The MGA With An Attitude
Friday January 1, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016   Hey, the Florida Sports Cars come in hard top coupe version too. I spent much of the day making drawings of more car parts. Then killed the rest of the day emailing car clubs and plotting a wild and scrambled route around Florida (again). 
Meanwhile, say hello to Tom Orlando from Staten Island, New York. He is in Florida for a visit, thinking of moving here permanently. A friend of his spotted my MGA and sent a picture of it to Tom, and Tom rushed right over to say hello. Tom has a 1959 MGA in VERY good condition, and a 1964 MGB as a pile of parts. We will have to look him up when we get to NY again. Busy late with web site work. We were about to crash at 2-am when I discovered a nearly dead car battery. Navigator had been using the DC-to-AC inverter to charge his computer in the car with engine not running. So we used the nifty little jumper box we bought back in November to start the car (no pushing required). Then we drove another 30 miles (south) to recharge the car battery before resting around 3-am. When we stopped the ignition light was glowing slightly, and alternator output (direct battery connection) was only 12.4 volts when running. That had me a bit worried, but it was charged enough to start again. Monday, January 11, 2016  Slept in (the key ingredient of the day). Drove a bit more south to Bradenton, FL (half down the west coast) another 90 miles. By this time no ignition light, battery open circuit is 12.6 volts (so stop worrying about the alternator). More email to the last remaining un-contacted clubs in Florida. We got lucky and finally got a connection with the MG Classics of Jacksonville, a club we hadn't been able to contact in the past. Now the next 2-1/2 weeks (1500+ miles) looks a lot like the trace at right (subject to change of course). Tuesday, January 12, 2016  Today we noticed this nice blue 1957 Chevy on a nice blue trailer towed by a nice blue Chevy truck. Good start for the next leg of our tour. Then we headed south for 90 minutes to attend a club meeting with British Car Club of SW Florida in Fort Myers, but it was not to happen due to a failed alternator. This issue has a history. In January 2007 I installed a used Mitsubishi alternator from a 1967 Mazda RX7 parts car (with just over 100,000 miles on it). Mileage reference for my MGA, 205,768 (after first restoration). At the time I was driving a 1987 RX7 with 184,000 miles, and never had any problem with the alternator, so it looked like a good bet (especially since I already had the part). When we ditched the house and set out on this trip in May 2014, I gave the 1987 RX7 to my younger daughter (the car having almost 200,000 miles and the alternator still working, so the used alternator in my MG still looked like a good bet. Well, in hind sight, in May 2014 the MGA was up to 253,647 miles, so add 47,878 miles to the 100,000 mile used alternator. In the past 22 months we have driven the MGA 67,739 miles. So the used alternator has accrued over 215,000 miles. I suppose I shouldn't be too disappointed that it finally crapped out. I tend to advise people that if they would install non-standard parts on their car they should not have to modify the car or the new part to do it. Modifying the car might make the process irreversible. Modifying the replacement part makes a non-standard part so a future replacement part would likewise have to me modified in the process of replacement. Well, I did what I tell people not to do, and now nine years later it jumped up to bite my ass (as predicted). We had a momentary charging problem two days earlier, car not starting, but after a jump start an hour drive with lights on, it appeared to be charging properly. Then yesterday we had cruised a few hours farther down an expressway (no lights). Upon exit in Fort Myer, Florida, we got trapped in stop and stop traffic for a while and the engine was idling a little rough. Not out of fuel, think hot carburetors, so I switched on the turbo blower to cool the carbs, and the engine died instantly, with very dead battery. Bummer. For the curious, the ignition lamp does work, but was not lit when it the battery was (gradually) discharging. We pushed the car to the side, got a friendly jump to recharge the battery about 10 minutes. Disconnected the cables, and it had enough charge to crank start okay, so figured it should run for a while. Then getting dark, had to switch lights on, but we were only a few miles from destination, so thought we could make it to friendly grounds. Had missed the dinner hour, but could still catch the club meeting. Then got caught by more traffic, and the car once again succumbed to dead battery. When we got a left turn arrow we pushed it around a corner and into a service station, used the magic jumper box to start it again, did a few minutes of diagnostic work, pronounced the alternator dead, and called a friend. 
Friend arrived, began jump to recharge battery, made a few phone calls to find a new alternator. Drove (friend's car) several miles to buy new alternator, and bought a set of hand files at the same time. Now the real problem. I should have and would have installed a Lucas alternator (or a Bosh equivalent part), but those are not easy to find locally on short notice. So I bought another Mitsubishi alternator, which had to be modified similar to the old one. The hand files were employed (for nearly an hour) to remove 1/8-inch of aluminum from the rear side of the mounting ear where it attaches to the water pump (for alignment of the drive belt). (That was a lot easier the first time in the home garage with power grinder). Then run a 5/16-24-UNF tap though the adjustment ear to accept the UNF bolt that was already on the car (with a previous Heli-Coil), because the Mitsubishi alternator is metric (and fortunate that I had the tap with my traveling tools). Then just reassemble it, and we were back on the road again. All quite simple, but a royal PITA due to the misfit alternator. Moral of the story is, "Do what I say, not what I do". Wednesday, January 13, 2016 Today we had an appointment with Lee Longstreth in Fort Myers who has a very nice Triumph TR3. The call was for electrical problems with turn signals and horn, but on arrival it wouldn't start. It had spark on all four plugs, and fuel in the carburetors. The choke cable was binding,
Then on to the turn signal issue, it would light up but not blink, and no pilot light on the dash. Perhaps miswired flasher unit, which turned out to be correct, but when wired properly still no flash or pilot light.
Next up was the horn not working (but it used to work). Test light is best friend for electrical problems. There was power on both sides of the horn fuse, and power to the horns and power out from the horns (at east the left side where we had access to the wire splitter). Jump wire horn out to ground, and left side horn works but right side not. Separated connector to test two horns independently.
That left the non-working horn an issue of contact at the horn push button in center of steering wheel. While trying to figure out how to remove the horn push (without breaking anything) we discovered a push in a particular spot on the button might make the horn blow once in a while. This was apparently a problem with corroded contacts (likely due to long term non-use). 
So lots of poking on the button ultimately cleaned the contacts well enough to work consistently. We win. Time for a test drive (victory drive), but it would not start again. A shot of starting fluid got it going. Put the can of starting fluid in the door pocket until the old fuel can be used up and fresh fuel installed. Oh yes, get the victory photo. Thursday, January 14, 2016 We dropped into Joe Ciavarella's shop in the south end of Fort Myers today. Been here before, Dec 12, 2014. Mostly a different assortment of British cars this time. I will have to ask about the car with wood wheels. 
 The MG TD is getting some restoration work, but found some serious problems with the engine. 
 The Jag V12 is newer and fuel injected, looks like almost ready to go home. The white MGA 1600 is somewhat sad with rusty seized engine, but determined to be restored. There is a better 1600 engine indoors. 
 The is a AH Bugeye Sprite in primer, looks like ready for final paint. A Jensen Interceptor, a split bumper MGB half buried, and a Porsche 356 fully buried (no picture). (If I don't show the pictures of cars behind the building I don't have to explain those). 
 The reason for today's visit is to hob-nob with Headley Wilson (also here last year). We intended to do a little work on his BIG Jaguar 420G or Mark X (limousine). And we did, but only a little. 
 We managed to disassemble part of the front suspension to be ready for sand blasting. 
 But we spent more time turning one large roller dolly onto three smaller dollies. They will be handy. 
 Friday, January 15, 2016 Today we had our second visit to Tech Central (last here Dec 12, 2014). This is Jerry Wilcox's place in Bonita Springs, Florida. Each Friday friends and members of British Car Club of Southwest Florida gather here to tinker with the cars (and general socializing). I like this place with hands on activities all around, and ample opportunity to put or keep more British cars on the road. 
 Car on a spit, car on a lift, car in the paint shop (being painted today in spite of intermittent rain). 
 Cars under wraps, cars being sanded and assembled, and club member cars here for service. The MG Midget is well used, runs okay, sort of stops, needs some attention to the brakes (belongs to the nice lady in picture above). 
I believe there were three BRG MGBs here today. This one wasn't running (at least not well), had a new Weber down draft carburetor. Didn't want to start in spite of choking and pedaling. Once it was running it was balky with sudden open throttle. I thought maybe the accelerator pump was not working, but sure enough it was. Next guess was very low fuel level in the float chamber. I don't recall the solution (as I got busy with something else), but I think it went home under its own power. 
 
This MGB gave us conniption fits for a while. It was running recently, then just quit. Plenty of fuel flow, power to the coil, points open and close making a test light flash,correct resistance in primary and secondary windings, but no spark from the coil. This implies bad condenser, so we installed a new condenser. Couldn't get the distributor out, so had to fit the new part in situ. Also had to file the hole in the condenser wire terminal to fit (faulty new part). That should have been the end of it, but still no spark from the coil. Grrrr. It was taunting us with an intermittent fire on one cylinder, but no go. Tried a replacement coil with no improvement. Trip to the parts store to pick up another condenser. Test before install this time. Clamp the condenser to engine mount with vice-Grip, and connect it to the coil with a jumper wire. Car started and ran. Disconnected the jumper wire, and engine died. Repeat again with same results. Proof the new condenser we just installed in the distributor was duff. Double faulty new part. Pain to install another condenser in situ, but that got the car running to go home under its own power. NEVER trust a new condenser. Then this little jewel caught my eye. One of those little racing alternators that fits in the palm of your hand. Story is, it was on a Magnette, but the owner wanted to install a generator for originality. I don't know how I ever left this place without taking that piece with me. 
 http://www.urqualitysolutions.com/New-Alternator-100211-4531-119620-77202-AM877740-12188-12188.htm New Alternator 100211-4531 119620-77202 AM877740 12188 -- Price -- $67.00 |
