The Steering Column
Left Hand Drive from our President

Last weekend we had the pleasure of having our 17-month old grandson Finn stay with us for a few days. Well one thing is for certain, he has a lot more juice than I do. While I’m catapulting myself into Zombie land, he is just getting started. He is like an old MG. As long as you keep him fueled up, he will go on forever. And by forever, I mean two hours after my bedtime.

It appears that the little fellow is attracted to all things MG. First, he found some CMGC shot glasses that we somehow accumulated. He would just hold them and look at them but he never threatened them with damage.

Then he found the mother lode — our dash plaques. My wife has fastened magnetic tape to the backs of our plaques and mounted them on the side of a file cabinet. Well the boy must like colored placards because he was drawn to them like (ahem) a magnet.

Before you could say John Twist, he had them all on the floor and scrambled about. Looking at the size of the mess and the number of plaques lying about amazed me. I had no idea we attended so many driving events. I think other drivers must have slipped them into our car while we weren’t looking. It will take me hours to sort them out and stick them back up. I sure hope they weren’t in chronological order.

But looking at all those colored dash plaques on the floor made me realize how fortunate we are to belong to such an active and fun car club. Every one of those little plaques represents a drive, rally, or tour where we got to share some great times with our good driving friends.

Hopefully, I planted the seed that will blossom into another generation who appreciates the thrill of owning and driving a British classic.

Drive safe my friends

~~ Phil Wydra

Stay safe my friends

	The Steering Column
	Right Hand Drive   from our Vice-President

Fall has arrived and what a great time for Driving! Nice cool weather and lots of Sunshine! We had the pleasure of getting together with a few club members and took a drive out to Oregon. No, not the state that’s on fire but the town in Illinois on the Rock River. Thanks again to Doug Clark who put together last year’s Oregon Trail Rally. We headed out Saturday morning around 8:30 am and took a leisurely drive on the back roads and made our way to The Oregon Soap Shop. There the gals proceeded to shop away the day. Then we drove down river road to a park on the river where we stopped and broke out our chairs, blankets and picnic lunches. The weather was cool and windy, but the warm conversation made up for it. After a short walk by the river the group headed for the antique store while I headed up the road to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to see if the Big Indian (Chief Blackhawk) statue restoration was finished or if he was still covered up with tarps like last year. Low and behold to my pleasant surprise the traps were gone with the restoration complete. He was quite majestic standing over 50 feet tall. Well worth my little side trip. Then I caught with the group at the antique store where they were searching for hidden treasures. A few were found and bought then it was time to head on down the road back home. All in all, a Great day trip of around 200 miles with NO BRAKEDOWNS!

Well as I had mentioned last month my TR6 wiring finally got sorted out. It was a little surprising to find similar color-coded wires as the MGB. After that I had to finish the 5-speed conversion which consisted of a W58 Toyota trans. With the hydraulic release bearing installed and properly shimmed I needed to fabricate the trans mounts. This ended up easier than anticipated. Then the custom propshaft needed to go in which became a real challenge. Being that the W58 trans uses a slip yoke and not a flange as the original there wasn’t room enough to slide it back far enough without dropping the differential! What a pain in the butt. Finally completed and back on the floor it was time for the Test Drive! The test went wonderfully. The clutch working great and what a pleasure to have the 5th gear.

With the Triumph finished the UNASSEMBLED MGA made its way into the shop. (See photos on page 5 in this issue of Driveline.) The wife (Kerry) always wanted one sooooo....... happy wife happy life -- get to it!

We do have an upcoming project a MGB rover V8 conversation. A new member to the club called me (thanks to Scott Foreman) with this project so the Traveling Mechanics sprang into action. We had him purchase a rusty TR8 from Florida which we’ll use the V8 and 5-speed trans. (See page 5 in this issue of Driveline). More to come on this project next month.

~~ Dean Hickenlooper    
your humble servant