That awful colour MGB GT
Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 10:15 pm
So I don't need to give you guys any introduction to this one. Instead I'll update on where I'm at with it and what I've done over the last week since its been back.
I decided I was going to make a concerted effort to using this bastard of a car. As I had a new toy (Boxster) that was distracting me, that new toy would be put away and the BGT taken out.
The approach I was going to take was to try sorting the final issues it had and just go for using it. Biggest issue I had was the lumpy idle and rough running. The idle especially was a massive inconvenience as you'd come to a stop at the lights and it could be idling at 1500rpm one time, then 400rpm/stalling the next. I had read up that the HIF carbs I have in my BGT have poppet valves on the throttle discs. These are apparently notorious for leaking air and cause crap idle + running. So the first repair was to replace these discs with HS4 equivalents that have no poppet valve.
Thus a shopping trip to Moss Motors in town was made to buy some stuff.
Once acquired, I had to get the car back. Starting was as eventual as I expected.
[youtube][/youtube]
However I got her back down
I got the carbs off.
I was careful to keep the linkages and tuning as untouched as I could.
Bucket of carbs
Bench with carbs
Offending poppet valves
Now gone
The hateful things
Carbs went on.
While I was there, I replaced the rocker cover gasket
Old wasn't that old but I way overtightened it and crushed it.
Also put a new oil cap on. Old can be cleaned out, but this was cheap and gives me a chance to clean up the original one properly.
Found more crap aftermarket parts with the dizzy cap. Terminals had actually twisted in the cap. Luckily I had already bought a spare at Moss. That came with rather nice brass terminals and felt much better made.
Also found a break in the insulation for the wire that feeds the coil
Short term I ran a new wire from the coil directly to the fusebox. Also fitted an ignition amplifier box to hopefully keep the thing running a bit better with the cheapy Lucas cloned distributor. I must send off my original to be rebuilt sometime soon.
Also fitted a new Chinese special radio. Took the time to clean up the wiring a bit too. Looks the part and useful to have Bluetooth tunes that can be played through it.
Next up was the fusebox. The contacts on this are looking very worse for wear. Long term I want to clean this up properly and reuse it.
Short term, I took another trip to my local Moss and purchased a new one. Quality isn't too bad on it to be honest
Next up on the electrics was to fix the candles/headlights. Popped the headlight switch out for cleanup.
Found a rouge wire plugged in that had nothing attached at the other end. Or it did and I managed to pull it out while removing the switch. Glad I pulled this out, these sort of things can cause all sorts of headaches and potential fires.
Dirty contacts
Clean contacts. On reassembling I turned the slider side around to get more use out of it. I'll worry about that side wearing out when it's 80yrs old.
Next up while I was in this area, I noticed that the gearstick ball area looked a bit sorry for itself.
Took the stick out.
Cleaned up surfaces with a bit of 400grit. Also put a new bush on the end - just under 4 quid for this flipping bit of nylon.
Liberally greased and reassembled.
I decided I was going to make a concerted effort to using this bastard of a car. As I had a new toy (Boxster) that was distracting me, that new toy would be put away and the BGT taken out.
The approach I was going to take was to try sorting the final issues it had and just go for using it. Biggest issue I had was the lumpy idle and rough running. The idle especially was a massive inconvenience as you'd come to a stop at the lights and it could be idling at 1500rpm one time, then 400rpm/stalling the next. I had read up that the HIF carbs I have in my BGT have poppet valves on the throttle discs. These are apparently notorious for leaking air and cause crap idle + running. So the first repair was to replace these discs with HS4 equivalents that have no poppet valve.
Thus a shopping trip to Moss Motors in town was made to buy some stuff.
Once acquired, I had to get the car back. Starting was as eventual as I expected.
[youtube][/youtube]
However I got her back down
I got the carbs off.
I was careful to keep the linkages and tuning as untouched as I could.
Bucket of carbs
Bench with carbs
Offending poppet valves
Now gone
The hateful things
Carbs went on.
While I was there, I replaced the rocker cover gasket
Old wasn't that old but I way overtightened it and crushed it.
Also put a new oil cap on. Old can be cleaned out, but this was cheap and gives me a chance to clean up the original one properly.
Found more crap aftermarket parts with the dizzy cap. Terminals had actually twisted in the cap. Luckily I had already bought a spare at Moss. That came with rather nice brass terminals and felt much better made.
Also found a break in the insulation for the wire that feeds the coil
Short term I ran a new wire from the coil directly to the fusebox. Also fitted an ignition amplifier box to hopefully keep the thing running a bit better with the cheapy Lucas cloned distributor. I must send off my original to be rebuilt sometime soon.
Also fitted a new Chinese special radio. Took the time to clean up the wiring a bit too. Looks the part and useful to have Bluetooth tunes that can be played through it.
Next up was the fusebox. The contacts on this are looking very worse for wear. Long term I want to clean this up properly and reuse it.
Short term, I took another trip to my local Moss and purchased a new one. Quality isn't too bad on it to be honest
Next up on the electrics was to fix the candles/headlights. Popped the headlight switch out for cleanup.
Found a rouge wire plugged in that had nothing attached at the other end. Or it did and I managed to pull it out while removing the switch. Glad I pulled this out, these sort of things can cause all sorts of headaches and potential fires.
Dirty contacts
Clean contacts. On reassembling I turned the slider side around to get more use out of it. I'll worry about that side wearing out when it's 80yrs old.
Next up while I was in this area, I noticed that the gearstick ball area looked a bit sorry for itself.
Took the stick out.
Cleaned up surfaces with a bit of 400grit. Also put a new bush on the end - just under 4 quid for this flipping bit of nylon.
Liberally greased and reassembled.