Technology Can Be So Cool

I bought a wifi boroscope camera that connects to my phone with a 1/4 inch lighted camera on the end of six foot long flexible line, only $32!  Seemed like a natural way to inspect inside the bell housing to learn more about our clutch and mouse next issues.

Here's some pictures of the throwout bearing, first are two on the side towards the transmission:

Then here's one of the engine side of the throwout bearing which includes a partial view of the clutch diaphragm:

We don't see any issues with the throwout bearing or clutch from these views.  Looking around further though we did see more evidence of mouse nest residue:

Plus we removed about a partial handful of stuff using our usual method of pulling the rubber boot back and trying to snag stuff with a piece of baling wire.

Bottom line is we still think the clutch is fine and the residue is somehow causing the squealing under particular conditions.  So monthly inspections will be continuing!

Is a Project Ever Completely Done?

We had a couple of smaller items to take care of.  The front brakes were dragging on the passenger side, determined the caliper piston was not retracting completely so installed two new calipers.  Fuse box barely held onto the two fuses, new box was fairly inexpensive so we installed a new one.  Float bowls on carbs were flopping around, removed them and installed new mounting pieces (rubber and special washer) to retain them correctly. 

Then for the third time we pulled that rubber boot back on the clutch fork and removed the following:

The parts in the front appear to be a mouse spine and a head, jaws open.  So we have now removed about four handfuls of mouse carcass and nest.  The clutch still squeals sometimes.  We could pull the engine and replace parts, but another fear is that we do all that work and we don't find the reason for the squeal.  Or we determine the mouse stuff was the cause and we could have just continued our removal process.

We have agreed with the new owner Greg to complete the transaction and transfer ownership.  He will bring the car in about once per month and we'll continue to remove mouse stuff as it shifts around inside the bell housing.  Meantime, either the clutch gets better as the mouse stuff gets removed, or something breaks and then we know exactly what to replace. 

So perhaps the project is done, maybe not, time will tell!

Finally Running Right. You Say A Mouse went Where?

Spent a half day with Clay adjusting timing and carbs.  Got the car running better but it still hesitated at partial throttle.  Greg decided since he intended to convert to Pertronix electronic ignition anyway, let's proceed with this plus a new ignition coil since the root cause seemed to be ignition related.

Parts came in, but now car won't start even before we install the new parts.  Determined no fuel, further discovered the fuel gauge sending unit was installed upside down so even though it said full it was really empty.  Matter of fact, it ran completely out of fuel about one minute after arriving back at the shop.  Hence much confusion - why doesn't it run?  No fuel.  But the gauge says full.  Put gas in tank, fired right up.  Go figure.

Then got new ignition parts installed, finally this car runs awesome!  Hesitation all gone.  Meantime installed new steering rack boot on one side plus door interior pulls.

The one final major concern is the squealing noise from the clutch.  Clutch works fine and most times does not squeal, just squeals occasionally when hot and engaging first gear or reverse.  Put the car on the lift, double checked slave cylinder bolts to make sure they weren't too long (touching clutch diaphragm), decided to pull back rubber boot on throwout bearing lever and - found a mouse nest in the bell housing!  Removed about a handful of fluffy material.  It appears the mice got in there through the opening for the starter motor.  Since removing this much material it appears the squealing is getting less severe.  Still confused over how this material can cause an occasional squeal.  All clutch parts or made of metal and should shred mouse nests and mouse carcasses to powder.  Greg is taking the car home and will just drive it and then in another week or so we'll put the car on the lift, pull the lever boot back, and see if we can get more mouse nest material out. 

Meantime, Saturday 9/22 was the annual British Car Show.  This car was there, here's some pictures from when Ray cleaned up the car the day before:

Good tip, Clay!

My friend Clay suggested that I confirm that the vacuum and mechanical advance functions were working on the distributor.  Turned out to be a good tip.  Here's a section of the vacuum line that had fallen behind the motor and gotten burned up:

It was sealed, so at least it was not a vacuum leak.  But the distributor was definitely not advancing it's timing with vacuum increases!  Guess there's a reason the factory made these lines out of metal.

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I patched it back together and checked it's operation with a vacuum pump and found that it still did not work because the small spring that connects the vacuum diaphragm to the distributor plate inside the distributor was disconnected.  Got that repaired, went out and drove car, and it's much better.  Still want to confirm dwell and timing adjustments and then fine tune the carb settings, but we're getting much closer now.

Check air, then spark, then fuel

Air, spark fuel - that's the sequence that I learned from my MG technical sessions I have attended.  So I started with air - checked all valve clearances (no major problems but had to adjust 6 of the 8 to get consistent 0.015" gap).  Then checked compression - 150, 160, 155, 150 from front to back.  This is excellent.

My dwell meter pooped out on me, so could not really confirm points gap.  And could not then confirm timing.  All indications are spark is OK though, so I violated the tech seminar and went on to fuel.  : )

Pistons move easily, but jet position was way too low on the back carb.  Corrected that, then confirmed the fuel level in the jets is about right for both carbs, ie float levels set right.  Front carb did seem kind of dry, but it's float was set for deeper fuel level than rear.  I ran car in garage, idles fine and revs up fine, saw good atomized fuel flow into throat of carb when revving engine.  But took it out and it still bogs down and hesitates under load.  Decided to take up my friend Clay's offer to bring car to him and connect it to his diagnostic equipment,made appointment for a week away unfortunately due to our schedules.

Had a little more time to I tackled the logo on the trunk lid.  There are 15 little holes that need to be in the trunk to install the four pieces of the logo.  These were all filled in with body filler, so they were completely invisible on the outside.   But you could see them from the back side.  So with some trepidation I drilled out all 15 holes very carefully.  I also bought some plastic screw anchors which do a decent job of retaining the pieces in place, should be using a speed clip.  Here's a sample of the plastic piece:

Here's the backside after installation:

Those little pieces worked pretty well.  Here's now the pretty side:

Those white stripes are the lights of my garage.  Turned out real well!

Top Installed, First Car Wash

Decided a really hot day like today would be a good time to install the top, it seemed like it would be a tight fit and it was.  But I got it on, and will leave it one for a while to let it stretch into the position for this car.  This was a very good used top we bought earlier.

Then I decided I couldn't stand the myriad greasy fingerprints on the car, so I washed it off.  Had to clean a little white stuff off the top too, not sure what it was.  Turned out real good, I think:

Now I need to get this thing to run right......

A good half day's work

Started out checking into the brake issue.  I could see nothing wrong or interfering with the brake pads.  But I did notice that the new pads hit on parts of the rotor that the old pads did not.  We did not turn the rotors, so this leaves these rusty areas for the pads to hit.  I tried to capture it in this picture:

I cleaned up the rusty portions on the outside of the rotors on both sides with sandpaper.  Can't get to inside due to dust guard.  Took the car out and drove it.  First few applications of the brakes were just fine.  But later they starting squeaking again, not quite as bad as yesterday.  So I suspect just driving the car and wearing down these rusty portions of the rotor will resolve this issue.

Installed some other parts.  New shifter rubber and leather boot:

The leather works out kinds funky with the short shifter.  I installed the snaps to hold the footwell carpeting in place too.

I cleaned up the chrome rings on the gauges on the dash, looks good:

I also took apart the plastic shroud over the column to see why the turn signals don't cancel.  It appears they should cancel, but that portion of the switch assembly no longer functions.  A new switch costs about $30, so it's not worth trying to repair the old one.  So either Greg lives with the non cancelling turn signals or spends another $30!  This decision can be delayed.

Installed new spark plugs and drove car.  It still has a large hesitation when accelerating.  Need to put some more thought into how to resolve this one.

Driving the Car!

Ray and Greg were able to install the passenger seat and carpet while Vince was traveling earlier this month:

Today Vince installed the new Grose float valves plus he created copper tubes as float chamber overflow pipes.  We had an issue with the old float valves leaking, which then dripped on the exhaust manifold, not good.  No leaks with these new style float valves, but even if they do leak it will now dribble out the bottom of the car safely!

Vince then, with some trepidation, took off to drive the car from Boonville to his home in Evansville!  First significant drive of the car in we believe about 40 years, went 12 miles on a very hot day.  I made it, although the car did hesitate a little at part throttle.  It was then I remembered we had not replenished the oil in the carb dampers.  Oops!  After getting home I filled them up and it got MUCH better, still not perfect yet though.  Probably need some new spark plugs too.

There's a very loud squeal coming from the front brakes when applied hard, sounds like metal on metal, hopefully this is something obvious and easy to fix.

Despite the heat the car ran about 185 and had great oil pressure.  Tranny and clutch all worked fine, wheel balance is pretty darn good, got it up to 65 with no vibration.  Quite a few little items to still work on, but this is a major step!

Here's the car in it's new temporary home:

Seats, Steering Wheel, and Front End/Wheel Balance

Greg finished up the steering wheel with it's leather cover, turned out very nice:

Also the door panels are installed, carpet on inner sills, and rubber trim installed around door opening:

Seats are done and ready to be installed, a friend ended up donating some better used foam cushions which worked out just fine:

Interestingly, the red piping didn't line up real well from seat back to seat bottom until we swapped the seat backs between the two seats - wonder if they had been switched before?  They line up much better this way, passenger seat on left is well aligned while driver's seat on right is about 3/8 inch off.  Very comparable to our other MGB's. 

When we had the tires mounted we were told the tire shop could no longer balance wire wheels, their newer wheel balancer might mess up the splines.  They claimed this is a problem with all newer wheel balancers.  We had been given an old manual wheel balancer but knew we were missing some pieces of it - called the donor and got the missing pieces.  This thing works real well, here's a picture of the old Snapon model WBK-2:

It even came with a good selection of weights.  So today we got all four wheels balanced plus adjusted the front end to 1/8 inch toein.  We're getting very close to getting this thing on the road!  Unfortunately we need seats installed to drive it, and it's much easier to put in carpet and side panels in wheel wells without the seats in place.  Patience, patience.

Front Suspension Done, Water Pump In

Front suspension is complete, all bolts good and tight and cotter pins in place.  Inserted grease in all three grease fittings on both king pins.  New boots also installed on steering rack.  Installed new wheels and tires on front, looks very sharp:

Tackled water pump.  Turned out it would have been easier to just remove the radiator at the beginning, after working around it for about an hour it was much easier to just get it out of the way.

Had an interesting issue, the water pump uses two 5/16 inch steel dowels to position is relative to the block, probably to maintain clearances between the block and the rotating pump vanes.  These dowels were retained in the old water pump, and one would not come out even when gripped with my best vise grips.  Quick trip to parts store for replacements, no luck.  It's such a simple part, after some thought decided to make one of Ray's 5/16 inch drill bits about 3/4 inch short.  In this picture you can see the one dowel that came out sitting on the vise jaw, the one retained in the old water pump, and the 5/16 drill bit about to be attacked by an angle grinder in the area of the red mark.  Sorry, Ray, but the drill bit will still work.

Rest of the installation of the water pump went fine.

Interior progress and waiting on parts

Did get other half of front suspension dismantled.  Plus Ray's neighbor at PM Maintenance, Danny, was able to use a torch and get the lower trunnion bolt out for us, thanks Danny!

Waiting on parts to put front suspension back together.  Meantime we're moving forward on the interior.  But first here's a picture of a windshield pillar after Ray sanded it down and painted it, looks pretty darn good:

We got some PC-7 epoxy, which is what the pros on old steering wheel restoration use.  Filled in biggest cracks and put a quick coat of black paint on, looks decent in a picture but in person needs a little more work.  But we think it will look very good when done.

Vince brought the two door caps home to start dismantle and recovering using the vinyl and beading from our interior kit.  The biggest challenge is the rusted up fasteners which typically have one end in a blind location embedded in wood.  When the threads will not break free, then the part embedded in the wood starts spinning.

Here's the parts from the first cap after dismantle:

Here's a closeup of a screw anchor Vince recycled from an old MGTD interior door to replace the one he had to drill out to dismantle the assembly:

The plywood at the base of the soft member of the cap was pretty rotted away, and was damaged in trying to get the screw anchors out.  Vince replaced this with plywood from above mentioned MGTD since it's a flat piece with just six holes in it, then glued the foam to the piece.  Picture shows foam, then new plywood piece, then old damaged plywood:

Finally here's a picture of the rebuilt door cap next to the old one from the other side.  Turned out pretty good.

Hopefully with what he's learned, Vince can do the other door cap in much less than six hours!

Exterior is Done, Front Suspension Causes Troubles

The exterior of the car is now done, looks great!  Even let the new owner install the ultimate "bling" on the car, the MG logo in the middle of the front grill.

Next we wanted to replace the front suspension bushings, a very typical failure on these cars that causes the wheels to be "bowlegged".  When we took it apart though we found we needed more than bushings.  The lower trunnions on both sides are supposed to have a bolt connecting them to the front and rear A arms which rotates within the bottom of the kingpin.  These bolts had seized in place, which meant the rotation now occurred between the bolt and the A arm.  The likely reason they seized is lack of grease.  And the effect is "wallering out" of the holes in the A arms:

In addition, on one side this high pressure on a small area of the bolt had caused the A arm to cut half way through the bolt, clearly a possible safety issue.

So the lesson here is - grease your front suspension components!  Not a real expensive fix, but it is time consuming, including waiting on parts to arrive.

Dreaded Windshield is Done!

Installing the windshield with new rubber along the bottom of the frame is one of the toughest jobs on an MGB from our experience.  It wasn't easy on this car, but was reasonable.  We tried a method we read about using fishing line to hold the rubber in place, we weren't that impressed with this method.  Good thing we also did our prior trick of putting a wire inside the rubber extrusion to pull the flap back forward after installation.  Turned out real well:

There is a little bit of graying around the edges of the windshield, actually shows up more than in real life in the above picture.

The front headlight buckets and turn signals are installed plus the front bumper:

And the rear bumper is installed:

Things are lining up quite nicely.

And so the assembly work begins

Vince got started on assembly work while Ray is out of town.  We also have a friend named Greg who is interested in buying the car, and is willing to come help with the assembly process. 

So Vince and Greg worked today - Vince on doors and Greg on trunk and rear lights.  Greg got the trunk cleaned up and the rear lights installed (well, only one works but we'll get that worked out).  Here's Greg with the lights:

Vince has done a lot of work on doors, sometimes even earning the nickname "the door man".  He got the driver's door done (vent window, rollup window and regulator, all rubber plus lock/handle mechanisms).  Passenger side almost complete, needs rollup window to be installed.  Here's a view of that driver's door:

All going very well so far.

Painting Done!

A major milestone, the paint is done!  Here's four pictures that Ray took 5/3 at Darrell's:

Change in Plans

We decided to switch body shops, going with our old standby Darrell Smith.  So on March 30 Ray and Dave Mullen moved the car to Darrell's shop.

Darrell has had a slow start, but is now moving much quicker on the car.  He's got the bodywork done, and has started primer.  Ray stopped by April 26 and took these pictures:

Darrell thinks he will get the car painted this first week in May.  We look forward to getting the car back and starting the fun job of re-assembly.  Vince has been out of town, but Ray has received a shipment of lots of small parts for putting the car back together.