The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (June 16 - June 30, 2023)
Friday, June 16, 2023:
Up early for 7:30-am Final Farewell (coffee and donuts) from NAMGAR GT-48 in Memphis. Then check out, pack the car and move on.
 One target of opportunity today, a quick visit to Jack Morris Auto Glass in Memphis, TN. This is on our Shops list because someone recommended the place. We had to drop in to ask if they did auto glass work, especially windscreen replacement, for vintage British cars. The answer was yes (past tense) and no (present tense). The older guy who had been servicing vintage cars for decades had recently retired. They think they could figure it out and do this work in a pinch, but they would rather not. So I will regrettably scratch this one out of the Shops list.
Then it was time to get out of the city, but not far, as immediate future plans are still in limbo, needing more investigation and planning. So we stopped in West Memphis, Arkansas for a friendly WiFi spot and lunch. And then we just stayed put.
Saturday, June 17, 2023:
Sluggish to start again in the morning. Mostly sitting in West Memphis catching up photos and notes. Acknowledging the fact that the cylinder head was going to have to come off again, this is when we decided to order up new intake and exhaust valves, because we didn't get to replace those parts with the engine work in California last August. Won't be able to order the parts until Monday, but we need to make some distance. So late night we headed north out of Arkansas for an hour plus to stop overnight in the southeast corner of Missouri.
Sunday, June 18, 2023:
A real travel day. Bit of a drive early morning, stopping in Marrion, Illinois late breakfast (brunch). After lunch, fuel up and head north a few more hours stopping in Rantoul for more fuel and a few hours of WiFi with dinner. The car has been a little sluggish to start, and rough idle below 1500 RPM due to somewhat low compression on cylinders 3 and 4. But otherwise it runs very well once on the road, and we are not stopping to fix it yet. In fact, it just turned in 22-MPG (US gallons) on the last tank of fuel, running constant 70-mph on the expressway with level road and towing the trailer, which is significantly better than we have seen for a long time. 10-pm driving more north to destination stop in Naperville, IL around midnight.
Monday, June 19, 2023:
Spent a couple hours early searching for parts, and finally placed an order with Scarborough Faire by mid day. Waddaya mean it can't be shipped today? It's a federal; holiday, on the 19th of June? Surely not just because it's my birthday, or the day after Father's Day? Apparently it was passed and implemented two years ago, and this is the first I've heard of it. Must be a reflection of being busy and out of touch with the world. Anyway, the parts order is in, and hoping it will ship Tuesday for arrival Thursday.
Most of a day to relax a bit, but we do have an appointment. Almost an hour run in suburban traffic for a dinner meeting with Chicagoland MG Club at Mr Beef And Pizza in Mount Prospect, IL. Very near the end of this run it was running somewhat different (worse) in that it would die suddenly when stopping. It would reliably restart with some throttle, misfiring at low engine speed, but we did make it to the club meeting.
Didn't get pictures until a mid meeting break, but there were about 20 people present. We arrived early and left late, so not sure if there were any other British cars. We had an invite to possibly work on a Bugeye Sprite tomorrow, but don't think we can make it.
After the club meeting the car started okay but ran crappy at slow speed. We tried it on the road anyway for diagnostic purpose, and maybe it could get us through the evening. Still dying with stops, but still easy enough to restart, so press on. After a while, somebody smell fuel? And the fuel gauge was dropping like a rock, likely not going to make the last few miles to our destination. So roll into the next gas station (with canopy lights) for under bonnet inspection (and fuel refill).
Dang, the front carburetor was dumping fuel out the vent pipe as fast as the fuel pump could push it through. Remove the float cover to find the float sitting in the bottom of the chamber. Curse and swear a bit, because these were brand new floats on May 20, just 4 weeks ago. Wipe it dry and shake it, and it quickly produced a spreading wet spot from one edge of the center core joint. Bad solder joint; manufacturing fault. Never trust new parts these days?
We had one spare used float in the trailer, the one we saved when installing the new parts, supposed to be the emergency spare until we could order a new one for inventory. I guess we didn't get that re-order in quick enough. A few miles farther on for a 45 minute WiFi stop before retiring for the night.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023:
First thing this morning, call Scarborough Faire to add a pair of fuel floats to the order (if it hasn't been closed out and packed yet).
Then I was into a web page update for
calibration of the analog temperature gauge
to include linearity and range adjustment to get both max and min readings to match the gauge dial face scale. This is as simple as bending the actuating wire, but in reality it will be tricky and finicky with some probability of screwing it up (at least on the first try).
Then there was the effort to assist with the Bugeye Sprite, but done via remote phone calls without being there. The car sometimes runs, sometimes not, and can't be driven due to misfire and low torque. First discovered the ignition rotor a bit loose on the distributor shaft, but not likely to be the problem. Checking out the ignition coil, finding 3-ohms resistance in the primary winding (good), and 1000+ ohms in the secondary (also good). That looks like it should produce spark, so reconnect it and try again. Sorry, still no spark.
Next check continuity of wiring inside the distributor. It has a Pertronix module, so all bets are off for independent electrical test of that unit. It needs to be electrically connected for a functional test.
. But you can at least check the flexible grounding wire running from the breaker plate to ground on the
distributor body. There it was found to be hanging on by just two threads of the fine stranded wire at one end terminal. Connecting a test light here doesn't always tell the right story, because the contact breaker plate can find intermittent ground through the center rotational bushing (an eyelet that carries the breaker plate as it rotates with vacuum advance). So disconnect one end of the grounding wire at the side of the distributor body, and then do the continuity test on the wire alone. Then it looks like this wire is intermittent when it flexes (a fairly common problem) and will need to be repaired or replaced. That should keep them busy for a while.
Package with my parts has been picked up by USPS this evening, Priority Mail, 2-3 day delivery. Can't hold my breath that long, just hoping it arrives by end of day Thursday.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023:
No such luck. Shipping began too late in the evening yesterday. Tracking of the Priority Mail package predicts arrival by end of day Friday, so we likely won't be fixing the cylinder head until Saturday.
Navigator Elliot is wanting to get a Drivers License, but having no personal ID for the past 5 years, having problems proving he exists (or is a current resident of Illinois). Following some email and phone messages, we made a mid day side trip to Naperville North High School to get a copy of Elliot's high school transcript. Having that mailed to our current legal address (my daughter's place) so it will also be "mail from a government agency with current mailing address within the past 60 days".
Early evening we were off to visit "Tommy's Garage" for The Wednesday Night Car Club in Lagrange Highlands, IL. Three cars in front of the garage are resident here, Tom Raddatz's '65 Mustang V8, MGA 1500 V6, and Fiat 2000, just backed out to allow working space. Counting noses, we had 17 or 18 people and ultimately a big pile of pizza boxes.
Tom was working on his early production MGB with late production Salisbury rear axle (and V6 engine). Pivot shaft for the parking brake handle was very close to the larger diameter propshaft. A late production parking brake cable should fit, if we can find all of the original style connection parts.
In the far right side bay the CMGC club project car (MGB GT) was on a rotisserie undergoing cut and weld to repair a lot of rusty sheet metal. Pretty bad when you can get head and shoulders through the body sill area.
Thursday, June 22, 2023:
Early morning addition of a new tech page to the web site for Ride Height Variation, High, Low or Leaning. I have re-typed those answers many times in past years, but somehow it never made it onto the web site (until now). Time well spent while answering the same question again.
Spent some time reviewing records and replying to a BBS subject about parts suppliers continuing to sell known faulty (and dysfunctional) parts after they have been notified of the faults. For this we like to crucify the suppliers in public. The current topic involves carbon clutch release bearings made by Powertune, multiple part numbers for various cars, that have been plaguing the market for several years, and we can't get rid of them. It is a cheap part with very expensive repair consequences. Spread the word and keep talking about this until the manufacturers and suppliers may feel the economic pressure and stop sales or supply better parts.
Thursday, June 22, 2023:
Changed another failed brake light pressure switch. Replaced a SBA2118 with another SBA2118 from Car Quest. Lucky, maybe, the last one lasted a little longer than average, 8-mo 12,031 miles this time. Still junk parts.
Good news, tracking says my parts came in, so we have some serious work to do tomorrow.
Friday, June 23, 2023:
The parts arrived. I was expecting delivery with afternoon mail (not sure when). Past noon by the time I noticed tracking information noting delivery, so we maintained our garage appointment for tomorrow morning, allowing plenty of work time, just in case. We now have a new set of intake and exhaust valves and another head gasket on hand, just in case. Still giving the car a sniff of ether for morning start, and still not wanting to idle. The whole case has been confusing, not making sense, which means I don't understand what's wrong with it (which conjures up a very bad feeling of possible pending doom). But we will fix whatever needs fixing.
Saturday, June 24, 2023:
Up early for breakfast, and arriving at Tom Raddatz garage shortly after 9-am. Open the package first to be sure we have all the right parts as ordered. Intake and exhaust valves and head gasket will be the prime requirements. Determined to R&R the cylinder had to replace all valves and give the valve seats a touch up as needed.
But should at least do another compression test first for diagnostics, even though we were expecting low numbers. After setting aside the old compression tester we knew leaked, and getting together the right assembly of parts to make the new one work, we found unexpectedly good compression numbers. What? Not great, but lowest compression for one cylinder was 105-psi with others up to 120-psi. That certainly does not account for such hard starting or refusing to idle. But it did encourage me to re-check some other things before pulling the cylinder head.
One move was to install a new distributor cap to replace one with badly corroded aluminum HT terminal
posts inside. Note to all, the aluminum post distributor caps are generally undesirable (but they are very common these days). Unfortunately that didn't make much difference. So bite the bullet and get on with removing carburetors to R&R the head. But wait, what have we here? Maybe we have an easier solution. Call navigator's attention and take some pictures.
The bracket holding throttle and choke cables was loose from the intake manifold, and in fact the hex nuts were missing. The rear stud was also missing, leaving a pencil size hole for an air leak into the intake manifold. Now it all makes sense, including the volume of air that could enter there to dilute the air/fuel mixture making it run bad at low speed and die from idle speed. But when we hit the throttle then fuel and air mixture passing through the carburetors exceeds the small amount of raw air leakage, so it would run okay at road speed. -- This obviously happened after the new pistons were installed three weeks ago, and has been bugging us about 10-days. Now I'm guessing we must have left the fasteners loose last time it was apart.
As always, once you figure out what the problem is, it always turns out to be something simple, so time to fix it. In the traveling fasteners collection I found a used stud that was previously a carburetor mounting stud (before I made them longer to accept double thermal spacers). This works okay, except for being too long, which was easily fixed using a 7/16" hex nut as a spacer before the 3/8" hex nut on top. And we have one stud that has for decades been too short to accept a lock washer. So measure the stud lengths, and put two more studs on the shopping list. Then we may finally re-install the firing order brass plate (just to be neat) and lock washers (so maybe it won't fall apart again). Good reasons to put it back to standard specifications.
Of course it fired right up and ran well immediately, so no need to remove the cylinder head today. Pack up the spares and tools, top off the coolant, and make a few minor adjustments. Take a few minutes to install (and glue in place) some new pedal pads (and put those back on the wish list to order more spares).
Finished by noon, and rest of the day available, so we can offer any assistance available to our host. Tom's MGA now has an MGB engine with MGB carburetors and K&N air filters. He needs to connect the choke cable, which on the MGB comes up from underneath with the wire end fixed and the cable jacket rising with pull of the choke knob. That has always been a fiddly parts arrangement, so Tom would like to re-do it with cable top approach like the original MGA set-up. Pretty sure we have all of the required cable stops and fasteners in the Magic Trailer, but Tom has other commitments for rest of the day, so we may get back to this later (like maybe next Wednesday night if not before).
Sunday, June 25, 2023:
I should just call this a day off, feeling good about the engine running well again without disassembly. Some of the day consumed posting yesterday's photos and notes, and catching up BBS and email. Otherwise just a bit of future planning, not much news.
Monday, June 26, 2023:
Someone having problems with a retrofit rubber rear seal for MGA crankshaft. Been going around and around this one for some time now. Engine out four times, and it still leaks. Last time the rear seal was pressure tested before the engine was installed in the car, not leaking then, but it leaked when running anyway. Pull your hair out kind of problem. An earlier issue was a different rear seal, not SKF brand, having internal garter spring too thick, making the seal interfere with bore hole in the engine back plate. Sheesh, something else to check before installation.
Nice evening Zoom tech session with John Twist discussing gearboxes.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023:
Now someone with a gearbox drained out a small bearing ball and a couple small bits of shrapnel that might be chips from gear teeth. Asking more about history of the car, turns out it was procured and parked 30 years ago, never running and partially disassembled, no history at all, so all bets are off for either engine or gearbox. Bite the bullet, and deal with whatever you find there.
Today's word is that navigator's certified high school transcript has arrived in the post with current residential address on the envelope, sent by a government institution. This is supposed to sufficient proof of residence needed to get a state ID card and/or Drivers License. So we took a side trip to Sandwich, IL to pick up the mail, and head for the DMV office in Plano, IL. After the obligatory delay waiting in line, we followed all instruction to show the sealed envelope with current resident address and the sender's return address, then open the envelope under supervision. Inside was another sealed envelope with the high school registrar's certified seal on it, and opening that one revealed the certified high school transcript inside. The document has prior residential address, and is indeed acceptable as personal ID. However, now separated from the envelope the document is no longer legally attached to the current residential address, so not to be allowed as proof of residency. Now a catch 22 in reverse, needing to be removed from the double sealed envelope to show what it is, that transaction voided the association between the document and the envelope, and the idiots at the DMV will not accept this as proof of residency (as was specified by Illinois office of "Real ID", another division of Secretary of State). Do you have a headache yet?
After another 10 minutes of "heated" discussion, including the supervisor, and another review of the list of acceptable ID (none of which we have), a suggestion was made to apply for a Social Security Card. Navigator already has one of those, which helps with personal ID, but does not have his address on it. The idea is, if the SSA sends you a new card, it will have your current address attached. Really? Five minutes before 4-pm closing time, call them immediately. Bottom line is, we have a personal appointment at the SSA office in Aurora in the morning.
Wednesday, June 28, 2023:
The saga continues first thing this morning at the SSA office in Aurora, IL. Take a number and wait. Fill
out form to apply for a replacement SS card, and wait some more. Finally chatting with a representative who is actually friendly and understanding and helpful. After poking on his computer terminal for a while, he agrees that the transcript issued and certified by the school registrar is valid for personal ID, and the SSA will issue a replacement SS card. It will be mailed to current residence with the valid residence address on the same piece of paper containing the new card (which should arrive in a week or two). There will be another small delay, please wait some more.
Another retro-note: Yesterday navigator called the Equifax Credit Bureau to request a copy of his credit report. Of course he doesn't have any credit record, because he never had a credit card or any bank loan. But they did enter his name and personal information and current address into the data base, and they will mail a response stating that there is no credit history for his account. That should serve as one more "financial institution" sending mail to his current address, so again wait for the mail, and add that item to the growing stack of documents (that have so far all been refused by the DMV).
Time will tell? So far 22 days and counting. Hoping we won't have to get a court order to force the DMV to issue an ID card. Getting someone at the DMV fired for incompetence probably wouldn't help, but having someone jailed for contempt of court might? There must be a way. Another call to daughter in Sandwich, IL to tell her to expect more mail, and please call us when it comes in.
Wednesday Night Garage Club in Lagrange Highlands, IL. More than half a dozen visiting vehicles (plus the residents). I think they counted 16 noses before ordering pizza. "Sparky" Sparks on the left, and his white MGA on the right. They got right to work on that for tuning the carburetors. MGA air cleaner bolts are a real bear for wrench access in-situ.
Someone needed a heater valve, so grab that out of the Magic Trailer, and a gasket to go with it.
And while I was digging around in there, also pull out a cable anchor and cable stop to hook up the choke cable on Tommy's MGA.
There was an MGB with a sun visor pivot bracket upside down, so drilling out the rivets to turn that one over.
Good work night, got a few things done, and I didn't need to do anything with my car this time. Weird, but good.
Thursday, June 29, 2023:
Photos and notes from yesterday, and updating parts inventory and re-ordering lists. Paid my car insurance for another year; I guess that's important to travel.
Friday, June 30, 2023:
Some question about how a turn signal flasher works (nothing new). Things kind of slow, sneaking up on a holiday weekend. You know it's slow when we start babbling about philosophy. Seems like we have something to do tomorrow. Haul out and head northwest, stopping north of Rockford near the Illinios/Wisconsin state line before midnight.
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