The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (January 1 - January 15, 2021)
Friday, January 1, 2021:
Something caught my eye. Nice way to start off a new year. A 2020 Lamborghini Aventadore. Think naturally aspirated V12, and carbon graphite construction. Would you like to drive it? From the name on the truck, MPH Club is an exotic rental car business. - www.mphclub.com - Ph: 888-674-4044
I ran across a good story today, about a very rare period correct accessory for MGA. It is a Hurst Shifter, so good I couldn't keep myself from posting it. You should check out the Accessories tech page for the full story.
 First a new year, so any newly elected officers in Chicagoland MG Club officilly take office today. Vice President stepped aside, and we have a new VP. Welcome Melissa Gomez. We have exchanged a few emails, making the new year off to a good start.
Saturday, January 2, 2021:
Got some information today about a turn signal warning buzzer that does not beep or buzz, but it clicks almost exactly like the sound that a turn signal flasher unit would make. Good gadget. Had to put that on my web site.
Sunday, January 3, 2021:
Got an inquiry and spent some time tracking down the ex-Mark Benson Twin Cam YD1526. The person inquiring was Maureen Dolamore, the daughter of the long past prior owner and noted race driver, which created most of the original provenance for this car. Daughter and race car are now re-acquainted.
Late night I received a PDF copy of the CMGC January newsletter, enough to get started but not enough to finish posting it on the club web site.
Monday, January 4, 2021:
Back at Tech Central again. Couple of cars under the wrenches today. First up was to push the "work in progress" VW "wannabe race car" out of the workshop, then get the working race car out of the trailer and into the shop. The clutch had apparently quit working.
In few hours they had the transmission out for access to the clutch. Apparently nothing wrong with the clutch disc or pressure plate assembly. But it is operated via a concentric pushrod, and that pushrod had somehow lost its bushing and seal and was lying off center. Time to order some parts.
Then on to the MGB "wannabe race car" that has been in process for a year. Multiple people have been working on this project, making one good car from two derelicts. The rear axle came from the second car, so there were, supposed to be, two complete sets of hardware for attachment. Three or four people were searching for the bottom plates to attach the shock absorber links, but nowhere to be found. There is a picture of the needed part from my MGA.
Once they gave up the search, someone decided to make some brackets from surplus engine mount brackets, so that chore was under way by early afternoon.
As the work crew was calling it quits for the day I took the opportunity to swab down my MGA, which gets washed once a year whether it needs it or not (and this time it really needed it). Then off to a WiFi connection to get some web site grunt work done. By midnight I had 90% of the work done to post the CMGC newsletter on the club web site.
Tuesday, January 5, 2021:
Spent some time tinkering with a mysterious web page redirect on the CMGC web site. It works notoriously well to click on "Calendar" and going to the date wise current calendar page. But it then gets into the visitor's personal computer cache memory, so when it is changed later, the visitor's computer serves up the old page rather than the new one. Bummer. Couple of people involved in this issue, but not resolved yet.
Addendum: I had posted here pictures of an MGA for sale, provided by a friend. On his request, the pictures have been removed. His request was, "Please remove I appreciate but requested private sale". I don't know how he expects to sell the car if no one knows it exists, but not my problem.
Wednesday, January 6, 2021:
Had a walk-in this morning, Chris Rusk from Fort Myers Beach, FL, right nearby. They were on their way to pick up his truck from repair shop when they hit the McD's drive-up window. Then his wife said, "Let's park and eat", so they did. That's when they recognized my car and trailer, and came inside to check and chat. Then we made a noonish appointment to drop by their place to check out his MGA.
Today Chris turned 50, fairly young by us old geezers' modern standards. He bought this MGA more than 30 years ago, meaning before he was 20-ish (about 1989?). So it has been following him around for decades, and he may have paid something like $12,000 for storage locker fees over the years. But now he is bound and determined to restore it.
The outer nose has dents, and Bondo, and more dents, but but not much rust through, so maybe it can be repaired. The heater shelf is rusted through on both ends, but flat metal is fairly easy to replace. Looks like the original Car No. tag, GHNL2/101772 being a very early 1600-MK-II (1960). Also looks like the original 1622 engine.
The engine number 16GC-U-H1507 also looks correct for the early 1600-MK-II car. The distributor will likely clean up okay, but may need a new vacuum diaphragm by now. Cylinder bores are kind of rusty and have a significant ridge at top, so it will need a re-bore and new pistons.
The cylinder head is the correct "16" head for the 1622 engine, probably original factory issue. I was pleasantly surprised that the valves appear to be in good condition with valve heads properly protruding a bit above the chamber floor (or below the chamber ceiling). The license tag was last issued for 1978, so the car was only 17 years old then. It may have run a few years on low-lead fuel, and a few more years on no-lead fuel, but has never had to deal with our modern 10% gasohol.
Paint over piping is supposed to be a cardinal sin, but that's easy to fix when the wings are off. The body tail actually looks pretty good, but it will need dog leg repairs (and likely complete body sill replacement). Then we got into the ugly parts. Typical frame rust through along the edge of the floor boards. Most of that is limited to lower half of the inboard side of the frame, not too bad to repair with a few strips of flat metal. And it will need new floor angle rails all around (and new floor boards of course). The front tunnel may or may not be repairable, but for sure it will be easier to build a new rear tunnel than to repair this one.
Driver side foot well, not too bad. Passenger side foot well, pretty bad at the bottom, but again it's all flat stuff where it needs the repairs. The last picture is much worse. The front air pan is badly rusted, and has a prior weld joint right up the center, so put one of those on the shopping list. Inner fenders on both sides of the air pan are also badly rusted, so even though the outer nose may be okay, everything behind it will need to be replaced.
We should put this one on our "Power Of Wishful Thinking" list. We spent a couple more hours in friendly chat, and a bit more chat with a couple of friendly neighbors. Breaking it up about 4-pm, back to WiFi to bring you these photos and notes.
Thursday, January 7, 2021:
Got a line on a 1963 study by Mississippi State University on "An Analysis of the Airflow Around the MGA Roadster". A friend is consulting with the Department Head of Aerospace Engineering and the University's legal counsel, so we may get permission to post it (maybe). Hang in there a bit.
Friday, January 8, 2021:
Typical Friday at Tech Central, always something a bit different. As a continuation of trying to get more organized, someone was sorting metric wrenches from inch wrenches, while others were figuring out best locations for various tool cabinets. Someone else was beginning work on a cylinder head. I think this one is for the MGB wannabe race car. It looks pretty good, maybe just needs a good clean up.
There was a discussion about what the Chevy S-10 truck was doing here, mostly in the interest of freeing up the work space (heave-ho). It has a fuel delivery problem, which a new fuel pump did not fix. It keeps blowing fuses, so some mysterious electrical short. The owner gave up on it and left it for free if anyone could fix it. So this may be next week's pet project. If we can make it good, then it should become a go-for truck for the club.
Guys were checking out a couple of late model MGB gearboxes, 1968 or later. The 4-speed seemed to run quietly in all gears when spun with a bower wrench. The 4-speed with overdrive had some kind of serious dragging problem when in neutral, which might be tight bushings where 3rd and 4th gears run free on the mainshaft. For now we filled it full of kerosene and left it to sit for a few days (or maybe a week). If that doesn't work, we may get to tear this one apart later.
There was a stack of wire wheels, free for the taking. Also a pair of bolt-on wire wheel adapter hubs. The male splines on the adapters were worn to sharp points, so toss those and need to buy new ones. Female splines on all four wheels were much better, still nicely flat on the crests of the splines, so should be nicely serviceable. These are 60-spline 15-inch wheels, maybe not too many miles since new, very nice. Tires were dry rotted on the sides, so we didn't even look for a production date, just keep the wheels and toss the tires.
During lunch break a discussion about personal toys got around to a TVR resident in the home garage. It must be a TVR 2500M with 6-cyinder TR6 engine. Lady of the house quickly perked up with an offer to sell it for a very reasonable price. Oh, really? There was a quick rush to the garage to check it out. This resulted in an appointment to dig it out (next week), get it outside and running for a test drive, and we think it will soon have a new home.
One last chore here. Since last week, still no one can find the lower shock mount plates for the MGB wannabe race car. So I made a phone call, and Glenn's MG Repair in St. Petersburg has a good used set for cheap. Rest of the day was dedicated to WiFi work. Looks like we may be getting back on a more "normal" schedule with more travel. Will be heading up to the Orlando area in a day or two to visit a friend, and maybe also a shop. Will pick up the shock plates in St. Petersburg next week on the way back.
Saturday, January 9, 2021:
Aside from normal email and BBS chores, this was a travel day, landing us just west of Orlando, FL. Nothing else notable.
Sunday-Monday, January 10-11, 2021:
After breakfast and a quick email check, we had a one hour run north to visit a friend, Joel Theard in Mount Dora, FL. This is the guy who used to live in a condo in Orlando and bought a very nice restored MGA a year go December 2019. We were there the day after he got delivery of the car, and spent a few days tinkering with it for tune-up and minor adjustments, and getting it to the DMV for registration. He has recently moved to Mount Dora (north of Orlando) where he has a private home with double garage plus a generous one car garage space in back, which could be a very nice workshop, if he can figure out how to get the MGA past the side of the house.
We spent some time crawling around the car and discussing half a dozen minor points that could use a little "adjustment". After a nice drive it was running slightly rich. He had installed a bilge blower to blow cool air at the carburetors (good move). But there was a short piece of 4-inch air hose aft of the blower in front of the air cleaner that made it impossible to get a hand and arm under the carbs for mixture adjustment without removing either the hose or the air cleaners. First note, remove the short hose and toss it, for better service access.
Next note was the vacuum pipe from rear carburetor to distributor ran over top of heat shield rather than underneath, presenting two problems. First, it is in the way of finger access to the rear carb idle adjustment (without a screwdriver). But worse, the fuel separator bulb is upside down, which could allow fuel into the vacuum diaphragm (very bad). Second note, re-route the vacuum pipe and set the fuel separator right side up.
I was looking at the radiator re-core job with vertical tubes and fins, obviously not original. And there was a plastic fan shroud behind it. Then I had to have a second look, because it was painted black, but noticed it was a Wizard aluminum radiator. A bit expensive, but that might be almost as good as the original cell core radiator. There was also an added coolant recovery bottle in front of the radiator, so he was doing his best to prep the car for some hot Florida weather.
He has another neat little MGA, but you would have to be pretty small to fit into it (about the size of a mouse). Just across the street is his boat house. No boat yet, but nice place to lounge on the lake in the evening.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021:
Seems like we have some time to kill, so we ran an hour south to a previously known good WiFi spot west of Orlando to spend the day. Someone with an MGA clutch pressure plate assembly (new) rubbing inside the bellhousing, very strange, needing some investigation.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021:
Morning drive an hour west to St Petersburg, FL, visiting Glenn's MG Repair to pick up a pair of (used) MGB lower leaf spring brackets for attachment of shock absorber links. Those will be for the MGB wannabe race car at Tech Central. Then a two hour run south to another known good WiFi spot in Fort Myers.
After a few email messages and several pictures, we finally figured out the MGA clutch interference problem. The brand new Borg & Beck pressure plate assembly (clutch cover) has protrusions on the sides that touch the bellhousing. This is high starter
gearbox, very later 1500 and all 1600 cars (not 1600-Mk-II or "Deluxe" or Twin Cam). There must have been a recent change of supplier for these parts, because we never had this problem before. Pity that a very reputable and well know supplier has changed from a good part to a faulty part. Now we need to notify the retailers, and hope they can do something with the manufacturer to get this problem fixed. Meanwhile, grab a hand grinder and grind a bit more relief in the bellhousing at this point to give it little clearance, and it should be good to go.
Thursday, January 14, 2021:
Posted a new tech page for MGA lifting points for a 2-post lift. Also posting a new tech page for recently faulty Borg & Beck MGA clutch cover (pressure plate assembly) that now interferes inside the bellhousing for MGA 1600 type gearbox (pictures above). Need to contact the suppliers on this issue to see if they can fix it at the source.
Friday, January 15, 2021:
Had a heyday at Tech central, tinkering with at least four cars (maybe 5 or 6). The early start was the MG Midget (under the blue tarp) that has been undergoing restoration for a few years by now. Today the engine was out (for maybe the 5th or 6th time), this time to change the gearbox front cover for one with a custom machined front rubber seal and new sump gaskets. Fun taking snaps to fast forward through the day.
By mid afternoon the gearbox and engine were stuffed back into place, just lining up the engine mounts before knocking off for the day.
Next up was the Midget in the middle, which we had running last week, but was noisy. Today it was getting a new water pump to banish the noise.
It wasn't too surprising to find a broken mounting ear on the alternator. Story is this car had a rough past life with some significant repairs in the front frame structure. The new water pump was one of the aluminum body units, which I worry about, a little, but should be okay in service on a street car. More next week?
Ah, remember those spring plates I picked up a couple days back? The were assembling those on the MGB
wannabe race car today. Then it was time to get the car off of the rotisserie, so bring out two engine hoists, and get the center MG Midget out of the way. To disassemble the rotisserie it has to be lifted and disconnected at both ends. Easiest way to do that, with plenty of people around, was to have four guys at the four corners of the car to stabilize it while picking it up in center at both ends, undo some bolts to pull the engine stands away from both ends, and then lower the two hoists. Worked like a charm, so the car was back on four wheels in five minutes.
Couple guys were working with one of the V-Dub Rabbit race cars for a while. New con-rod bearings had a couple wrong size parts in the set, which might mess up the upcoming race weekend. And some trick wiring had a way to go before prime time.
Near day's end a Nissan 300ZX came in on the hook. This is a good story because it is owned by Kyle
Vanbuskirk, a young guy, still in school. Reminds me my younger days when I bought certain cars because they were cheap and fun. He has three of these. A silver one has been sitting here at Tech Central for a while. It runs (or ran) in rather lame form. The lad has a pair of rebuilt cylinder heads, about to install those on the silver car. Today he was on his way here when his red car quit running and had to be towed in. Diagnosis is broken timing belt, distributor not turning, and it is an interference engine, so likely has some bent valves.
There was a brief discussion about maybe putting the rebuilt heads on the red car, along with a new timing belt, to get it running again ASAP. But the red car is pretty rusty, and the silver car is better, so he may just junk the red car while we step on the priority button to get the silver one running for the daily driver. The third one (white) is maybe a parts car, could be put back on the road eventually but low priority at the moment. This is beginning to look like something to attack tomorrow, being an open week end.
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