1971 MGB GT - Got it back, almost without any problems - see page 26

[SiC]

Just a few FB examples from a very quick search.

Unfortunately crap parts happen too often. Graphite bearings seem especially shite.

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 minute ago, SiC said:

Slight aside, but that GT looks bloody lovely. 

[SiC]

8 minutes ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Slight aside, but that GT looks bloody lovely. 

They're becoming quite affordable again. Not bad ones are available sub 5k quite easily now. 

https://www.facebook.com/share/157g8LtSqZ/

https://www.facebook.com/share/16365WxMkD/

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BPgvgke3N/

https://www.facebook.com/share/19ReAGjdCN/

While I took a hit selling mine a year too late, I glad I sold it when I did. 

[High Jetter]

Really sorry to read this. Yes, wear on the spindles has been posited before, it's useful to have it confirmed. I hope he's very embarrassed and wary of his reputation and will go above and beyond to sort it.

[Mrcento]

Very sorry to hear about the issues, i'd give the 'specialist' benefit of the doubt on something failing and fucking everything up, How he reacts and repairs will be more telling than the initial poor result IMO.

6 hours ago, SiC said:

I didn't like to say this earlier on and didn't want to say it (as I knew it would cause others to thoroughly debate and disagree), but every time I sent my classics into a specialist, they ended up worse than when I gave them. From servicing to sorting cutting out issues.

A good specialist is hard to find. I often think a lot of these guys are complacent as fuck, they think they know it all, have seen it all a thousand times and just can't get it wrong now giving something 20% attention.

I put a cylinder head in to get new valve shims put in, wasn't happy with a few of the clearances when i was rebuilding, needed the head skimmed so thought i may as well get it done whilst it was in. The guy builds award winning Porsche racing engines for a living, so an 8v FIRE shouldn't be an issue i thought. Got it back, trusted he would have done a good job, rebuilt it, started up, only for it to sound like a bag of spanners. Took the rocker cover back off, went across the valves, every single one massively out to the point i though he must have put them all in back to front.... until a few calculations showed even that was giving him too much credit.

[Peter C]

Transcript of yesterday's email exchange between David (the mechanic) and me.

 

Me:

David,

 It’s been a week since we met. Do you have any updates on the repairs please?

 Regards,

 

David:

 

Good morning Peter,

 I hope you’re well.  I am just putting the car back together.  When I took the engine back out I couldn’t see anything obviously wrong but I have fitted another clutch.  I will have the car running today and will be able to confirm the fix then.

 Kind regards,

 David

 

Me:

 

David,

 All good, thank you.

 Hopefully the new clutch will solve the problem.

 I look forward to hearing from you again soon.

 Regards,

 

David:

Hi Peter,

 I took the MG for a drive this afternoon and it drives perfectly.  I’d like to take it for another road test tomorrow from cold.

 It must have been a faulty clutch which in 24 years of dealing with MG’s I’ve never had.

 I can only apologise for the inconvenience it’s caused and if it helps I’m happy to deliver the car back to you saving you the journey.

 Kind regards,

 David

 

All being well, I will be collected a fully sorted MGB later today.

More soon.

[Westbay]

[beko1987]

Sounds reasonable enough if the honest truth...

I assume you'll take him out for a little drive before letting him leave!

[Peter C]

Just got this from David.

 

Hi Peter,

 I’ve just come back from road test and I’m happy with the car.  I did also replace the throttle cable as it decided to start sticking.

 The car has had a complete new clutch, I also had the flywheel skimmed to be 100% that everything was ok second time round.  There is no juddering and goes into gear as an MG B should.

 I’ve adjusted the idle but as mentioned previously, the carburettors do need new spindles.

 3-4PM this afternoon is fine to collect the car.

 Kind regards,

 David

 

Sounds VERY promising!

[Peter C]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Sounds reasonable enough if the honest truth...

I assume you'll take him out for a little drive before letting him leave!

I'm collecting the car this afternoon.

Rest assured I will make sure that everything has been sorted to my satisfaction. 

[SiC]

55 minutes ago, Peter C said:

I’ve adjusted the idle but as mentioned previously, the carburettors do need new spindles.

Code for don't expect a repeatable idle. 

No idea if yours has poppet in (probably does) but if so that won't be helping either. 

You can either rebuild the carbs (spindle bushes likely will need changing and that's a specialist send off job) or just live with it and tweak the idle a bit higher to make sure it doesn't stall out.

As before, don't sit on the lights with your foot on clutch. Apart from reducing the revs and making it more likely to stall, it will knacker the graphite release bearing much quicker. 

[Peter C]

31 minutes ago, SiC said:

As before, don't sit on the lights with your foot on clutch. Apart from reducing the revs and making it more likely to stall, it will knacker the graphite release bearing much quicker. 

An uprated roller bearing release bearing has been fitted.

[Peter C]

I went over to David's garage, had a quick chat with him, got into the MGB and drove home.

With a working overdrive, cruising at 65-70MPH is a joy.

I even managed to overtake a few vehicles along lane four of the M40. How exciting!

Note support car behind me, with my wife behind the wheel.

The clutch take up is perfectly smooth, the biting point is nice and low, the brake pedal feels a lot firmer, the overdrive works, the engine pulls nicely with no hesitation or stuttering and it idles ok, if a light high, at about 1,300 revs. Win!

Got home ok, lifted the bonnet, first impressions were good.

But then I noticed an oil leak from the oil cooler.

Looked like it was coming from the two hose connections.

I tried to tighten them but they are already as tight as they can be.

Has David left the seals out? 

Or do I need new seals all of a sudden? The connections weren't leaking before. 

I emailed David to find out.

Whilst the overdrive now works, the original dashboard switch doesn't. The overdrive engages by flicking the horrible plastic switch that I fitted whilst I was diagnosing the faulty overdrive. A proper replacement switch will be sourced ASAP.

Back in the garage, where the MGB belongs, welcome home my old friend. 

I need to give the MGB a good wash and hoover to make it properly mine but I'm a happy camper for now.

More soon.

[Noel Tidybeard]

standard enough lucas switch

[juular]

Glad to hear of the progress.

Leaky spindles are really common. The front carb spindle on mine is quite wobbly which means the idle can sometimes vary between 800-1000rpm, but I just live with it. I run the front carb ever so slightly richer in a vague attempt to compensate for unmetered air and to be honest it's never much bother.

[Mally]

6 hours ago, SiC said:

 

As before, don't sit on the lights with your foot on clutch. Apart from reducing the revs and making it more likely to stall, it will knacker the graphite release bearing much quicker. 

Wears the thrust bearings out on the crankshaft too.

[Mally]

No seals in the oil cooler pipe. Its a dry joint sort of flange thing, They can leak, sometimes plumbers tape on the threads can fix it but I'd examine the pipe ends first.

Seems to me he's not lifted the bonnet after the test drive.

So to sum up, fitted a clutch (twice) fixed the overdrive, (incompletely) and speeded up the tickover.

Specialist?

[Peter C]

David responded to my email about the leaky oil cooler.

He reckons that there is no oil leak and that the deposit of oil on the panel under the oil cooler is there because oil leaked out from the two hoses during removal whilst the engine was being removed and gathered under the oil cooler, which then got blown out on route home as I bombed down the M40 at 70MPH.

That makes perfect sense.

David fitted a Borg & Beck clutch. The first clutch that caused the problems had an uneven pressure plate. The new new clutch must be ok as the clutch engagement is nice and smooth.

I’m off to London tomorrow, I’ll take the MGB for a proper test drive.

[Peter C]

5 minutes ago, Mally said:

No seals in the oil cooler pipe. Its a dry joint sort of flange thing, They can leak, sometimes plumbers tape on the threads can fix it but I'd examine the pipe ends first.

Seems to me he's not lifted the bonnet after the test drive.

So to sum up, fitted a clutch (twice) fixed the overdrive, (incompletely) and speeded up the tickover.

Specialist?

That’s a bit harsh.

He did all the work that we originally agreed as well as a few extras, he charged me a reasonable fee and the MGB now drives better than ever.

[HMC]

liked for the turnaround in events. Its looking fantastic and a transformed car! Ball might have been dropped but it sounds like they have responded as you would hope. Would you recommend them?

Having functioning overdrive now must also make it feel a lot happier on the motorway. 

[Mally]

2 minutes ago, Peter C said:

David responded to my email about the leaky oil cooler.

He reckons that there is no oil leak and that the deposit of oil on the panel under the oil cooler is there because oil leaked out from the two hoses during removal whilst the engine was being removed and gathered under the oil cooler, which then got blown out on route home as I bombed down the M40 at 70MPH.

That makes perfect sense.

 

He should have wiped the oil deposit so he could check for leaks later.

[sierraman]

Replacing an MGB clutch by Lake Como. What a lovely way to spend your holiday… 

[sierraman]

1 minute ago, Mally said:

He should have wiped the oil deposit so he could check for leaks later.

There’s only so much time they’re gonna spend on it realistically. They’ve cocked up on the job first time but put it right, can’t see the problem with that. 

[Peter C]

1 minute ago, Mally said:

He should have wiped the oil deposit so he could check for leaks later.

He did wipe the oil, there is a greasy oily residue on the bottom panel. The oil that I noticed got blown out from beneath the oil cooler as I drove home.

[Peter C]

2 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Replacing an MGB clutch by Lake Como. What a lovely way to spend your holiday… 

Ehh?

[SiC]

Oil cooler could have also failed from being disturbed. 

My slightly low oil pressure was actually down to a tiny hole in the radiator of it that I didn't realise as the spray of oil got sucked through the radiator and mashed up by the fan.

The coolers don't last forever and if there has been a lot of stuff disturbed for the clutch change, it could have failed later on. Even on the drive back.

New cooler's aren't expensive or hard to replace if it is leaking. 

[SiC]

Tbh looking at the oil cooler pipes and how crusty they are, it won't be a wasted job replacing the lines and cooler if you do decide to. 

[sierraman]

29 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Ehh?

The guy in the Facebook posts posted above. His clutch bearing went bang as he got as far as Italy. Instead of spending his time enjoying the scenery and the fine wine he was probably asking the wife to muck in with taking the gearbox off. 

[Six-cylinder]

The overdrive switch in my MGB GT is curved/cranked that I believe is original.

[Peter C]

Just now, Six-cylinder said:

The overdrive switch in my MGB GT is curved/cranked that I believe is original.

Do you want to sell it?