The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (September 16 - September 30, 2023)
Saturday, September 16, 2023:
Sunday, September 17, 2023:
Got past the problem of failed computer charger connector, back on line. Reminder about the importance of data backup, so now doing backup from local hard drive to a thumb drive. Slow going.
Monday, September 18, 2023:
Someone was investigating a very noisy engine. Turned out to have the rocker shaft pedestals in the wrong positions, so the rear pedestal had no oil supply hole, and the rocker shaft assembly had no oil. The shaft and rocker bushings had severe wear, requiring rebuild of the rocker shaft assembly. So I posted a new tech page for Austin B-series engine rocker shaft assembly to remind assemblers about correct orientation of the shaft and pedestals to assure proper oil delivery.
Help call from Jerry Goodman in Buffalo Grove, IL. His bugeye Sprite died, no-go. Turned out to be a failed ignition rotor, tough diagnosis by phone, but easy fix.
Off to the CMGC membership meeting, not much to write home about. 34 people present, a few new
members,one present at the time, a few people working on their cars, reports from past events, a couple future events announced, typical social club stuff. For break time, a little tire kicking in the car park. Photos are tough in the dark, but that last one has a Tesla Model S two spots past my MGA.
Then there was a slide show with pictures of someone's road trip to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for MG2023, national MGB meeting of NAMGBR. A 50/50 raffle that I will never win if I don't buy a ticket. And a little social banter before we were heading out the door.
Tuesday, September 19, 2023:
Catching up some email and tech questions, and some BBS notes. Mostly just killing a day while it was raining,nothing special.
Wednesday, September 20, 2023:
Most of the day continuing back-up copy of hard drive. Just grunt work, but needs to be done occasionally.
Then off to Wednesday Night Garage Club, likely the last time for us this year. Nothing needed on our MGA this time. The CMGC project car was fitting left side dag leg panel. Mostly cut to fit and clamped in place, not welded in yet. I suppose we will find the results when we return next March.
The dark red rubber bumper MGB on the right is changing hands, soon to become Tommy's MGB pick-up truck conversion.
This MGB arrived with a dead battery, alternator not working. It died on the road, then got a jump start to finish the trip, then died in the driveway, needed to be pushed into the garage to put a battery charger on it. Tighten a few screws in the door panel first.
The alternator top mounting bolt had lost its washer and nut, moved forward and was rubbing on the fan belt. Tap that back into place and put a new nut on it. Two fat wires for power output is good. One more short fat red wire on the power terminal, not connected on the bare end, not good. Looks like it was previously routed to one of the small spade terminals on the alternator, almost certainly bad. Two spade terminals on the alternator, only one connected to the ignition light wire, the other not connected. Delco Remy alternator, we need a wiring diagram for this one, nobody has a clue. Owner thinks he will buy a new Lucas alternator as original (plus a new fan and pulley) A few hours later it was charged up enough to drive away without charging. Needed to make a 25 minute trip home, hoping it had enough charge to do that with headlights on.
As the evening was winding down, more electrical work on Tommy's custom MGB V6.
Off to the local WiFi spot for a bit, then fuel up and head for the state line. Will be in Indiana by midnight.
Thursday, September 21, 2023:
We bopped over to brother's place in Hanna, Indiana, just for a quick visit on the way by. While there, a bit of
deferred maintenance, changing the dipper switch again. Similar to prior failures, this one would fail to switch, and sometimes fail to make the electrical connection. the odd feature was working while driving, then not working the next time the headlights were switched on, leaving us in the dark with no headlights. Having several of these fail, I don't have much confidence in the new one either. Have been buying replacement switches two at a time, so when we install one we still have another for spare. Such is the nature of cheap replacement parts when the vendors won't believe that customers would pay more for better quality. And worse, the customers seem to accept it.
Bail out in the evening heading east. By dinner time we were on the north side of Fort Wayne, IN, destined to be in Ohio before midnight.
Friday, September 22, 2023:
A few hours driving took us to visit Rob Meier (and Karen Thurston) at R.P.Meier (shop) in Croton, Ohio. We had dropped by his shop in Johnston, Ohio in 2019. But they have moved to Croton earlier this year, so we take this opportunity to check out their new digs, and there are plenty of toys here. The #61 MGB GT is built for SCCA racing, in memory of Rob's father who used to be the perennial local track champion. The gorgeous MG TD is a customer car recently restored.
The red MGA is another customer car that was may years in process but not getting finished. It arrived in many boxes and had to be assembled and painted, nor preparing for installation of interior trim. And there is this MGA Coupe, currently in process of morphing into a fast back coupe. This is Rob's personal project, and he has been posting progress pictures of it on the MGA forum. I think we can also follow it on his Facebook page.
The MGA chassis (below) I recognized from a few years ago when I first saw it in early summer 2019, then had hands on it doing some chassis restoration work in Summer 2020. It is a 1600-MK-II that belongs to Mark Chapman in Westerville, OH (Columbus area). Chassis finished, it is now here for body restoration work, coming along nicely. -- Behind that MK-II body is another of Rob's personal projects, an MGB GT that has been widened 3-inches and lengthened 5 inches? Say what? You can see a 3" gap remaining at center front bonnet latch panel. Farther back the windscreen posts are widened 1-1/2" each side to retain the original windscreen glass. On the side, the canopy has been lengthened aft of the 3/4 side window, while the outer ends of the rear panel are curved forward at the ends to better meet the tail lights which are closer to original position. Looking at this expansion for a long time, overall it is quite a bit larger than original issue, but in a very subtle way that preserves original body styling. I hope I get to see this again when finished. Did I mention the Corvette engine?
The Morris Minor is restored to be very original, and as these thing go I recon it is show car quality. The MG TC in the framed pictures was painted by rob, is a well noted restoration, and is soon to be the cover and feature article in another vintage car magazine. We wandered out back to visit "the junk yard", which is not really junk, more like future project material. The TR7 was apparently a cheap procurement because it hadn't run for a long time, but was easy to get running, and I think it is now looking for a new home.
There were at least parts of two MGA and two MGB, a AH Sprite ex-race car, an MGB GT and another MGA. Surely enough to keep Rob busy when he may find any spare time.
Saturday, September 23, 2023:
Travel day, but no rush and not much distance. Sitting in Zanesville, Ohio. Several walk-ins checking and commenting on the car.
Sunday, September 24, 2023:
Navigator wanted to get out of Ohio, so we were sitting in Wheeling, West Vitginia, in that narrow pan handle at the west end of Pennsylvania. Still had a couple more days to kill. A few more walk-ins asking about the car. Another appointment in the evening to check out an MGB near by.
Say hello to Bill Dietrich in rural Triadelphia, West Virginia, with his 1964 MGB. He is really tucked up in the hills, having done several minutes following winding roads up some 2nd gear hills to get here.
His MGB had a habit of running well, until it didn't. It would suddenly drop to running on two cylinders. Good spark and good fuel flow. We finally found the front carburetor float valve sticking closed. Ah, the Magic Trailer
has parts for that. It produced a pair of "Grose-Type-Jet, superior replacement for needle & seat" from Moss Motors. I've had real Grose Jets in my carburetors for more than 30 years, close to half a million miles, and they always work perfectly. But these new ones are not real Grose Jets. While the trade name is copyrighted, the patent ran out years ago, and new ones are aftermarket sourced, leading to the designation "Grose-Type-Jets). The quality now is notably worse.
We replaced the front float valve with a "Grose-Type-Jet", and it worked. Might as well replace both while we're at it. So we changed the rear jet, and it didn't work. We didn't even get it onto the carburetor, just installed it in the float cover and tried to blow through it. The first time it was cycled it stuck closed and would not open again until it was removed and poked from behind to dislodge the stuck inner ball. We sprayed it and soaked it with carburetor cleaner, and fiddled with it for 20 minutes, but no improvement. Finally had to reinstall the old fuel valve which was still working. I had heard multiple reports of these new parts failing, but this is first time I have been bitten by it. Note to self, never again to buy "Grose-Type-Jets", and try not to be suckered by the ads claiming the aftermarket parts are actually "Grose Jets".
Monday, September 25, 2023:
We took a shortcut through some mountain roads of southwest Pennsylvania into far NW Maryland, spending the day in Cumberland, MD.
Someone sent pictures of the boot floor in a very early production MGA, having notably different fabrication with square corners and multiple parts tacked together. Yes, had to post these pictures on a prior tech page for Early Production Welded Floor Pan.
Catching up photos and notes from yesterday. Also had an evening Zoom tech session with John Twist.
Tuesday, September 26, 2023:
A few more hours cruising brought us to York, Pennsylvania for evening visit with the weekly gang at Darrell's Garage. Looks like everyone has their cars ready for next Saturday's car show, so this was going to be a two hour social chat. Our MGA screenwipers quit working, but that can wait for another day.
Wednesday, September 27, 2023:
Someone with a problem fuel pump that keeps ticking without pumping any fuel. This turned out to be a kinked rubber hose on the input side of the pump stopping fuel inlet. New hose with an easier bend fixed that.
Thursday, September 28, 2023:
Chat about possibly making MGA Coupe front and rear window trim locking strips by re-forming cupronickle brake pipe tubing with rolling dies, and chrome plating the finished parts. That sounds like a noble cause.
Friday, September 29, 2023:
Must be the 4th or 5th broken alternator adjuster bracket in the past couple of years. The new replacement parts
are either too thin or sub-standard material strength. Rather than installing the last spare part, I elected to make a better one
a bit wider and 50% thicker to be stronger. Cut steel strap to length. Use angle grinder to chamfer and round the ends. Drill 11/32" hole for anchor screw. Drill two 13/32" holes and grind slot between the holes. Did have to take one more angle cut near the pivot end to clear the alternator fan.
Then time to fix the wipers. Not nice to be cruising in the rainy mountains of Pennsylvania with no screen wipers. So we had the dreaded chore to R&R the MGA wiper motor, just to clean the commutator and brushes. Half an hour to remove master cylinder push rods, dust excluder, pivot bolt, and drop the pedals on the floor. Then disconnect the drive pipe from the gearbox, disconnect three wires, remove the bracket front bolt and rear nut, and remove wiper arms. Then pull the wiper motor and drive cable out while the wiper spindles rotate.
Then just two long screws to open the case to remove the blind end cover plate. Last time we did this was Aug 28, 2020, so three years and 51,000 miles since last time in here, when we had cleaned up this used wiper motor. Well, that's about twice the mileage since last time we had to do this, so maybe I shouldn't be so concerned, just do it. The idea here is to chuck the small end in a power drill, give it a spin, and polish the copper segment commutator with a strip of emery paper,k then put it back together.
Easier said than done. Removing the master cylinder pushrods, pedal excluder, pedal springs, pedal pivot bolt, and dropping the pedals on the floor is only the beginning of the battle but that has to be done before the wiper motor can come out. We borrowed Darrell Lutz's garage in York, PA, which has tight working space but is indoors with working amenities. Even so we were three hours making and installing the new heavy duty alternator bracket, and five hours to fix the wiper motor. But it feels much better when it's finished.
Saturday, September 30, 2023:
MGs On The Rocks car show today at the 4H Camp at Rocks State Park in Street, Maryland. Running late, so we grabbed breakfast on the fly. We caught the Darrell's Garage gang at the Village Green Family Restaurant in York, PA just as they were lining up to leave at 8-am (good timing). Didn't get to count, but must have been 30 or more cars in the caravan this time. Taking side roads to arrive at Rocks State Park in Street, Maryland an hour later.
First stop was Ore Valley Elementary School in York Township, PA to collect some more cars. Unfortunately one LBC died in the street obstructing traffic, and it took a while to get the other cars around it and into the car park at the school. Then a number of us heavy dudes pushed the dead car up a hill into the car park to clear the street. Short on time, everyone wanted to get rolling again, so I told them to head out, and we would catch up later. Grab the test light to check this thing out.
Good power at the ignition coil. Good flashing when cranking. Good spark but no fire, must be no fuel. No pressure showing on the in-line fuel pressure gauge (neat). No noise from the fuel pump. Is it connected with metal pipes or hoses? Hoses, good. I have a spare universal fuel pump, but let's check this out first. No power at the fuel pump? Oh, the guy converted it to fuel injection, so maybe the controller has power on for only 2-seconds before start-up. Okay, grab two long jumper wires and connect power and ground directly from battery to pump. Loose thumb nut on the battery cable disconnect? Tighten that up, but that was not the problem. Test light on the jumper wires, good power at the pump, but still not running, bad pump. Low pressure or high pressure? High pressure fuel pump for fuel injection. I don't have one of those in hand, but there must be a parts store nearby where we can get one. The one on the car is Airtex universal type. That was when the owner said "Screw it", threw his hands up and decided to call home for a ride, go get his trailer and take the car home.
Half hour later we were in line to register for the car show, and soon parked up in line with other MGA. This is the 44th year presented by MG Car Club of Baltimore, at least the third year for me. I don't have the final count yet, but I think at least 150 cars present.
There are nearly 60 photos and notes from the car show posted on a supplementary photos page here in case you have time to check them all. Otherwise I will post some of them here for your amusement.
On a little bluff was the Premier class, the group of cars that had won their individual classes last year, ten of the finest examples of restored British Cars. Eye candy, vintage car porn, go ahead and drool.
Turn around and try to get a panoramic in three shots across the entire field. Being several aisles deep, there was no way to get it all in without wading right into the sea.
After the MG T-types, two MG ZB Magnette Varitone, just the first row of MGB roadsters, and ten MGB GT.
Two MGB V8, one GT and one roadster, and one MGC GT with interesting Realm aluminum wheels with spline mount center hubs. Seven chrome bumper MG Midgets, and half a dozen rubber bumper Midgets.
Checking out the vendors, not quite as many as I've seen in past years. Fifth Generation Customs restoration service display was better than it may look. They have a nice Facebook page.
Back to the show field. Half a dozen Jaguar rag tops, five Triumph "other" including three Spitfire, one TR7 and one TR8. Six Triumph TR3 and TR4 in one class, four 3's and two 4's.
One Range Rover, something fairly new. Ten Austin (Big) Healey, two AH Sprite bug eyes.
Two Mini, one Alpine, two Tigers (one in the next row), one Aston Martin, one TVR 280I.
That sleek modern red super car looking thing is a 2018 Lotus Evora. The dark red Coupe would be a 1976 Jensen GT. Next was a Lotus Elan Series 3 SS Coupe. The real Lotus 7 was followed by a Mini Pickup.
Jaguar F-Type sitting next to a Morgan Plus-4. Eight Triumph TR250 and TR6 sitting in the back row. I picked up a nice T-shirt for a door prize, same as one I picked up here last year.
While announcing the show awards, they mentioned "Diamond In The Rough" award, and I had to check that out. This is a 1976 (or 78) MG Midget. Not too bad. How long will it take to restore this one?
All the awards out and fun over. Then find a friendly spot for late lunch and WiFi. We now have a few new tentative appointments, two of which are in MD, so we will stick around here for another day or two.
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