The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (January 16 - January 31, 2025)

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MGAguru.com

Thursday - January 16, 2025:
Found the source of the data transfer hang up. In the newer part of the club web site, where people were creating new web pages using WordPress, there were a couple of very large data files that I do not recognize, like 1.7-GB and 3.6-GB. This may be about the right size to contain the entire club web site in a single pdf or print file. By coincidence, that 1.7-GB file is about equal to the data size for my entire MGAguru web site, which is huge. All very confusing, so I will just skip those files in the data backup for now. I know the current website committee folks do not believe in data backup anyway.

Friday - January 17, 2025:
The guys were into a little more work on Tina today. First was to install a bracket to fix the exhaust pipe under the floor pan so the pipe wouldn't hammer on the floor when driving. Don't know if they finished or not. Not sure if the electric oil pressure gauge was reading properly, so we wanted to use an analog pressure gauge to get a true reading for reference. Found a Smiths single function analog oil gauge in the attic, and one of the guys claims to have a connector pipe for it at home,and will bring it next time.

We made some progress on the Sirocco race engine, filing ring gaps to suit and installing pistons. When the party broke up we made a side trip to a paint store to pick up another 5-gllon can of lacquer thinner for cleaning stuff. Seems we do that every two years or so. Then back to the WiFi spot to finish restoration (download) of data from server to my hard drive. That must be back to nominal late night.


Saturday - January 18, 2025:
First priority today was to deliver the 5-gallon can of lacquer thinner to Tech Central in Bonita Springs, which we did about 10-am, normal starting time for any activities there. Jerry was under the weather with the remains of a cold that didn't want to go away, going to sleep in a bit more, so we sat down to do some computer work while we were waiting. When he came down later he was grabbing a heat gun to try thawing out an errant ice maker, which he needs for his water test business. With one ice maker broken and the other one frozen, it was suddenly a high priority. I guess he got it thawed out and working, but then there were a couple of"honey-do" jobs pending, so no garage work today. Back to the WiFi spot for late lunch, catching up some email and BBS chores, and updating the trip log for the past few days.

Sunday - January 19, 2025:
Uploaded a copy of "Clarke Spares & Restorations MGA Parts Catalog" to this web site. It is in the MG Tech section under Books, More Catalogs & Parts Lists, and there is a printable PDF copy. This used to be available from the Clarke Spares web site. Since Todd Clarke is now deceased, the business has been closed, all assets transferred to British Miles, and the Clarke Spares website has recently been deleted. This catalog is no longer valid, but it still makes a good technical reference, especially for the CSR part numbers.

Monday - January 20, 2025:
A little work on Tina the wannabe race car, beginning with finish sorting out of carburetor linkages and return springs. Still reluctant to cold start with full choke, but a short sniff of ether fired it up immediately. Tachometer paralyzed on 2000 RPM, turned out to be a disconnected wire, easily fixed, and reinstall the dash panel. While warming up it just quit. Yeah, out of gas, so send someone off to fetch 5-gallons of premium pump fuel, and may return to this after lunch.
My first formal introduction to the fire safety bottle, about to be installed in Tina. The red fire extinguisher bottle is filled with dry chemical powder, not pressurized, but can be weighed to verify amount of content. The pull cable is attached to a lever which pushes a sharp pin to puncture a CO2 cartridge. When punctured, the high pressure liquid CO2 immediately escapes, into the low pressure powder cylinder, expanding to large volume of gas in the process, which quick;y expels the dry powder through a pipe into the engine bay to smother a fire. And there goes another $240 out of pocket to refill and re-certify the dry chemical powder bottle and replace the CO2 cartridge. Cleaning up the powder mess and engine bay and repairing any mechanical or electrical damage is additional. We think installation will be a job for tomorrow.

The racing Rabbit, the one with engine still in it, had an issue with low oil pressure warning light, which would come on at low engine speed when it shouldn't. The problem was that the switch was located in the cylinder head near the valve drive parts which were limited to lower oil flow, so the oil pressure would drop dramatically at low engine speed. The solution is to relocate the switch to the oil filter assembly where it would see the same high pressure as the dash mounted oil pressure gauge. Then the switch would not trigger the warning light until oil pressure drops after shut-down, or of course any time oil pressure might be lost when running. After reconnection, fire up the engine to verify that the low pressure switch and warning light work as intended. -- I took a little available time to organize some tools (a never ending job). There were some new hex drive bits that appeared to be on a nice plastic storage fixture. Alas,it was really a retail security anti-theft device where the sockets could not be pulled off with fingers, so spend some time with vice and screwdriver to tear the sockets loose, toss them in a tool drawer, and pitch the cute plastic fixture into the nearest dust bin.

While trying to start the Rabbit, it would barely crank over, no start. Discover my lithium battery jumper box, fully charged, is not up to the task, so put another one of those on the shopping list. Pull out my trusty battery tester which is perfect and never fails, to verify that the crusty battery is indeed very bad. Voltage goes from 12 volts to 4 volts when cranking, and the tester shows at best 135 cranking amps capacity. Out with the old and in with a new battery, making the Rabbit very happy. Put a charger on the old battery for over night, and we will test it again tomorrow to verify that it will still test bad.


Tuesday - January 21, 2025:
Back at Tech Central, nobody tinkering with Tina, but we did spend some time with the racing Rabbit. The "bad" battery had been on the charger over night, set on" 25 amp boost". Supposed to be an automatic shut-off charger, but looks like it didn't (hut off). the battery was hot, and was gas off-gassing visible vapor which of course smelled like battery acid, not good, apparently boiling water out of the battery. Unplug the charger before disconnecting the charger clamps. Using the same small battery tester, the apparently cooked old battery showed capable of nearly 500 amps cranking capacity, like it might be a slightly used battery in pretty good serviceable condition. Say what? Seems weird. Set it aside to cool and maybe test it again later to see if it might regress.
Next up was to see if we could install a new rubber gaiter on the Sirocco steering rack (to replace the burned one). This is an odd arrangement I have never see before (learn something new every day). There is a large rubber grommet (sold separately) to go into the small end of he boot where it should fit on the tie rod. After some fuss we did finally get the grommet and boot mated. Then found the inboard end of the boot is much larger than the mating tube on the rack housing. Seems to be a few different iterations of the steering rack and suspension design, so this must be the wrong boot for this application. This then turned into a "Jerry problem" to find the right parts, and set this aside for another day.

Then a fun little head scratching project. The Sirocco race engine has been endowed with ARP head studs which are not straight as the original; studs. These studs are necked down in the middle to the root diameter of the end threads (for weight reduction I suppose). The head gasket has clearance holes that must be large enough to pass over the threads on the studs. This leaves the holes in the gasket much larger than the shanks of the studs, so the gasket can move around to be misaligned with the cylinder bores and combustion chambers. Bummer. Did the folks at ARP not know about this? At the front and rear corners of the head and block there are two holes where oil can drain down from the head to return to the sump. no bolts here, but the holes are slightly counterbored to leave a narrow step in the bore, about an inch and a half into the block and about an inch into the head. Don't know the original intention, but these holes look ideal to accept a tubular alignment pin. Someone brought in a piece of aluminum tubing about the right size. Seems like it should want steel tube, but soft aluminum will do for now. The hole at rear of block would just accept the tubing, while the hole at front was a tad smaller and wouldn't fit. Both holes in the head were the same smaller bore as well. Simple solution, chuck a piece of the tube in the drill press to spin it while filing down the OD a bit to fit into the holes, polish it with sand paper, and cut it to appropriate length. A bit of a fiddle, but didn't take long.
Three photos below show the bare block without a head gasket.

Photos below show the block with a head gasket. Good place to stop for the day when Jerry had to run off for business.

We took the spare time to tour around a few more prospective WiFi spots. We were getting somewhat out of our way by the four stop before we found another good one. Sitting now in the southwest corner of Naples to try it out as we bring you these latest photos and notes.
Wednesday - January 22, 2025:
Composed and uploaded anew tech page for REAR SPLINED HUB R&R for MGA and Early MGB. Thanks to a web visitor Barry Measom in the UK for the photos and notes.

Thursday - January 23, 2025:
Cold day, so we didn't think anyone would show up at Tech Central, but they did. We got a text message early afternoon saying they had solved wannabe racer Tina's low oil pressure mystery. The spin-on oil filter was too short, so the integral pressure relief valve as bearing against the top end of the stand pipe in the mounting adapter, obstructing oil flow. Installing a new taller filter turned the trick, and it now has good oil pressure under all running conditions. Score one for the good guys.
Spent some time updating the web site for the Chicagoland MG Club (may never get out of that job). The page for the upcoming Swap meet in mid March is now current including the Vendor Registration Form. More time spent "Beta testing" some new web pages recently installed by the club Website Committee. I manged to get my annual membership renewed and dues paid on line, which has been in process for five years. Congratulations to the committee. Also spent an hour on the phone late night with the committee head discussing some bugs, omissions, and preferred changes. Still a long way to go the get 25 years of heritage web pages updated to the new format, mostly not my job, thank goodness.

Friday - January 24, 2025:
Cold again,like 40dF early morning, but warming up near 45dF by 10-am, and it was tech Friday at Tech Central, so were determined to go. It was time to get Tina the wannabe race car into the paint boot, which was significantly cluttered because it hadn't been used for a few years. Time for some musical chairs. The racing Rabbit was sitting in front of the shop, so clear space in the lift bay, raise the Sirocco high, and push the Rabbit underneath. One engine stand and the engine hoist also in the way, so shove those off to far side of the paint booth. Spend some time realigning three sliding doors, and relocating stuff inside either outside or into the corners.

The white Saturn was long time sitting in front of the paint booth,lost title, now likely to be junked, so push that to other side of the complex and stow it under some trees. The "other" racing Rabbit had been sitting in the paint booth and had to get out. Well, you know how rabbits are, never just one. This one is now pushed under the large car port where Tina has been during work for the past few years. Story on this dusty Rabbit is that it is a very fast race car that had the front and damaged and front clip removed for repairs, new bonnet and front wings already in hand, likely next in line for reassembly.

Finally got the paint booth cleared, sweep out the leaves and blow out the dust. Fetch the now running Tina, and back it carefully into the paint booth. The hydraulic floor hoist is portable, so center that in the work space,and place a few boards along the sides to raise the MGB race tires enough for the low hanging exhaust system to clear the hoist.

Parked in final position, close the front doors to keep the wind out. Find some 4x4's, 2x4's, 1x4's, cut some to 6-inch lengths for stacking and shimming between lift and car floor. Finally it was lifted a bit with wheels removed. The hoist will be very handy for variable height when painting. Remove tail lights and a few remaining trim pieces, give it a pat and call it a day. Considering the current cold weather, looks like painting might be next week end.


Saturday - January 25, 2025:
38dF this morning, we all saw it coming. Yesterday the guys said they weren't coming out today, too cold, so we didn't get out either. Mistake, maybe? 69dF by 3-pm. Oh well. Will be even warmer the next two days. We did get to a parts store this morning to buy another flasher unit, as the circuit has been playing up recently. Last time we bought a new flasher it was DOA, so still running on the funny one. Got a new one now, but not sure it will be the final cure, so still hanging onto the old one, because not sure it is or was the real cause of the problems. If the circuit starts playing up again, we may have to go back to re-do the flasher wiring again. Simple circuit being very irritating.

Sunday - January 26, 2025:
Some email discussion about looseness in the steering system, multiple possible sources, allowing freeplay at the steering wheel, and how to trace and fix it. This may end up making a new tech page.

Monday - January 27, 2025:
Guys doing more work on the racing Rabbit. Racing tech inspection wants a fuel inspection port, so cut the low pressure fuel return hose to install a Tee with a short hose and a hose plug. If the inspector wants to check fuel quality, they can loosen the hose clamp and pull out the plug to get a fuel sample.

Installing the Halon on-board fire extinguisher. Find a suitable location to put the pull handle within easy reach of the driver. Drill a hole in the dash, put the small panel in front, cable through the hole,securing nut in back. Route the pull cable under the dash, put the Halon bottle on floor at right, connect cable to pull lever on bottle, drill holes in floor for mounting bolts, and a hole through the firewall for the Halon output tube. Still needing a bolt for the spray nozzle bracket in the engine bay. Amazing how these 15 minute jobs can often take at least three hours.

Tuesday - January 28, 2025:
Something we have had on hold for a couple years as we had been fighting engine problems, but that seems to be solved now. Open day and very nice working weather, so it was a good opportunity to change out the bushings on lower A-arm inboard pivot points. These are MGB GT V8 type rubber bushings with steel tube inside. They have been in faithful service for 30 years, 480,000 miles. Very happy with that, but they finally seem to have moved a little off center, and maybe deteriorated a bit, causing some occasional clunk in the front suspension. So jack up the front, place stands under side frame aft of the front wheels, and remove the front wheels. Loosen all bolts in the front suspension, except for the shock absorbers.Remove the sway bar links. Jack under the A-arm, directly under the coil spring to lift the shock absorber arm just free of the rubber frame buffer. Remove lower trunnion pivot bolt, lower the jack to drop the a-arm, push the arm down to remove the coil spring. Remove the rest of the bolts to disassemble the spring pan and lower arms.

One problem, We could not get the 30-year old MGB-V8 type bushings with inner steel sleeves to release from the pivot shafts. Someone warned us bout this several years ago. they either rust in place, or the steel tube ends may be mushroomed inward to to key onto the shaft. So remove four bolts to separate the pivot shaft from the frame, and take the pivot shaft and side arm assembly to the bench vice. With the bushings being rubber, it wasn't too much effort to pull and twist the arms to get them separated from the bushings. Cut away the rubber to expose the steel tube inside. Grind a narrow slit down one side of the steel tube to the root diameter. Then use chisel and hammer to split the tube and get it to rotate a bit. Then penetrating oil and large pliers would rotate the tube to get it off. That cleaned up okay. The small grinding kerf in the axle doesn't matter, as we re going to install the same type rubber bushings with inner steel tube. repeat both ends.

Easy to install the new bushings, just wet with dish washing soapy water to be slippery, and squeeze the new parts into place with the vice. Back it up with a large wrench socket to push the bushing in until it is centered in the arm with equal exposure each side. Then reassembly is the opposite of removal.

Bolt the spring pan and side arms into place loosely, insert the coil spring, and lift with floor jack under the spring pan. Assemble new trunnion seals and side thrust washers onto the lower trunnion, lift a-arm and push the trunnion with seal parts into the A-arm open end. A bit of a fiddle with a screw driver to align the holes to install the trunnion bolt. Tighten all fasteners except the inboard pivot nuts. that was when we decided to knock off and do the other side tomorrow.
Re-tighten all the bolts on the left side, install sway bat link parts on right side only (leaving the left end disconnected for now). Install the wheels, get the car off the stands, tighten the lug nuts, and we were about to drive it away. That's when we found the steel bearing tube for the lower right trunnion lying on the work bench. Bummer! Jack it up on stands, remove right side wheel, loosen all the bolts in the spring pan assembly, jack under the spring pan, remove lower trunnion bolt, separate trunnion from A-arm brackets, insert the missing steel bearing tube, reassemble trunnion with seals to A-arm, reinstall trunnion bolt, tighten everything, put the wheel back on, drop it off the stands, re-tighten the lug nuts, and then good to go. Clean up, pack up, and time for really late lunch.

Wednesday - January 29, 2025:
Back to finish the job today, working on the left front suspension this time. Loosen lug nuts, jack up, place stands under side frame, remove wheel, place jack under coil spring, and lift the spring pan to get the shock arm free of the rubber frame bumper. Loosen spring pan bolts and remove lower trunnion bolt. Lower spring pan and push down to remove coil spring, then remove spring pan bolts. Like on the other side, the lower A-arm inboard pivot bushings (MGB GT V8 style) were rusted onto the pivot shaft (after 30 years in service). So needing to remove four bolts to separate the pivot shaft from the frame. Then take the assembly to the vice, muscle the side brackets off of the rubber bushings, use knife to cut away the rubber on one side, grind through the steel tube with a thin abrasive wheel in a Dremel tool. Hammer and chisel made short work of opening the tube a until it would rotate the bushing tube a bit, then pull it off with a big pliers.

Yes the steel tube to shaft joint was somewhat rusty, but not as bad as expected., and the shaft cleaned up well with 180 grit emery paper. Easy to squeeze the new bushings (with a touch of dish soap) into place with the vice, using a large wrench socket to nudge the bushings into central position. We bolted the front bracket to the spring pan first, along with the "L" bracket for the sway bar link. Grease the pivot joints generously, hoping to prevent rusting together again.

Assemble the lower A-arm onto the pivot shaft and install all fasteners loosely. Reinstall the coil spring and jack under the spring pan to raise it to align with the lower trunnion. Install new 3D-printed urethane trunnion seals with new metal carriers and thrust washers to the lower trunnion, insert the trunnion with seals into the lower A-arm, install the lower trunnion bolt, and tighten all fasteners except the inboard pivot castle nuts. While we are here, also R&R the top trunnion bolt (at outer end of the shock arm) to install new urethane seals, carriers and thrust washers for the top trunnion. Reinstall the left side sway bar link assembly and reinstall the wheel before lifting, removing stands, and dropping the car onto a pair of wheel ramps. Bounce the front end a few times to level out the A-arms and relax the rubber bushings before tightening the castle nuts and installing new split pins. Swivel pin seals still in good condition.l All four trunnion bushings still snug with no notable wear. Give it a lube job, just to be nice.

All back together with new rubber bushings, trunnion seals and thrust washer both sides, we hope to have banished the funny clunking noises. Back it off the ramps, pack up, clean up, and time for the test drive. Eight miles of city traffic going to WiFi spot and late lunch. lots of turning, stop and go, gutter crossings and curb transitions. Neither one of us can recall hearing any suspension noise, so we hope it is good for another 30 years.