ground wires are green. So getting this sorted out we need to plug the lamp Green wire into the Black harness wires for grounding, while the lamp Black wire gets plugged into the harness Red wires for power input. That just drives me nuts having to mix wire colors in a common connector. By tracing and debugging one wire at a time starting at the light switch to the fuse box, and then forward, I think I have it psyched out and mostly fixed. Finally got tail lights and marker lamps at all four corners, except very dim lamps in front as a consequence of the front ground wires not having any chassis ground. That will wait for tomorrow, as we ran out of time,
Last minute rush over to Triple J's Steak House in Panama City Beach for the first Tuesday meeting of the
Bay British Cars club. Just getting started again after the Covid issues, very low turn out, just three couples other than us (and mostly club officers I suppose). But they did a proper job of club business, including election of officers for next year. Nice intimate meeting and chat with a few good friends. Finishing fairly early, we had enough time left to find a WiFi spot to bring you these photos and notes.
Wednesday, December 8, 2021:
Couple of tech page revisions for Widening Twin Cam Wheels, and Twin Cam radiator number tags.
Heading for Charlie's shop, but he called, late start, pushing noonish. Got right to work installing a harness to frame grounding wire at right front of the chassis on the TR6. Cutting and splicing into a black harness wire, making a jumper with a soldered bullet on one end and a large ring lug on the other end, and getting it installed. Immediately all the parking lights and side lamps worked. Score one for the good guys. Hit the brakes, and the LR tail light went out (bad ground there).
Just started poking at the tail light when there was a call to move some cars, get the TR6 out of the way, and get the AH 100 outside. Mark off 52-ft 9-5/8-inches on the pavement (1/100-mile), put a tape flag on the speedometer cable, push the car through the measured distance while counting turns of the cable. 13.2 turns in 1/100 mile equals 1320 turns per mile, or coincidentally, exactly one turn for every 4-feet of travel. Cool. Send the speedometer out to be rebuilt and recalibrated.
Then load the Healey into a box trailer heading to an upholstery shop to have the interior installed. Meanwhile a neighbor two garage condos over had his BMW with V-12 and twin turbos out for some exercise. Snap a picture of his place while the door is still open, and get a better idea why people like to buy a garage condo. I will need a better look at this later, but that hoist looks like it picks up two cars at once on a single hoist for the sole purpose of double stacking. Yes that's a new C8 Corvette with all the whistles and bells bottom right. Wanna guess what's under the other covers?
Half hour later offloading the Healey at Billy's Trim Shop in Panama City, FL. Tuck the car into a storage space, and head over to the shop. Gotta add this place to my Shops List.
Step inside and I think it is better organized than it looks, with plenty of table space and all necessary tools. Say hello to the proprietor Billy Taylor, the guy with the magic skills in his hands. There was a really nice Jaguar XK-120 freshly restored with Billy's brand new interior work, absolutely beautiful, just waiting for its new top and tonneau cover to be installed. And maybe no one will notice the magnificent street rod right behind it.
Trying not to drool too much while I was poking at those really nice seats that I wish I had in my MGA. Then Billy was sorting through the new carpet and interior and seat kits he was about to be installing in the Austin Healey
By the time we got out of there and returned the trailer back to Charlie's garage it was getting dark (damn these short days) and time to knock off for dinner, so maybe get back to the TR6 again tomorrow.
Thursday, December 9, 2021:
Determined to finish what we started two days earlier, back to Charlie's garage again. There was a nice AH 3000 come to visit for a few minutes, picking up some parts I think.
Then on to debugging electrical issues on the TR6. All front lights working, so reinstall the RF parking lamp lens. On the left rear, tail light goes out when brake is applied, turned out to be a corroded Lucar connection on a body grounding tab. Both rear turn signals not working, oddly enough turned out not to be related, but did have identical failure mode. The T/S bulb sockets ground to the metal lamp back shell via 8 or 10 spring fingers around the socket base. You might think the contact redundancy should make a reliable circuit ground, but you would be wrong. All 8 or 10 spring fingers on each T/S bulb socket were corroded enough to fail connection to the lamp back shell. Yep, maybe 20 spring finger contacts all failed at the same time. So a bunch of twisting and jiggling finally cleaned them up enough to get reliable ground connections. Subsequent testing of the turn signals for at least 10 minutes straight could not make them fail, so call it good and reinstall the interior cardboard cover panels in the boot.
Standard day for Charlie I suppose, late arrival and early departure so that was it, lock up the shop, bail out of
Panama City Beach, and head east. Change of time zone, one fuel stop, and a couple hours later we were already sitting in Tallahassee, FL for late lunch. Before dusk we had some sidewalk supervisors checking out the MGA again. Day after day of discussion on the BBS about change of part number for the MGA front valance mounting screws, and still no agreement on what the early ones looked like. Will be heading a bit farther east tonight but still have one more full day to spare.
Friday, December 10, 2021:
Quick stop to say hello to the friendly emu at Madison, FL, but moved on to Lee, FL for breakfast.
Someone sent a very nice tech article on SU Carburetor Dating on MGA (1955-1962), and I felt obligated to post it on the web site. It is all about part numbers and various manufacturers, how to identify the differences, and when the changes were made.
Saturday, December 11, 2021:
One tech question about a dead alternator in the morning, and then it was Party time with MG Classics of Jacksonville holiday party in St. Augustine, FL. We popped in on time right at noon, then got distracted before even getting a picture of all the nicely decorated cars lined up, This white MGA belonging to Tony Kimball from Jacksonville, FL was cooking the driver when the heater wouldn't shut off. That was just a missing cable stop at the water valve leaving the control cable disconnected. The Magic Trailer had the spare part, so we had that reconnected in short order.
Then it was party time for about 30 people getting to pig out on catered box lunches. Photo at right below was a last minute shot of a few remaining cars while everyone was leaving (some time later).
As soon as I had wolfed down the food I was back to work on the second car of the day, a Red MGA owned by Fred Woller from Jacksonville Beach, FL. This one blew out its heater valve just as it was arriving, dumping coolant on the distributor and stumbling in with wet ignition. The Magic Trailer had the spare heater valve and gasket for this one too, so not too long to get that changed and refill the 50/50 coolant mix (also carried in the trailer).
Once fired up again it was still running badly, so I checked and set the ignition timing, but no joy. Pulling spark wires one by one wasn't revealing much either, until I noticed spark leaking under the edge of the distributor cap and sparking onto the cap hold-down clip. Been a long time since I have seen one tracking the HT spark down the inside of the distributor cap, but there it was. With cap off and in hand and a bright light, we could see the sooty tracking mark very clearly, so it needed a new dizzy cap. Unfortunately I recently installed the only spare I had on my own car, and not another spare cap available, so we had to send this car home running on three cylinders. But the owner assured me he had a new cap and new wires at home, and the points and condenser and rotor were already new parts.
I apparently missed a lot of the awards ceremony for best dressed cars and door prizes, just getting the one picture of cars on the way out. Someone who did get more pictures has promised to send them along, so we'll see.
Sunday, December 12, 2021:
Had to drive a ways and hunt some to find a suitable WiFi spot, ending up in Davenport, FL, just west of Orlando by late morning.
Lots more chat today about very minor details of fastener designs and part numbers used for MGA cars.
The question is if some screws changed design (or not) when part number was changed. For the most part I suspect it was just a change of part numbers from various prior independent car companies to new BMC standard part numbers just to consolidate inventory. But some people like to be real picky about concours originality, considering that sometimes the fastener design changed at the same time. And some of it may be cost reduction, like going from a pointed tip screw to a flat tip screw, or changing from some special design part to a suitably serviceable standard fastener. I guess this is how people spend their time after most of the more important tech questions have been resolved.
Monday, December 13, 2021:
Sitting in Auburndale, Fl today, just spitting distance down the road. I couldn't resist snatching this picture to add to my tech page on vintage superchargers. It is a refurbished (as new) Judson supercharger kit for MGA, complete with Judson stickers and installation instructions, up for sale by Richard Kusy .
More on the discussion of originality of screw designs. An article on Pozidriv screws written by someone else and previously published in a public magazine has an error related to early production of Pozidriv screws. As it turns out, Pozidriv screws were not through the patent process until 1962, so there would not be any Pozidriv screws used in the MGA. As such, I was compelled to add a footnote to correct the error.
Tuesday, December 14, 2021:
Not much happening today, so I finally posted two new tech pages for the screws in the MGA front valance panel (and other applications) when the part number changed from AFH2587 to 53K126. Just guessing this is not going to end the religious war over this issue.
Wednesday, December 15, 2021:
Just a few tech questions on superchargers MGA Coupe headliner bows and initial set-up adjustments for MGA carburetors.
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