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


SiC

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There again, it's a matter of preference on the wheel.

 

I'm close to 6'3" and not exactly a small guy, and even though the stock wheel is big(mine is the same diameter as yours) I find it really to only get in the way a bit when I'm getting in and out of the car. As I said, I like-in general-how MGs drive with large diameter wheels as opposed to 14" wheels.

 

If Moss Europe sells it, you might consider the 1980 LE wheel. It's a 14" thick rim wheel with "finger breaker" spokes

 

https://mossmotors.com/l-e-steering-wheel-assembly

 

I like it a bit better than the Mota-Lita wheel(which is what I'm guessing you're looking at). When assembled, it doesn't have any exposed bolts in the hub. Of course, I should mention that you will need a pre-77 hub(the splines are different). It also doesn't have any provision for a horn button. I can't remember exactly when the horn moved back to the center(my 70 has it on the indicator stalk) but it moved back again to the stalk with the 77 interior refresh. This may or may not be a problem for you.

 

Also, if you haven't yet removed the original steering wheel, here's the way I learned to do it

 

 

I've done it by myself by using a BFH directly on the wheel nut, although you are better off with a helper for the intermediate hammer. I don't recall when home market cars got the collapsible steering column-it came in 1968 in the US-but if you have one you need to be careful as you can break the nylon bushing and cause the column to collapse whether using a wheel puller or the BFH method.

 

Also, once the wheel is off once you WILL have it off again(it may take a couple of tries to get it centered). To make your life easier, first of all put some anti-seize on the splines. Second, you don't need to wrench the nut down tight. Snug it up, pull on the wheel to make sure it feels tight, and then go for a drive on your favorite twisty road. If you feel the wheel "pop" while driving(don't worry, there's no danger of it coming off as long as the nut is there) put an extra quarter turn or so, but no more, on the nut. When you go to pull it again, if you've done this, you can probably get it off again just by pulling. Just remember-when pulling the wheel, leave the nut on the center when initially breaking it loose from the splines-otherwise when it gives it can go flying into other parts of your car or into your face.

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I see a flaw in this advice

 

Reading back a bit, I see why :)

 

I've had some some common break-downs(bad points, etc) and some rather obscure ones(coil going bad during a drive, which never happens, and a rust booger in a fuel line that would allow the car to drive for ~1 mile at a time) but it's never left me stranded.

 

You rarely get no warning and a complete, total failure. My car has also never left me stranded.

 

BTW, a B is an easy one-man-push operation as long as you don't have to push it uphill, but I've never been out on my own that I didn't have someone stop and help. When my coil failed in a most unusual set of circumstances, I had a good quarter mile to get to a parking lot and get out of the way. A police officer was nice enough to come behind me and close the lane, while a semi blocked an intersection and all three of us pushed the car up a slight grade into a parking lot.

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Still reading back through this thread-

 

On the fluctuating oil pressure gauge:

 

Try disconnecting the the flex line that runs from the block to the hard line. Clean this out well, and also clean out the orifice to which this connects in the block. If you're feeling ambitious, disconnect the hard line from the back of the gauge and reverse flush it until it comes out clean also(have a fresh leather washer on hand-you don't want oil spraying out the back of the gauge). A bit of sludge or other gunk anywhere in these can make the gauge "jumpy" and also make the pressure read low.

 

68-72 US market cars had an electric oil pressure gauge. It has its issues, but one nice thing is that the gauge is pretty heavily damped and does not show rapid fluctuations. It actually behaves almost identically to the temperature and fuel level gauges-all are essentially galvanometers that are wired in series with the 10V gauge voltage regulator and gauge sender. The sender is a variable resistor that provides a path to ground. Since the gauge sizes are the same in 68-76 US "Pillow Dash" cars, I've meant to fit a mechanical gauge to my car-I actually have one on hand, but have had bigger fish to fry and haven't felt like digging at the hold down bolts behind the dash(this era oil pressure gauge for the US market-whether electric or mechanical) was rectangular, has a vertically moving needle, and sits between the speedo and tach. BTW, my tach is a post '73 RVC type, and my speedo is a post-74.5 1400 tpm to match my later side-fill gearbox. The tach took a bit of rewiring, but otherwise I just swapped the bezels to match.

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I probably should sell my MGB and buy this back.

86518d19690ee5f7bdafa253de8cfb7c.jpg

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F192617616588

 

The two living happily together can be seen on the very first picture on this thread. It's the one car I regret selling.

post-20071-0-38567200-1501188513.jpg

 

I did 8 times the mileage in that in 6 ish months than I did in the MGB in a year. I even drove it back from the sellers house with a dodgy gearbox that threatened to shift into netural and loose all drive. Not sure whats happened to me in the last year...

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I did 8 times the mileage in that in 6 ish months than I did in the MGB in a year. I even drove it back from the sellers house with a dodgy gearbox that threatened to shift into netural and loose all drive. Not sure whats happened to me in the last year...

You bought a modern car with electrical gremlins (which you like and everyone else has the fear) where the MGB gives us (people who fear electric) a happy warm glow when it is breaking down as we can fix it with a stone found on the ground compared to the full laboratory of tools required for electric stuff!

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If you're concerned about breaking down and blocking traffic etc. take it for a run early in the morning on a weekend.

If it breaks down you're not late for work and there's not much traffic, just pigeons standing gormlessly in the middle of the road.

As other people have said the worst thing you can do is to not run it.

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It's an old MG doing what old MGs many old British cars do - rattly valve gear, dodgy Smiths instruments with the pointers in them doing random things and carbs going out of tune.

 

One thing that does niggle me reading this thread is you're frightened to take the Emmjeee out because reliability concerns, yet you've decided to rebuilt an 1100 and I'll assume you'll be using that when completed.

 

The 1100 will be just as reliable as the MG. Both will be reliable if they're used regularly and maintained regularly.

 

For (insert entity of choice)'s sake either use this car or sell it before it DOES go bad.

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One thing that does niggle me reading this thread is you're frightened to take the Emmjeee out because reliability concerns, yet you've decided to rebuilt an 1100 and I'll assume you'll be using that when completed.

 

They are essentially the same era/quality of tech.

 

In fairness the only reason I'm happy to blat about in the Doloshite is that it has only ever broken down twice in a way that I couldn't nurse it home over the last 15,000 miles, both of those times I still managed to get it going at the side of the road and drive it home but it required assistance from people bringing tools/supplies to the car. If worst come to worst I could push the car some place out of the way of traffic and immobilise it fairly easily and come back to it later.

The only time it's been on the back of a truck was when I was moving it between storage locations during it's 2 year lay-up, largely down to my lack of time/money to actually get the car repaired.

 

Here are some of my breakdowns and solutions:

 

Car repeatedly refusing to start when I first got it - Endless fucking about with choke settings and throttle levels, massive amounts of cranking and swearing. Eventually I got around to fitting electronic ignition (original points set-ups are fine but repo parts are garbage).

Car snapped a rocker arm - Drove home on three cylinders.

Headgasket failure (twice) - Kept topping up coolant for weeks, drove home in a cloud of steam after complete failure.

Clutch hydraulics leaking out - Mostly just topped it up, if it did run out I just drove home without a clutch...

Exhaust fell off (twice) - Picked it up with pliers and lobbed it in the boot.

Alternator died - Abandoned car on a verge for the day, came back with a charged battery and drove it home that night.

Starter died (twice) - A mixture of bump and push starts. Always used to park the car on a hill when I could as I knew the starter was tired.

Electrical circuit No.2 of 2 died - Wiggled cables and fuse box until it worked again. Eventually sanded the contacts.

Overheating - Had an air lock in the system, abandoned car. Came back with more coolant, topped her up, drove home and re-bled system.

Stalling and not restarting when hot - Pushing it out of the way of traffic and leaving it to cool sorts it, a faster solution is blasting some Easy Start down the air filter to get it going again and driving around with the choke at the fast idle setting.

Handbrake not working - Mostly ignored this and left it parked in gear and with the wheels into the curb. Eventually re-furbished the rear brakes.

Rubber carb mounts cracked (1850HL) - Lashed carbs onto manifold with shoelaces.

Overheated (1850HL) - Only time I had to be recovered (Although I did drain the whole coolant system and reflush it at the side of the road), turned out the thermostat had seized. I then ran the car for most of the winter with no thermostat and cardboard radiator muffs...

 

The Acclaim has yet to let me down but I fear when it does parts will be a pain to get. Luckily I do have a spare ignition module which is apparently a common failure.

 

I don't have breakdown cover (haven't since I was dailying the 1850HL) because I'm impossibly cheap...

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Has to be said captain a fair few of these these issues could affect [more] modern cars as well, I'm not going to coin up the usual BL reliability and craftsmanship as it could equally apply to a Rootes/Ford/Vauxhall of the same era.

 

Reliant Scimitar 1 was a reliable old bus, started on the button irrespective of hot/cold, nothing went wrong save the cooling fan crapped out one day and the rad clogged after about a year, but TADTS. 2nd Scimitar was a PITA in every way possible and took a LOT of fettling to get it reliable, which took about 3 years.

 

It's just part & parcel of owning a classic/chod.

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Has to be said captain a fair few of these these issues could affect [more] modern cars as well, I'm not going to coin up the usual BL reliability and craftsmanship as it could equally apply to a Rootes/Ford/Vauxhall of the same era.

 

Indeed, but I'd be less inclined to attempt to drive my Civic on three cylinders or with a popped headgasket and access to certain bits like the starter/alternator leaves a lot to be desired! (It has actually been on a recovery truck more times than the Dolly!)

 

My main point is that I could almost always get the car home under it's own power, despite my lack of knowledge/tools/experience, these ancient cast iron lumps are a lot more forgiving when it comes to running in a bad state of tune or with mechanical issues due to larger tolerances than new(er) alloy stuff. My biggest issue is ignition woes, although that is most because I don't understand electricity in any capacity and the whole system is bodged together with various bits of various kits to form something that largely works most of the time.

 

The car used to be a heap of unreliable shit before I forced it into regular use, it's still a heap of shit but now it'll take a 200 mile trip over a mountain range with no problems.

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Okay so ultimately the major mechanical failures of the vehicle you kept going through (hgf, rocker arm) and general 60's/70's annoyances (failed starter, alternator, fuse, points, fuel vaporization) stop you driving it?

 

1) try find a petrol station that sells fuel without ethanol in. Don't fill up at Asda.

2) there's a reason all my old man's cars had a couple sets of points and a screwdriver in the glove box but you've rectified that now

3) make sure the battery is always well charged

4) now all the bits have been replaced it's less likely to go bad

5) carry a modest toolbox with you. I get very adept at swinging a fully loaded 2-drawer Halfords toolbox behind the seats of my Victor every time I went out. You've got a boot so have no real excuse not to.

6) Psh, Bristol's drivers can be angsty. Go drive when it's not busy. Get out of town. That's why the MGB is the British epitome of the Sunday morning drive.

 

The more you use it, the fewer pieces will fall off or stop working. There aren't really all that many moving parts in an MGB anyway. Window down, smile on, drive.

 

Phil

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If you're concerned about breaking down and blocking traffic etc. take it for a run early in the morning on a weekend.

If it breaks down you're not late for work and there's not much traffic, just pigeons standing gormlessly in the middle of the road.

As other people have said the worst thing you can do is to not run it.

This is what I’ve done with the Mercury. When it’s on/off carb issues were sorted I took it out early in the morning the first few times just to prove it.

The first time I stayed local, took my dad as extra support and went out at about 6 AM on a weekend. It was fine.

So the next time I went a bit later, say 7/8 AM with no passengers and took it further away. When it passed my confidence test that time I went much further away and it was fine.

As most of you might recall (because I was shitting myself about it!) the next time it was used was as a mates wedding car on a hot day! Despite my worries it worked faultlessly and there was a lot of pressure hanging on it that particular day!

 

Just get the thing out there and use it, I guarantee it’ll be fine and you’ll actually enjoy it. Nothing beats a nice day, nice roads and a classic car.

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Ever since seeing your thread ive fancied getting an mgb gt. They seem such a bargain at the mo although i suspect my budget is in the rubber bumper model in russet brown with orange deck chair seats :-) anyways i digress hope you build the trust and use more. I had similar issues with my subaru pick up and after 9 months of pi$$ing about im at a stage where I feel i can trust it (just)... tentative interest logged just in case you do sell and its in my budget!!!

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I think you've made a good car even better. The care and attention (not to mention cash!) you've spent on this has made it a very nice example indeed.

 

If I was you I would sell it on while it's in such good order, and hopefully net a small profit out of it.

 

You have the 1100 to keep you occupied tinkering wise and if you bought the roadster back you'd have something to put fun mileage onto.

 

Sent from my F3211 using Tapatalk

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You know that nervous feeling when you go into an interview? Or that feeling of dread when your boss calls you into his office unexpectedly?

 

I get both of these just sat in this car when driving it on the road. My mind tells me that I've sorted everything that possibly could break and it's very unlikely to. Everything you've all said makes absolute sense and I know it. However the inexplicable anexity I get is what I'm trying to work out why and overcome.

 

Last time I went out was with the father-in-law as above wih grand* plans to go for a 40-50 mile trip. However 20mins along, the engine didn't feel as smooth and was quite lumpy. I couldn't take it anymore and had to turn back. Got back perfectly fine but still not as smooth as it was - revs had dropped back 100-200rpm or so too. Probably absolutely fine or something simple like the carbs needing tweaking after being actually driven and clearing out the engine a bit.

 

I do really want to drive this, go out to enjoy and not worry. I really do and why I haven't sold it. But I get that massive sinking feeling in the stomach everytime I take it out of the garage and get onto the main road.

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