MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE -September 16

The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (September 16 - September 30, 2024)

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Monday - September 16, 2024
Woke up still in West Wendover, Nevada, got breakfast at a nearby McD, friendly place but no WiFi, so we were sponging off of Pilot WiFi from two blocks away (slow and intermittent, but it worked, sometimes). I felt obligated to contact McD's corporate office via their website to offer my comments (complaints) about the odd incident at the lMcD restaurant in Wells, NV. That killed e few more hours before we got rolling again. Finally cross the state line out of Nevada into Utah and haul east. Thinking we have three days driving time to make 1500 miles to Northern Illinois for a Wednesday Night Garage Club tech meeting (maybe). Fuel stop at Rally Stop 12 (Sinclair) in Lake Point UT. Napa stop in Salt lake City to restock spare engine oil, a couple of oil filters and coolant. Another fuel stop at Flying-J in Rock Springs Wyoming, then another hour on before stopping for the night at Loves in , Wamsutter WY. 368 miles in 5 hours plus stops and minor delays. We killed 5 hours here between10-pm and 3-am, mostly finishing up the photos and notes from Saturday's engine work. Enjoy the photos above.

Tuesday - September 17, 2024
After breakfast we fixed a turn signal flasher unit that quit working 100 miles back, then fixed it again when it immediately quit working. As soon as we got on the expressway it quit working again. Three strikes you're out, drive a while longer without turn signals. -- Fuel stop in Laramie,WY, then on to the Walmart in Laramie to pick up a 5-qt jug of 20W50, change oil and filter in the parking lot (583 miles after new pistons and rings). Happy to report, no metal particles at all on the magnetic drain plug. Also re-torquing the cylinder head and adjusting the valves. Return the used oil to the auto store.

Oops,one of the MGA chrome cowl vents is missing. Not to worry now, as it won't keep us from traveling.

Heading east into the hills from Laramie, feeling lack of torque, stop briefly to check points and timing. Found slightly retarded timing due to diminishing points gap. Not diminishing that much, so advance timing slightly and continue up the hill, peaking out over 8300 feet elevation. -- Tough going head wins and cross winds with gusts to 65+ mph, but soldier on. Approaching sun down, stronger heavy south winds kicking up dirt to diminish visibility, cars and trucks going slower in the dust storm. - We pulled into a Loves in Sidney, Nebraska for pit stop and late lunch at 5-pm. Touching up these photos and notes, but intending to drive more later. -- Top up the tank and bail out about 9-pm, more east. One tank, 240 miles, 3-1/2 hours later, another fuel stop at Pilot in Aurora, Nebraska. Not good facilities here, so top it up and head east another 30+miles. Finally stopping at 2:15am, now in Central Time Zone at Loves in Wood River NE with an open Arby's with decent WiFi. We finally had a good enough WiFi link to pay the electronic invoice to Sports Car Craftsmen for the NOS piston set they shipped out last Wednesday (thank you very much). Now if we can eat quick and sleep quick and get back on the road by 9-am, I think we can make Wednesday Night Garage Club in Lagrange Highlands, IL around 6-pm. At least the car has been running well.

Wednesday - September 18, 2024:
Okay sleep, 3:45am-7:40am 4-hours will have to do. Head east again at 8-am, drive two hours past Omaha, Nebraska before 10-am order to go breakfast at Love's/McD's in Shelby IA and drive on. About here we were getting confused about how fast we were traveling, where we were stopping, how many fuel stops, and which time zone. I hope this is at least in proper geographic sequence. Another fuel stop on I-80- in West Liberty, Iowa, keep going. Cross the Mississippi River on I-280 at Davenport, Iowa into Rock Island, Illinois. Pass Milan,IL and Moline Airport, continuing on I-280 to merge back onto I-80 east. One more fuel stop at Morris, Illinois with pit stop and splash of soda and 15 minute personal cool down before continuing east, while the GPS says45 miles to go. Wrap around the clover leaf from I-80 east to I-55 north, . Exit left onto Joliet Road, then turn left onto Wolf Road north for a few miles. Hang a right onto 55thfStreet for a few blocks, then turn left into an alley taking us to Tommy's Garage at 5:45-pm. I may have to review this, but pretty sure we just drove 1540 miles in three days from West Wendover, Nevada to Lagrange Highlands, Illinois to make the Wednesday Night Garage Club tech session.

A quick peek inside has the CMGC club project car MGB GT high on a lift, mostly complete but still no primer paint. Something new this time is Tommy's next project, a Jaguar E-Type Coupe with some markings on the roof, about to be cut down to be transformed to convertible.

Just outside, Tommy's recently completed MGB with V6 and 5-speed conversion including lots of custom touches.

In the side bay someone polishing rust from a MGB rear bumper, next to the MGB cylinder head, and an MGB 5-main bearing engine nearing completion of reassembly, ready for the cylinder head. Outside there was a rubber bumper MGB with a Weber downdraft carburetor running a little rough with a rather loud whistle. That turned out tobe a vacuum leak under the carburetor mounting gasket, soon fixed by tightening the mounting nuts. That car also had a variety of nice wood trim parts inside.

There was a new Payen head gasket, about to be installed on the engine inside. This gasket had a strange blemish like extra thickness black fiber on top next to the forward most water passage hole. Nearly impossible to catch the fault in a photo, this one will have to go back for exchange. These black Payen head gaskets have been suffering poor quality recently.

Party breaking up and most people leaving after 9-pm. After our overwhelming road trip experience the past couple of weeks, it felt good to just sit and chat until time to lock up at 11-pm.

Thursday - September 19, 2024:
Just hanging out at a friendly WiFi spot in Countryside, IL, catching up photos and notes. We will be heading for Indiana tonight.

Friday - September 20, 2024:
Breakfast (and lunch) in Hobart, Indiana. Made some calls, collecting information for proposed vehicle inspection tomorrow in southeast Michigan. Short trip to visit brother in Hanna, Indiana by mid afternoon. Half an hour messing around with wire connectors to install a 3-pole connector for turn signal flasher unit, restoring function of turn signals and 4-way hazard flashers. Dinner and night over at brother's place.

Saturday - September 21, 2024:
Bail out of Hanna, IN by 9-am. Promptly hit a construction road closure and detour, killing half an hour. Then another time zone change from Central to Eastern time crossing from Indiana to Michigan. Shortly thereafter, sputter on three cylinders at speed under heavy throttle, not out of gas, but must be points closing up again. Last time we looked at the distributor was back in Laramie, Wyoming, what, close to 1500 miles? Time for a breakfast break in Hartford, Michigan, adjust points and timing, top up fuel, and get back on the road. -- Oops, the sputter got worse, maybe a condenser going bad? Another quick stop at roadside to pull the test condenser out of the tool box, clamp it to ground on the alternator bracket and plug it to the distributor side of the coil. Unfortunately no difference, so not the problem or cure, but we have an appointment, so carry on, sputter, sputter, but generally keeping up with traffic. -- Just after 3-pm we arrive at appointment with a fellow named Earl on a side street in Lincoln Park, Michigan. We were here to inspect an MG TD for sale on Craigslist on behalf of a prospective buyer in Connecticut. Business first, will worry about our ignition problem later. -- Got the keys, remove cover from the TD, walk around start taking pictures.

The car has a Mitsubishi engine that runs, possibly from a Dodge Colt, was patched up and repainted years back,, looks tatty again, has some rust and needs restoration work. Not going to duplicate everything here. All of the photos and notes for this vehicle inspection can be found in a separate page in the "Supplemental Photos and Notes Index". I recon the bottom line is, it may drive as-is, as long as you don't kick it in the wrong places. But to be a nice car it would need restoration work to fix rust, and full repaint and re-trimming. So, what does it cost to restore a somewhat rusty MGTD, time and money?

Finished here by about 5-pm, we took another shot at the MGA ignition problems. Disconnected the temporary test condenser and stowed it away. Pulled the distributor, found the points set too wide this time, maybe not closing completely at road speed. Reset to nominal gap and cleaned the contacts with 600-gtit emery paper. One thing at a time to avoid confusion, we didn't touch the condenser or rotor or distributor cap. Put it back together, set timing by ear, locked it down and drove it away. Must have done something right, as it was running well again as we headed south out of Detroit fighting rush hour traffic and construction work. We landed at a Loves Travel Stop in Perrystown, Ohio, for friendly WiFi and very late lunch. Got started on posting the photos above, but the rest would wait for tomorrow.

Sunday - September 22, 2024:
Day off at the truck stop, processing photos and notes from yesterday. Late lunch by that time. Heading east again 7-pm with intermittent light rain, low speed wipers and lights. 30 miles on, dim lights and battery at 10.5-volts. Damn, another failed alternator, four months and less than 8000 miles this time. Pull it into next fuel station at Sandusky, Ohio to swap out the alternator. The new one we picked up at O'Reilly's in Texas in May had a fan and pully on it, but the pulley was too small so the belt would be too long and not tension. So we had to R&R two pulleys and fans. And the new one also had no Woodruff key in the shaft, so carefully move the key from the failed unit to the new one. And (that wasn't enough) the new one also had no thread for the bolt to attach the adjuster link, just an oversize hole with a loose bolt and nut. By sheer luck, the bare hole was correct diameter to tap for a 5/16-24-UNF Heli-Coil, which we did on the spot. Must have taken about 75 minutes, and top up the fuel while we were sitting at the pump. - Then on to our prior objective, an ATM machine in Westlake,Ohio 50 miles on, and we still didn't get out of the state. Enough delays, haul it over for the night just before midnight at Loves in Diamond, Ohio.

Monday - September 23, 2024:
Intermittent light rain, but we need to travel.Mid afternoon heading east, going to put down a few hours driving before sun down. Fuel stop in Du Bois PA, navigotor says it is using oil again? Then welcome to Pennsylvania. Making it through some hills with a slightly slipping clutch (dang), landed in Camp Hill PA for dinnner, about 25 miles north of York.

Tuesday - September 24, 2024:
Most of the day a few miles down the road in New Cumberland PA. Heading south at 530-pm to join friends for Tuesday tech and social night at Darrell's Garage in York, Pennsylvania. Clutch didn't slip much, and it didn't foul out any spark plugs. Oil level only down a little, so I suppose he car is okay for now The Spitfire just needs a tune up, maybe. Say hello to Darrell Lutz. Ten seats in a circle, plenty of social, not so much tech tonight. Seems like most of the cars are ready for the Saturday car show.

Wednesday - September 25, 2024:
Dropped by Darrell's garage at 10-am. The orange MGB was getting fine tuning, setting ignition dwell and timing and idle speed. Running well, another car ready for the weekend car show. A short side trip to restock engine oil in the boot before heading for lunch.

Thursday - September 26, 2024:
Posted a new tech page for MGA Twin Cam engine coolant bypass function and bypass flow restrictors to use with modern style thermostats. Been a lot of chat about this in the Twin Cam Group in the past week.

Friday - September 27, 2024:
Sitting in Etters,PA (A.K.A. Yocumtown) today. Posted two new Part Numbers tech pages for the Knurled Nuts for fixing dash instruments to the dash panel. This was way overdue, as lots of people ask for the thread size for these nuts. They are often missing/lost, and it is not a common hardware store part.

Saturday - September 28, 2024:
Start at 7-am to meet the Darrell's Garage guys for breakfast at Village Green Family Restaurant in York,Pennsylvania. Overcast and drizzly, but a little more enlightening an hour later. Slightly smaller turn out than normal with 11 or 12 cars, but all determined to roll regardless of the weather.

Considering we had an MG TD and a Morris Minor in the group, we took a "scenic route" to avoid expressways. Hour and a quarter later we were checking in at Rocks State Park near Street, Maryland for "MGs on the Rocks" car show, hosted by MGs Of Baltimore car club. Half a dozen British cars for sale, a nice variety of nice cars, not a beater in the bunch.

Okay, if you want to see a few dozen more photos and notes from the car show, click this link for a supplimental photos page from the show, as I am not going to duplicate everything here.
The Lotus Elan came in late, to be parked at the end of the "Other British" class. Too late for the ballots, maybe, but we were all glad he came. -- Seems like the club participation award was deleted from the proceedings this year, but everyone knows Darrell's Garage had the most cars present, as usual. I did not get the long distance award, I suspect because my car was not pre-registered this time. Truth is, my point of origin before this car show was Murphys, California. MapQuest makes that 2730 miles by the express route, and yes we did have to hustle. -- After the show we drove back to York, PA to find a friendly WiFi spot and make future plans.

Sunday- September 29, 2024:
Remember the latest failed Lucas alternator? This was an O'Reilly Auto Parts piece, and it might be a warranty exchange, but there is no O'Reilly Auto Parts store within 100 miles of York, PA. Considering how unreliable these things are, we can't be running all around the country without a spare in our possession, so I suspect we are destined to purchase another one somewhere else. We took the dead one to the local Advance Auto Parts in York to get it tested, just to assure everyone involved that it really is dead. Something wrong with the testing machine I think, reporting no ground connection. And it looks like Advance Auto parts has no listing for a Lucas alternator, so we can't even order one here. There is a NAPA store in York, maybe try there another day.
Spent a lot of time today posting the photos and notes from yesterday's car show. Nothing else pressing to do before Tuesday evening, so maybe we get a little time off.

Monday - September 30, 2024:
Top priority today would be to find a new alternator for a spare. As so happens, the latest failed alternator was procured from Moss Motors on May 2022. I carried that one as spare for 22 months before it was installed, and then it failed 4 months later at 26 months, just beyond the official 24 month warranty. So I made the call to inquire, and Moss agreed to honor the warranty. A new one is being shipped today, with luck may arrive Wednesday, one less immediate problem. -- Next issue is, I'm pretty sure it will need a 5/16-24-UNF Heli-Coil for attachment of the adjuster bracket, but we just used our last Heli-Coil for the most recent alternator a week ago, so now we are now shopping/searching again. Advance Auto Parts in York didn't have it. Fastenal in downtown York has apparently closed (bummer). There is a Fastenal warehouse on the south side of York, likely not open to the consumer public (but I might lean on them as a last resort). There are two Napa stores in York which we will be checking tomorrow. Pretty important to find the Heli-Coil for the new (spare) alternator (and spares for the future).