Western Washington All British Field Meet

Since I had so few miles on the car I decided to tow the car to the Seattle area rather than try and drive through the heat over the mountains.  U haul car hauler worked very well with my Suburban.

I took my chrome side strips over to Seattle, I hope Art Brass Plating will be the ones to re-chrome them, it is a chore to find platers anymore.

The show was fun on Saturday, there were cars of many brands, and styles.  It was shady for us, in the sun it was warm but we stayed cool.  The grandkids had a large playground to keep them busy.

Magnette and '63 MGB share some old-times
in my son-in-law's garage.

Birch gray all waxed.

Three Magnettes were present; Dave Wall's, Ian McGowan's and ours.

6.5 liter Bentley engine, 1939 I believe.

Finishing up, more or less.

The car has been competing with summer, another MGA and a Humber Super Snipe.  The main delay was with the carbs, the  rebuilt carbs leaked, one at the junction of the carb base and float bowl and one at the jet.  I picked a rebuilder off the MG experience website, new to me. He had them over 5 months the first time for the rebuild, and now two months to try and fix the leaks.  I had tried new grommets, gasket sealer and prayer, to no avail.

In the meantime I have finished the dash, the parcel shelf and a few other details.  Like seatbelts, lap only front and back.

To get back to driving,  I put the carbs from my other Maggie into this one, she runs well.  I am towing the car to Washington for the ABFM near Seattle this weekend.  I just haven't had the carbs in long enough to try and drive that far with an unproven set of systems.

Waxed and ready to go.  We hope to meet with the original owner of the car in Seattle!  Hope she likes the work I have done.

Ready to ramble.

Stator tube

I had the pleasure of re-doing the stator tube wiring this week.  With the pictures and written descriptions from Steve Hanegan and this site:  http://www.zmagnettetech.info/maintenance/electrical/108-the-hornindicator-switch-the-magnettes-chinese-puzzle.html

it wasn't that bad.  I did mess up soldering so I had an unnoticed insulation melt cause a short, so I did have to take it apart and re-do the wires. I had to make the lower tube section from a 20" length of steel brake tube from NAPA.  I cut the flare off one end using my original as a template for total length and for the length and width of the end notch.  This notch aligns with some dimples in the larger diameter tube from the steering wheel, and prevents rotation.  The smaller diameter tube is removed from the lower end of the steering column, this allows the upper tube and steering hub to be pulled into the cabin for removal.  A brass nut fits on the lower end to compress a brass compression washer, this fixes the stator tube in place to prevent rotation as the steering wheel is turned.

 

 

Stator tube and trafficator switch.

 

 

Switch wire connections

Brake line, 5/16" worked into stator tube
lower section.

Brass nut fixing the stator tube on the lower steering column.

Windtone horns in place, not working on the car yet, sound good on the bench though.

 

 

Rear bumper, over riders and English license plate are looking good.



Headliner and dash installation

The headliner is back in and looks pretty good.  I tried to order a new one from Lou Shorten but it has been unavailable, her eyesight has declined to the point that she can't do the sewing anymore.  I elected to reuse the original liner, I wash it to remove as much of its history as I could, along with 40 years of life with a smoker.  It cleaned well but I should have stretched it somehow as it dried, because it did shrink. 

The installation is tedious but not that hard, awkward contorting into the car is the biggest hardship.  If you take the metal cross pieces out of the original, number them from front to back, that will save some time sorting them out later. I recommend using double sided tape to hold the edges in place while you fix the side finishing pieces in place.  Start at the front or back and work in one direction.

My clock is not functioning, a project for another day.

The dash from my car was in nice shape, the veneer on the end pieces was all that needed to be replaced.  I am not a wood worker but I bought some veneer and was able to bond it on and polyurethane finish to get a close match with the original.

The dash installed:

Carburetors

I sent off a spare set of H2 carbs for a rebuild before Christmas, the last couple weeks I finally had time to switch out the old ones, which were working very well.  The new carbs looked beautiful and I was anxious to get them on.  Once I took off the old set, it was obvious I had to clean up the intake manifold and heat shield, they were greasy and had some engine paint overspray. 

As always it took a while to clean and prep them for paint, I did get that all done before a trip to England and France over spring break.  Once home, on April 1... I got into the exchange carb installation.  All went fairly well until I turned on the key to try a start up.  Bad leaks from both float bowl to carburetor junctions right away. I tried some fuel resistant sealer but to no avail. The leaks did slow to a drip and I cranked the engine up and it idled very well.  I am back to waiting for Viton gaskets, I think I will also put Prematex 2 on for sealing.

Master cylinder arrives and a short drive

The re-sleeved master cylinder was returned from Seattle this week, it seems well done.  The re-installation went well, except initially I re-used the copper washers.  I knew better but was in a hurry, mea culpa.  The clutch connection leaked, I bought new washers from NAPA and now all is well. I read afterwards that you can heat anneal the washers to soften them if you want to re-use them.

Clutch bleeding went well with my mini-vac.  The brakes have been difficult to get right, I still have a soft peddle, no leaks are seen at any of the joints.  The good news here is that the MGA brake light switch from Moss is working. 

I couldn't resist a drive around the neighborhood to check out the clutch and transmission.  Shifting was fine and the speedometer seems to work accurately, up to 30 mph at least.

Master cylinder mounted. It is getting tight in this
corner of the engine bay. Only the flasher left to attach.



Parked outside the garage for the first time in months!!

The original panels are going in nicely, there is some "patina"
related to being 55 years old. 

Wipers, washer bottle and wood door caps

I have made a little progress, not bad actually considering Holiday travel and two weeks in Hawaii.

I have the original washer bottle, I think.  The internals are black plastic and seem to be ready to work.  I have seen some internal components that are brass, but they may have come from a Jaguar, or earlier Magnette. I cleaned up the pieces, there was a little rust on the spring inside the plastic chamber.  The washer operates off engine vacuum.  When you depress the washer button, vacuum pulls washer fluid from the large jar into the spring chamber, compressing the spring.  When the button is released the spring expands, pushing washer fluid out the jets.  I have it all installed but not tested yet.

I have a new Trico decal, will have to apply it.

The windshield wipers take a bit of fiddling, cleaning old grease, bench testing the motor, and re-installing.  I painted the black cover for the motor and cleaned up the aluminum housing a bit. I re-greased the drive gear and connecting rod to the cable drive shaft. 

Wiper motor ready to go

Cover plate removed to show motor drive cable on round gear. The shaft to the right
connects from the gear to the end of the long inner drive cable that
runs to each blade box assembly. The small washer pictured goes under the shaft
 and the copper piece and c-clip on top.  This assembly to the inner wiper drive cable
is done in the car with the wiper motor already mounted.

Close up shows the gap in the copper cap, this causes the motor to
stop and "parks" the wiper blades when the wiper switch is turned off.
With the top plate loosened this cap can be rotated to adjust the parking point.

Parts for the wiper blade box assemblies.



Wheel assembly on drive shaft, outside of car to illustrate.
See the Service parts list, page 141 for illustration.



Mounted in the car and working. Still need to attach the wiper blades.

I have been finishing the interior and re-installed the wooden door caps, they look good. Unfortunately I overlooked cleaning and preparing the rear door pulls and the vinyl panels that fill the holes, in the door panels, under the door pulls and rope pulls in the front.  So I am doing that and then should get the door panels, window cranks and door cranks in place after that.