Wocha bin doin on your MG this week then?

While Madam was becoming more and more stressed and irritable, I slunk off to the garage. The new hood straps are made but not with me yet but the instrument bulbs are so it was time to pull the centre console out and swap the clock and the oil temperature gauge. Too simple for a how to and then locate the yellow wire while I am in there to extend it for better locking range which was formerly about an inch from the door.

Being a trained radio engineer, I know how important it is to calculate the exact length of the wire to 27 decimal places so I pulled a length out of the scrap bin that was about 18" long, attached it to the end of the yellow wire and routed it upwards, trapping the end under the centre vent and tucking the end in so it didn't show. Result? an illuminated oil temperature gauge in a place where I can read it and a reliable thirty foot locking range. Tore the garage apart and failed to find my USB charger but it will turn up as I have ordered a new one.

Told Madam that I was assembling her Christmas present which I did last week so I'm back in the good books.

The Fabsil didn't work well Maybe due to dust and grime buildup in the fabric so I decided to give the hood a good scrub down and try again Blotting it with masking tape all over got rid of all the lint from where somebody has wiped it over with stockinette or something similar. Soaked it in an all purpose cleaner and scrubbed it with a sponge. I'll hose it off completely tomorrow and let it dry for a couple of days before going further. A friend's wife sewed up a couple of elastic and velcro straps which work beautifully to fold the hood fully and all the pivots got a drop of 5w-30 apiece which has made no real difference but might reduce a little noise on the road. The seals, which are not yet anywhere near right got a wipe over with a drop of silicone grease and the coachwork got a touch in here and there.

The original radio cassette has long wave but no auxiliary input so I downloaded the manual for it and went snooping around the circuit with some success. I can cut a couple of PCB tracks and solder a couple of wires to swap them them over. That means that I could put a cassette in and enable the CD preamp inputs which should allow me to add an auxiliary input without recourse to FM transmitters or plug in cassette adaptors. I need to establish whether the tape end detector will auto reverse the deck at random or whether I shall need to find a way of fooling it that the deck has a cassette installed to use the input or ejected to use the radio so It is embryonic right now although it will allow the use of the original set if I can get it to work. I can buy a much better one off marketplace for a tenner, of course, but that is not the point!

The hood was hosed off after the night's rain and the soap washed out. Funnily enough, the water beaded off the top quite nicely and after the torrential rain last night, the car is dry within so that is a result. Having found a hole in the back of the rear sill, took car to welder who put it on a ramp. Much less bad than anticipated, the car is otherwise very good apart from light surface rusting on the subframes but £300 to repair the sill and I do the finishing seemed quite dear and £1500 to do the rear arch, which is starting to rust seemed a lot. Think on reflection, I'll buy one of Mike's panels and do the prep myself then decide if I am brave enough to weld it. Cutting a good section out of a scrapper for the arch lip seems like a better idea. (I have a nibbler and other metal bashing kit- time I used them.) This was the first time I used the car with the oil temperature gauge moved to the right hand side. A very worthwhile improvement.

Nothing - I have done nothing on mine for weeks, either I've been working, clearing our study of 10 years junk so I could move all my slot car and model railway gear from my step daughters room (she left home 6 years ago but was due to stay over Xmas until she became positive so didn't) or its been raining and as my next job is to refit the rear speedo cable that is not good.

Yes, the Weather gods don't like mechanics! I have my first classic car event on New Year's day, an excuse for a good breakfast and the Poole bathtub race. This means that the proposed cleanup of the motorbike won't be happening as the F will need a scrub up.

In past years I have been able to do things on cars during the Christmas break but not this year.

I finally fitted my AliExpress cam position sensor.
Checked with the Pscan and no cam sensor fault, so very happy with that.
An oil and filter change while I had the engine cover off as it was due.

Ready for more happy miles.

Tried to find paintless dent removal locally, bought new window stops, ordered yet another set of valves for the hydragas refill, received the pressure transducer for the coolant monitor and drove it around the town a couple of times. Plugged the HRW in and was gratified to find that it worked.

Changed my leaking gearbox oil seal today - very pleasant in the warm sunshine. Surprised how different the replacement oil seal was from the original. ( new one on the left).

Bought a cheap oil change kit from toolstation for £10 - good value as long as you don't expect too much for this price 😀 made it much easier to fill the gearbox.


My top tip - when replacing any ball joints if you can afford them buy those with a torx or allen socket in the end of the taper - makes dismantling later much easier as you can stop the taper rotating whilst undoing the nut. Otherwise if the taper starts turning with the nut the only solution can be to cut through the taper stem.

Gavin207 wrote:

Changed my leaking gearbox oil seal today - very pleasant in the warm sunshine. Surprised how different the replacement oil seal was from the original.


My top tip - when replacing any ball joints if you can afford them buy those with a torx or allen socket in the end of the taper - makes dismantling later much easier as you can stop the taper rotating whilst undoing the nut. Otherwise if the taper starts turning with the nut the only solution can be to cut through the taper stem.

The oil seals may vary in design with different manufacturers.....not unusual. So long as the inside dia, outside dia and the thickness are the same.
As for the ball joints, a rattle gun usually gets the nuts undone without the stem turning...........Shock and awe!
another method is to keep pressure on the ball joint whilst undoing the nut.
Either of the above is much preferred to cutting

Finally sourced valves that fit Mike's adaptors for the regas and received the connecting lead to tidy up the heated rear window wiring.
Managed to find a front and a rear displacer so I can gas a pair up and swap them for the ones in the car which in turn can be swapped, saving downtime and providing a bit of insurance should one of them not be up to much.

Gavin207 wrote:

My top tip - when replacing any ball joints if you can afford them buy those with a torx or allen socket in the end of the taper - makes dismantling later much easier as you can stop the taper rotating whilst undoing the nut. Otherwise if the taper starts turning with the nut the only solution can be to cut through the taper stem.

and if you can't find a cap fill the recess with grease or copper slip to stop it filling up with gunge.