Project 1974 MGB GT - The Mustard (Mit) Mobility Scooter - 6yrs ownership & the end is potentially nigh!

[Guest Hooli]

Aren't you glad you didn't buy the rotten one?

[Six-cylinder]

That seems fine to me, a nice one made £8,000 at auction the other day.

[Eddie Honda]

Just done what I said I would never do.

You silly bastard!

 

NEVER, EVER, blah blah blah.

[tooSavvy]

I bought ToMM© because I saw 'that picture' [in France] of her...

 

 

Also trezcheappo... Ah Haa!

 

 

.... she has just shipped chezSavv up to our local waterhole (McDeez) and 5up with 'centre belt' action.

 

Fuck Me [pleezze].... Drive the frigginn wheels off it!! OK?

 

 

TS

[captain_70s]

The best bit is when you come to sell the thing it'll inexplicably be worth £500. Classic cars are marvellous*.

[SiC]

Sounds hunky dory!

 

You should celebrate by downing tools for a bit and driving it loads and loads

Fuck Me [pleezze].... Drive the frigginn wheels off it!! OK?

 

So on the back of this last repair, I started to try what many on here have suggested. My first proper outing was today, the 6 mile trip into work and with even my manager willing me on to do it. This very route I did on the (problem free) 35 mile trip back from Weston-super-Mare - where I purchased it. A type of trip I do daily at the moment and hoped I could have the MGB fulfilling.

 

Unfortunately, as my wife has told me several times, everytime I touch or work on the car something else breaks. Despite my best efforts at whack-a-mole, I do get the feeling I'm loosing sometimes. Especially considering it was all working when I bought it!

 

Anyway, as most have probably seen in News 24 this little trip did not go to plan.

 

First thing first was to pack some tools. Off into the garage I go to grab a ratchet, a set of sockets, spanners and (because it's a British car) a set of feeler gauges. As the fuel gauge has gone back to its default 1/4 full mark no matter its current contents, I thought it was wise to pour some petrol in and carry a 5l can too. For good luck I threw my smaller floor jack into the boot.

 

The whole time I had Suki watching me and wondering what the hell I was doing.

 

In truth, I was wondering exactly that too. Why didn't I just jump in the Civic and make my way in? Oh it'll be fun taking the MG I said to myself and of course everyone at work will love it!!

 

So I turned the key and she reluctantly started. My thought at the time was that the battery might have been a bit low from sitting around. Hindsight however says that she was possibly warning me of the impending doom.

 

Once started, I gave her a few minutes to get up to temperature and settle down a bit before I could fully trust her. Heater on full, defrost to max, fan on and the windscreen became reassuringly* more misted up. I noted the wet receipt on the floor where there must be water getting in again somehow. Forgiving her, I just blamed that on myself when I threw the bucket of water over her the day before to try and wash off the moss that the birds keep flicking down from the guttering.

 

Pottering down the roads, in high spirits and full of expectation getting to work to become the hero idiot who takes his classics on a commute. First few miles were uneventful.

 

Just in sight of the motorway, she started having a hissy fit with the idea of going on such roads. As it merges, she started surging. "Oh no. Pleeeease don't do this to me". On saying that she cut out. I coasted into a bus stop.

 

Turning the key got her running. Just. I pulled out the choke a smidgen to get the idle up a bit higher. I sat there with the revs at 1200rpm with the grim determination that I was going to get this thing in. So off I set again.

 

I approached the motorway but at the very last minute took a detour to go down the back way and along a main street. The thought being that if I broke down it would be easier and safer than on a motorway flyover. However the realisation started to occur that I was going down Stapleton Road, in Bristol.

 

For those that don't know about this road here is The Mirrors view of the said road. Note that it's the first result when Googling "Stapleton Road Bristol".

Forget the Home Office crime mapping site, this REALLY is Britain's worst street

 

WELCOME to Stapleton Road – a lawless hellhole where murder, rape, shootings, drug-pushing, prostitution, knifings and violent robbery are commonplace.

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/forget-home-office-crime-mapping-1695400

 

Ok well it's not that bad, especially at rush hour. However it's not really an ideal place to breakdown.

 

I approached a hill and the surging came back. Glancing at the rev counter it was fairly static but I noticed that the oil pressure gauge was fluctuating wildly. My stomach started to get that sick feeling when you realise your day is not going to go well.

 

I found I'd you kept the revs higher (around 3500rpm), the surging wasn't as bad. Being the road I was on and the desire to get to work, I kept motoring on.

 

Being a main bus route, the traffic is very stop+start due to the buses pulling over and little room to pass. She behaved well enough to pass a couple of temporary traffic lights without conking out.

 

However as I got closer to the end of Stapleton Road, she decided enough was enough and cut out. I coasted to the side of the road and flipped on the Hazards. Trying a couple of times to turn her over came to no avail. On lookers at the bus shelter had the smug appearance that they were getting into the centre quicker today than I.

 

Stopping in the middle of a narrow, busy road was not ideal. So I wound down the window and started pushing. Gaining momentum I tried wrenching the non-PAS steering wheel to turn into a side road. At this point I wasn't turning it quick enough and she was making a beeline to a closed down shop entrance. Thank god for the handbrake being reasonably effective.

 

Now I was very marrouned. Blocking a side road with my 70s piece of English crud coloured memorobillia on what life used to be like for the average motorist. I smiled at a passer by and muttered "I don't suppose you could give me a quick push?". He complied but not overly enuthiastically. Luckily at full lock, I had enough room left on the front to miss the shop front and deposit her on the side road. Unfortunately on double yellow lines.

 

 

My annoyance was subdued when I got out and looked at her. Just look at her. She's like the family dog. You can't shout and scream because she's just puked up grass on the best rug because they just do those things. You know forwell what you're getting yourself in for. (Admittedly I didn't quite expect this much trouble...)

 

Now Bristol council is notorious for both ticketing and ordering towing vehicles that are stopped where they shouldn't be. To make matters worse infact I managed to stop on a road that directly faced on of these cameras. I popped the bonnet open, looked up and gave them a grim smile.

 

So under the can-do attitude that old cars can be fixed by the side of the road, I whipped out my tools and set to work. You never know, I might just be able to make a heroic attempt to get back in. Unfortunately for me, I didn't pack my spark plug wrench to check the plugs.

 

Things I noted:

• Fuel was getting through and under pressure. Removing the hose I found it was under pressure after getting fuel squirting out.
• She'd run, just. Would require pedal to the floor.
• There is no realistic way of getting to the float chambers on these HIF carbs when attached to the car. I especially didn't want to loose any parts by trying to.
• Fuel pump was giving an occasional click but wasn't going crazy.
• Dizzy cap and arm looked alright. I forgot to bring my spares though.
• Hitting the carb float chambers with a mallet didn't fix it.
• You're bound to not have the tool you really need.

At this point I resigned myself that I wasn't going to get myself out of trouble and conceded that it'd have to phone the Nationwide Building Society breakdown service. 90 minute wait I was told.

 

People seem to not mind too much when you're broken down in an old car. A pair of OAPs passed and looked. I replied "At least it's not raining!" "Ha yes. At least it's not raining..." She replied while getting into her Nissan Leaf. Some gangster looking young guys passing remarked "Aawww is it broken man! Cool car though. Cool car."

 

About an hour later the recovery truck arrived. Unfortunately it was a tail lift type. Even worse, it was touch and go if it'd fit. The wheel track was only just wide enough to get it on. I did request to be reverse towed, as I feared bad things would happen to my diff overdrive and gearbox if it wasn't.

 

Recovery chap was a bit rough and ready but nice enough. I thanked him when I got back by greasing him with a fresh ten pound note.

 

We pushed her into the sin bin where she will stay pending further decisions.

 

I then set off in the Civic. Patting that on the dash and thanking it for being faithful. Of course she returned that by letting out some almighty grinding noises at the same place the MGB started being mischievous! Pulling over and looking underneath I couldn't see anything wrong. Then it got worse. Pulled over again and couldn't see anything still. This time, irritated and even more determined to get to work, I pulled away vigorously to be rewarded with a PING and no more nasty noises. Hopefully it was just a stone. Not come back yet at least.

 

Some days you wish you never even bother starting.

[SiC]

My suspicions at this point are the carbs flooding the engine. With the new fuel pump, it could be that fuel is getting in under enough pressure now to cause problems. Also it's the one part that I haven't repaired, replaced or renovated.

 

My big unknowns on this though are:

• Why was the oil pressure fluctuating?
• Why wasn't the fuel pump busy clicking away with the ignition on if fuel was getting through?
• Why was are the fuel lines under pressure still with the ignition off?

[Guest Hooli]

See you knew classics would be fun!

 

It can't be complicated, these cars aren't technical enough for it.

[captain_70s]

Sounds like some sort of carb problem...

 

If it makes you feel better I tried to adjust the rear brakes and sort the exhaust on the Triumph t'other day and achieved almost nothing...

[SiC]

Sounds like some sort of carb problem...

 

If it makes you feel better I tried to adjust the rear brakes and sort the exhaust on the Triumph t'other day and achieved almost nothing...

Funny enough, when I was driving in I was thinking about your long drive back in your Dolomite. You managed around 100x the length of journey I attempted in my MGB without any real major incident and certainly no breakdowns! It does get frustrating at times when you just want the damn thing just to be a car and get you places.

[cort16]

It'll be one of these annoying issues where it'll idle all day and only conk out on a run.

You 're a wizz with electronics you need to figure out how to get injection on this. I wonder if the o series manifold and ecu on my mg maestro could be adapted to the fit the b series?

[SiC]

 

 

It'll be one of these annoying issues where it'll idle all day and only conk out on a run.

You 're a wizz with electronics you need to figure out how to get injection on this. I wonder if the o series manifold and ecu on my mg maestro could be adapted to the fit the b series?

It's something I have been seriously considering. The US vehicles have a single carb, so I reckoned an adapter plate on the end to mount a throttle body. Injector mounting are a bit more complex if going multi-port injection. Alternatively there is single port injecton but this isn't as efficient nor as easy to get parts for.

 

MAP can be derived from a pressure tap in the manifold - MGBs have 2 already (brake boost and USA charcoal canister). Air temp can be fitted to intake piping. Possibly maybe even integrated into a SPi throttle body too. Crank position should be possible by using a optical pickup in the distributor. Finally Megasquirt can bring up the ECU side.

 

Good call on the o-series. Will have a gander around. Parts might be a bit more tricky to find for them nowadays though.

[cort16]

Heres the engine in mine it’s multi point surprisingly . Someone must have injected An mgb you’d think ?

 

[cort16]

have you read this ?

 

http://www.mginfo.co.uk/upgrades4mgs/Engines/efi_options.html

[SiC]

There used to be MGB injection kits about, however they've retailed around the £3k mark. Which is about the value of really good MGBs of the time! Even now, it'd still be quite expensive for any MGB.

 

Those kits use all specialist parts designed for rally engines, kit cars and other conversions. I reckon a lot can be achieved with off the shelf second hand parts and adapter plates where necessary. Especially if there are similar fitting parts off later derivatives of the base engine.

 

The other problem with a commercial kit is that most MGB owners are more interested in the shininess of their chrome dashpots and rocker covers, rather than how well it runs day-to-day...

[cort16]

Very true!

[SiC]

have you read this ?

 

http://www.mginfo.co.uk/upgrades4mgs/Engines/efi_options.html

Yeah I've seen that before. Unfortunately it's quite old, so either the parts are no longer available or really expensive specialist parts.

[SiC]

One of these: http://www.webcon.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=10605&bc=no&bc=no

 

And this:

http://www.webcon.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=15299&bc=no&bc=no

 

May do the trick for the majority of parts needed.

[blackboilersuit]

Oil Light - Check your oil level and how thick the oil is before running the engine again. 

 

I once had a motorbike fill the sump with petrol due to a sticky float needle. Bike was a little difficult to start so I put the fuel tap to prime (constantly open) and it fired up all be it a bit rougher than normal. Put it down to a lack of use. Left bike on drive for 20 mins and went to get ready to leave. Made it as far as the other side of town before I stopped at a set of lights and the engine puked oil everywhere before cutting out.

 

Turns out worn float needles had been flooding the carb(s) which in turn had been filling the airbox with petrol which in turn had been draining via the crankcase breather into the engine. The good news is that after replacing float needles, plugs, oil and filter it was fine and I've since done about 7000 miles with no problems. 

[SiC]

Funnily enough I was tempted to replace the oil as a precaution anyway. Just hoping that I haven't done any damage. I need to finish sorting the garage but hopefully I should have some time today and tomorrow to do a bit of fiddling. I'm determined to make this thing work and be reliable.

 

First step will be to remove the plugs and check if they're wet. I guess if they were, they might have dried out by now though.

 

Then take the carbs off and have a look in the float chamber. Hopefully if it's gummed up or dirty, it'll be obvious.

 

Replace the engine oil and fresh filter.

 

Reassemble and hope it runs still.

 

I really hope that I haven't done any damage to the engine. Might order a compression gauge too.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Check the oil pressure relief valve first SiC.  It's on the side of the block, under a domed nut.  It's hard to kill a B-Series so I'd imagine there's nothing major wrong.

The twin carbs thing is always a bit of a problem for me.  They offer no real performance benefit of a well set up single SU and you have the very real issue of balancing them, problematic linkages, twice the problems etc.  Sacrilege I know, but I'd bung a single on it and enjoy more reliability!  The beardy crew will choke on their cucumber sandwiches, which would be funny.

[blackboilersuit]

I'm 100% with RR on the carbs. Twin SU's are a PITA with no (real world)  power benefit. Great if you want to pose at a car show with the bonnet up showing off your immaculate engine bay but in the real world they will have you cursing with the bonnet up either constantly adjusting them or waiting for the AA. 

 

A single SU will give you a car that you can actually use every day and that's what it's all about.

[Fabergé Greggs]

One other thought regarding the oil pressure gauge- do these have one of those old style voltage regulators that produce 10v for the dials? On a scimitar SE5 I had, I’m pretty sure it broke to 12v meaning my gauges all showed higher than usual... maybe I’m talking bollocks though..

 

If it was intermittent it could cause some haywire readings..

[Mally]

Any modifications sir?

Ah, an extra percentage on your premium thank you!

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Stick a 2.0 zetec in.....

 

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

[cort16]

[mrbenn]

Re the fuel pump not ticking when the ignition is on, they only tick quickly to build up pressure when the ignition is switched on then just tick occasionally to maintain it. If it continues to tick a lot with ignition on/engine off then you've got a fuel leak somewhere.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Oh, come on people ! MGBs are as simple as a post-war car can get ; you don't need to be a professor of automotive engineering to get them to run properly !

 

There isn't much to the poor, old SUs, either. Problems are usually due to lack of use or people fiddling with them without knowing what they're doing.

 

SiC, I'd make sure everything on the ignition side is correctly set up first. Then, I'd take the SUs off to give them a quick clean. There are a million how-to articles and videos on this online. Then put them back on, make sure the linkage is installed correctly, and do a basic re-tune of idle and mixture. You then need to drive the car around a fair bit and make further adjustments at the roadside, until the thing runs well.

[SiC]

 

 

Check the oil pressure relief valve first SiC. It's on the side of the block, under a domed nut. It's hard to kill a B-Series so I'd imagine there's nothing major wrong.

How do I tell what is a good valve and what is a bad?

 

 

A single SU will give you a car that you can actually use every day and that's what it's all about.

Funnily enough, I do have a HS6 I bought to disassemble and learn how they're put together. I bought it so I could learn where all the small bits go before I pulled the HIF4 on the MGB apart.

 

One other thought regarding the oil pressure gauge- do these have one of those old style voltage regulators that produce 10v for the dials? On a scimitar SE5 I had, I’m pretty sure it broke to 12v meaning my gauges all showed higher than usual... maybe I’m talking bollocks though..

 

If it was intermittent it could cause some haywire readings..

You're almost right. The rubber bumper ones used the regulator for both the fuel gauge, temperature and I think oil. On the chrome bumpers, it's a pipe for oil pressure and capillary tube for temperature. I suspect the fuel gauge not properly working is in part to the regulator. That and I think the sender is buggered too. A new tank will replace the sender and should tell me if the regulator is duff too.

 

Stick a 2.0 zetec in.....

 

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

Rather put a t-series in! Or V8...

 

Re the fuel pump not ticking when the ignition is on, they only tick quickly to build up pressure when the ignition is switched on then just tick occasionally to maintain it. If it continues to tick a lot with ignition on/engine off then you've got a fuel leak somewhere.

Thats what I couldn't understand. If the carb float isn't working properly, surely the pump should have been ticking away as fuel is leaking past the float?

[Rusty_Rocket]

Re the pressure relief valve, undo the big nut and if the plunger and spring come out on their own accord, it's ok.  Problems start when a bit of grit sticks the valve in the bore, leading to most of the pump's oil going straight down the overpressure drilling, and not up to the top of the engine.