MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE February 16

The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (February 16 - February 28, 2025)

MGAguru.com MGAguru.com

Sunday - February 16, 2025:
Catching up Saturday's MG Midget tinkering review photos and notes. Reviewing some issues with an MGA with recent clutch hydraulic failure. It seems to have lost fluid in the clutch side of the master cylinder, likely swallowed an air bubble up top. Topping up the reservoir and pumping the clutch pedal did not get the clutch to work (yet). No signs of wet fluid under the master cylinder, even though no fluid had been added in a long time of normal working service. Maybe the fluid leaked slowly over a long period of time. Likely need to eliminate the air bubble before it will work, or before we can figure out why it doesn't work. This will be an interesting e-mail exchange.

Monday - February 17, 2025:
Somewhere between morning work session and lunch we had a little diversion. A cross between a jigsaw puzzle and an erector set. The little green wagon will be future home of the portable pressure washer and organizer for the car wash supplies.

Time to attack the racing Rabbit that was stuck in 3rd gear. Attach the sky crane that sits in the gutters along the front wings. Only one lift chain required to support the rear of the engine just above the gearbox bellhousing. Car on stands, remove the front wheels, start disconnecting things underneath. Been here before, and the experienced team work is good. Disconnect inboard U-joints from differential, and tug on the brake rotors.

Disconnect shift cable(s), save the loose parts. Disconnect battery ground cable. Remove starter motor. Remove the transmission rubber mount and frame bracket. Remove all but one bellhousing bolt, then lower hook on the sky crane to lower tail of engine.

Use engine hoist with one chain to take weight of the gearbox. Remove the last bellhousing bolts, pull gearbox away from engine,set it on the floor and slide it out the front. There is a spare gearbox ready to install, but that can wait for another time.

Another look at Wanna-B Tina in the paint booth, following last Fridays primer coat. Notice a couple more small dents and blemishes that still need to be smoothed over. Remove boot lid and boot seal, tape inside tail light openings in preparation for more paint. Playing with a nice fiberglass duck tail spoiler for the boot lid. Not sure anyone knows where it came from, but it's here, so might as well install that on the new race car. Remove the boot latch key-lock and press-release button in preparation for painting. Out of time today, make appointment to come back on Wednesday.

Tuesday - February 18, 2025:
Catching up Monday's photos and notes. Updating some Restoration Tech pages for MGA boot floor replacement panels (some poor quality). RT422m1.

Wednesday - February 19, 2025:
Daily progress news. The little green wagon got some air in the tires, and has acquired it's first load of pressure washer and a couple of cat litter buckets to accommodate car washing supplies and wash water (or whatever). -- A little work on Tina, drilling out some rivets to remove a cover plate from the air intake vent fore of the windscreen. A decent picture of mild dents low on the RF wing (which we will not mess with today).

Some time fiddling with sand paper on the rear duck tail spoiler, otherwise get away, low priority.

Higher priority is the intent to get the replacement gearbox into the racing Rabbit. Story here, this gearbox came out of another Rabbit and had about $1000 poured into it for some internal repairs (hoping it was worth it). The chore today was to transfer some external parts from the removed gearbox onto the new on. You know, a couple of those 15 minute jobs that turn into an hour. A few new plastic bushings, and the bell crank parts are done. One screw to secure the speedometer cable stripped the threads and was tapped out from 6-mm to 7-mm, but now someone has to find and buy a 7-mm bolt. Don't laugh, that's what turns 15 minutes into an hour.

Thursday - February 20, 2025:
Seems like we took the day off, but not everyone did. At least the racing Rabbit got its new gearbox installed.

Friday - February 21, 2025:
Open tech Friday at Tech Central. Plenty of cars there before us, and some people got an early start.
The TR6 was having new sway bar links installed.

The Corvette is still wanting its ABS unit to be reinstalled. It looks a little crusty after cutting ll the pipes to get it out. Forming and fitting new pipes today, but slow going. Too many failed forms on the double flare tube ends.

Tina the Wanna-B race car was sitting patiently for skin care, filler, sanding, priming.

More small dents than anticipated, so there go a few more hours.

Evening text message. I think our MGB air filter adapter plates arrived in the post. Now we can spend some money on K&N conical air filters we hope to install on the MGA.

Saturday - February 22, 2025:
No appointment with anyone else, so today we would do a little work on our own car. There was a bit of looseness at the left side inboard tie rod ball joint, the one screwed into the end of the steering rack and sealed with the rubber gaiter. We changed the one on the right side three years ago, but 50,000 miles later it is finally time to do the other one. We bought all the parts at the same time,so no special order required. --Jack up the car, get the wheel off, disconnect clamps at both ends of the rubber gaiter, and pull the boot away from the rack housing. Tape around the tie rod with a mark on it to know which side is up. Crack the jam nut loose from the tie rod end, then unscrew the tie rod while counting turns until it will disconnect. Record 18.5 turns for reference. -- Use a thin screwdriver and hammer to knock back a lock tab cup around the big end of the inboard ball nut, and unscrew the ball joint assembly with a pipe wrench.

We know from prior experience that these things are impossible to unscrew after decades in service, so we don't bother to try. Clamp it in the vice, cut it down one side with a thin grinding wheel in an angle grinder, smack it with a chisel to split the nut, and unscrew it easily. Install new parts, and shim the joint to zero clearance. -- Having done this before, I don't bother fiddling with shims. The new joint is very tight before fettling. Take the small spherical seat button from inside to the bench grinder, and grind a bit from the flat rear surface to thin out the button to loosen the joint. If the joint gets too loose, then grind a bit from the face of the acorn nut housing to tighten the joint. With a fewm ore minutes of fettling you can get it to tighten up with zero clearance, no shims required. -- Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly, but in this case, easier. -- We tore the old rubber boot, but of course we had a new one handy. After fitting the inboard seal clamp, open the small end with a fat screwdriver to insert a small hose, in this case 1/4-inch clear vinyl tubing. This tube is part of a small hand pump that fits on top of the oil bottle making it a cinch to inject the gear lube for filling the steering rack. Then pull the hose out and reinstall the small end clamp. You know it has enough oil if it will gurgle when turning the steering from lock to clock.

While putting the wheels back on, we found one lug nut that would not tighten up First thinking it was a loose stud, we had the bearing hub removed before we discovered it was only a stripped thread in the lug nut. And we had a spare lug nut in the Magic Trailer, so just put it back together. -- While we were cleaning up and putting tools away, I happened to walk past the paint booth, and whaddayaknow, Tina is Red! The guys were sanding on it this morning before lunch break. I recon they sprayed it red in mid afternoon when we were too busy to notice. Jerry said if he hadn't insisted they were doing it now, it might not be done for weeks, or even months. Good move.

Hey, we got a mail pack late yesterday. The good news is, my air filter adapter plates are here. The bad news is, one of these things is not like the other. One has a nice cylindrical edge ready to accept a band clamp. The other has a taper angle about 30 degrees, and no way that one will take the same clamp. I had no idea there were two different flavors. And they both have the same maker's brand symbol and the same 4-digit casting number, JVM 6506. Now what?

Sunday - February 23, 2025: Raining most of the day in southwestern Florida, so it was a good day to stay inside. A friend sent some photos and notes to post a new Hydraulics tech page on Reverse Bleeding the stubborn Clutch.