1971 MGB GT - Running report - see page 33

[Westbay]

27 minutes ago, Bmwdumptruck said:

Surely Peter would be able  to feel if there’s any sloppyness in the joints rather than just a smooth moving loose joint?

"I’ve had the UJ in my hand today. It’s as loose and floppy as an ..."

[sierraman]

On 16/06/2025 at 20:22, captain_70s said:

Had one of them newish LRs right up my arse on Saturday.

Two lane stretch of the M80, conga line of traffic in the left lane doing around 45/50mph about 15cm from each others' bumpers despite pissing rain and significant standing water. Me doing a mildly perilous 60/65mph in the right lane in the Dolomite.

LR flies up behind me at 90mph odd and then proceeds to flash his lights at me as if I can merge into a solid block of traffic which I'm already significantly faster than.

Over the course of 30 seconds or so he gets closer and closer until all I can see out the rear window is radiator grill.

I eventually spot a gap in traffic big enough to dive in and he does that thing where, while passing, they drift into your lane. I genuinely thought I was going to get wiped out but they swerved back into their lane and fucked off into the distance.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't hope I'd come across them a few miles up the road having wiped themselves out...

I take no small amount of pleasure when you read they’ve had the Range Rover took off the drive at 3am, hopefully under duress. Then a pleading post requesting everyone making it ‘too hot to handle’ despite it being half way to Tilbury Docks. 

[Peter C]

These funny looking things arrived a couple of days ago. Once I'm done fixing the MGB they could be fun in the bedroom.

I put the guides on the ends of the upper and lower steering shafts and immediately I knew that the shafts were misaligned.

I sorted the vertical misalignment by placing a washer between the steering rack and the subframe.

At first, I couldn't figure out how to adjust the horizontal misalignment. Most of the advice I found from Google searches discussed adjusting the upper column up and down but nothing about moving it left or right. 

Then I found this: Steering Column/Rack Alignment

And I figured out that adjustment can be achieved by loosening these two fixings, which secure the lower steering column bracket to the underside of the bulkhead. 

Luckily, despite the extensive corrosion, both fixings loosened just fine and enabled me to adjust the upper shaft across.

Hey presto.

I re-fixed everything and went for a test drive. 

The problem is 95% fixed. There is still slight tightness around the straight-ahead but it's very slight and the steering now self-centres ok. The remaining tightness might be down to the steering rack having just been rebuilt or perhaps some more adjustment is required. Now that I know what I am doing, I might have another go in the future.  

More soon.

 

[danthecapriman]

Nice one👍

That alignment didn’t look that far out without those pointer things, but it actually was miles out wasn’t it!

[Westbay]

"I’ve had the UJ in my hand today. It’s as loose and floppy as an ..."

 

Did you replace the UJ ?

[Peter C]

7 hours ago, Westbay said:

"I’ve had the UJ in my hand today. It’s as loose and floppy as an ..."

 

Did you replace the UJ ?

No, it’s fine, doesn’t need replacing.

[beko1987]

Hopefully that straight ahead stiffness is the tips of those new parts being nice and tight. Might sort itself out with some use?

It did look mega out before though so 🤞

[Peter C]

I haven't done much with the MGB of late and I've been away on holiday, hence the lack of recent updates.

The MGB developed an annoying squeak. I was sure it was coming from the tailgate. I adjusted the tailgate latch, removed the two struts, lubricated and re-fitted them but the squeak still persisted. I removed the spare wheel, jack, tools etc from the boot but the squeak was still there and driving me mad. Turned out the squeak was coming from a loose exhaust clamp, which just needed a little tightening to restore silence or at least as much silence as can be experienced in an MGB.

After fitting the refurbished steering rack, I had to fabricate and fit an additional shim to loosen the steering rack adjustment, which was causing the steering to bind. Whilst the steering felt fine, I was getting a fair bit of bump steer, accompanied by knocking. A bit of research revealed that too many shims will cause the rack to be out of adjustment, which increases the effects of bump steer. Yesterday, I removed the shim that I fabricated and the two shims that MGOC posted to me after I advised them of the tight steering issue, which I also fitted sometime ago. 

A brief test drive revealed that the steering was binding again. This confirmed my previous theory that the rack was incorrectly adjusted by MGOC.

Removing / replacing the shims is easy, there's no need to lift the car and the whole job can be completed within 2 minutes with just a 1/2 inch spanner.

I fitted the original shims plus the two wafer thin ones supplied by MGOC, leaving out the fabricated shim. 

Next job was easy. I can get fairly comfortable in the MGB but on longer journeys I like to rest my right knee against the door. I also like to drive with the side windows down. Unfortunately, with the window down, the winder prevented me from getting comfortable.

I removed, rotated and re-fitted the winder. Job done, all good now.

Naturally, I also changed the position of the passenger side window winder, as my OCD would not allow me to cope with having two winders in different positions.

Next issue also related to unwanted noises. The seatbelt tongue rattled around within the buckle. A bit of insulation tape wrapped around the tongue prevented further metal to metal contact.

With these minor jobs done, the MGB was ready for a trip to London.

The MGB performed faultlessly and I think that the bump steer has been reduced, although admittedly most of my route was via the M40 and the A40, not along the usual banana republic quality roads. 

More soon.