The MGA With An Attitude
Sunday, May 1, 2016
diagnosed as bad ground due to rusty housing and new paint on the fender, fixed by scraping paint and installing new screws. (Note to order two new front lamps). There was a bit of metal carved out of the fender before painting, so no mounting point for one of the lamp screws, fixed with a flat washer to overap on the remaining metal.  That also got both front turn signals to light up dimly (at the same time), diagnosed as both supply wires connected together when they should be separate circuits, fixed with a couple new female snap connectors (from my magic trailer). In the process we discovered some cold solder joints and sticky black tape falling off the harness (from normal operating heat). Note to self, shoot the DPO. No lights working at RR, because none of the wires were connected, fixed by plugging in the bullets. By this time heater and wipers were working, and all is right with the world. I think there is an MGC begging for a tune up, but that will have to wait for another opportunity. Time to knock off for the day, as we all have other things to attend to. Saturday, May 7, 2016 A quick hour run north today from Orangeburg to Columbia, SC to attend a luncheon club meeting with British Car Club Midlands Centre. Must have been at least 25 cars and 45 people. We may have a couple more appointments from this meeting. 
 This was followed by a drive to Congaree National Park, about 17 miles to the south. There we had a nice two mile walk around the board walks in the woods. The primary attraction here was Cypress trees in the low lying flood plains along the Congaree River. The tour ended with a free-for-all finding your way back to town. 
 Sunday, May 8, 2016 Catch-up day, mostly spent researching club contacts, making calls and sending email to clubs for future visits. This stuff takes a lot of time when club web sites do not have sufficient contact information (very common). Monday, May 9, 2016 Mid day trip to visit Allison Hyatt in Winnsboro, SC. Also her friend Christine who has her 1975 MGB stored in Allison's workshop. How these women came to be British car enthusiast is a story in itself. They both get hands dirty on occasion doing some of their own auto maintenance, and they are both avid students anxious to learn about the cars. We love tech sessions. 
 Today's subject is to the MGB. Apparently it once had an under bonnet fire followed by clean up and repaint and a new wiring harness. More recently the air pump seized, so a shorter fan belt was installed and the air hoses now bypass the pump. This disables exhaust air injection and gulp valve function. EGR is still connected, but no telling if it still works without further investigation. Fuel vapor recovery and anti-run-on parts are still here (and most likely still work). The catalytic converter has been replaced by a through pipe. The original air cleaner and warm-air pickup parts have been replaced by a simple foam air cleaner. 
 First issue of concern was bad idle after warm-up, making it difficult to drive without stalling in traffic. That turned out to be a very simple idle speed adjustment, after which it ran well, followed by a short test drive with grins all around. Next problem was water in the passenger compartment with it rains, which was most likely resulting from a clogged drain tube in the air plenum. 
Allison's Spitfire was parked under the drive-on hoist, so needed to be moved. The hoist? Ah yes, this makes Allison very popular with the local car club gang. Did I mention the air conditioned lounge? We were under the MGB for a while using a coat hanger to clean composted dirt and leaves out of the air plenum drain valve. It needed a couple of tries to get all clear, but in the end water would drain through almost as fast at it could be poured into the cowl vent. 
 Next up was a loose door mirror that would wobble about and misalign itself with a bump or a breeze. This was an easy fix with one set screw to remove it from the door, tightening the tension screws underneath, and tightening the mountig plate while it was apart. Ditto for the mirror on the other side. 
 
Then we were chasing elecrical gremlins, cleaning bulb sockets and replacing corroded and missing screws in the tail lights. In the end, all lamps and signals working. The tough electrical problem for the day was "sluggish" horns, occasionally working but more often not. Test light and jumper wire soon revealed that the horns themself work well with good power and ground, so the problem would be in the wiring. Systematically cleaning connectors and tracing back to power source and under dash connections finally disclosed a dirty harness connector at the steering column. 
The new harness was very good, but there was the older connector as part of the multi-function switch in the steering column that appeared to suffer ill effects of the prior fire. Plastic conector housing was partly melted, and the contact pins were corroded. An alligator clip was a useful tool for cleaning the shrouded connector pin. When we had good contact there, the horns still didn't work well, so on to testing and cleaning contacts at the steering wheel push switch. In the end the slip ring under the steering wheel seemed to have dirty and intermittent contact. The steering wheel would have to be removed for access to those parts, and it was getting late in the day, so that chore would have to wait for another opportunity. All in all, it was a very good tech day.  In the evening we had a special invite for dnner with Vance & Robin Young in NE Columbia, SC. There were a few more friends of the family there, a little chat about MGs, sorry no more pictures. With some late night traveling, somewhere around midnight we were an hour northwest for the night. Tuesday, May 10, 2016 Shuffling a bit farther on we stopped to sit on a WiFi spot most of the day near Simpsonville, SC. In the evening we moved on to Easley, SC, at a Fatz Cafe to "crash the party" with Foothills British Car Club. Sometimes we have to do this when there is no contact information on the club web site. 
 
We lucked out and found a friendly reception (as usual). Once the room filled up we had about 40 people. It was a good meeting with an active club,
a short presentation by the Guru, and a longer presentation by someone who built his own home built airplane (nothing about MG, but very interesting anyway). No new appointments here (yet), so after the meeting we pointed it southeast, and 90 miles on we were back in Columbia by late night. Wednesday, May 11, 2016 
Mid morning we were off to Abbotts Service Center near east end of Columbia, SC. We were here to meet Dave Daniel and his recently acquired MGA 1600 (temporarily here for some work). The interest was to appraise condition of the car to see what it may need to get it roadable. The muffler is mis-oriented, needs to be rotated some to get the muffler body way from the fuel tank. It will need some repair to extend one battery carrier tray to hold a single 12-volt battery. It already has a new fuel pump. The engine fired right up and only needed minor adjustment of the Weber carburetor, runs quite well. 
 
Ignition light on, not charging. I disconnected the generator wires, jumpered the terminals together for a voltage test, and verified the generator is good. Reconnected to test the control box, the ignition lamp went out, and it was charging properly. Go figure, maybe just a loose wire terminal (I hate Lucar connectors). 
The horn was not working,
so up on the hoist to check out the horn circuits.
`In this case, power and ground gets us nothing, so it is a very dead (beep-beep) road runner horn. Cheap, so toss it and buy something better. Power wire is good, but return ground to the dash button switch is a no-connect. This is likely to be only a disconnected wire under the dash something to check later. 
After running 10 to 15 minutes total we found oil dripping from the right front inner fender aft of the wheel (very unusual). We then found oil puddling on the heater shelf, a result of a fractured steel pipe for the oil pressure gauge signal line (bummer). So no more running engine until that pipe is replaced (or plug the port so the pressure gauge does not work). With more investigation we found a dead heater blower motor (likely failed carbon brushes), and a dead screenwiper motor (some internal connection or brushes). All rubber seals in the front suspension are perished (bunch of work there), although the suspension parts and steering gear seem to be in good condition otherwise. Rear axle not leaking (except for non-sealed threads on the pipe plugs). Clutch seems to work, brakes not working, hopefully just needing bleeding (but perhaps expect worse). Short on time now, but there is already a substantial work list to keep someone busy for a while. We may get back to this one later. After more time on WiFi we wandered northeast 125 miles to Aberdeen, North Carolina (by the small hours of the morning). Thursday, May 12, 2016  After email, BBS, and a few tech questions, I spend much of the day working on the Shops list (a seemingly never ending job). Then headed north again. About 25 miles short of destination, the plastic cooling fan tossed another blade and punctured the radiator again. Three or four stops for water at 5 to 8 mile intervals, and we got there only 20 minutes late. Will be looking for another radiator shop tomorrow morning. 
We were here this evening to meet with North Carolina MG Car Club at one of their Natter 'n' Noggin. These rotate around between members' homes, and it can get a bit crowded with up to 40 people. Nice turn out of MGs in good weather, and quite a few more cars not in the picture. Give it an hour for dinner and social, then a bit of business meeting. By the time the party as over temperature was dropping along with lightning and thunder, so time to shuffle off. 
 Friday, May 13, 2016 We found a shop and pulled the radiator this morning, to be repaired this afternoon. 
 Prior breaks of plastic fans have been at the root of the blades (three of those). This one involves the flanged hub in two places on opposite sides. It is reasonable to guess that the first failed blade may have physically interfered and caused breakage of the second blade. I will be posting a tech page on this issue. For now I have posted photos and notes on the MG Experience BBS, and discussion is off to a lively start. To the rescue, Dennis Taylor (president of NCMGCC) delivering the MGB fan donated by Casey Yunker (V.P. of NCMGCC), same as one I ran for many years prior. It is good to have friends. Steel fan immediately installed while retrieving the broken plastic fan for more close up pictures. And the nice bloke from North Raleigh Automotive & Radiator Service who did the sweet job repairing the damaged radiator. 
 Cleaned up radiator showing last month's repair at lower left, and the new repair at top center. Easy installation, fill with water, and we are on the road again. 
  Some close ups of the failed plastic fan. It really is a bit of a mess. We will be sending it back to Moss Motors along with lots of pictures. There does not appear to be any reinforcing fiber in the plastic. A local club member assures us that his original MGB plastic fan does have fiber fill, as shown when one of the blades touched a bolt on his air conditioning compressor. 
 Saturday, May 14, 2016 Triangle British Car Show in Raleigh, North Carolina today. Best guess, maybe 150 British cars, at least 16 MGA. Find more than 40 photos and notes in a following page. 
 Heading back to Columbia, SC tonight, having two appointments with MG T-types tomorrow. Sunday, May 15, 2016 Busy day today, making like a split personality to be in two places at once. First up is a visit with Dave Daniel in Lexington, SC, who has nice MG TF in his home garage (with some problems). First it was running very rich, and was dribbling gas from the carburetors. Mixture nuts screwed all the way up, float levels checked, and needles dropped a smidge, but still running rich. Incorrect replacement air cleaners were plastered against the body panel, even though the thermal spacer blocks were deleted from between the carbs and manifold. 
 It was a real bear removing the front air cleaner without disassembling body panels. That one is not going back on the car again. One needle is correct part number, still a little rich. The other needle is wrong part number, still very rich. Both needles wobble about excessively in the jets when fully inserted, implying the jets are worn oversize at the top hole which is likely why both carbs run rich at idle speed. Put new needles and jets and thermal spacers and air cleaners on the parts order list. At least we can fix the drips and dribbles. The small white rings are one of my favorite tricks, Teflon O-rings used two-up to replace each of the small cork seals on the fuel jet. While reinstalling the carbs we ran into damaged (Whitworth) studs and nuts on the intake manifold, more parts for the order list. Then we had to set it aside temporarily while I was called for another appointment. 
 Then I was off for a while to visit an MG TD belonging to Ron Farkas in NE Columbia, SC. This one was more than a little forelorn and neglected. Purpose of the visit was to appraise the situation to see if it would be reasonable to expect to be able to "resurrect" the car for road use. At first glance, not very encouraging. 
 Paint was peeling off in sheets, engine with cylinder head off is likely frozen, water damage has plywood in the seat backrest in tatters. The car needs full restoration and it doesn't look easy. But every car has its stories. This one has been in the family for many years. His daughter who used to ride in the car when she was very young is now older and would like to have the car (running of course). This is one of the most compelling reasons to do the expensive and time consuming restoration. So the plan seems to be, get it running first which should give some encouragement, and then see how it goes from there. 
 Meanwhile, back to Lexington, and back to work on the TF. We got the carbs back together enough to take it for a little drive. Okay, a little longer drive (with a few grins along the way). Then investigating electrical issues. like a wiring harness with most of the jacket removed and wires all over the place, and extra fuses with suspect integrity, and lots of green wires used to splice and connect and replace other wires in half the harness (all one color) so you can't tell what wires go where. Headlights, front parking lights, brake lights and turn signals work, no tail lights or horn, and the lighting switch is shot. We spent some time making out a tentative order list, after which it was getting late and time to quit for the night. But over all it was a generally successful day. 
 |
