The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (April 1 - April 15, 2020)
Wednesday April 1, 2020:
Ah, something useful to do today. Began by helping friend remove brake drums from an MGA rear axle. Bunch of rust, and about 10 minutes of gentle hammering to remove each one. Not bad inside, smooth drums that can clean up with a little sanding, and shoes only half worn. Once freed up we put it back together with loose fasteners so friend can take it home and get on with cleaning and painting, and replacing seals.
 Then we had a look at a Parish Plastics hardtop that he brought along. Same model that I had on my first MGA in 1968. We dropped it on my car for evaluation. Not sitting down right due to rusted hold-down screws in front and slightly warped bottom edge in back (fixable I recon). We were amazed at the great condition of the plastic rear window.
Missing rubber seal at the lower back edge, but outside looks good, like just sand it and repaint it. Rubber seals around the side windows are there and may even be in good serviceable condition. The makers badges on the sides are corroded, but it would look good with substitute plain chrome buttons. Inside is missing the inner liner, but could just glue in anything fuzzy to your preference. All of the hold-down hardware is there. I think he has a winner here.
Oddly, over the course of the day there was some BBS and email discussion about hardtops and variations in sidescreens. And it looks like someone is about to make a reproduction run of radiator top seals for the MGA Twin Cam.
Thursday April 2, 2020:
Not a lot happening today, except I except I finally shipped the dead alternator back to Moss for warranty return, and sent the incorrect exhaust hanger along with it. Yes I know the west coast facility has been shut down for a while, and just last night the east coast warehouse was shut down as well, so no more orders and no more shipping out until further notice. I called to be sure that returns are okay, because I didn't want to be hauling the dead part around with me until things open up again. Returns are okay, just that the restocking or warranty credit won't be processed until they re-open. I had in mind to send it back via USPS flat rate Priority Mail as a matter of convenience, but that didn't work because the alternator was a little too thick to fit into the standard large PM box. So I kind of got screwed on cost. It was mind boggling to pay $42 to ship the 11-lb package via Parcel Post Ground. Pretty sure it would have been less than half that cost to go UPS Ground, but guess what? UPS is now shut down for the duration, so I just paid the USPS charges and moved on.
The other "significant" happening today was to order up renewal of the registration sticker for the license plate on the small trailer. Last year $18, this year $118, sign of the times in Illinois. All Illinois vehicle license fees were raised $100 this year.
And we received word that my favorite haunt in Florida, Tech Central Racing in Bonita Springs, is being shut down for at least the month of April. Bummer, as those guys get really enthused about working on their cars on Fridays (and sometimes Saturdays). Not only are they sequestered now, but also being kept way from working on their project cars.
Someone was concerned and asking again about long term preservation of my web site MGAguru.com. That killed a couple of hours in private, and not the first time. I think we're pretty well covered there, but with some available time these days we may post this topic on the BBS for public discussion to see if anyone may have better ideas.
Someone brought to my attention a published article on upper valve train lubrication in an MG Z-Type Magnette engine. Someone else had installed a small tube above the rocker arms fed with oil from the rear rocker pedestal and used to dribble a little more oil in the direction of the hammer ends of the rocker arms. I have no idea if it would do any good, but the author insists that it cuts down tappet noise.
Friday April 3, 2020:
Had a tech question from someone wondering why his MGB suddenly had no spark. Several messages back and forth, and sill not working. In retrospect a couple days later, it apparently fixed itself and was working again. I kind of pity that guy, since he didn't fix anything, surely one day soon it will be not working again.
Late in the day word was it looks like we will be held over here in Columbus, OH for a couple more weeks.
Saturday April 4, 2020:
Lots of discussion in the MGA Twin Cam Enthusiasts Group about thermostat bypass pipe and thermostats of original and modern styles, and possible use of a thermostat blanking sleeve. Been trying to convince people to leave it set up as original, and stop trying to fool with Mother Nature.
Sunday April 5, 2020:
Slow day on WiFi, so took the opportunity to go foraging. Then spent some more time on tracing and fixing web site failed off-site links.
Monday April 6, 2020:
Our host brought over his MGA seat frames, all cleaned and painted with new wood tack strips installed. He also brought back the cardboard backrest covers, steamed to remove some of the dents, and painted for preservative and also making them stiffer. New molded foam seat cushions from Moss are nice, and new base boards with screens and all backrest stuffing materials are in hand. Looks like we will be able to reassemble his seats soon (although I haven't seen the new leather covers yet).
Someone had a question about blowing a fuse after tinkering with the fuel gauge. My first guess was right, green power supply wire grounded out on the gauge mounting bracket.
Discussion with an old friend back in the Chicago area in process of rebuilding the differential in his MG Midget, which needs new ring and pinion gears. Want to see if I can be there when he does that, to get first hand into bearing shimming for gear alignment.
Another person encountering the problem of too-tall replacement rear leaf springs. I suppose this will be a never ending issue, but at least the answers are down pat, just refer to a tech page in my web site. Give you a hint, "Lowering blocks don't work for this".
Another question about "dustless carburetors", because someone has mismatched part that make the engine run badly.
The Publisher copy of CMGC newsletter cam in this evening. Spent the reat of the day past midnight getting it transcribed into HTML coded pages and uploaded to the club web site. 'Night all. Zzzzzz.
Tuesday April 7, 2020:
Another report of too-short brake shoes that cannot be adjusted to work. Have spent years harping on the vendors, and still this problem persists. Let the buyer beware.
I was accidentally in the right place at the right time this evening and hooked up with John Twist's webinar on ignition timing. I think he had about 85 people on line together for an hour. I suppose this may have something to do with everyone being sequestered with time to spend on line. Pretty good presentation with several people asking questions (while I was just lurking to see how it goes).
Someone asking about bubble flares and double flares being mixed on one pipe in the MGA brake system (yes it is original). I may have to make a new tech page mapping out all of the tubing flare types in the MGA.
Wednesday April 8, 2020:
Got an odd email today, someone asking how to hook up the ECU computer to run the Honda S2000 V-Tec engine in his kit car. Pretty sure there is not one MG part in that whole car, and I dunno nuttin 'bout any electronics in cars built after 1980. I made a couple wild suggestions about inquiring in a more proper venue, like maybe the S2000 discussion group. It was an interesting car though, appearance of a pre-war body and chassis with a very fast modern drive train and all independent suspension. I have to stop looking at stuff like that, way outside of the scope of my web site.
Made a link from my web site to a YouTube video about installing the rear crankshaft rope seal for the MGA Twin Cam. The video was actually a Holden V8, but still a dead ringer for the parts and processes of the seal installation.
Call from oldest daughter his evening, asking where to forward the renewal sicker for my trailer, so that should be legal again before it expires at end of month.
Thursday April 9, 2020:
Much of the day spent trying to chase down off-site broken links to fix. Slow going, didn't get very far, lots more to do later.
Friday April 10, 2020:
Posted a few new tech pages for short ram stacks. Someone recently had these 3D printed in Nylon, cheap, easy, and durable. The 3D Printer file is coming down, so will be posting that on my web site.
Saturday April 11, 2020:
The 3D Print file (*.STL format) for the shorty ram stack STL arived via email attachment so I got that uploaded to the web site. Also ordered a couple batteries for my little digital camera, as the two year one doesn't seem to hold a charge for more than 24 hours.
Sunday April 12, 2020:
Ah, something fun to do today. Or host brought in his repainted seat frames and all materials to reassemble the seats. He is tall, so wanting to core the seat cushions to be softer and a bit lower. Dig the hole saw out of the trailer, and check the web site to verify coring pattern.
Then the fun part, cutting air with the hole saw. Very easy, only a few seconds for each hole, being careful not to go too deep in the thinner parts of the cushion to leave at least one inch of material thickness on top side.
Installing the covers was not too bad. Get them properly aligned, start stretching and stapling, and before you know it's all done. Makes for pretty pictures, and nice and soft to sit on.
Then we got started with the seat backrest assembly. Got the backer boards cut to size, and intended to use hot
melt adhesive for attachment, thinking it should be a quick job. Last time I did this I had a 40-watt glue gun that would melt glue sticks almost as fast as you could pull the trigger. Slobber on lots of hot goo, clamp it up quickly, and it worked fairly well (just not quite as fast as I had hoped). This time we had a little 20-watt glue gun, and I can tell you "It doesn't work". Hot glue throughput was so slow that that a narrow bead of the stuff would cool too fast, and the board was not sticking in place. After an hour or more fiddling we called it a lost cause, and resorted to application of a thick bead of Gorilla Glue on one side. That needs a couple hours to set up, so we called it a night and left it set. Will check again tomorrow.
Monday-Tuesday April 13-14, 2020:
Our friend took his seat backs home to fiddle more with the Gorilla Glue. It works okay, just slow. Apply some Gorilla Glue, clamp in place, wait at least two hours, then go on to another stretch of the distance. Multiple repetitions of the process took parts of two days to complete, but did work.
Wednesday April 15, 2020:
Got to spend an hour disassembling one front bearing hub and brake rotor and backing plate, just some stubborn slightly rusted parts. Also disassembled swivel links from the swivel pin, one of those pretty tight with dried grease (result of a broken Zerk fitting and subsequent neglect), but some penetrating oil and a bit of persistence got it apart. Then followed some discussion about how it works, how to R&R and ream out the trunnion bushings, and our host will tackle cleaning and painting before we get to the rebuild process.
Okay, backer boards nicely attached, time to assemble the seat backrests. There is a foot square inch thick horsehair lumbar support pad going into the lower back frame before the 2" thick horsehair full cushion. Take some time to trim the full pad to fit snugly into the back frame. We noticed the "new" leather covers had some finger tip size holes on the bottom corners of the fabric. The covers had never been installed, so no fasteners yet, but they had been in storage for some years. Moths, maybe? But it looked doable anyway, so get on with the job.
Next was a thick felt fabric wrap on the back and around the sides, and a few inches over the inside of the horsehair pad. Trim, trim, trim for a good fit. You could use a little spray adhesive here, but we found to to stay put fairly well just by pressing into place, so we didn't glue it. For the first seat the fabric was a little short in the bottom corners, so we ended up sawing a bit off of the wood tack strips so they wouldn't be exposed when finished. That worked well, so we soon had it stretched, tacked and trimmed neatly, quite nicely finished.
And soon there was a second one, going a little quicker this time. Set them up together, and hey, we have a pair of seats ready to install (as soon as we get them onto the base frames).
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