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

[Tomtom]

Nice to hear you're getting the B into good fettle.

I fitted a 123 some years back and it transformed the car, particularly the idle. I've  just gone back to an original dissy with Pertronix hidden inside and the idle is now rough as old dogs from cold. But I fancy there's a bit more power accelerating through 3rd gear. It needs the engine setting up to get the best out of it I think.

But, like you, it's a faffy task which I'm not looking forward to...

[Tomtom]

On 5/6/2021 at 2:29 PM, SiC said:

Debating whether to get the clutch flexi changed before then. The specialist said it's bulging a bit. I've got a new one but the clutch system can be a bit of an arse to bleed. Also it's getting time to do it too. 

The worst bit (apart from bleeding which is also the worst bit) is getting at the big lock nut at the top of the flexi hose. A sawn down adjustable wrench helps. As does lots of patience.

[SiC]

Had the day off work today to give a longer bank holiday off. Mrs SiC said about going somewhere in the Boxster, I suggested the MGB instead. It wasn't a far drive, only supposed to be 35mile but as it's half term holidays and it's a touristy area, there are far too many dawdlers doing 40mph in a 60mph limit. Many also seem to get annoyed when a smelly MGB overtakes them too.

Anyway here is it parked up at Wells.


A cathedral that's covered in scaffolding.


An old car (Riley iirc) that I would love to have.


Some Cygnets


I've just been that my stinky car has made her tired. Reality is probably the heat and hayfever, but it'll get blamed. I actually don't feel that tired but I'm the one that remembered to take hayfever tablets today.

Hoping I'll get to Haynes Museum Breakfast Meet (as in the book Haynes too) this coming Sunday. Yet to manage it in the MGB. First time it conked out on the motorway the Friday before. Then I had my COVID jab the other week on the day before I was supposed to go, but completely conked me out the day after. My sister is down next weekend, so I bet she'll be the one that scuppers my plans!

[SiC]

Oh and I also forgot to mention I went to a local car show in it last Sunday. Not going to re-spam the photos, so here is a link to News 24 thread:
https://autoshite.com/topic/30553-the-new-news-24-thread/?do=findComment&comment=2306382

[dozeydustman]

The B sounded sweet as in that startup video. Hopefully she’ll be a good summer plaything

[SiC]

10 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

The B sounded sweet as in that startup video. Hopefully she’ll be a good summer plaything

Hopefully! Hopefully fixed all the (major) issues she's had too. 🤞

Most of the breakdowns I've had have been fuel pump related. It's on its third pump. However I reckon they were all caused by that dodgy earth and the pumps are fine. Certainly when I pulled pump number 2 apart, I couldn't see anything appreciably wrong with it. I'll probably reuse that for the Moggie when I (eventually...) get it. 

Where we've moved to, the roads are much friendlier to classic cars. In the evenings they're empty and I'm not going to make the radio news broadcast if I breakdown at rush hour, causing Bristol traffic to snarl up!

Longer term it definitely could do with some new springs though. Will do that all after the Dolomite is back on the road. New springs all round, light engine rebuild and the offside bodywork needs some love to clean it up a bit. 

[SiC]

Pulled this out yesterday to give it a run. The plan is to use it for my brother-in-law wedding to take him to the venue.

It was rather grumpy when first starting up in storage. Stalled twice when revving and a slight misfire. Smoothed out and seemed to be fine since. I imagine it was just possibly a bit too much choke and slightly flooded when trying to get it running from sitting.


As Mrs SiC doesn't fully trust the car still, she wanted it to prove itself. So today we went down to Sidmouth in Devon to see my parents. En-route stopping off at the Haynes Museum Breakfast Meet.

So pictures first of that...
Apologies if there are any repeats. Tapatalk has a habit of messing up photos and overwriting the photo with another.






Didn't go into the museum this time but had a gander at the Williams F1 cars on show.




Close up of those red flashing lights on the back of the F1 cars. This amusingly looks hand soldered and not very waterproof.




Looks much better engineered




Workshop was open and you could see the stuff they were working on at the moment. Car park had some proper chod waiting there for their turn in being refurbished.

[SiC]

Next up was Sidmouth.


Then finally Lyme Regis


Watched the Lifeboat do an emergency launch. I imagine someone got stuck walking between places on the coast with the tide coming in.

 

 

Then the 2 hour drive back. 170 miles without a hitch.

Except I decided to tighten up the boot hatch springs. Left one sheered off. Then decided in my infinite wisdom to tighten the right hand. Which sheered too 🤦





Removed them completely as I didn't want them exploding while under tension and smashing the screen. So now the boot has nothing holding it up.

 

 

[busmansholiday]

Liked for getting there and back, not the boot support failure.

Keep fancying going to Haynes when I'm down that way, preferably in something they don't do a manual for.

[SiC]

7 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

Keep fancying going to Haynes when I'm down that way, preferably in something they don't do a manual for.

They don't do a manual for anything now! The publishing arm was sold out and now no relation to the museum at all anymore. 

Museum is well worth a visit though.

[cort16]

Some great cars there. I love that beige Rolls Royce camargue at the start.

I went to the Retro Rides gathering there years ago and though the museum was brilliant. I'd love to visit it again one day.

[GMcD]

GT looking great 🙂. You seemed to have had a good bit of dry weather for it too, it's done nothing but tip it here for the last week. 

[Crackers]

I bet that Honda-swapped Dolomite is a riot to drive. Conversion looks nicely done too. 

[Tomtom]

A quality MGB fail there! Looks like you can get new studs from Moss though.

Boot Lid - MGB & MGB GT (1962-80) - Boot Lid & Fittings - Body & Chassis - MGB, C & V8 - MG - Shop by Model (moss-europe.co.uk)

 

[SiC]

14 hours ago, Tomtom said:

A quality MGB fail there! Looks like you can get new studs from Moss though.

Boot Lid - MGB & MGB GT (1962-80) - Boot Lid & Fittings - Body & Chassis - MGB, C & V8 - MG - Shop by Model (moss-europe.co.uk)

 

Its item 39 Pivot that has sheered. NLA and has been for a long time unfortunately. Annoyingly it must still be made as you can buy new replacement springs. Given the price of them, I find it hard to justify spending that much for two. Instead I'm going to give welding on a new thread a go and see how well that works. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

As an alternative to the springs, is there a gas strut kit out there that would be a direct replacement?

[SiC]

19 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

As an alternative to the springs, is there a gas strut kit out there that would be a direct replacement?

There is but I personally think it looks a bit rubbish on a BGT. 

https://mgbhive.co.uk/product/mgb-gt-tailgate-telescopic-gas-strut-kit/

Requires the mounts at the bottom drilling and bolting in. I'd probably weld them but I guess they wouldn't sell many kits if they did that. 

To me it feels like a kit that exists for those that want to save money, more than anything else. 

[Tomtom]

Good plan. I managed a surprisingly neat welded repair to mine at the top pivot a couple of years ago.  

 

[SiC]

I'm not usually the car washing type of person. At most a rub down with a sponge. Polishing is a very rare thing for me to do as it takes forever and it'll get dirty again anyway.

But this weekend it's my Brother-in-laws wedding and he wanted a car. I decided to take the BGT over anything else as (apart from the only working classic) I've had it long enough (over 4yrs now!) that it's pretty much a keeper. Also want to get the miles on it this year. Hopefully it won't let me down tomorrow!

Anyhow I hose it down.


Then spent a good 3 hours polishing with T Cut original. I'm sure there are more advanced products out there and I've probably got them in the garage, but after trying on the Morris Minor I found it worked really well on cellulose paint.

After all this effort it looked like this. I won't deny, I can't tell too much difference. Auto-exposure won't be helping here either. Slightly deeper colours in person though and less of the cloudy Cellulose look.


Then I waxed it. Cocked up here a bit as I used Collinite 476s for the first time and didn't follow the instructions. It says do a 2ft² section at a time. As the car is small, I just did the whole thing and then rubbed down after. What I didn't realise is that it flashes off pretty quickly and when it does, goes like concrete. I chose this wax as I have read it has excellent longevity and protects the paint well - for a good year apparently.

By that point it was getting dark and I was having to rub down while holding a lamp. I was fearing what it would look like in the morning but thankfully it isn't too bad. Up close you can see the milky residue but you have to look hard.

Internet says if you put another thin layer on, the fresh solvents allow you to take off excess.


The one issue with this colour is that bugs seem to love it. Which is fine until you have product on it and they get stuck to it.



Not fixed the boot struts yet and not sure I'll get time. Hopefully they won't be wanting a photo sat on the tailgate!

[SiC]

Stuck another coat of wax on. This time I did a small square instead of doing the whole thing. Much easier to polish off when it's slightly wet still.



Decided to have a go fixing the boot struts.

Ground off the remaining stub.


Chopped the end off a bolt and then welded on it on


Spent a lot of time grinding it down to make it fit. Both so it slid into the bottom piece and also so the top could turn. I did pad out the gap with washers. Right on the edge of fitting the spring on.




I need replacement caps as these are all broken up.


The other side I welded the stud on while in the arm. Not sure this was the best idea as ended up having it too far out and harder to weld. Was rather difficult to not catch the arm when grinding.




The arm itself had worn down.



Welded on a washer. Again I buggered up as should have welded on the side less visible. Couldn't put another washer on as the gap is too wide and catches the trim in the boot. Also lopped down the stud as it was too long.


But the boot is now holding up. Also the rattle that always used to be in the boot has gone. Still needs some fettling as when fully open the angle isn't quite right to push down to close.

[Tomtom]

Looks like a good job in a fiddly location. The mountings on the body are slotted so there is some adjustment available there. (At least they're slotted on mine either by design or years of wear.)

The car paintwork looks great. If the BiL gets cold feet he can always say you had to phone the AA from the nearest pub...

[SiC]

Wedding went well. Mrs SiC cake went down a treat. Fruit cake, cookie dough and chocolate orange, depending on the tier.


Car looked a completely different colour now it's been polished and waxed. Rain beads off too which I believe is a good thing.



Hit a satisfying mileage on the way back.


But the journey was not all great. I started to get misfire and lumpy running on the travel home. Thankfully I went back roads rather than the motorway. It wasn't constant and did it intermittently. When I eased off, it wasn't as bad.

Managed to get it home. Felt a bit less power than it should have to be honest. I'm hoping that it's something simple like a loose plug, wire, vac line or similar. Kinda wondering if it's fuel starvation too.

Bit gutted its playing up as I thought I got it nailed. At least it behaved itself when it needed to most while getting me home and dry.



Plan is to check in roughly this order:
- loose plug leads + cap
- loose plugs
- plug condition
- inside cap
- cut open/replace fuel filter
- vac line
- compression
- tappets

[busmansholiday]

What fuel did you put in, E10?.

 

 

 

[SiC]

What fuel did you put in, E10?.
 
 
 

Only put super in, so E5.
Had half a tank of Tesco Super the other day locally Then another half tank of Esso Super before I left to go to the wedding in Newbury. Finally filled up half tank again with Tesco Super in Newbury.

TL;DR Tesco and Esso Super Unleaded

[Saabnut]

Try a new rotor arm from a reputable supplier if it has been changed in the last few years, there are so many shite ones about these days it is a regular problem.

[TheOtherStu]

That's a lovely looking MGB there. The polishing looked great to me, but as you said, it may have been the exposure.

I think we've discussed in here before, but a FYI, despite the markings, Esso Super is E0.

[SiC]

Just had a quick check over. Nothing seems particularly amiss on the ignition side.

Plug wires connected firmly, low tension wires seem all solid, plugs all tight in the block, cap+rotor pretty clean, vac line attached and not appearing split and for good measure the dash pot oil levels are correct. Screw top of number one plug was a little loose but no obvious arcing.

Cap and rotor



There was these deposits on the magnetic pickup. I've cleaned them off but they didn't go up the rotor arm.


LT wiring is fresh. Note Accuspark coil. Not exactly a brand known for their consistency. I've done a few thousand miles on it, so didn't change it when going 123Igniton.


Fuel filter is pretty clean. Almost all of the fuel system is not that old so expect it to be really.


This top of the plug was loose. A possibility but I'd have expected to see witness marks from arcing if it wasn't making the best contact.


Plug 1


Plug 2


Plug 3


Plug 4


I've never been great at reading plugs but one and two look a little off to me. Google says white deposits are possible misfire. Also on the lean side?

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Saabnut said:

Try a new rotor arm from a reputable supplier if it has been changed in the last few years, there are so many shite ones about these days it is a regular problem.

I'm on 123 Ignition now. One big advantage is that you can use parts from Beru and Bosch, so a bit more consistency in manufacturing quality than the repro parts. Original cap and rotor that came with it - iirc Beru parts of German origin.

Not ruling out the Dizzy entirely but I'd be highly surprised if it was failing.

3 hours ago, TheOtherStu said:

That's a lovely looking MGB there. The polishing looked great to me, but as you said, it may have been the exposure.

I think we've discussed in here before, but a FYI, despite the markings, Esso Super is E0.

Strictly speaking it's E5 Maximum and Esso Super isn't 0% everywhere. But yeah that's why I fill up at Esso when I can, despite it being quite a premium. Only filled up at Tesco locally as they were the only one with Super at the time and happened to be passing one at the time on the way back.

I'd be highly surprised if it was the fuel itself. The half tank of Tesco Super got me to Devon without trouble (mixed with 6+ month old fuel). The Tesco on the way back got 60miles without trouble either. 

At least with the fuel shortages, the filling station tanks will have been refilled up with fresh fuel reasonably recently without it sitting for a long period.

[TheOtherStu]

35 minutes ago, SiC said:

At least with the fuel shortages, the filling station tanks will have been refilled up with fresh fuel reasonably recently without it sitting for a long period.

If you read the conspiracy theorists, this was a ruse to get all the petrol replaced.

If you actually understand the lifecycle from drilling through refining through to the forecourt, petrol and diesel doesn't generally sit around. We don't have enough storage.

[Noel Tidybeard]

try something other than ngk sparkies- my a-series maestro only ever ran wank on ngk never had a problem with the bosch that replaced them