The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (December 16 - December 31, 2020)
Wednesday, December 16, 2020:
Dropped in to visit Mike Mulcahy, tucked into a nice quiet circle in a gated community in Mims, Florida today. The MG TD has always been a regular service car. He bought that one in the early 70's when it was 20 years old, and it served as his daily driver car for years, carrying he and his wife and up to three kids when they were still small). Currently getting some front brake work. The Firebird belongs to his son. Don't know what's in the zipper tent behind it.
Had a nice time checking out his toys, running through all my fingers and half my toes before I lost count. Then several hours chatting about cars, old times, and the general status of the world. The MG TC is nice for club events, car shows and casual cruising in some side roads (no good for the expressways). The MGB is also a nice driver car, maybe not quite as interesting, as implied from the stuff piled around it. There was (I think) an MG VT, kind of an overgrown version of the TD with a generous back seat. I seem to have missed a picture of the car behind it, something larger and longer. maybe an MG SA. These two cars were the roughest looking, but even these have definite plans for finishing restoration in the not too distant future.
The 4-door on the rack is (I think) an MG YA, currently short one motor, but otherwise almost fully restored.
The BMW Z4 is his current favorite daily driver. For these cars they don't talk about horsepower ratings so much, but more onto top speed, like maybe 225-MPH for this one (if you can find enough free space to try it).
The early 80's Chevrolet has been in the family a long time, having suffered through a write-off accident and subsequent recovery and repair. Next up was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a warmed over version of a Dodge Omni
or Plymouth Horizon, a short lived retro model out of the mid 90's. It recently got some rust repair and repaint, almost ready for the road again. There are a few econoboxes out front, belonging to his son. I don't know what his wife is driving today, as we were on our way before she got home. My first impression was, "too many toys", but there do not seem to be any dead ends here. No junkers or parts cars or barn finds. This guy has a good handle on progress.
 Short drive to find a good WiFi spot in Melbourne FL, and a little longer drive before stopping at 1-am again. Hope that doesn't get to be a habit.
Thursday, December 17, 2020:
Got to sleep in, then travel today, but maybe I can still get some work done. Heading west (coast to coast) across Florida, first reasonable WiFi spot came up in La Belle, FL, less than an hour from tomorrow's appointment, so no need to rush off. Going to have to order a new computer battery, as my 6-1/2 year old laptop now goes from full change to dead in less than 10 minutes. In the meantime it just has to be plugged in any time it's turned on, no more short term use on battery power. Give it some credit as the longest life I ever got out of a computer without dying or being fried.
Friday, December 18, 2020:
Finally, today we are back at our favorite Friday tinkering club, Tech Central Racing in Bonita Springs, FL. They have (a couple years ago) turned into a club. Still pretty informal, but now collect small annual dues to make funding easier. This was officially billed as Holiday Party meeting, but that didn't cut into tinkering time. There were, over the course of the day, at least a dozen people here (and a few more brief visitors).
As always there are more cars here than you might first count. The silver car in foreground is a Datsun Z-car. hiding behind it to the left is Chevy S10 truck under cover. Clearly visible is the MGB on the rotisserie. Next over is an MG Midget nearing completion and about to fire up the engine. Under the blue wrapper another Midget now fully restored (after a two year effort).
There were a few resident race cars. The green #40 TR GT6+ was being jacked up on roller dollies to be pushed around a bit for ground cleaning and slight relocation of the car. The red #40 VW Rabbit appears to need some front end components. The other red and white rabbit, currently engine out, was trying to have a new windscreen fitted. There were some prior problems, so the current effort trimmed the rubber gasket rear outer flange, thinking of gluing it in place.
The Midget to be fired up today had a fuel problem. Plenty of fuel from the incoming line, but it wouldn't start or run without a sniff of starting fluid. Float covers off to check the float valves, no problem, easy blow through, but still no go. This finally turned out to be a clogged up fuel pressure regulator. This turned out to be kind of fun to disassemble, clean out all the rust and other dirt, and reassemble. But it still didn't pass fuel after reassembly, so the consensus was to get a longer feed hose and connect the carbs directly without the pressure regulator. Then I lost track, and don't know if they got it finished or not.
The MG TD was star of the show today, didn't need anything, just here for scratch and sniff (and a couple of ). The nice red MGB got a very minor fuel mixture adjustment to be happily on its way.
Sneaking up on mid day it was photo op and party time. By normal tradition the crowd broke up and went home after the food and jollies. The trailer was hitched, and the new truck was backing in for a wash down before heading out tomorrow. And then we were of for some WiFi work to bring you these photos and notes.
Saturday, December 19, 2020:
Since many people (like everyone) continue to be quite P'd off about modern replacement leaf springs being too tall (miserably dysfunctional), I spent most of the day posting up a new web page showing the real problem is the individual leaves being too thick. Original issue had 7/32-inch thick spring leaves. The replacement springs have 1/4-inch thick spring leaves. That excess 1/32" is HUGE when the stiffness increases as the cube of the thickness. The increased stiffness reduces deflection by 1.2 inches under full load, as well as the original arch form being 0.6" too tall. Collectively this makes the ride height nearly 1.8 too high, which badly screws up handling (as well as not being able to install the rebound straps).
Sunday, December 20, 2020:
Thinking for a few days that my MGA has been a bit sluggish for morning start-up, and the fast-idle function was not working, I took a peek under the bonnet this morning. Sure enough, the "J" link between choke arms on the carburetors was disconnected, because the lower trunnion had lost a jam nut and fell off (disappeared). A bit inconvenient, but doesn't keep us from traveling (at least in warm weather). Pretty sure I have this spare part, so if I can pull the rabbit out of the magic trailer this will be easy to fix (whenever I get around to it).
A day or two ago I noticed my laptop computer went dead after I fired it up in the morning, before I got around to plugging it in. A bit of testing revealed that the battery would go from full charge to dead in a as little as 8-minutes if it was not plugged in for charging. Navigator's computer was not much better, lasting about 25 minutes on the battery from full charge to dead. My computer is nearly 7 years old, and his is 6 years old, so we ordered new batteries for both.
Monday, December 21, 2020:
I spent the morning posting up a new tech page on rebuilding leaf springs. I was using photos and notes supplied by Ahmed EL Abasiry in Calgary, AB, Canada, posted late last night on the MG A forum. So I sent Ahmed an email to show him the new tech page as it would appear on line, hoping this posting would be okay with him. When I hit the "Send" button, I noticed an incoming message from Ahmed. He was suggesting that I might want to post this stuff on MGAguru.com. Really, great minds think alike, so we had a good chuckle.
I got to sit in on the CMGC membership Zoom Meeting tonight. 18 people connected, which is about half of typical attendance at a normal in-person club meeting. Most of the time was spent discussing possible changes to the club web site (not enough time). A few minutes was spent on the likely upcoming spring Swap Meet
(not enough time), A few minutes was spend inquiring about the club possibly paying for a Zoom account, so we might get back to holding traditional 2-hour membership meetings, just before it was disconnected at the 40-minute mark (end of any discussion).
Late evening I was updating a web page with latest information and pictures for an MGA Twin Cam clutch slave cylinder. After years of stumbling long with various parts that do not fit, we finally found one that works, almost exactly as original. Problem now is, this one comes from Bastuck in Germany, and they are currently reluctant to ship overseas.
Tuesday, December 22, 2020:
Two weeks since a proposed re-format of the Chicago club web page with a pull-down menu, but no response at all from club management. Then at last night's Zoom club meeting nearly the whole time was spent on this discussion. Today there were multiple email messages beginning with some rather high quotes for the cost of professional IT services, getting around to what can we do without, and what can we do internally. For the first time in years, club management is finally asking some of the right questions, and asking what I (or other club members) can do for it. The first question then is, what exactly does management want for changes to the web site?
Someone finally referenced another club web site that they thought was pretty good, and can we do like that? Functionally it didn't look much different than our web site once the pull-down menu was installed.
Wednesday, December 23, 2020:
Today the tune changed a little with a request for a "responsive website to be friendly for a mobile device". Apparently that means a flexible width web page that does not lose or block any of the content when the window is made narrow for viewing on a smaller screen. So I deleted the border lines, removed the fixed page width restrictions, and posted up the new example. Not yet satisfied, suggestion was made to read a couple of web sites that were pushing software or services intended to make web pages more user friendly. So I went there, read all that, and then put our new web page address in their magic analyzer. The response returned said, "Page is mobile friendly. This page is easy to use on a mobile device". It also provided an image to show what it looks like on a mobile device. So now I don't get it. Why is there still a complaint?
Thursday, December 24, 2020:
Friday changed to Thursday due to the upcoming holiday, so today we were back at Tech Central. First move was to pick up our new computer batteries, which had arrived two days early on Tuesday. Then I got on with replacing the missing choke linkage trunnion on my MGA. When I had this part installed, and the J-link reconnected, I noticed a loose pin in the formed link on the front choke arm. So start again, and remove the front carburetor this time for better access. The riveted central pin had come loose, nearly falling out. That was easily fixed by crimping the riveted end with a bench vice. The mating clevis pins weren't too badly worn, so I could reinstall those. But one of the link end holes was indeed badly egged out, so please check inventory, and put this part on the next maintenance list. By that time the top end of the fast idle link was disconnected, so fetch a new spring nut out of the magic trailer (along with some flat washers and split pins).
All reassembled, after some scratched knuckles. Those three split pins in a vertical line were a bit of a fiddle.
Up and running again, I had time to air up all the tires, including the trailer spare, but forgot the car spare in the boot (have to check that one later). The right side trailer wheel was installed backward when installing new tire and wheel bearings back in Indiana (oops), so jack it up long enough to turn the wheel around to get the tire valve on the outboard side. I was about to give the car its annual bath when I was called for assistance elsewhere, so put the wash-down off for another day.
Meanwhile some of the guys were working on the MG Midget that hadn't move for more than year. so I was multi-tasking much of the day. Original problem was a bad clutch, which turned out to be a bent release arm,
now fixed. And the engine was frozen up, but released with a lot of penetrating oil and patience and persistence. Last week and today they just wanted to get it running. No fire, and a puny weak spark, so install a new condenser, resulting in a hot spark that could crap an elephant. Then it could be coaxed to run on two cylinders, but no fire on the front two.
All new distributor cap, rotor, HT wires and spark plugs (and good compression). It would run with a spray of ether in the front carb, but die without it, so obviously fuel starvation on the front carb only. Float chamber was full of fuel, so must be a clog in bottom of the float chamber or the plastic hose going to the main fuel jet. Take the front carb off to clean out the little fuel hose underneath. lots of fiddling, but finally back together. With a little coaxing it was running and idling quite well on all four cylinders, and no smoke, so bully for the old engine. Time to call it a day.
Friday, December 25, 2020:
Since we don't want to bug anyone on Christmas Day, this is turning out to be a good time to power cycle our new computer batteries. The recommendation is to discharge to zero, or as far down as possible until the computer shuts off, then charge up to 100%. Then repeat this cycle 4 or 5 times. The reason for this is maybe not battery conditioning, but should train the computer to know the battery capacity and range, so it can tell you on demand how much battery you have left or how much time you have before the battery is depleted. My 7 year old Toshiba with six cells looks like 2 hours to discharge, and 2 hours to recharge. Navigator's 5 year old Lenovo computer with four cells runs 1-1/2 to 2 hours on one charge, but seems to take a lot longer to recharge (using the identical AC to DC power pack). Makes no sense to me, but at least they work okay. I managed to complete one discharge and recharge Thursday evening, and three more complete cycles today.
Saturday, December 26, 2020:
One more discharge cycle on the new computer battery today, just for good luck. Also the traditional BBS and email checks and responses. Then another rather lengthy response to a CMGC member about CMGC management and their possible web site redesign. That may turn into a committee investigation, so maybe prepare for a long process.
One concern is for having a "responsive website to be friendly for a mobile device". I know that means flexible display width, but it also begs the question of number of pixels per inch on a cell phone screen. After more research, most modern smart phones are (currently) in the range of 300 to 400 pixels per inch, which is similar to what the retina of your eye can detect and separate, and same as what a laser printer could do 30 years ago, and at least double the resolution of my laptop display screen. So for sure our web pages designed around 100 pixels per inch display should be no problem for a smart phone. The real problem is shrinking a magazine size page down to cell phone screen size, where print can be too small to read. That should be an interesting discussion.
Sunday, December 27, 2020:
Added a new web page for a way to calibrate a fuel sender unit, using a small dab of solder to change the minimum resistance.
Monday, December 28, 2020:
Added another shop to our North American Shops list. Sutton Auto Tech in Idaho Falls, ID is a long standing
father and son shop, working on foreign and domestic cars, including vintage British cars.
Holiday schedules are strange, so add an extra visit to Tech Central today. One of the guys was doing overtime with a Sawzall cutting up an MGB. The idea was to salvage a large part of the unibody tunnel, not knowing exactly how much of it might be useful. The real project was to install a late model MGB 4-synchro overdrive gearbox (and engine) into a Z-Magnette. Two hours later, still sawing.
There were a couple more guys here, mostly cleaning up the shop space and moving a couple of tool boxes. Best to stay out of their way. My project for the day was to use the local WiFi to access a British web site MGA bulletin board to download some photos and notes for an update to one of my tech pages on special fasteners for the MGA grille. Yeah, that might be boring.
In the evening there was scheduled a special Zoom meeting with a handful of selected souls to discuss possible updates to the CMGC web site. You know how committees are. Don't hold your breath while waiting for results. -- Okay, so it happened, a Zoom meeting for the purpose of forming a committee, and they didn't even get that done. There was a question on who might host the next Zoom meeting, but I don't think that was resolved either. Meanwhile no one asked for my opinion or any other input from me, so I just sat quietly for the entertainment.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020:
A bit more attention to the fasteners in the MGA grille assembly (and errors in the Service Parts List). Fielding a couple responses related to the Monday night Zoom meeting talking about the CMGC web site. A question about oil leaks in the MGA. Neither the leaks nor the questions ever stop. A question about wiring and switch connections for a DR3 2-speed wiper motor (for an Aston Martin DB6).
Wednesday, December 30, 2020:
A repeat question about threads in the carburetor vacuum pipe connection port (that changed once). I think we finally have the grille fasteners nailed down, and the web page updated. Too bad we can't correct everyone's copies of the Service Parts List (but I guess that's why I have a web site).
Thursday, December 31, 2020:
One last shot at Tech Central this year. No better way to kill time over the holidays. We caught the tail end of discussion about installing new flat top pistons in the VW race car. Then they were on to welding rear sway bar mounting brackets into the MGB race car (under development).
Most of it was plug welding through drilled holes. I think there was a bit more fettling involved than anticipated, so maybe only one side was finished today.
By mid afternoon we were off to WiFi for email and BBS, a couple small tech page updates, and some email correspondence about the CMGC web site upgrade. Half past midnight we were cruising up the expressway heading for our night spot when we weren't paying enough attention and ran out of fuel. Oops. With lots of experience (and some skill) I managed to nurse it a mile to the next exit, and another half mile to a gas station, which happened to be closed after midnight. Oh, well, get some sleep and tank it up in the morning.
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