Restoration Project
Jim Compton

One thing leads to another” is the title of the hit track from the Fixx’s 1983 album “Reach the Beach”. That tune has been pounding through my brain a lot lately. You see I started an innocent little project on my MG.

I wanted to stop leaking oil like the Exxon Valdez. So I pulled off the carbs, intake and exhaust manifolds to get to the tappet covers. As expected the gaskets were perished. Well I might as well change the hoses and fan belt while I’m doing all of this work. “One thing leads to another”. So I get the covers cleaned up and of course I decide to beautify these covers and manifolds since I’ve got them off. Looking closely, I find my carb heat shield has 2 cracks. When my friend and I try to weld up these cracks we succeed in burning holes in the heat shield. I’ve been told the road to hell is paved with good intentions and it seems I’ve bought an express ticket. Fortunately, a more experienced welder was able to patch it up for me.

So, I’m ready to re-install my newly refurbished heat shield, Painted tappet covers and manifolds when I notice the motor mount plate is contacting the block. “Amazing what you find when you clean years’ worth of oil and grime from your engine. So now I’ve got to replace the motor mounts. No sense in just doing the driver’s side as I’ll be back to do the other in no time. Might as well do the transmission mounts at the same time. I order up those parts and begin to research the process of changing the motor mounts. For those that haven’t yet experienced this joy, the motor mounts have a nut on the backside. On the driver’s side the shaft from the rack and pinion steering passes behind the motor mount on rubber bumper cars like mine. This means to get to this nut you have to remove the steering rack. Well I needed new gators and tie rod ends anyways. “One thing leads to another”. I get the rack loose and begin pulling it out and along comes the lower shaft of the steering column. Well, that doesn’t look good.

Nowhere, have I read that the steering column shaft should come loose. In fact I’m pretty sure the steering column should remain as a single unit unless you’re in a really bad accident and the column collapses as it is designed to. More research and if find this is a fairly common failure. To fix it you have to remove the steering wheel, another LBC fun job. The procedure is available from the MG Experience (www.mgexp.com). Which if you don’t know is a great resource for hints and opinions about everything MG. Well I got the steering column out. Not too bad of a job.


On to my next task I put a jack under the transmission to take the weight and dropped the transmission cross member. The transmission mounts had turned to jelly. Really sticky and gooey. I took me less than an