My (US, LHD) 1970 MGB

[1970mgb]

Alright, so the full story that deserves telling.

Buckle up as this will be quite a tale!

As I mentioned, I dropped the car off with a(formerly) trusted local shop back in April for the overdrive install, and after they got into it, I gave the okay for a full engine rebuild. I decided to go ahead and undertake  my "dream" rebuild that would increase flywheel horsepower to ~110 and just really pep up the car. The recipe for that was:

1. Increase compression ratio to a target 9.5:1

2. Fit a ported and polished 12H2923 "Big Valve" cylinder head

3. Fit a Delta D9 cam(a street performance cam).

The shop pulled some favors and got the block and crank taken care of quick at the machine shop-less than 2 weeks. The machine shop specified a 30 overbore and 10-10 grind on the crank, so I pulled some strings, contacted a(non-Moss) vendor who had bearings and pistons in stock, and had bearings and pistons in their hands quickly(the shop wouldn't cut the block without pistons in hand, which I appreciated). 

I also managed to get a rush order on a ported a polished cylinder head-pictured above. At the same time, I opted to switch over to the later 18V-style connecting rods, which lighter and also spin a bit freer since the pistons only have two compression rings rather than three on the earlier style pistons. I supplied rods and the correct pistons, which are friction fit(so a machine shop job). The machine shop resized the big ends, fitted ARP hardware, and balanced the rods with the pistons fitted. In short, they did a BEAUTIFUL job, and I was able to see the results before assembly.

The local mechanic I was working with did the bottom end assembly fairly quickly, and it looked phenomenal. Along the way, I did a few other things like have the original HS4 carbs from the car rebuilt(they were in bad shape, and I had been running a serviceable but still worn set).

I knew at that point I'd be moving in August, so had been leaning on the shop to have it done by then. It...wasn't. I kept pushing them for more dates. I got married in October, and REALLY wanted to have the car for my new bride and I to drive away from the wedding despite my saying that I really wanted it for that(at this point nearly 6 months in and engine done). Didn't happen... Despite COVID, we still managed to take a small, short, fairly isolated honeymoon, and while there I got a Facebook message from my mechanic saying he "didn't put two and two together" that I wanted to car for the wedding, apologized, and asked me what color I wanted the engine.

I stayed in touch, even though I was now 300 miles away, and emphasized that my wife and I would be in town at Thanksgiving(end of November) and I expected to be able to pick up the car then. I was in town two weeks prior, saw the engine run, and was told "Yeah, no problem, we'll have it for you then." I'd been in touch the entire trip in at Thanksgiving, was told some last minute stuff that needed to be taken care of, but was assured it would be ready. That was on a Friday morning. Saturday evening rolls around, and I'm still texting, and am told it's running rough, has no power, and is backfiring. I looked at photos I'd take a few weeks prior and saw that the plug wires were connected backwards(2 and 3 swapped) which will do that and suggested trying that. He insists they're right, but basically the conclusion is I'm not getting it.

I got a little bit more forceful and said that I would be picking it up, whatever condition, on Dec. 21st. Unfortunately, in there, my dad came down with COVID, and we ended up not going for Christmas(he fortunately was fine other than being slow/crummy feeling for a week and a half or so). My wife and I went right after new year's, and again I reiterated my intent to pick the car up.

5:00PM on the day I said I wanted it, I got a call that it was out in front of the shop. My wife drove me down, and I went in to settle up the bill. I paid an additional $1K for close to $4K total plus the rebuild parts I'd supplied(pistons, cam, etc), but we were there.

Unfortunately, I take off for the 10 mile trip to my parents house, my wife following, and it's BAD. I can't get over 30mph. We get back, I stew it over, check the plugs, and of course 2 and 3 are reversed. I change them to be correct and it won't start at all. Finally, I play a bit more and realized the distributor drive is "upside down" relative to the manual orientation with #1 firing rotor bottom left. I hook it up according to that, and the car is alive again with far more pep than I've ever know.

Still, though, since he'd been tuning it on one cylinder, things were screwed up beyond believe. I managed to get the carbs tuned to some semblence of correct, and set off for the 300 mile trip home. It wouldn't idle below 2K and there was a bunch I wasn't happy with, but it otherwise ran great.

I've spent the couple weeks since going completely through it and have it running really sweetly now, and I'll tell more in the coming days, but that's the story of getting  it.

BTW, I did have them put a 16 gallon "Touring" gas tank on it. Moss sold these for a while but quit offering them, and I'm not sure why. I wanted a new tank(figure it deserves one every 50 years or so) and this wasn't much more, so it's on there and I'm SUPER happy with it.

[Minimad5]

Hope the garage has refunded some money, as that is rather poor.

[1970mgb]

58 minutes ago, Minimad5 said:

Hope the garage has refunded some money, as that is rather poor.

Not a penny. I managed to negotiate about $200 off the final ticket, which is pretty small change given how much overall it was.

I could/should have put up a fight, but to be honest after 9 months of being jerked around I was kind of at the point of writing whatever size check it took to get the shop owner to hand me the keys.

Oh, BTW, here's some more of the story:

As I mentioned, once I sorted out the plug wires, the carbs were WAY lean. I richened them out and drove back, but it still wasn't "right."

The first sort of order of business I attacked was that the carb linkages were a mess. I wish I'd taken a photo, but among other things they were installed "upside down." I was taught that the nuts should be on top so that they can easily be tightened and loosened, so of course had to pull them to do that. Also, it's not technically "correct" but I like(and took it to them this way) to have a return spring on the throttle cable attachment as I find it makes for snappier throttle closing. Once it was all set up that way, though, it was all good and I could get them synced.  I reset the mixture to "default" on both carbs-screw the jets all the way up and then down 2 turns(12 flats).

Of course, before actually setting them, I went though and tuned it up in the proper order. The valves were set with zero lash. Actually, rather they don't necessarily go zero lash, but rather they use one of the Snap-on Valve tools(which I have and like) and set the valves while the engine is running and hot until they can no longer be heard making noise. This is a discussion this garage and I have had many times, and every time they've touched my car I've reset the valves as soon as I got it home since I was taught that a solid lifter valve train should have some amount of lash. The cam card and my instructions multiple times were to set to 16 thou(stock is 15 thou cold, so that's not a crazy number). So, I got them all set there and got the nice familiar "sewing machine" sound from the valve train.

They'd put pointy cheap iridium plugs in it, so I had great pleasure tossing them across the garage and putting a set of NGK BP6ES plugs in. Those plugs are no longer made, so first of all I'm kind of unhappy that they dumped the perfectly good ones it came in with, but at least I have several sets hoarded. They'd lost one of the wires out of my plug wires and had put a random one on it, but Autozone came to the rescue and got me a set of NGK wires(which are inexpensive and IMO some of the best on the market) for $20 the next day. 

The timing was advanced a nutty amount-base dynamic timing(no vac) was around 30º. I'm fortunate I didn't burn a hole in a piston driving home, and that's also probably why I couldn't get the idle acceptably low. I got it set to my preferred 32º max mechanical advance, and it was all happy(albeit I started with 10º static just to get it running).

Then, of course, came the fun carb set up cycle, which I actually kind of enjoy. In any case, I got them balanced linkages slack, set the linkages, and got the mixture dialed in and then got a nice steady ~950rpm idle. This cam gets kind of lumpy idling at ~800-850, which I know is where MGs normally like to idle.

Once I'd finished that tune, I started it up and it ran beautifully. I went in and asked my wife if she wanted to go for a ride, and she agreed and brought the dog. We took a nice slow little cruise around(I didn't get out of 3rd) then I dropped her off and really beat on it. I pulled over a few times to make some carb tweaks, but got it really dialed in.

In all of that, though, I noticed that the temperature gauge only got about halfway between C and N, and the heat was not blowing very fast. I texted the mechanic and asked what temperature thermostat he'd put in, and he said he'd "find out" but never got back to me. I had my strong suspicions it was 160º, so just went and bought a 195º Tstat. As a side note, the B series engine takes the same size thermostat as a small block Chevy, so in the US it's a $5 part available in stock at nearly any parts store in the country. When in doubt, walk in, tell them you're working on a 73 Impala with a 305, or just make up any other 70s Chevy with whatever displacement V8 you care to say, and they'll have it in stock(fortunately every chain does cross it to MGBs in their system). In any case, I pulled the old, and sure enough it was 160º. Of course, the hotter thermostat meant retuning the carbs, but not by a drastic amount.

The engine is now at least running great. After the 300 mile trip back, I dumped their SAE 30 "break in oil" and dropped in some Valvoline VR-1 20W-50. Fortunately, oil consumption is WAY down from the first ~150 miles(when it went through almost 2 quarts) so I think the rings are nearly seated.

I can't blame this one on them, but I'd seriously neglected a weepy rear wheel cylinder for a while. Consequently, last week was spent making far too many trips to the parts store to do the rear brakes. The drums measured out at 10.05" and have a maximum diameter of 10.06 inches, but were otherwise fine. No one will turn them that close to max, so I just decided to run them and forget about it. I need to get back and readjust them after they've been driven a few miles and have seated/bedded in better.

Also, in all of that, I found a leak in the "PDWA" valve. I'm not sure if UK market cars ever got this, but basically there's an "H" block on the wing of dual circuit cars with a shuttle valve that moves if a pressure difference exists between the front and rear circuit, and then turns on a light on the dash. It's kind of pointless since your foot will tell you just as fast if you have a brake failure, and the light almost never works anyway. Even worse, the shuttle valve leaks and allows "crosstalk" between the front and rear circuit, plus will leak out the switch for the light. Someone on the MG forum rebuilds them with the shuttle valve removed and the passage plugged so the circuits are truly independent. He's out of the business but had a few around still, and actually gave me one for the cost of shipping.

I have a really pesky oil leak in the transmission, and also it came back to me with the speedometer dead. I FINALLY wrested the driven gear out of the transmission and found a flat spot on it. Fortunately, Moss stocks this driven gear for $40, so I've ordered one. I also ordered a screen and gasket kit for the overdrive, so I'll drain the transmission, do a quick clean-up of the accessible parts of the OD(should have done it before it went into the car) and hopefully fix the leak.

One last thing-driving home, the gearstick nearly drove me crazy. I pulled it all apart, and sure enough they'd omitted the anti-rattle bushing. I'd supplied a new one, plus there was a perfectly serviceable one on the transmission they removed. It's a $2 part, but still I have to deal with it. It's in my order.

[SiC]

8 hours ago, 1970mgb said:

BTW, I did have them put a 16 gallon "Touring" gas tank on it. Moss sold these for a while but quit offering them, and I'm not sure why. I wanted a new tank(figure it deserves one every 50 years or so) and this wasn't much more, so it's on there and I'm SUPER happy with it.

These are still readily available from Moss UK. When I replaced my tank the other year I did consider one as they were at the time slightly cheaper than the Canadian tank you can get. They were out of stock though and my local branch said they were on a reasonably long lead time from their supplier. I ended up with a Canadian tank as I couldn't really see the advantage of the Heritage tank apart from the baffles. I'm not tracking mine, so unlikely to have fuel starvation issues from no baffles.

Looking at their UK website they appear in stock and readily available. Maybe product liability laws in the US or still waiting for the shipment to get across?

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/shop-by-model/mg/mgb-c-v8/fuel-system-induction-controls/tanks-pumps-pipes-fittings/touring-fuel-tanks-mgb-53902.html

 

4 hours ago, 1970mgb said:

They'd put pointy cheap iridium plugs in it, so I had great pleasure tossing them across the garage and putting a set of NGK BP6ES plugs in. Those plugs are no longer made, so first of all I'm kind of unhappy that they dumped the perfectly good ones it came in with, but at least I have several sets hoarded.

I've not heard any supply issues over here of them. These plugs are pretty much the defacto standard for BL/BMC classics. A-series, B-Series, Standard SC and even the Jag V12 in the E-type takes those plugs. So should be plenty of market for them. There are the resistor versions available too and not heard any suggestions that they are replacing the non-resistor plugs. 

If they're NLA in the US, then you should always be able to order them from here. Certainly at the moment.

The real preferred classic choice here is NOS Champion plugs. Still readily available from the sales sections in Classic Car Shows, I've been tempted to get a set and give them a go. It's the old NOS Champion plugs that are the ones to go for, the new ones are crap.

4 hours ago, 1970mgb said:

Also, in all of that, I found a leak in the "PDWA" valve. I'm not sure if UK market cars ever got this, but basically there's an "H" block on the wing of dual circuit cars with a shuttle valve that moves if a pressure difference exists between the front and rear circuit, and then turns on a light on the dash.

Later rubber bumper cars (around 77 on) got them with the dual circuit brakes here. Also Land Rovers, Midget, Minis, Stag, TR6, etc and many other "classic" cars that got upgraded with dual circuit brakes in the late 70s also got them. Apart from leaking they also get out of line when bleeding the brakes and pumping the pedal. I believe repair kits are available for some and I see the LR has a replacement one available. No idea on its quality though. Instead of blanking the valve, could you join the input+output on both sides with a coupler? Effectively removing it completely from the brake circuit.

[SiC]

No idea for sure if these are NOS, but they look in a suitably battered old style box:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264936110558

 

[Mrs6C]

Glad you got it all back and generally made up well and to your specification, even if the garage did drop the ball towards the end. Sounds about run-in, now. Had the head bolts loosened up much?

[1970mgb]

4 hours ago, SiC said:

These are still readily available from Moss UK. When I replaced my tank the other year I did consider one as they were at the time slightly cheaper than the Canadian tank you can get. They were out of stock though and my local branch said they were on a reasonably long lead time from their supplier. I ended up with a Canadian tank as I couldn't really see the advantage of the Heritage tank apart from the baffles. I'm not tracking mine, so unlikely to have fuel starvation issues from no baffles.

Looking at their UK website they appear in stock and readily available. Maybe product liability laws in the US or still waiting for the shipment to get across?

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/shop-by-model/mg/mgb-c-v8/fuel-system-induction-controls/tanks-pumps-pipes-fittings/touring-fuel-tanks-mgb-53902.html

 

Okay, I was totally wrong on that. For a while Moss US had quit selling them, but I just checked and they're back.

When I talked to my parts guy(NOT MOSS) he talked me out of a baffled one even though he could get it. It was a bit more expensive, but he said basically that the baffles were kind of a joke in them and didn't do much. He does race(MGAs) and said that he doesn't consider the baffles benefit on his race car.

4 hours ago, SiC said:

9 hours ago, 1970mgb said:

 

I've not heard any supply issues over here of them. These plugs are pretty much the defacto standard for BL/BMC classics. A-series, B-Series, Standard SC and even the Jag V12 in the E-type takes those plugs. So should be plenty of market for them. There are the resistor versions available too and not heard any suggestions that they are replacing the non-resistor plugs. 

If they're NLA in the US, then you should always be able to order them from here. Certainly at the moment.

The real preferred classic choice here is NOS Champion plugs. Still readily available from the sales sections in Classic Car Shows, I've been tempted to get a set and give them a go. It's the old NOS Champion plugs that are the ones to go for, the new ones are crap.

 

There's been quite a discussion on the US MG forum that NGK was no longer going to make the BP6ES. They list the BPR6ES as a replacement, and while it's fine I much prefer a non-resistor plug since resistor wires are standard issue.

It's a shame Champion quality has taken a dive in the past few years. I agree on NOS Champion N9Ys, but it's been a while since I've seen any.

John Twist use to be adamant about N9Ys, but he's told me that the last few years his shop was open, he had so many tuning issues and come-backs that were resolved with NGK plugs that he quit even keeping them on hand. It's a shame such a great brand has gone into the toilet.

4 hours ago, SiC said:

Later rubber bumper cars (around 77 on) got them with the dual circuit brakes here. Also Land Rovers, Midget, Minis, Stag, TR6, etc and many other "classic" cars that got upgraded with dual circuit brakes in the late 70s also got them. Apart from leaking they also get out of line when bleeding the brakes and pumping the pedal. I believe repair kits are available for some and I see the LR has a replacement one available. No idea on its quality though. Instead of blanking the valve, could you join the input+output on both sides with a coupler? Effectively removing it completely from the brake circuit.

Lat US cars got the PDWA installed in the master cylinder-not sure if it was the same in the UK. Rebuild kits are available for them.

Basically, the modified valve I installed is doing exactly as you suggest-it's turning the valve into a pair of couplers, although I realize I may have not explained that correctly. At the end of the day, it's still a high quality brass fitting with the troublesome shuttle valve in the center of it. What I have now does just completely block off the passage for the shuttle valve. I suppose the advantage to doing this over using unions is that it's nice, simple, and bolts up like it was made to be there(since it was) without having to work around the brake lines too much. I'm assuming UK cars are configured the same as the US ones where the rear brakes would need a straight-through union and the fronts need a T. This now is just those correct ones cast into a one nice little body.

[1970mgb]

2 hours ago, Mrs6C said:

Glad you got it all back and generally made up well and to your specification, even if the garage did drop the ball towards the end. Sounds about run-in, now. Had the head bolts loosened up much?

A head retorque is actually on my to-do list for this week. It can be a bit of a religious topic as to whether or not heads should be retorqued with composite gaskets, but I'm in the "can't hurt" camp . It's not given me any indication of the head needing a retorque, but there again it can't work.

My hesitation has been two fold. For one, they painted the head bolts after it was assembled, and I'm afraid I'll need to wire brush the studs to avoid getting an incorrect torque reading(although it SHOULDN'T matter for the amount done for a retorque).

The other reason-and this may seem silly-is that I was teaching my wife tire changing, a skill I thought she should have, and she did great other than dropping my 1/2" drive torque wrench(I figured she should get the "full picture" and learn to use one even though she's not likely to do it anywhere other than home). I'm not too worried about it for lugnuts, but I'm not sure I trust it for head nuts.

[1970mgb]

I've been on a "neglected maintenance" kick.

A few weeks ago, I started doing the front brakes(which had a lot of meat but definitely were getting thin-thinner than I realized until I put them next to new pads). I'd had pads+rotors on hand for a while. I had also bought new calipers at the time, but decided instead to get adventurous and rebuild the Lockheed calipers.

I guess I never had looked at it closely, but didn't realize the rotors were bolted to the BACK of the hub. I guess that's not a terribly uncommon arrangement on older cars, but it was a first for me after being use to basically just having the rotor sandwiched between the wheel and the hub on the lugnuts as on a modern car. At first I said I'd just leave the old rotors, but was unhappy with it left like this(please excuse my poor rattle can work on the caliper-it was more a rust preventative than anything)

I figured I really should just break down the whole stub axle and service it, and then replace the rotors while doing it.

So, I broke it down to here

I had bought new bearings-they're inexpensive and are an in stock item at most auto parts stores . As it so happens, they are shared with most 70s full size GM cars(which means to me either the GMs are grossly undersized or the MG grossly oversized-I'd lean towards the latter). In any case, though, my old TImkens were perfectly fine after a clean up and repack, so I chose quality Timken over Chinesium replacements.

The hubs were a real bear to separate from the rotors-it took a lot of PB Blaster and heat to get them to cooperate. Fortunately those are a hardware store part, so they got replaced with new.

After that, I spent a while slathering Naval Jelly on the hubs and backing plates, then wire brushing to clean up.

Again, this is ugly rattle can work but at least it looks better than it did and will hopefully not rust for a few weeks at least

All of it back together

 

While apart, I noticed that my tie rod end boots and rack gaiter boots had split. They lasted about 4 years, which I suppose is pretty good for modern replacement rubber parts. Still, though, I ordered replacements(the gaiter boots I chose from "bad" and "slightly less bad").

As project creap goes, though, I decided that I was really overdue for a full front end job. I'd bought some bushings several years ago and never installed them, but just ordered enough to have all of the front end bushings, new hardware, and new springs. Of course I'll break everything down as much as I can and give it the same clean up/rattle can treatment. I'd really like to drop the front crossmember, but will decide if that's TOO much to do or not.

BTW, I was reamed out on another message board(not a car site) for talking about a car that "breaks down every time you drive it." This particular person has a garage full of generic modern American muscle, and apparently the concept of things like having to actually break down a hub to service it rather than just replace it when it goes bad is foreign. This guy also doesn't even do his own oil changes so can't figure out the difference between maintenance and breaking down...still though I enjoy it, and it's fun to show people how things have changed on cars and what really use to be involved in keeping them on the road.

[SiC]

In any case, though, my old TImkens were perfectly fine after a clean up and repack, so I chose quality Timken over Chinesium replacements.

When I worked at the local university for a bit, where in the office I sat was next to the mechanical engineering staff and in particular grinding technology. Grinding is a massive thing in bearing manufacturer and is rather specialist subject. One of the chaps who visited for a few weeks was someone who was heavy in grinding research. Getting chatting, it turned out he was the Chief Engineer of China Grinding Operations for Timken. Apart from being a really nice guy, we got chatting heavily over those weeks and many stories were shared that I won't be able to share on a public forum.

However he did say that a significant proportion of their bearings originate from Chinese factories nowadays (admittedly this was back in 2010). Of course factory of origin is only one part of the story - the reason he lived and worked out there was for keeping on top of manufacturing quality.

I guess I never had looked at it closely, but didn't realize the rotors were bolted to the BACK of the hub. I guess that's not a terribly uncommon arrangement on older cars, but it was a first for me after being use to basically just having the rotor sandwiched between the wheel and the hub on the lugnuts as on a modern car

When I first worked on my MGB, fixed calipers were a revelation to the sliding calipers that I've only ever worked on before. So much easier to work on and less sliding surfaces to seize up. Stuff I worked on before was moderns, I presumed that calipers were all of the sliding variety. 

However since getting my 986 Boxster, I realised that fixed calipers are still used on modern cars but invariably it's the performance stuff that gets them. Presumably because they must be considerably more expensive to manufacture than sliding. The Boxster gets them because a lot of it was a parts bin raid on the 911. 

They also were considerate enough to put a bleed nipple on the outside for easy access.
http://986forum.com/forums/attachments/diy-project-guides/16705d1350863097-rotors-pads-calipers-completed-img_0495.jpg

If all calipers were like that, brake work would be an awful lot easier.

[cort1977]

Good to see this progressing. 

I'm like you with the rattlecans, you always think 'that could look better' and it's a little disappointing.  But the amount of effort it takes to get things looking really good is huge so I settle on a quick spray to keep on top of the rust then get it back together so I can actually drive the thing.

[1970mgb]

3 hours ago, SiC said:

When I first worked on my MGB, fixed calipers were a revelation to the sliding calipers that I've only ever worked on before. So much easier to work on and less sliding surfaces to seize up. Stuff I worked on before was moderns, I presumed that calipers were all of the sliding variety. 

However since getting my 986 Boxster, I realised that fixed calipers are still used on modern cars but invariably it's the performance stuff that gets them. Presumably because they must be considerably more expensive to manufacture than sliding. The Boxster gets them because a lot of it was a parts bin raid on the 911. 

They also were considerate enough to put a bleed nipple on the outside for easy access.
http://986forum.com/forums/attachments/diy-project-guides/16705d1350863097-rotors-pads-calipers-completed-img_0495.jpg

If all calipers were like that, brake work would be an awful lot easier.

It was definitely a surprise to me too.

And yes, I agree that ti's a superior design. On Boxsters and others that use a fixed caliper, can you change the pads without removing the caliper like you can an MG?

I got "ruined" on sliding calipers after an annoyingly sticky sliding pin killed the right rear brake on my Lincoln. I pride myself in staying on top of stuff like this, and I can remember being on the road one day making the ~300 mile trip to my then-girlfriend(now wife's) house. I made my halfway gas/pee/water stop, and when I went to slow down on the interstate heard an almighty roar from the back of the car. I limped into the gas station and found the right rear metal-on-metal seemingly out of nowhere. Since I still had 3 good brakes and the off one was a rear, I decided to just keep on trucking(maybe not the best idea-you don't play with brakes-but I also had other things on my mind).

The car had 50K or so on the clock at the time and still had its factory pads all around. The usual rule of thumb I've heard is fronts at 40K and rears at 80K, but that car has done enough interstate miles that I only did the fronts at about 80K, and even then because "I have the time and the parts to do them now even though the could go longer."

In any case, of course I broke it all down, borrowed the retracting tool from Autozone since Ford does the twist-to-retract rear pistons(not sure if it's related to the handbrake tying into the disk rather than being a separate drum-in-disk), and threw new pads and rotors on both sides. I didn't change the caliper, but took it apart as much as I dared to clean and grease every sliding surface.

A week later, I take off to drive to work. I'd had the handbrake on overnight and it was a chilly morning. I get out onto the street and say "something's not right"-the car is struggling at 35mph and pulling to the right. I'm in decent traffic but am on a surface street, so go about a mile before I can pull over. By that point, I can smell brakes, and in the dim morning light I walk back and see the right rear rotor glowing red. I gave it a minute to cool off, then hopped back in and it was fine. Another trip inside it to regrease it, and it's been fine since, but I check and double check it on cold mornings.

[1970mgb]

On 3/31/2021 at 3:49 AM, cort1977 said:

Good to see this progressing. 

I'm like you with the rattlecans, you always think 'that could look better' and it's a little disappointing.  But the amount of effort it takes to get things looking really good is huge so I settle on a quick spray to keep on top of the rust then get it back together so I can actually drive the thing.

 

Yeah, the rattle can isn't always pretty, but aside from keeping rust at bay, to my eye even a quick rattle can job looks better than rust.

The suspension clean-up is going to be fun. I don't know how to make rust removal more efficient-not sure if I should be looking at an angle grinder with a wire brush, or if I should set up a bench grinder with one of those knotted brushes and just schlep parts over to it as much as possible. I'm afraid I'm going to kill my drill wire brushing things in place, especially given how much time it seems to take to make even a little bit of progress.

 

A few other things for now...I've had these for ages but I finally got around to putting them in. Night and day difference! After I'd fitted them, I asked my wife to come out and look and she said it looked phenomenal. She then said she didn't remember seeing a box big enough for those coming in. I asked her if she remembered those two sheets of masonite that were leaning against the wall inside the front door of my condo every single time she was there over the course of two years. She said yes, and I said "That's where they came from."

The Moss repro bumpers are awful, and my car has had one on the front since before I bought it. I assume the guy who put them on thought it looked better than the old one off, but I couldn't look at it without seeing the terrible fit.

A few weeks ago, I pulled a long day and made a ~400 mile road trip in a day up to mid-east Illinois. I visited my friend Rick and mostly BSed with him for a while-he has a couple of MGBs, an MGC, a 74.5 GT with a Rover V8, and a TD. He also, among other things, makes boot and bonnet strut kits(I've have both for years, and installing are on my to-do list) and also does seat work. He does really nice stock seat redos, but his real specialty is Fiero seats fitted to MGBs. More recently, he has been doing NA Miata seats also, especially since Fiero seats are getting thin on the ground.

The other stop was to visit Pete Mantell, whose speciality is V8 conversions. He does absolutely beautiful work. His power plant of choice these days is the 5L Ford Windor, which does fit really nicely without too much trouble, with aluminum heads is about the same weight as a B  engine, and is still made/sold as a crate engine in both carbureted and FI form. He normally does them anywhere from 300-500HP. He's done his fair share of Rovers, but can get a lot more power out of the Windsor and these days Rover V8s are hard to get in the US. When I was there, he had his first LS swap in progress. He mates all of his conversions to a narrowed 8" Ford rear end, which also fits beautifully.

In any case, Pete sold me a nice, serviceable original bumper

Pete also sold me a set of LE wheels, which I'm not sure if I'll like or not, but they are an MG original alloy wheel. I didn't appreciate, though, that the lugnut is an oddball(needs a 60º tapered seat AND a shank that's about .20" long). Moss sells them for $17...per lugnut. A guy out in California was able to use some local contacts to get custom made ones for me that came to $80 for a set of 20-I'll take it! They arrived Monday, but I haven't done anything with the wheels yet. I'm not sure if I'll like them or not on this car, but I'll see.

I was worried about if the awful tuning had hurt the engine during break-in, but I'm feeling good about this number, which is dead flat across all 4 cylinders.

Last thing-I didn't photograph this, but last summer I'd bought a couple of relay kits from a gentleman up in Canada. He does phenomal work on ready-to-bolt-on kits, and I did fit headlight relays. It's amazing how bright they are, and also I hope my switch will last a long time now.

[cort1977]

Wire brush on an angle grinder is the solution. A knot wheel is even more aggressive.

Just be careful of the parts and yourself...

[PhilA]

Eh, I just run BPR plugs and regular wires.

The radio chatters as much with either combination and the R plugs are much easier to find.

 

Phil

[SiC]

5 hours ago, 1970mgb said:

It was definitely a surprise to me too.

And yes, I agree that ti's a superior design. On Boxsters and others that use a fixed caliper, can you change the pads without removing the caliper like you can an MG?

I got "ruined" on sliding calipers after an annoyingly sticky sliding pin killed the right rear brake on my Lincoln. I pride myself in staying on top of stuff like this, and I can remember being on the road one day making the ~300 mile trip to my then-girlfriend(now wife's) house. I made my halfway gas/pee/water stop, and when I went to slow down on the interstate heard an almighty roar from the back of the car. I limped into the gas station and found the right rear metal-on-metal seemingly out of nowhere. Since I still had 3 good brakes and the off one was a rear, I decided to just keep on trucking(maybe not the best idea-you don't play with brakes-but I also had other things on my mind).

The car had 50K or so on the clock at the time and still had its factory pads all around. The usual rule of thumb I've heard is fronts at 40K and rears at 80K, but that car has done enough interstate miles that I only did the fronts at about 80K, and even then because "I have the time and the parts to do them now even though the could go longer."

In any case, of course I broke it all down, borrowed the retracting tool from Autozone since Ford does the twist-to-retract rear pistons(not sure if it's related to the handbrake tying into the disk rather than being a separate drum-in-disk), and threw new pads and rotors on both sides. I didn't change the caliper, but took it apart as much as I dared to clean and grease every sliding surface.

A week later, I take off to drive to work. I'd had the handbrake on overnight and it was a chilly morning. I get out onto the street and say "something's not right"-the car is struggling at 35mph and pulling to the right. I'm in decent traffic but am on a surface street, so go about a mile before I can pull over. By that point, I can smell brakes, and in the dim morning light I walk back and see the right rear rotor glowing red. I gave it a minute to cool off, then hopped back in and it was fine. Another trip inside it to regrease it, and it's been fine since, but I check and double check it on cold mornings.

Yeah it's pretty much identical. Retract the pistons, remove the split pins and pull out.

There is a big pin in the middle that the pads slide on and keeps them in position. This is handy as it stops them falling out of place. I keep having that problem with my BGT and the anti-squeal pads move out of position too. Making some horrific squealing noises when breaking. 

I used the insides of a piston spreader on the top of the pads to push the pistons inwards.

You can see the four pots that make up a four pot caliper that you sometimes on some cars in brake upgrade kits. This is stock on the Boxster though. I guess it allows repeatedly high speed braking (e.g. track and/or autobahn) with good stopping force.

The red wire is for the brake wear sensor and simply clips in a circular hole in the pads. Essentially it's a consumable piece of wire that wears away when it hits the disc. As it's a normally closed circuit, the warning light will indicate when the circuit is broken. However as the wire hits the disc first, that creates a path to body ground and thus causes the light to trigger. Hence the light starts indicating before the pads are all used up. The light latches and reset on ignition off. Simple but effective.

 

Perhaps the friction material on your Lincoln came away from the backing pad? Not a completely unusual ocurrance on cars. More of possibility if the caliper is sticking and heating the pads up a lot more without allowing to cool off too.

[1970mgb]

For all the flak German engineering gets over complexity, I'm loving how simple that pad wear indicator is. That's actually brilliant.

One thing I ran into on the B as pads go is that I had one set-bought from Moss-that just was a little too big in every dimension. I spent a while modifying them, but still was never happy with their fit or their movement, and yes the rattle shims kept coming loose in my doing that. I found a box of I think TRW pads that I'd forgotten I had and they dropped right in without any trouble.