The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (March 16 - March 31, 2025)

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Sunday - March 16, 2025:
Hit the next exit at Walterboro, South Carolina in the morning, but that didn't work out, so back onto I-95 North. Immediately on merging into traffic, cough, sputter, hesitate a few seconds, then carry on running again. Huh? System voltage down to 10.7-V, alternator dead, kill the headlights and head for the next exit (where we were going for the next McD anyway). Open the bonnet to check, sure enough alternator wires broken again. The dang 3-pin connector we got from Moss Motors has a hard plastic shell, but absolutely no strain relief for the wires. This isn't the first time the wires broke off right at the end terminals.

Patiently waiting and ducking between rain storms, we eventually reconnected wires with 1/4-inch and3/8-inch Lucar connectors, and threw the screwy Moss connector into the nearest garbage can (for the third or fourth time). Fire it up, check the voltage, 14.2, good going, at least we didn't fry the alternator. I put a tie-warp on the three wires immediately aft of the alternator connections, repeat at 2-nch intervals, and also tie-wrapped the 3-wire cable to the new steel oil pipe at the spin-on filter adapter. That should secure the 3-wire harness to move in concert with the engine and alternator, hopefully keep the wires from breaking again. Take a few seconds to smile, because it is easier working in here without the oil cooler hoses and standing oil filter in the way. See? The oil cooler delete is paying off already.

Hang out, make some calls for upcoming appointments. Head north again in the evening, arriving south side of Columbia,South Carolinaat 10:30-pm, 5-miles from tomorrow's appointment.

Monday - March 17, 2025:
We stopped to visit Elliot Cox in Columbus, South Carolina. His E-type was leaking fuel profusely from the center carburetor, and it was not from the overflow tube. It was coming from the vicinity where the float chamber is attached to the bottom of the throttle body. the center carb definitely had to come off. This is one of the toughest cars to work on the carbs as they are large and vary close together, and the tubular chassis obstructs a lot of space near the engine. Think high density space where you can hardly get your fingers in to touch anything, let alone get tools in there for wrenching on stuff. But persistence pays, and eventually the center carb was on the bench.

There is the mounting base of the float chamber, the main fuel jet and rubber diaphragm assembly that was being replaced (hiding a compression spring underneath), and the jet housing with the choke mechanism.

It struck me that there should be paper gasket between the jet housing and the throttle body, because that joint appeared to be below fuel level in the float chamber. The shop manual, assembly illustrations, and a diagram that came with the service kit all had no gasket showing at that location. Okay, give up, and reassemble it with no gasket.

Lots of dropped parts and skinned knuckles later, it was finally reassembled. The moment of truth was at hand. Switch on, fuel pump running, pressure up, and no leaks. Cool, but not finished yet. More skinned knuckles hooking up throttle and choke parts.

Switch on, pressure up, a little choke, give it a crank, and it fired right up. Running a bit rough at first, but as soon as the choke was reset it was idling smooth as silk with no choke. Hey, smiles all around. Put the air cleaner back on, close the bonnet, time for a test drive. Then time for late lunch and some WiFi work.


Tuesday- March 18, 2025:
One appointment for today didn't pan out, so we spent most of the day finishing yesterday's photos and notes. Also booked a room in Naperville, Illinois for the weekend when we will be helping out with the CMGC All Sports Car Autojumble and Swap Meet at DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL.
-- In the evening we tanked up and bailed out of Columbia, SC at 7-pm, landing for late dinner at 11-pm in Dandridge, Tennessee. Kind of fun running through the Smokey Mountains in the dark with lots of traffic on he interstate highways. the new 1800 engine (with 3.9:1 final drive) was absolutely perfect, pulling nearly all the long hills in top gear (with the 600 pound trailer in tow. Just one hill had us in 3rd gear for a minute, counting up the elevation that was ticking up on the Garmin GPS. Looks like it will now pull 6% grades in top gear. Unfortunately we still don't have an inclinometer in the car. The hill that put us down into 3rd gear must have been at least 7% grade (maybe 8%?). And it has a climb rate of at least 300 Feet Per Minute. Gotta love the larger engine, and the mountains are much easier and more fun now.
-- 248 miles in 3.8 hours non stop at 70-75-mph (except for a few construction zones). 11 gallons of fuel makes it 22.5 MPG through the hills with a heavy foot and the trailer. The fuel consumption has been very consistent in mostly highway driving for the last few tanks of fuel. And the engine finally consumed one quart of oil in the last 935 miles since the oil filter conversion and oil top-up. That is very good for a hard working engine. Now if the new engine will just hold together and not give us any more problems we will be very happy.

Wednesday - March 19, 2025:
Good news on MG Dark Red engine paint today. The Rust-Oleum color "Merlot", which has been discontinued since 2020, mysteriously appeared on Amazon in 6-pack of spray cans. No idea if it is current issue or old stock or how long it might last. -- Additionally, in Canada, Rust-Oleum consumer product is known as Tremclad brand, and there the same color is named "Wild Raspberry", and it is still available.
-- Another late evening sprint, leaving Dandridge, TN before dusk, driving into the sun for a while, running more mountains heading north on interstate highways, all 70-75-mph. A few full throttle hills, but top gear all the way. 220 miles to a stop in Sadieville, Kentucky by 10-pm. Another fill-up, 9.5 gallons,23.0-mpg. By now i'm sure the new vacuum advance pipe is doing good things for fuel economy at road speed.

Thursday - March 20, 2025:
Still heading north, slated for a stop over 45 miles north of Indianapolis. We pull a very short side trip to pick up a jug of oil for next oil change at Walmart in Lafayette IN. Switch car off, and it will not restart. Huh? A quick look under the bonnet, noting obvious amiss, but pulling the manual starter switch does nothing, and shorting across the power terminals on the starter switch does nothing. Hey, it's cold out here, and we are needing a fuel stop, so give this thing a push start (while the engine is still warm), and we head up the road a bit to a truck stop. -- Don't stall it in traffic, don't switch off while we are weighing the options. Not a good idea to park it over night when we might have to work on a cold car in the morning (and not knowing if we might need a new starter motor). Brother's place, where we panned on stopping tomorrow, is just another 71 miles on, so keep it running while we fuel up, make the phone call, and get back on the road north. -- Another hour and 20 minutes driving state highways, all goes well, and we arrive at brother's place in Hanna, Indiana in mid afternoon, and park it tin a nice workshop while we head inside for late lunch, one day early no less.

Friday - March 21, 2025:
After breakfast, out to the shop to investigate the dead starter problem. Yeah, still dead. Could be burned contacts in he pre-engage solenoid,except it doesn't even click. Maybe a broken trigger wire? No, the trigger wire was not broken, but has a plastic shell clip-in spade connector. Wipe the wire clean, unplug the connector and plug it back in again,wiggle the connector a bit, pull the starter switch, and it was cranking again. Woo-hoo, just a bad plug connection? Something to keep in mind for future reference. Warm the engine up a bit, drain and change oil and filter, and take the rest of the day off.

Saturday - March 22, 2025:
Back on the rod a bit after noon, heading generally northwest, trying to avoid some traffic, got on some roads we didn't like, but eventually got through anyway. Arriving for a room reservation late afternoon in Naperville, Illinois, our old stomping grounds. Check in, then a quick trip to a local store for a bag of grub. Hardly enough time to check email before I had to head out again for 6-pm appointment in Wheaton, IL for helping Chicagoland MG Club set up a large building at DuPage County Fairgrounds for the annual Swap Meet. This is why we drove nearly 1600 miles in the past week to get here. Enough hands on deck to finish the job in just an hour. Wait till you see what this place looks like tomorrow.


Then off to Alfie's in Glen Ellyn, IL for dinner and social with the help gang. Good food, and I ate to much. Back to the hotel to get some sleep, as tomorrow will need a very early morning rising.

Sunday - March 23, 2025:
Good gawd, there's a 5-am too? Stagger out, get dressed, skip breakfast, choke the engine to get it started. I was a few minutes late for intended opening of the building to let the vendors in for set-up at 6-am. At least we were off to a good start. 40dF and rather breezy chilly, but going to warm up to the low 50's by mid day. Good day for the Chicagoland MG Club All Sports Car Swap Meet and Autojumble. Central Daylight Savings Time, still dark at 6-am., with a number of vendors lined up waiting to unload and get into the building to set up their tables.

Two hours later, 8-am, most of the vendors are in and set up, and doors open for the visitors. Didn't take long to fill the aisles, and I recon it will be a good turn-out this year. 10-am at height of the foot traffic it was time to crawl around and take pictures. Of course I get stopped by several people wanting to chat, but keep moving until I get all the way around with pictures of most of the goodies on offer. The first few pictures below are overall shots of the foot traffic. There were for sure more people than the photos imply, because it is a large space and we can't see everyone at once.

Then a walk around to show the wide variety of the booty available. For lots more photos and notes on this swap meet, see the supplementary photos and notes page.
-- By that time the crowds were crushing, vendors all in, not much more I could do to help. I wasn't needing to shop for anything, and not going to stick around for clean-up duty this time, so I bailed out early to head back to the hotel where I could begin processing photos and notes. That was about the time navigator Elliot took off with some friends for a social day while it got real quiet in the room. so I could work.

Monday - March 24, 2025:
Finishing up notes and more than 60 photos from yesterday's swap meet.

Tuesday - March 25, 2025:
Received an interesting tech question about propshaft splines sliding into tail of a gearbox, and why matching splines may not slide all the way together. The answer is, damaged splines resulting from prior mismatch with different size splines causing abnormal wear with a notable step in the splines. Very strange, but filing away burrs on the splines may fix it.

Wednesday - March 26, 2025:
Time for one of my favorite events,Wednesday Night Garage Club in Lagrange Highlands,IL. We like to drop in for this whenever we're in the neighborhood. Lots of cars, bit of parking crowd. The green MGA project car is loading up ready to leave. This one belongs to Paul Pickley, and the car was driven onto the trailer (good progress). The guys have been working on it for some time, having repaired lower fenders, body sill and and rocker panel on the left side. Now Paul gets to take it home and do the right side repairs himself. Nice cooperative community.

Chilly outdoors, good time to duck inside for barbecue. The white BGT is a new acquisition, supposed to be for one of Tom's kids (maybe not yet old enough to drive). Something about "Don't take the seat out", but they did any way. Sounds like the beginning of an interesting story, wait and see. The bonfire is always nice, next to the BBQ grille and a work table.

All hands on deck for an attempt to assemble an MGB windscreen. The frame pieces were nicely polished, new glass and new rubber seal, plenty of soapy water to allow it to slide together, and a few ratchet straps to assist, but still it was refusing to go together. Seems like the right side frame may have a significant clockwise twist at the top end, so the top leg is not in the same plane as the glass. Wondering if the twist may have happened during the polishing process, as this was all parts of the same frame, which was previously a complete assembly. Insurmountable problem for tonight. There is another frame available, so maybe next time someone can compare parts to determine the exact misalignment issue, and if it might be fixable.

The never ending club project car has been making progress while we were away. With both body sills and all lower wings replaced, it appears to be getting close to surface finishing and primer.


Thursday - March 27, 2025:
Sitting in Countryside, IL today, catching up photos and notes for last night's doings. Took a short mid day trip to Pep Boys to pick up a couple quarts of gear lube and another spare headlight connector. Also looking for a generic windscreen washer kit with electric pump, but no luck there.
After dark, heading for Indiana, just approaching expressway entrance ramp with the headlights failed. Wave at a parked cop on the way by, and park it on the shoulder of the entrance ramp. Thinking the headlight switch may have failed, a few minutes under the dash with a test light verified the switch was still delivering power to the fat blue wire, so move on to the dipper kick switch. Wait a second. Kicking the dipper switch a few times reminds me that the dipper switch is flaky, as it has been for a long time.Curse the foreign made electrical parts from Moss Motors, now living with flaky lighting and dipper switches. This is really bad when the headlights fail in the dark without notice, especially when you have oncoming headlights in your face. Guess I will be looking for New Old Stock Lucas switches for the next replacements and spare parts.

Friday - March 28, 2025:
Sitting in Hobart, Indiana for breakfast. Folks on the BBS are fussing about details of the accessory front harness for installation of dual horns on the MGA. It didn't take long to point them to a page on this web site detailing installation of the horns, original single and optional dual.horns, including information for the small wiring harness in question. Now someone wants to be precise so they can make their own harness, maybe to concours show specification. So I took a few hours to post another Part Numbers tech page for the AHH5453 Harness for dual horns. Thanks to Sports Car Craftsmen in Arvada, Colorado for supplying some nice pictures. Then also fussing about the type/style of clips to secure the horn harness to the frame front cross member, so add another Part Numbers tech page for the AHH5506 Clip.

By mid day, off to visit brother in Hanna, Indiana.Pulling out of McD's parking lot, "Why do things smell like gasoline"? I dunno, but it's running well, so maybe check when we get there. 28 miles and 40 minutes later, pulling into bro's shop space, jack up the tail to drain and change the differential gear lube. Also jack the right side to grease the propshaft, and jack the front end to grease the suspension.
While the front is up, adjust 1/2 turn more tow out on the left side steering tie rod, hoping to set the steering wheel level, and maybe get rid of a little pull to the left, and maybe get rid of a tendency to track anywhere but straight on the road. We have had these issues since replacing the left inboard steering ball joint parts. a couple months back. As a matter of general maintenance, grab a long extension socket wrench to tighten the mounting bolts for the front shock absorbers.

While the bonnet was up, it was a good time to adjust the heater valve control cable. For some time it has not been giving either full heat or full off. Well, the cable jacket clamp and the control wire cable stop were both loose and slipping, so the valve lever was just sitting near mid stroke going nowhere. -- Easy fix. Rotate valve lever to full off position. Push cable jacket forward to touch the lever, and tighten the jacket clamp. Move control lever to off (full cool position) to retract the inner wire, and tighten the cable stop set screw. Done.

By then navigator had spotted the cause of the odd fuel smell. The front carburetor was missing the cap nut securing the float cover, and the overflow pipe was missing. Fortunately we had a spare banjo cap nut in the magic trailer, but no vent pipe. The expedient solution (jury rig field fix) was to install two fiber washers with a notch at one side for venting, and a few steel flat washers to make up for height of the missing banjo fitting. Good temporary fix, started right up and ran well. Record the mileage for the service records, and knock off for the day.


Saturday - March 29, 2025:
Brother doesn't have WiFi at his place, so we toddle along 20 miles to Knox, IL to find A WiFi spot in time for late breakfast. Time spent catching up photos and notes from yesterday, along with BBS and some email tech questions. Then checking weather forecasts, and playing spin-the-compass for our next move. Pennsylvania is still rather cold, maybe later. So we recon to go south-east through West Virginia, South Carolina, then loop back through Georgia on our way to the Gulf coast.We haven't been to the New Orleans area for few years. -- We ended up on Plymouth, Indiana for the night.


Sunday - March 30, 2025:
Made a few appointments. Now on our way south. By mid day, top up the tank and head on down the road. The Garmin GPS routed us on a nice long cruise on state and federal highways through north-east Indiana and into western Ohio. We finally got just 40 miles run on I-75 South before hitting Dayton, Ohio. Smack in the middle of this 40 miles the cross wind abruptly changed direction from easterly to westerly, and some storm clouds subsided just a but as the temperature rose a few degrees. Very strange but nice, general lack of rain. At Dayton we switched onto US35 east, and continued another n30 miles to Jeffersonville, OH for fuel stop and lunch break. After an hour break, the weather was deteriorating with nasty storm front moving in, possible tornado weather, but for sure some serious rain. So we bailed out a continued down US35 for another 95 miles to another safe haven, Love's travel Center, in Bidwell, OH by 8-pm. Good move, having out run the storm front. Let's grab dinner and hang here for tonight, hoping to let the storm move away.

Monday - March 31, 2025:
Had heavy rain 1-2 am. not too bad, considering the ugly storm front going through. Sitting over breakfast, plans changing by the minute. We have an appointment in Princeton, WV this evening. Next appointment for Tuesday/Wednesday in South Carolina may be put off to the week end. Now how to kill a few days in between? -- Well it wasn't going to stop raining, and South Carolina has been put off until the week end, and no use sitting still for another day. So we made another call and headed out into the rain. the first 100 miles was reasonable, not much slow down, chugging through the hills pretty good.Then around a little coal town called Gauley Bridge, WV, the road WV-16 became more interesting.Tight turning switchbacks averaging 20-MPH climbing up one side of a mountain ridge, followed by similar going down the other side. Rinse and repeat a few times. Then onto US-19 for a while with more mild hills and fewer slow-down curves. Finally back onto I-77 until we hit Princeton, West Virginia. Near destination, stop for fuel, 11.1 gallons for 258 miles, figures 23.3 mpg right through all the hills and twisties in the rain. Can't complain. -- Check in with our friend Micheal Crews for a short chat, same place we were last November while building and installing the 1800 engine. Looks like we may be here for a few days, so a little side trip for minor groceries before sitting down for the night.