Hi Folks,

Here is a summary of what has been going on at the ‘Fix it’ garage in October.

  Things are quieting down a little on the MG front as hibernation season approaches. Still I continue to be busy on a couple of longer term projects.

  Firstly Bob Zambreno’s engine rebuild continues with last minute gremlins to fix, like a starter motor that worked before we took the motor apart & now we want to start it again, doesn’t!

Secondly I have a friend’s TR6 that has had a lot of money thrown at it without the basics being done and some of what was done was just wrong. For instance a turn signal switch will have a ‘hot’ wire input and two outputs, one to each side of the car. You know instantly there is a problem when two of the wires are connected together …………………. Next up for attention will be fixing the fuel hoses and filter. New wheels & tires are on order because the ones fitted to the car when my friend bought it will never work. The wheel offset would require over 1 ½” of spacers. The front suspension upper ball joints, tie rod ends and steering rack gaiters have been replaced. Thanks to Bob Norway who stopped over & leant a hand. I have also corrected some hose issues around the carburetors.

Steve LaFond’s MGB also had a turn signal issue. That particular gremlin seems to have retreated, at least for now.

I managed to solve a long term ‘clonk’ on my SAAB’s front suspension, turned out to be a broken spring. The clonk was the broken piece of spring bouncing around on top of the strut. Removing it solved the problem so I actually got some time to do a bit of fall yard work that day!

This weekend I fitted a new steering rack to a 1961 Mini. The job went okay but did take ten hours. It’s tricky because the rack is sandwiched between the firewall and the sub-frame. The official method is to lower the back end of the front sub-frame to provide enough clearance to ease the rack out. In practice that means lowering the entire sub-frame complete with engine, gearbox & suspension which goes to explain the time it took.

I have taken delivery of my ‘new’ 1970 B GT so my white 1973 MGB GT is now officially for sale. I have to do a few jobs on it first but meanwhile please get in touch if you might be interested.   We had a great trip to Southern Indiana earlier in the month with the Hoosier MG club, learnt some local history, drove some neat roads and met some fun people. There were 7 B’s, 3 A’s a TD, C GT and my TR on the trip. One B had the Moss supercharger on it and one of the A’s sported complete B running gear including overdrive!

A couple of other cars have stopped by the garage, firstly a late model Spitfire that has recently moved into the area from Ohio went up on the lift to be checked out. It’s in very nice condition. A front suspension rebuild has been scheduled for November 15th as it’s got a bit of a case of the ‘Wobblies’. British Parts North West sell a very nice kit, complete with polyurethane bushes, for a $125.

Finally a late model B came for a replacement light switch which was a relatively easy fix only the new one rattled when in position. Turns out the little metal spring clips on the new switch were shorter than on the original so it was loose, so out it came, I took it apart and swapped over the clips from the original switch. Put it all back together, checked it still worked and installed it again. Success this time, lights & no rattle. Sometimes even the easy jobs aren’t as simple as one first thinks…………………

Looking forward there will be MG & Triumph stuff going on at the garage for the first four weekends in November. Drop by if you have the time.

~~Steve Skegg