The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (April 1 - April 15, 2023)
Saturday, April 1, 2023:
Visiting with Shane Rudd in Rochester, Indiana. He wanted to give me a ride in his MGA for my appraisal. Not such a good result, a few blocks later it was overheating. Bit of a suprise, since he had driven it hundreds of miles just a few days earlier without incident. Quick stop at the O'Reilly store. While refilling coolant I noticed the cooling fan was on backward (actually I think I noticed that last Sunday). After cool down and refill and restart there was a rattling noise up front. That turned out to be a loose crankshaft pulley. Shane had previously replaced the crank nut due to stripped male thread on the nut. He thought the new nut was tight. Maybe so, maybe no, but will need to remove it to check again (while the radiator is out to flip the fan blade over). Hope the female thred in the crankshaft is not damaged, as that could be a difficult (and expensive) repair.
We never did figure out why it lost the coolant, as it seemed to be holding pressure after the refill. Suspect eradic operation of the thermostat. But then it was dribbling fuel from the front carburetor float chamber overflow. The solid steel valve pin had sevear wear in the tip, looking like stair step in the cone end. I have never seen such deep wear in a float valve pin, and ditto for the second carburetor. The Magic Trailer supplied the needed replacement parts, so minutes later we had two new float valves installed, and the engine was running well. Rather cold working in the garage, so we took a break and never got back to it before dark.
Sunday, April 2, 2023:
Shane was under the impression that his MGA may have bolt-on wire wheel adapters, so we removed a rear wheel to check. Good news is, all original factory style splined hub parts. It has chrome wire wheels, so those are replacement parts, no clue to age or mileage, but not excessive wear in the splines. While it was up we were checking a sticking parking brake cable which may need to be replaced (shopping list). Brakes stopped on one side but not on the other side, and both sides ran out of adjustment range. That turned out to be undersize brake shoes (that Moss Motors was selling a few years back). The Magic Trailer stepped up again with a single axle set of new brake shoes, soon installed on the rear axle, so the parking brake was working again. Pedal is a bit soft, so it needs bleeding, but the brakes do work with enough pedal travel.
We were also investigating odd wear on the inside shoulder of the right front tire. We found slightly loose wheel bearings on one side, but not the other (shopping list). We also discovered a source of steering wiggle to be a loose ball joint on the steering rack, inboard end of right side tie rod. That can be adjusted, if it can be disassembled. Good luck there, and it will have to wait for another opportunity. -- Places to go, things to do, so by mid afternoon we were heading south while looking for an evening WiFi spot to catch up photos and notes.
Monday, April 3, 2023:
Mid day appointment with Ray Graham at his shop space in Boonville, IN (way south Idiana).
The last time we were here (April 2016) the guys were sanding on an MGB club project car. Today's come-on call mentioned his MGA 1500 with 1622 engine with "15" head. Odd combinaton, also has "1600" badges on the cowl (retro fit). The issue is a loud knock on start up that soon goes away, but comes back once the engine is warmed up, even though it has good oil pressure.
Verifying everything, car number, engine number, 1622 engine block, "15" cylinder head, carburetors.
Re-cored tube and fin radiator. We had the valve cover off with engieme idling, sticking a feeler gauge in the rocker arm gaps to see if valve noise would change, but it didn't.
The Magic Trailer offered up new rubber grommets and the missing thick spacer washers for the valve cover nuts. I had to breakthe guys of over-tightening the nuts, just enough to squeeze the rubber grommets a bit, please.
We spent some time with a stethescope listening to every conceivable point around the engine when running. Finally found the noise coming from the timing cover. My bet and best advice is, either the rubber rubbing foot fell off of the timing chain tensioner, or the installer neglected to release the set-up catch after installation. Without spring force and the anti-back-off feature, the tensioner only works after oil pressure is established (knock on start-up), and fails again with very slow idle after warn-up. Before removing the radiator to disasssemble the engine, we borrowed a timing chain tensioner from a spare engine nearby.
Then we had a nice 15 minute tech session on chain tensioners, how they work with an internal spring and oil pressure, how to install one,and how to release the assembly catch after installation. The guys will install a new tensioner on the MGA later.
 Then we had a look at an MGB, not run for at least five years, fuel drained, two gllons of fresh fuel added. It was too stubborn to start, not even a little click when the key was turned to "Start". That was quickly traced to a duff ignition relay, easy to replace later.
For now we just jumpered the trigger wire to the output wire, connecting the key switch directly to the starter motor solenoid, and it started right up (with a little sniff of ether). When running there was a constant fuel drip from the front carburetor float vent tube, note to change the float valves later. Then we had a serious discussion on fuel vapor recovery and anti-run-on plumbing.
In the evening we high-tailed it across the state line to Owensboro, Kentucky for a dinner meeting with SIR-Brits (Southern Illinois British Car Club) southern group at the Briarpatch Restaurant. Small group this time, something about a college basketball final game. But they were all jolly nice folks, so we had a good time anyway. Yeah, that's Elliot in the upper right corner, taking a picture of himself taking a picture.
Fueled up in Kentucky where prices are a bit lower before crossing the Ohio River back into Indiana. Stopped for a WiFi spot in Evansville for a few houra before heading more north for the night.
Tuesday, April 4, 2023:
Still sitting in Evansville, we finally got a day off to catch up some accumulated work load, checking BBS and email, answering a few tech questions, and getting one more day of photos and notes into the trip log. Then I bit the bullet and decided that posting the Todd Clarke tech book on line was more important, and got a small start on that ptoject (after posting a note for visitors to be patient about the travel log). Poor WiFi signal, so navigator wanted to move on, heading a bit more east late night.
Wedesday, April 5, 2023:
Sitting in Ferdinand, IN today, hard onto posting theTodd Clarke tech book into web pagees, creating cover pages snd inserting blank pages where they would have been in the original book. Nearly half finished, but more work to do tomorrow. WiFi closed early here, so going to try somewhere else tomorrow.
Thursday, April 6, 2023:
Sitting in Jasper, IN today (a little farther north) with promise of WiFi working from early morning to late night. -- YES! Finished formatting the new web pages, and got the Todd Clarke tech book uploaded to my web site in late evening, Had to spread the word around to let some poeople know it was finished, so announcements could go out to the BBS forums. Late night moving back south and west to be closer to Saturday appointment, while we still have one more day off.
Friday, April 7, 2023:
Back in Evanston, IN doing a few more final edits on the tech book pages. Words of appreciation already coming in from the first on-line readers. Mostly finished catching up on the backlog of email. Good thing too, as we will be back on the road tomorrow for a club tour run. Do enjoy the Todd Clarke tech book MGA Owners Information & Technical Guide in Todd's memory.
Saturday, April 8, 2023:
We had a nice cruise today with SIR-Brits, Southern Illinois British Car Club. Meeting at a fuel stop in Rio, IN. The last two cars in were the Jaguar and Land Rover coming over the bridge from Owensville, Kentucky. Count 7 cars, and we were on the road heading east.
Getting off the state highway we found a few nice side roads through the forest. The blue MGB was lying in wait, then merged in on the fly as we were going through Troy, IN, now making eight.
A bit farther on we found the Huffman Mill Covered Bridge for a leg stretcher stop. Apparently in service for 140 years from 1864 to 2004. Looks to me like it would still be road worthy today, except for the barricades, and the newer 2-lane bridge right beside it.
Arch and truss construction, I never could figure out why they needed both. Hard to argue when it has been that long and still standing. They don't build them like they used to.
Then we found some more nice roads before arriving at Wizerwald Winery in Bristow, IN, tucked in between State Route 62 and I-64 (a truly little place). Believe it, there is a nice dining room in there. Choice of wine tasting or food first, we chose both at the same time. Sure, they brought the wine samples to the dinner table.
Count 11 people for the 8 cars. After lunch the gang was heading back to Evansville, just to break up and go home. Been there, done that, so we split off early and headed for a known good WiFi spot in Jasper, IN.
Sunday, April 8, 2023:
Happy Easter. I recon everybody here is taking time off with their families, so we have nought to do except monitor BBS and email. I did get a tech question I couldn't answer immediately: What is thickness of the paper gasket in rear hub of a Twin Cam chassis? Consensus of opinions from those actually measuring is 0.012".
Monday, April 10, 2023:
Monthly club meeting for SIR-Brits tonight at Prime Time Pub & Grill North in Evansville, Indiana. About 20 people present, to go with a few British cars in the car park. Some chat about current events, like last Saturday's cruise to the winery, followed with considerable chat about a possible upcoming Project car. Looks like they are after a TR6 this time, because it may be worth more than an MGB when finished. I didn't have the heart to suggest an MGA, which might even out the odds considerably.
An hour after the meeting broke up we were across the state line to the south sitting in Hanson, Kentucky. Fuel is cheaper down here, good enough reason I suppose.
Tuesday-Thursday, April 11-13, 2023:
Having been very busy for the past few months, it seemed like a good time to take a break to re-group and decide what we might do next. The only fixed future appointment is NAMGAR GT-48 in Memphis, Tennessee in late June, so we have a couple of months to fill. Seems a bit fateful just waiting for something to happen. But that's probably just because we have time to think about it. If you wait long enough, something will happen, and not necessarily good.
Friday, April 14, 2023:
Heading south into Tennessee looking for a good breakfast spot. We knew the first exit had no wall outlet, so skip that one. Second exit, also no outlet (maybe under same management), so move on. Third exit, navigator got out to to check first, and "Oh crap" even before he stepped away from the car. Oil from under the bonnet all over the right front wing. Another blown oil cooler hose, this time from rubbing on the ignition coil bracket mounting bolt on the inner wing. The sump was empty, but fortunately we hadn't driven far this time.
Done this before. Just remove the two oil cooler hoses, and use the one that doesn't leak to join the port at rear corner of engine directly to the oil filter. Quart and a half of oil from the boot, and walk next door to a gas station for another three quarts to top it up. And might as well change the oil filter while we have the bonnet up, and call it an oil change, 2 miles early at 3998 miles since the last one. Nice coincidence. It fired up with 60-psi oil pressure at idle speed,so no harm done to the bearings.
We mopped up a lot of stray oil, but should find a DIY car wash to hose it down. Oh yeah, we also reconnected another broken wire for the alternator (and the alternator still works). Better luck inside with all the right conveniences, so clean us up and have breakfast. Having blown an oil cooler hose twice now, I am seriously thinking about installing an original type steel pipe from block to filter and eliminating the oil cooler.
Saturday, April 15, 2023:
Sitting in Athens, Alabama today when an old friend walked in to say hello. Jim Parsons from Madison, AL, formerly from Illinois back in the 80's (and a few other places in between). He was out cruising around a new planned rally route for the local car club when he saw our parked car and came in to chat for a while. He no longer has the two MGAs he had back in the day, but is still maintaining two vintage Mercedes Benz diesel engine cars. --- Then spending more time checking into what's happening around Alabama (not much at the moment?).
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