MGBGT Restoration

I’m in the process of rebuilding some 40 DCOE for my brother’s BMW 2002.  I will put some pictures in place to help keep me on track.  Maybe they could help you.

Here is a crusty carb:

The right side shows the O-ring in place between the air filter plate and the carb.

This view shows the anti-vibration gizmo between the carb and intake manifold, again, the O-ring is in place on the right side:

A basic scrub with water based “orange” cleaner:

A new float needle has been installed in the past.  I held the float cover with the float in place upside down and blew into the inlet.  It sealed well and will be left alone.

Lots of crap in the bottom bowl cover plate.

Main jet assembly:

Accelerator pump; the piston was stuck in place and finally freed up with “Freeze-off”:

Now its time for a thorough cleaning:  I hope I can put her back together

I will be making a few posts from now and then as I work on the car.  One of the things I wanted to do was change the fuel filter as it appeared to be original to the 2003 car.  There are many good sources for doing tasks on the Miata; most of which can be found in the garage section of Miata.net.  Unfortunately, the directions there talked about changing a filter on an older car that had simple hose clamps.  My car had the newer special clips.

I couldn’t find out any good info or pics on how to deal with those.  I went to the local parts store, showed them the photo and was told to buy this:

It is a well made USA tool but it is not the right one.  Don’t buy it for this job.  This is the one you want:

This is how you use it.  Click it around the metal part of the filter and slide it up inbetween the metal pipe and the white plastic clip.  Keep pushing it up until the black flexible part of the gas line end expands and releases from the ridge on the metal pipe.

The MGBGT is dead.  Time is too short for projects that are so deep in the hole.  It didn’t help to find out that repairs that were done before I picked up the project were not done correctly.  It would have required cutting out the trunk floor, left quarter panel and frame area that supported the leaf spring front support.

Time for some fresh metal; one that is capable of being driven and enjoyed.

Alright, I said that the next time that the MG would move out of the garage would be under it’s own power but I lied.

I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I looked at all the stuff that needed to happen: finish the wiring harness, install both manifolds, install complete interior, etc, etc, etc.

I saw the MG competing for my time with my other numerous (too numerous?) interests and the work on the car became a job and not a joy.  My breaking point came when I realized that the front leaf spring mounting brackets on the chasis were improperly welded in and I would have to remove the back axle and re-do them. 

I stripped the carcass and had it towed away.

A week later I bought a 2003 Miata. I love it, I drive it, and I don’t regret the new direction.

It’s important to drive a sports car while you can still get in and out of it.

If I start a Tumblr on the Miata, I’ll come back here and put in a link.

I thought I would tackle another miscellaneous project of the front suspension.  The aftermarket rubber seals on the lower trunion decided to spontaneously rupture and shred as did the gaiters on the aftermarket steering rack.

The new trunion seals went in without too much drama.  I cut away the steering rack boots (gaiters) and found a disturbing amount of play in the inner bar -- about half an inch (12mm) !!!!

It seems like the new Made in China steering rack from Victoria British that never saw the road under power was made without consideration of quality control.  I doubt that VB will honor a refund for a purchase from 10 years ago.  I wouldn’t want a replacement from them anyway.  My best solution is to look at rebuilding an OEM rack.  There are new racks being made by http://www.flamingriver.com/index.php/products/c0013/s0009/FR1512 that are intended for Cobra replicas.  They seem a little pricey but if they don’t arrive pre-broken, they may be worth it.

Since I’m planning to remove the rack, here’s a few things I noted about the mounting bolts.  The rearward nuts are welded into the subframe.  The forward holes have a little nub that allegedly keeps the nuts from spinning.

So many things to do but I started small.  I have moved the box containing the headlights too many times and I thought let’s just put them on.  I bought some Hella lights from http://www.busdepot.com/ along with H4 bulbs.  I plan on running the Saturn alternator mod so I should have plenty of power.

First, I had to polish up the retaining rims.

This Quick-Glo stuff seems to work well.

I need to add the final trim rings but now she doesn’t look quite so forlorn now.

My car has been in storage for almost 2 years.  During this time, I’ve moved twice and despaired of ever finishing.

Now, she is back and the next time she moves, it will be under her own power.

Yes, it has been a while since there have been postings of activity.  I have managed to install the engine and transmission during a break from the electrical harness install. 

I was getting ready to mate the transmission to the engine when I noticed a broken bolt in the aluminum housing that holds the shifter.

Tapping on the high end of the bolt with a pin punch did not get it dislodged so it had to be drilled out. After cleaning up the hole with a tap, I turned my attention to the flywheel.  It turns out that ARP bolts for a Chevy small block  from Summit Racing will fit an MG.

I cleaned up the flywheel with this 3M attachment and got ready to put on the clutch.  My brother originally had grade 5 bolts but I wanted to use grade 8 bolts.  I went to the local Ace Hardware store and got some bolts there. When I torqued these to a measly 25 ft-lbs, this is what happened.

The cold weather in my area has made getting out to the garage a major impediment. I've tried to do some inside projects to keep myself busy but I feel myself sliding into hibernation.

One small project that I have been toying with is to refinish the gearshift knob. Unfortunately, the original gearshift knob disappeared along with the original gearshift lever. I was able to pick up a few boxes of old MG spares from a guy who was clearing out his garage and found 3 levers. On a parallel track, I found the gearshift knob from my brother John's old 1963 Jaguar E type in one of the parts boxes.

The threaded portion of the MG gearshift lever is larger in diameter than the Jaguar knob. It did not take much to drill out the original hole and tap a new 7/16 inch coarse thread into the knob. I then screwed in a bolt with the head cut off and placed it in the chuck of an old Sears craftsman drill.

This acted as a primitive lathe that allowed me to sand off the old finish and dirt with 220 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper. I use the wipe on poly finish that you see in the background.

This is the result after three coats of finish. I gave it one more coat that seemed to help fill in the last of the small pores and then epoxied in the center medallion.

The wiring harness in the old 68 BGT was just too old and friable for it to be reliable. Also, there were several parts of the harness that had shorted and had been re-patched. I opted to go with an Advanced Auto Wire system since it had twice as many circuits and had all of the relays and flashers set to go. I did like the fact that the flashers were already compatible with LED lights which is something that I had planned to upgrade to.

Unfortunately, the construction of the power block board was not conducive to a wide variety of placements. The main issue was the fuses, relays, and's flasher units were replaceable by pulling in different directions.

When you look at the original power block; when you bolted the board down, you have to be able to access it from three different orientations: left, top, and right if you ever had to replace any of the components. After consultation with my friend Robb, we went to Lloyd's workshop and banged out a simple L-shaped mounting bracket.

Now at least, I can mount the board up against one corner and be able to pull out the relays in the same direction as the fuses go. This increases the options I have for mounting and eliminates the need to set up a piano hinge to maintain good access.

It was very nice to be able to do some work at Lloyd's place. He had an industrial quality metal shear and metal brake that made this task ridiculously simple.

I took my banged up drive shaft along with the back half of a donated shaft to D&R Driveline.  They swapped the front sliding yoke, installed u-joints and slide seal, balanced and painted it; all for $52.  Can’t beat it.

As always distracted by side projects, I pursue completion of the driveshaft in a vain hope that the engine and transmission can go in before the winter.  I changed the u-joint on the front flange but found the the joint didn’t flex freely like it should.  I ended up removing a cap that didn’t seem to seat right and found this:

Where is the missing needle bearing in the cap?  Why, it is smashed down into a smudge of swarf in the center of the cap.  Duh, that’s why that cap took a lot of effort to seat.  After finding out that I need to buy another u-joint for the front, I looked at the rear joint and found this on the main shaft yoke:

When you look at the various MG listserv's, there is much debate about whether or not you should put shims in the front wheel bearing. One side of the controversy says that the MG front hub is quite strong and you don't have to torque the axle nut to get good strength. The other side says that the factory designed the front hub to have a specific torque on the nut in order to get more strength and if it was not felt to be important, the MG company was so cheap they wouldn't have set it up that way.

My way of looking at it is that the shims are inexpensive and it seems relatively easy to set up the shims correctly. This is my technique, or way of looking at it, based off of John Twist's video and my reading of the factory manual.

First, assemble the rotor and hub combination using the bearing spacer. This is how it looks from the outside with the outer bearing removed.

Here is a picture of the shims from the set that I bought from the B Hive.

According to Twist, every assembly starts with the thickest washer in the set. Place the shim over the hub and then fit the outer bearing and washer, followed by the nut.

This is the sequence that I think makes the most sense. I torque the nut to 40 pounds (the factory manual gives a specification of 40 - 70). If I get the right amount of play (by feel) and the rotor turns freely, then all I need is one shim. If the castle nuts aligns with one of the holes for the cotter pin, then I am done. If not, I can torque the nut up to 70 pounds in order to get one of the holes to lineup.

However, if the rotor does not turn freely, meaning that there is insufficient endfloat, then I will add a medium thickness shim and re-torque the nut. If the endfloat is too much, then remove the medium thickness shim and try it with the thinnest shim. If the endfloat is too little with the first medium shim, add another medium shim and repeat the process until you find the right combination. It only took me about 5 minutes to set up each side.

Once you have everything torqued to the right specs, add a cotter pin. According to the book, "Prepare to Win" by Carroll Smith, this is the correct way to set the cotter pin.

Okay, it has been much too long since I did and updates to my tumbler. First, let me talk about installation of the heater box. There is an excellent article in the Chicagoland MG car club tech area that describes in great detail the removal and restoration of this unit. All I have to add to that is there must have been some change in the assembly process that makes these boxes not exactly interchangeable.

There is only one way for this box to fit and have the holes on the bottom line up appropriately. Unfortunately, the top support hole is slightly off in this situation.

I ended up having to cut a slot in this top support bracket and then paint two different washers to make it look not by quite so much a hack job.

I finally feel like the project is picking up some momentum.  I finished respraying the buggered up rocker panel and I am currently working on the brakes.  I discovered that the brake switch and body assembly is corroded internally and no one makes a new part.  I opted to route the lines without it and will rely on my innate driving skills to let me know if half of my brakes aren’t working. 

I don’t see how the right front brake line could be replaced with the engine installed.

As always, there are little projects to distract the unwary.  I am preparing to put in the heater box and was getting the control cable and knob assembly ready to go when I noticed a difference between the vent control knob and heater valve knob assembly.

There is a tiny button held in by a spring that ultimately grips the control knob that was missing.  Fortunately, I had a spare assembly.

Unfortunately, the little tab at the back of the spring clip does not seem long enough to “lock” into the allotted space.  I bodged the thing with some duct tape but I’m not happy with the results.