The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (March 16 - March 31, 2023)
Thursday, March 16, 2023:
Breakfast in Vienna, Georgia, then a one hour run to Albany, GA to visit Tom and Kelly Seegmueller (again) and have another shot at the rear brakes on Kelly's MG Midget. We intended to installed new rear slave cylinders to put the little car back on the road again. Te remove the brake drums, Tom brought out his favorite persuader, a special building construction tool. Some penetrating oil and a manual impact driver got the screws loose.
Tom had purchased the more expensive Delphi/Lockheed original style wheel cylinders, mostly for the confidence, but also to have rebuild parts available. The crowned E-ring came with the new cylinder. The wave washer and standard type external snap ring seem to be OEM type fasteners for this application. The shiny tool with the threaded stud through the middle is a (rather expensive) special tool intended to make quick installation of the E-ring. It didn't work, probably because the guide cone was made from soft steel. The spring steel E-ring with sharp edges bit into the soft cone to jam up, then bending the E-ring tabs to an angle where the the ring was trapped between the cone and the driving socket. That was a definite no-go. In the end we grabbed the snap ring pliers to install the wave washer and standard external snap ring. We did finally use the socket of the special tool for the final push to compress the wave washer and seat the snap ring.
We tried two different brake parts cleaners. The O'Reilly house brand did work fairly well. A more generic white label brand was more aggressive and dried quicker, so we kind of liked the quicker one better.
Installing the slave cylinder wasn't too bad (after we ditched the E-ring). Then re-insert the fluid pipe and screw the flare nut back into the port, and check that all was secure.
Reinstalling the brake shoes and springs and the hand brake linkage parts was a bit of a fiddle. But persistence pays, and the brake drums were soon installed, brake shoes adjusted, wheels on, and time to correct tire pressures before the test drive. -- It took a few tries to get Kelly to step on the brake pedal hard enough, but she did finally lockup all the wheels and leave four nice skid marks on the street. The big grin is in the victory photo.
Friday, March 17, 2023:
Catching up photos and notes while hanging out in Albany, GA, watching the rain while waiting for a call back that never happened. Calling ahead to the Columbus, GA area with not much response. But we did get a message about a car show in Midland, GA tomorrow, so late night we headed north when the rain was easing up, and landed in Columbus about midnight.
Saturday, March 18, 2023:
Our MGB owner friend Dave Arwood was playing DJ at the "Driven To End Hunger Car Show", hosted by Feeding The Valley Food Bank in Midland, Georgia. And we had the day to spare, so why not. By coincidence, the last available parking space by 10-am was next to the only other little British car there (a 1974 Spitfire belonging to one of the local BITV club members), and a nice late 70's VW Vanagon (very original low mileage survivor car), followed by a personally equipped VW Beetle. The a march past the bigger American stuff, some modern, some muscle, some vintage hot rods.
Continuing around the perimeiter, it looked like they had collected in small groups of like minded friends.
I kind of liked the Chevrolet Corvair Rampside truck,just not sure about the big block V8 hot rod conversion. The high line Jeeps were traditional, but the VW trike stuck out like a sore thumb.
Horse head up front, saddle for the driver seat, Pony Express mail box (competition), and not sure what it would [pull with the trailer hitch (but who am I to criticize)? Then another personally appointed VW Beetle, followed by our other nearest neighbors.
Then a walk around the inner ring of the lot. The (big) sport touring cars don't do much for me, as I wouldn't know what to do with all the excess power.
The 1974 Chevells SS did catch my eye, until I noticed the Corvette engine transplant. But the 1964 Ford Falcon with 265-CID V8 engine was nice (and very original). If you must have a back seat, then this is a sensible American compact machine (about as small as they got in the 60's).
There was a very nice Ford Model A truck that came in (and left) on a trailer. And the really sweet Ford Galaxie 500 all original right down to the plastic bag reservoir for windscreen washer fluid.
Enough fun with the trophies awarded at 1-o'clock, and we we could all get out of the cold (about 59dF today). The local WiFi spot was closing early, so we high-tailed it across the Chattahoochee River to a 24-hour truck stop in Smith Station, Alabama to process the photos and notes, and make some more phone calls.
Sunday, March 19, 2023:
Stop to visit Sidney Smith III and his father Sidney Smith Jr (and family) in Columbus, GA. Sidney recently bought a 1974 MGB from "Rick" across the street. A pair of replacement floor pans came with it, and have already been welded in, and the clutch slave cylinder has been repaired so it can be driven (sort of). Current known issues are the horn doesn't work, most of the electrical stuff on the ignition fuse circuit doesn't work, and the rear carburetor seems to be flooding, so no start.
Checking the electrical side of the engine bay, notice the HT spark wires are in non-standard positions on the distributor cap. That means the distributor drive gear is install incorrectly (may get to fix that later). Vacuum advance is currently disconnected from the distributor. And there is a funky period accessory capacitive discharge ignition box on the inner fender. But it does spark, and if it ain't broke don't fix it. Poke a test light on the fuse box and find immediately that the main battery fuse (for the horn) has internal disconnect (no output). Installed a new fuse in a minute.
Then check to see of the horn will sound, but the steering wheel is currently dismounted. The spring contact for the horn slip ring is missing, so pull one of those out of the Magic Trailer to be installed. Then discover a male Lucar spade terminal has been broken off, so cannot connect the horn wire from the new multi-function switch. Someone had previously soldered a wire there, but that wire was broken off. So get out the soldering tool and solder on a new male spade connector.
With the new spade terminal in place, trying to figure out where a flat metal plate bracket should go, thinking it will be a part of the screen wiper control switch on right side of the steering column. Can't find the wiper control switch at the moment, so leave that issue for later.
 Position the steering shaft with the trip-off appendage centered on the turn
switch, and the front wheels are not pointing straight forward. Something misaligned in the steering column. If the steering wheel is installed in the correct orientation for the switch, then the trip-off mechanism does work as intended, so leave that issue for later as well. Grounding the horn control wire will make a horn sound, so will for now assume the control button will work okay once the steering wheel is installed (and grounded).
Then the horns worked intermittently. Left side would work if connected alone. Right side only stuttered, and had one spade terminal broken (actually not needed). Short discussion about wanting to adjust the center screw for throw of the contact points inside, might get lucky and work, but leave that little chore for later.
Notice the oil pressure signal hose is VERY badly deteriorated, and I wouldn't drive it once around the block in that condition, so pull a new hose out of the Magic Trailer and get that installed. I pulled the reinforcing fiber off the old hose with my fingers, then cut one side of the hose liner open for inspection. No fiber in the inner liner at all, and I could pull the rubber liner apart with my fingers as well. I have no idea why that pressure hose had not failed years earlier.
Then it would only start and run with full throttle, implying either a huge vacuum leak, or massive fuel flooding.
Gaskets and seals looked okay, but wait a second. I see the float chamber vent tubes were capped off (plugged) with short hoses and screws, and no way the float chambers will work properly without venting. As fuel would rise in the carbs, the float chambers would be pressurized, and it would blow fuel through the main jets under pressure before the floats could ever rise enough to cut off fuel input. The DPO (Dreaded Previous Owner) has struck again. So pull off the plug hoses to vent the float chambers, and try starting again.
Then we got no start, except with a shot of starting fluid then die, so no fuel getting to either carburetor. Yes fuel out of the filter, but not getting into the front carb, so check for clog at the input tube. Sure enough, rubber debris from a deteriorated hose between filter and carb, so we cleaned it out at the input end and installed a better hose, but sill no flow in. Get the compressor going to blow reverse flow through the front carb, and another lump of rubber debris came out with a notable POP.
While the compressor was building pressure we had removed spark plugs and cranked the engine for a while to blow all of the flooded fuel out of the cylinders, dried the spark plugs and put them back in. Also pulled a new 90-degree rubber connector out of the Magic Trailer to connect the vacuum line to the distributor. Then it started and ran some, but at the same time it was burping air bubbles and messy oil and fuel slop out of the front tappet cover vent pipe, meaning the sump was by that time way over filled with fuel in the engine oil. That led to draining gallons of fuel and oil out of the sump, blowing out the oil cooler, changing the oil filter, and refilling the engine with fresh oil. Then the fuel pump was running rapidly, so it was out of gas. Put a little more fuel in the tank and try again.
Then it fired right up and ran like a champ, until it began to sputter and fuel was again gushing out of the rear
carb vent port. Got the air hose and blow it backward through the rear carb, but still had overflow. Whacked it with a wrench several times, but no deal, still overflow. Curses. Time to bite the bullet and concede that it would be time to remove the pesky HIF carburetors to turn them upside down to remove the bottom covers to get access to clean out the float chambers and free up the stuck float valve (or maybe replace a sunken float). We also want to connect up the PCV plumbing and fuel vapor recovery and get the anti-run-on valve working (maybe). Running out of daylight and getting colder approaching dusk, so time to call it quits for the day, and likely come back tomorrow for more fun.
Monday, March 20, 2023:
Sidney III was truck driving this morning and had an army recruiter appointment in the afternoon, and Sidney Jr is not so enthused about working on the MG when hs son is not there, and it was colder today than yesterday, so we put a hold on the MGB diagnostic and repair work and stayed inside most of the day. Have a different appointment tomorrow, so not sure when we might get back to this project again.
Most of the day in Columbus, GA. Got a late phone call noting that the MG Midget from Albany, GA had died on the road, more on that later. 9-pm driving north, landing in Norcross, GA (just north of Atlanta) 11-pm.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023:
Early phone call noting that the Midget was running again, just had a broken wire running from ignition coil to distributor, fixed with a new wire end terminal.
Lunch meeting today with Peachtree MG Registry (weekly event) at the Iron Horse Tavern (Authentic British Pub) in Norcross, GA. Nice sunny day, so we sat on the outdoor deck. Unusually small turnout with 7 people including us, but it was a nice intimate group with good chat.
Heading north from here, side stop in Emerson, GA. Need a little more planning, not in any hurry to get to the frigid Chicago area for the week end. Might be time for some foot dragging. Stopped in Emerson, GA mid afternoon. Made some calls, couple more appointments, no foot dragging yet. Headed north late night to land about 40 miles into Tennessee at midnight.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023:
Up early heading north again, stopped in Kingston, TN on I-40 for breakfast. A few more calls before heading west to Crossville, TN. Crossing a time line again, so we got to Crossville 10 minutes before we leaving Kingston.
Say hello to Ned Serleth in Crossville, TN, with his large two car garage size work shop. He is well along on his 57 MGA full restoration. Last heard from in 2019, the chassis was in go kart stage, and it still is, but it does get run occasionally to keep it in good health. He insists it is not going to be a show car, but so as a full body off restoration far it does qualify. It just depends an quality of the paint job and how well it gets trimmed out when finished.
It has the right gadgets on engine, original cell core radiator, Lucas resistor terminals on the spark plugs, correct style coil mount on top of the generator, etc. Give him a break for the spin-on oil filter adapter if he wants to drive it regularly.
Now four years later the body work is finished, in primer, all sanded and looking for a painter.
Then a ten minute trip to visit Ted Clough, also in Crossville, TN. He is working on a 1958 MGA restoration project. Body sills and pillars finished. Not very happy with configuration of the Moss Motors B-posts, but managed to make them work. Front of the body is pretty good. Rear valance straightened okay, but the rear 6-inches of both inner wings were wrinkled and needing to be replaced.
Front and rear wings pretty decent. Rear fender dog leg repair panels from Moss Motors were pretty bad, needing a lot of rework to fit before installation. The rocker panels (not Moss parts) fit quite well. Nice chat for another half hour before we rolled out heading west again.
I thought we were going to stop for lunch half hour down the road, but navigator got carried away and kept going. Two hours later we were fighting our way through rush hour traffic around Nashville, Tennessee, winding up on the south side in Franklin, TN, almost sitting on next morning's appointment. I guess navigator doesn't like getting up early. Time for a very late lunch and a good long WiFi session.
Thursday, March 23, 2023:
Destined to be a busy day, and I have a lot of pictures, so hang on. Begin with a stop at Pantera Bread in Franklin, TN to meet up with Russell Welty and a few more friends for morning coffee. Looked like the mutual admiration society for a bit,but finally got them together for a group picture.
Then we headed over to the Vintage Classic Garage in Franklin, TN. Our breakfast friends wanted to introduce us to Carl George, the owner of this place. The base business is storage of vintage classic cars, but more than half the space seems to be dedicated to the business owner's toys.
Looking at the pictures, cars around the outside walls and on the lifts may be customer cars, while cars in center of the room more likely belong to Carl. He is a jolly fellow, and he likes to chat at length about his cars and their history.
The place is not normally open to the public, but today it open on special request. Apparently Carl wanted to meet me and and was requesting that we should visit here while in the area. Good that we did, because the whole place is full of mouth watering eye candy. First picture below is the main floor business office (visitors' reception space). After a semi-formal group meeting we were escorted next door where the next building is occupied almost exclusively with more of the owner's toys.
I lost count. Would you like to take a shot at it from the pictures? He likes to collect and race MGAs. After a while I thought to ask how many MGAs he has, and we think it is a baker's dozen. He still has the first car he bought, a nice MGA turned race car, and which he still races occasionally.
He is partial to MGA Coupes, and includes at least a few Twin Cams. One Twin Cam with a push-rod engine already has a Twin Cam engine waiting in the wings for replacement. And there is one MGA "Deluxe" which is the more rare Twin Cam chassis with pushrod engine from the factory.
The green No. 42 is a "tribute car" copy of a famous Sebring MGA racer.
Finally we were back in the first building, taking a hike up two flights of stairs to visit the lounge. Pretty much floor to ceiling memorabilia everywhere you look.
A few more pics fro the lounge looking down on the main floor (below),
And more photos from the Vintage Classic Garage (click this link):
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?.../maps/place/vintage classic garage
Then we were off to a late lunch with Russell Welty. We still haven't seen his other MGA yet, but it is currently in some shop and not available. Still business hours, so out next stop was a visit to S & H Chrome Plating & Powder Coating Inc in Madison, TN (north edge of Nashville area). People have been posting good reports and recommendations for this shop, so it was time for a visit for photos and notes to add to our North American Shops list. Still in business, just lost one of the building face sighs to a recent wind storm. I stepped inside to introduce myself and let them know whet we were up to. Smiles all around, as free publicity is always good.
What we really came for,some photo examples of their chrome plating work.
And I couldn't pass up the large collection of memor bilia, including numerous vintage gas pumps. And by the way, they also do powder coating.
Then heading north to lay down some miles, fuel stop and then dinner break in White House, TN, and night stop just across the Kentucky border.
Friday, March 24, 2023:
Ran the length of Indiana with almost a full day stop over in Whitestown, IN (just a truck stop for WiFi to get some clerical work done). 57dF in mid morning, 40dF two hours later as we were traveling north. Rain all day, and continuing through the night, expecting frost by morning. Hoping for no rain tomorrow, but still cold.
Saturday, March 25, 2023:
Running from central Indiana to northeast Illinois, intermittent rain and temperatures near freezing. Keep rolling in fear that it might get worse. Arriving western suburbs of Chicago, just in time for the light drizzle to turn into light wet snow. Yuck. Fortunately the snow didn't stick, temperatures rose a few degrees, and the sun broke out momentarily late afternoon.
38dF and late sun in the evening was good enough to change out another broken alternator bracket. You might notice the first picture shows the bracket properly aligned even after it broke. This should mean there was no misalignment during installation, so the break must occur just from normal engine vibration. That has to be a very weak bracket, most likely due to the improper zero radius bend (sharp inside corner). Looking at the final reassembly, it struck me that the bracket may have been over-bent, slightly beyond 90 degrees, leaving a slight misalignment between the bracket and the alternator rear bushing. Thinking this could induce high stress when the bolt is tightened, I left the rear bolt only moderately tight, hopefully enough so it won't vibrate loose. Need to check this again later, and if it does come loose, maybe use a Nylok nut.
Just contemplating my time line for these "Spridget" brackets. The first one I installed with the alternator conversion in April 2009 broke in June 2022, running 275,110 miles in 13 years. In 9 months since then we have purchased five new ones from Moss with the odd zero radius bend. Four of those have broken, and additionally 3 that we welded up to re-use have broken again (maybe bad welding). Total travel in that time has been 14,110 miles for the 7 broken brackets, or 2,000 miles each on average. Boo, hiss. Guaranteed to break? -- Going to visit my "retired machinist" brother in a day or two, where we may weld up another one and maybe try making one from scratch with a properly radiused bend.
Then time to lend a hand setting up for tomorrow's "All Sports Car Swap Meet and Autojumble (mostly All British). Didn't take any pictures of the empty building with tables and chairs, but will get plenty of picture of the main event tomorrow.
Sunday, March 26, 2023:
Good morning world! I was in house at 5:45-am to help Chicagoland MG Club open up shop for the "All Sports Car Swap Meet And Autojumble" at DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton, Illinois. I was manning the vendor registration table for two hours, then two hours more for visitors entry. Relieved at 10-am, time to roam the building taking pictures. 130 pictures? Way busyand no time to post the pictures today, but I will get them up later.
I bought a pair of MGA carburetors, some parts missing, good for cores for rebuilding, only slight wiggle in the throttle shafts. That's way much better than the ones in my car with 386,547 miles on those shafts since late 1997. Wow, talk about deferred maintenance!
Addendum: Okay, three days later I finally got 126 pictures reduced and cropped and reduced again, posted on a separate photo page for the Swap Meet. Click and go, and enjoy salivating over all the treasure you missed if you didn't get there.
Had a long chat with our new CMGC Webmaster about the new format club web site that was put on line very recently. It has a few bugs, definitely different philosophy, not yet complete, and some prior public features now hidden from the non-member public, like the Lending Library books and videos contents and Tool Lending program tool articles. And if I can't talk them out of it, they intend to erase some of the recorded history of the club by deleting lots of pages of photos and notes from past club events, just because they think there are very few visitors to those pages (even though they have no statistics at all). That's a tough sell, erasing recorded history.
Just leaving the building to head out when I saw another MGA parked next to mine. What? Where did that come from? Wasn't there last time I looked. But the owner was there, apparently waiting for me to show up. Say hello to Shane Rudd who drove three hours from Rochester, Indiana (with his young son), arriving late to miss most of the swap meet, unfortunately. But we did get to chat for about an hour, then being the last cars to leave the lot. We are heading to Indiana in a day or two, and he lives less than an hour from my brother's place, so we have an appointment to stop at his place when we get there.
In the evening I was trying to download the pictures from my cell phone camera, but was having problems with data connection, so no go yet. Later night I had caught up with photos and notes from Tennessee last Thursday, but a lot of the uploaded images didn't work on line, so have to fix that tomorrow.
Monday, March 27, 2023:
Downloaded 130 swap meet pictures from my camera. Yikes! These are going to be fun, but I haven't gotten them on line yet. Check back in another day or so. -- I did manage to fix last nights uploaded pictures from Tennessee, so those are now visible in the travel log on my web site. -- John Twist - UML Zoom tech session this , about 2-1/2 hours with close to 200 participants, jolly good fun. Started out chatting about camshafts, then wandered off to few other topics. Getting late, about to loose the WiFi spot again. Where does time go?
Tuesday, March 28, 2023:
Spent almost half a day writing a diatribe on "Knocking, rattling, tapping, chattering and squealing noises", identifying them and how to fix them. Posted a primer note on the BBS for more comments, and likely to make a new tech page (or three) on this subject.
Brother called from Indiana, killed another hour on the phone.
Evening trip from Naperville, IL to Sandwich, IL to visit older daughter at my legally registered home address (which I do get to visit occasionally). Needed to pick up the new trailer registration sticker. Missed a turn while driving directly into the evening bright sun, and doubled the length of the trip, killed an extra hour. Stopped for gas, also chat for a while, heading back in the dark with oncoming headlights in my eyes, missed another turn, side trip through more city, adding 15 minutes to the trip back. Tough solo drive with no navigational aids, but I kept my cool. Not getting the Swap meet pictures posted today either.
Wednesday, March 29, 2023:
Ah, why we have been hanging around in the frost for three days, time for the Wednesday Night Car Club at Tommy's Garge (Tom Raddatz) in Lagrange Highlands, IL. When we arrived at the appointed timm 6-pm some of the guys were already there, soon out back with a bonfire and barbecue going. Then inside checking out the current toys.
A few of the guys were working a bit on the club project car.
There was Tom's MGA that had a Moss Motors supercharger when he bought it, but he didn't like the way it drove, so he removed the supercharger and sold it. Thinking to install a V6 engine, then maybe not, so now this car might be up for sale (if anyone was interested).
And there is the Jaguar Sport Coupe, largely disassembled and in primer, about to have a top chop to turn it into a convertible. Just look away if you don't like the idea, it's not your car. A good part of the Jag interior (recently reassembled) was on display on the pool table. Not a lot of work done tonight, more like a garage party with a dozen friends, but surely a jolly good time.
Breaking out about 10:30 we were back on the road, across the state line, landing in Hobart, Indiana by midnight.
Thursday, March 30, 2023:
Northwest Indiana this morning, checking out another fellow traveler. From the stickers it looks like a tourist.
Then we were off to visit my brother (retired machinist) in Hana, Indiana. My newest spare alternator had a problem dragging the fan on the housing front face, manufacturing assembly issue I suppose. Just a little finesse to fine tune a flat washer to be placed in between, and good to go.
Then a quick change of gear lube in the MGA gearbox and differential, about 1500 miles overdue, because we just ran over 3000 miles in the past month.
And one more little bit of finesse. Tired of the new brackets for rear of alternator breaking, we welded another one back together. Grind bevels to get full penetration welds, and also make a little gusset for the top end of the bend, and weld that in place, hoping that may prevent the propagation of the next stress crack. Clean up and spritz a little black paint on that, and it was good to go too.
Friday, March 31, 2023:
This morning we get pictures of the new welded alternator bracket after cleaning and painting. Pretty little thing. Hope it holds up better than all of the purchased ones that broke in short order. Toss in the trailer, and get rolling.
Then off for an hour drive to visit Shane Rudd in Rochester, Indiana. This is the guy who drove three hours to meet me (I like to think so) at the swap meet in Illinois last Sunday. His two sons were there (just got off the trampoline) to meet us as we drove in. Then his father (who gave the car to Shane) came over to join the party. A few minutes later Shane's wife came out to say hello, had to get her into the picture.
I had to check out a slightly scrunched door gap I had seen last time, so pull out the floor jack and and lift under the side. The good news is, the gap did not open up when lifting under the chassis frame, so the frame is still solid (big relief), only wanting some adjustment of the door hinges and latch. Then it was dinner time, after which we sat chatting until 7-AM (yeah, no kidding). We got a few hours sleep, up day (tomorrow). Boy was I tired the next day (not like it was 30 years ago). More about this car tomorrow (next month?)
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