The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (June 1 - June 15, 2020)
Monday June 1, 2020:
I think I slept most of the day away, then spent the rest of the day (and half the night) catching up with photos and notes from Sunday's work day.
 One disheartening note today. The friend in Indiana with the gusher oil leak from rear of his 1622 engine found a recessed oil plug in the port we thought was left open. That not being the leak point, we are back to considering badly damaged rear scroll seal parts in the engine block and rear main bearing cap, and also likely damage to the scroll area on the crankshaft. Bummer. I took this opportunity to put together a small spread sheet with a summary of scroll seal dimensions, and main bearing cradle dimensions (and con-rod big end bearing dimensions). Got the new dimension sheet posted on the web site, which should help our friend and his machinist decide what to do about the rear seal problem.
Tuesday June 2, 2020:
Got a phone call from daughter in Illinois. Package arrived from Moss Motors, containing a third copy of the incorrect exhaust hanger. Now this is getting irritating. Another phone call to Moss Motors, this time to chat with a tech assistance guru. Long and explicit explanation of the incorrect part, which must come from a whole bin fill of parts tagged with the wrong part number. Please check contents of the bin with correct part number, and remove all of the incorrect parts, maybe correct the part number on those odd parts and get them into their correct pin. Then they can (hopefully) send me the correct center hanger for MGA.
Then I got an email message from Bob Shafto with a drawing for the steel frame mount tab for the MGA center exhaust mount. Just a coincidence, but this is an entirely different issue from the replacement hanger from Moss. It is a part normally welded to the frame. Will want to get this drawing onto the web site sometime soon.
Next issue today was a chat about the continuing problem of too-short brake shoes for MGA. Okay, I give up. It has been many years complaining about the incorrect size of MGA brake shoes, and apparently the vendors have no intention of procuring and selling correct size parts. You could weld up and grind smooth the end of every brake shoe to make it longer (PITA and very time consuming). If you pay some service shop to do that, it could cost more than the purchase price of the brake shoes. Another maybe easier fix is to weld a small spacer block onto the brake adjuster mask, six of those in every MGA 1500, two in each MGA 1600. Looks like I will soon have to order six brake adjuster masks and modify them to carry as spare parts.
Wednesday June 3, 2020:
Got an ongoing reminder message from a friend in Florida about carburetors sent to Joe Curto for service in January, and not returned yet. Getting rather long in the tooth by now. I will make a phone call to inquire.
Got a request to look at a few sales listings and lots of pictures of MGA for sale with intent to spot anything wrong, and give an opinion on condition of the cars. I do that sometimes, but no idea when I may get around to this one.
Thursday June 4, 2020:
Some discussion going on about oil level in the MGA Twin Cam engine sump, how much oil for a refill, and how to be sure the dip stick is in correct position. This is likely to make another tech page for the web site (whenever I can find time to do it).
Received a picture of a drawing of a banjo bolt, the one under securing the float chamber to the carburetor on MGA 1500 cars. This encouraged me to get back onto a huge project of posting up a web page for every part number on the MGA (close to 4000 parts). That's going to take a long time, likely progressing a small step at a time whenever I may have some spare time to work on it. This time it turned into an all-nighter, still only a little progress, and it is eating into my sleep schedule and pushing some other things more behind schedule. It is tough to admit that I don't have enough time to save the whole world, and set priorities on things that need to be done in a timely manner, and those that can wait a little longer.
Someone thinks I have a lot of great Mopar information on my web site (think Dodge and Chrysler products). Chuckle. They were asking about speedometer calibration clock springs, where to get them. I don't have a clue about anything Mopar, so that was a fairly quick dismiss.
Friday June 5, 2020:
Someone is looking for this rather rare factory connector pipe for inverted oil filter on late model MGB (when oil cooler is not used). Nice piece, but I have no idea where to find one other than to ask around to see if anyone may have a used one spare.
I finally remembered to make the phone call to Joe Curto to inquire about the 6-month-old Florida order for rebuilding carbs. Sounds like Joe and his guys are up to their asses in alligators with about six month backlog of orders, so it may be a few more weeks to get finished. He said to call again in a week or ten days. This sounds like a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Saturday June 6, 2020:
Got to do a little more work on Marc Chapman's MGA project in Westerville, OH. This seems to be happening about one day per week,
mostly on week ends. Having determined the new brake shoes were no better than the old ones, it was decided to clean up the old ones with solvent and surface sanding, and reinstall them. That was the easy part.
Then we discovered the brake pipe from 3-way fitting
to left rear cylinder had a nasty flat spot for a towing chain, and would not pass fluid. So just grab the spare brake pipe kit, and form up a new one. Easy enough, until we got near the end and discovered the new pipe was about 4-inches too long. Oh, so this was the kit intended for the disc wheel car, where the rear axle is a couple inches longer than this wire wheel rear axle. Okay, just cut off a few inches and re-flare the pipe, except we didn't have a flaring tool handy.
So a quick trip to Harbor Freight to pick up a flaring tool, and back to the garage, where we soon discovered the new tool was a piece of crap. Being somewhat flimsy the clamp bar was bowing in the center and not clamping
the pipe tight enough. And the short flaring mandrel wanted to cock sideways to screw up the flare. We cut the pipe a second time to remove the buggered up flare and try again, just to get similar results. Then we were phone shopping around a few auto parts stores looking for a better flaring tool, but it looks like they all carry the same crappy tool with different packaging and various brand names, all likely made in the same factory. Lady of the house finally took the pipe to a local service shop where they put a decent flare on the pipe, so we could finally get it installed. We also installed the parking brake cable with a working equalizer arm.
Then we moved on to the front disc brake calipers where Marc had his daughter cleaning up two compete calipers, and a nice job it was, too. And then we discovered they were both left handed calipers for the left side of the car, where we needed one left and one right. Chuckle. While Mark was cleaning up another caliper for the other side, I was assembling the first one, and then on to the other one. Here we ran into the traditional problem installing the metal retaining ring for the dust seal. As careful as can be, but still buggering up a couple of the metal rings. Some designer must have sat up late one night figuring out how to screw this one up. The calipers had a very nice counterbore with a nice chamfer on it to accept the metal ring, except part of the way around the counterbore was relieved, like cut off half the height removing the chamfer. But we had two kits with 8 rings, and I think we only destroyed two of them today.
Sunday June 7, 2020:
This was mostly a day off to rest, I think, unless I can remember what I was actually doing. But something did happen that I didn't find out about until the next day.
Monday June 8, 2020:
I had a very early start today checking email and BBS. There was question about ride height for the MGA, for which I was making new tech page. I went out to the car to take a few pictures from the side to show height of the wheel arches and bumper positions when I discoverer a broken headlight and a nasty dent in the LF fender, along with a slightly twisted bumper. Fortunately there was a note on the windscreen with an apology and a phone number. When I called that number I got a roofing company, and they said they were trying to figure out who owned the car. One of their employees, who was staying at the same hotel as us, had turned his crew cab pickup truck a little short getting out of the next parking space, hitting the front corner of the car with the truck tire. Super bummer. But they were being nice about it, prepared to write a check to get it fixed, so this was just going to be an inconvenience while I have to find someone to do the body and paint work, and get some new parts ordered. First business then was to order a new headlight assembly complete from rear bucket to front trim ring, and ask for next day air shipment so I could make it street legal as soon as possible. Of course shipping cost almost as much as the parts.
Then I consulted a local friend who recommended a very local body shop with a good reputation, and made an appointment with them for inspection and quote the following morning.
Message from a bloke in Australia working on his recently procured MGA with questions about turn signal switch, sagging springs, heater controls, and some other minor issues bothering a new MGA owner.
Tuesday June 9, 2020:
You can bet the next week is going to be all about trying to get my car fixed. 10-am appointment with local body shop, but they basically told me to get lost because they don't work on such old cars. There are a lot of valid reasons for that, and I kind of expected it, but just take it as a fact of life and move on. After a few more inquires someone else turned me on to a place called Barney's Body Shop, who at least did NOT turn me away. Made an appointment for mid afternoon, whereupon I trucked on down to show the car and negotiate a bit. Guy agreed to do the body and paint work, while I think I am going to do the other mechanical work (and repair the cracked Fiberglas valance panel in the process). He thinks he can get to it in a bout a week to ten days.
Good feeling about this shop, one guy who likes to do body restoration work, and one helper doing mechanical work. Story is this is the oldest continuous business body shop in Columbus. A guy named Barney opened this shop in 1947. When he retired to Florida the shop was passed on to a second guy, keeping the name as it was well known. The second guy's son is now running it. Unfortunately the whole city block is up for urban renewal, soon to be rebuilt into a bunch of condos, so the current owner is looking for another location for the business.
Got the message that my new headlamp assembly has shipped, next day air, should be here tomorrow.
Another interesting message and a picture from Australia. Someone restoring a MGA Twin Cam
has removed the door shut face plate to find the last three digits of the chassis number written in chalk on the back side of the plate. After asking around some, it turns out this is not a unique situation. Best guess is this was a factory procedure where the body was assembled, then these plates were removed for painting the body, then reassembled, so the chalk numbers served to get the plates reassembled back onto the same body. Cute. Learn something new every day.
My pocket camera has been getting progressively worse for a long time, and finally crapped out completely
today, so it was time to buy a new one, again. Nothing special, cheapest one off the shelf at Walmart at clearance price. Turned out to be same model I have been using, so no learning curve, re-use the memory chip, and keep the old battery for a spare. Checking my records, this is the 5th camera since March 2014. One of them got drowned when it was nearly new. Three that had natural death only lasted two years each, fairly consistent two year death rate. You could buy an insurance policy on this regularity.
A few tricks to the picture here. Switch off the flash, point it at a mirror, back off 2X distance, light trigger to set the focus at distance of the mirror, then move forward half way before pressing the button. Download the image, crop the part I want, flip it horizontally so it's not a reverse image.
Somebody has conjured up a drawing and made a part for a Drip tray to go under the MGA master cylinder, so when it leaks it won't drip brake fluid to remove paint from the heater shelf. With a little luck I may get this information to post on the web site soon.
Wednesday June 10, 2020:
Another early morning message from Australia with more questions about the MGA wiper motor. Also some discussion about state of the hobby and car clubs Down Under.
Put together a list of parts required to fix the MGA body damage, including a new front bumper facebar. Sent the body shop estimate and parts list for claim processing. Received a note of tentative approval, so expect to get a payment sometime soon.
Got some questions about a 1959 Elva Courier MK-II with 1500 engine (was originally a 1600) in Foley, Alabama (on the Gulf coast). We like an Elva, because it is a "variant" of MGA, using MGA engine and gearbox. Clutch pedal has too much travel, so clutch release is very close to the floor. Slave cylinder does move 1/2-inch, so the hydraulics seem to be okay, and the clutch does release, so stuff inside the bellhousing is also okay. That implies excess motion in the pedal and/or master pushrod parts. Sent suggestions to adjust the clutch master cylinder pushrod length to eliminate pre-travel free play of the pedal.
Thursday June 11, 2020:
Getting back to ride height issue from a few days ago with the bloke in Australia having a case of "bachelor lean". After jacking up each end of the car to check, it seems to be a case of low coil spring in the left front, so now he gets to remove the coil springs for inspection and measurement.
Good news for the day, I got a note from insurance saying my claim check is being sent out via overnight delivery. Should be here tomorrow.
Friday June 12, 2020:
Reply from Alabama about the Elva Courier. Turns out the separate clutch master cylinder pushrod is not adjustable. Bummer. Things getting tricky, so then we were on the phone for an hour while checking alternatives. The Elva pedals are floor mounted top-push style with the low mounted pushrod aft of the bulkhead in the cockpit space.
Got some pictures, this one looking down from top toward floor forward of the clutch pedal. That pushrod looked familiar, much like the early MGB, soon confirmed. To reduce free play, add shim washers between the snap ring and flat washer, but that will lower pedal height at top of travel while doing nothing for floor clearance. So additionally, cut and weld to lengthen the pushrod about 5/32-inch, which should keep pedal at same height at top of stroke. That should keep him busy for a while.
Waiting all day for the overnight delivery of the insurance claim check. It finally arrived at 6-pm, so I ran that to a local bank ATM for deposit and get the clearing clock running.
Saturday June 13, 2020:
Spent most of the day catching up on 12 days backlog of photos and notes for the trip log (almost everything you see higher on this page). Good to get this done, as there have been a few people inquiring if we were still alive.
Added another tech page for a nice drip tray under the two barrel master cylinder. This was provided by Robert Levert in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The idea originally came from the German MG Drivers Club.
Sunday-Monday June 14-15, 2020:
Going to shove two days together here, because I spent much of the time organizing and composing the skeleton for a new tech section for the web site, and it is ultimately going to be a huge addition. It is a new tech section
called "Part numbers and descriptions" which will index every part number on the MGA (with some overlap to other cars) with the ability to have a separate web page for each part number to set out everything we know about these parts. Mystic factory part numbers can now be de-mystified with photos and notes, giving for instance physical sizes and thread forms on odd threaded fasteners, sizes for copper seal washers, and cross reference information for any parts that are not unique to the MGA. The first new Parts page is already on line here: http://MGAguru.com/mgtech/parts/7H/7H7847.htm.
It will be a big job, possibly leading to a couple thousand more web pages (eventually). So far I already have the index of all part numbers, (did that a while back), now split into a hundred directories (folders). Still working on the names and locations of the parts to be included in the number index. This is like copying the names of all the parts from the Service Parts Lists, which will take a while in itself.
You can find the new Parts index here (for what there is of it so far) http://MGAguru.com/mgtech/parts/part_nos.htm. The first part entered is in Sub-Directory 7H with part number 7H7847.
Meanwhile, some new front bumper parts were shipped on Monday, should be delivered about Wednesday, and hopefully my car will get into the body shop later this week to straighten and repaint the LF wing.
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