MGB in the Garage: 2012

The fish have left for warmer water- so the winter projects have started on the MGB:

First up was to prepare the old rusty convertible top frame for some new vinyl. I stripped it down first- removing the retainer seal and gasket (goes against the top of the windshield). The retainer is held to the header rail with a dozen rivets or so. I just drilled them out. The new vinyl will be held between the retainer and the header rail once installed.

old vinyl- at least what's left of it

removing the hardware- this is one of two clamps that hold the frame to the windshield

Next up, it was a basic sand, clean, sand, clean, etc. in prep for some paint. I taped over the original sticker.

lots of surface rust, but in go solid shape

ready for some new paint


old rivets- I had to fish them out of the header rail or listened to them role around in there, which would have been really nice while driving down the road.

Next up came some paint. I just hung the frame and header rail from the ceiling and painted them with a brush. I used the same satin black paint I bought for the floors- very tough stuff that sticks to your hands for about a week- seriously.

done, and ready for a new top in the spring

Looks pretty good

The front suspension rebuild is next:

The car has 40 year old rubber in the suspension, so it's long overdue for a refresh. On the road, she would hop weirdly over bumps or railroad tracks. Replacing all bushings will tighten up the handling for sure- so lets get started on this big job.

Let's start with a little description of how the MGB front suspension works. The entire front suspension and brakes are attached to a large crossmember that is attached to the structure of the car with 4 long bolts. The MGB is a unibody construction, so there really is no frame and the body of the car is actually the structure- as opposed to a frame construction car where the body, suspension, and drivetrain are hung a large frame.

The front Armstrong lever-arm shocks sit on top of the crossmember and the shock arms are also the upper a-arms. These arms mount to the top of the king pin (or swivel pin) which has the steering arms and hub/brakes attached and turns the front wheels. The lower a-arms attach to the bottom of the king pin and also support the bottom of the coil spring. The top of the coil spring is retained inside a depression in the crossmember- here is a photo of the entire contraption (with the sway bar link, brake disk and brake caliper removed):

prior to removal of the crossmember

So, I am going to remove the crosmmember, clean and paint it, remove and replace all rubber bushings, refresh the shock oil, clean all and paint most of the componants, and put it all back together.

First step was to get the car in the air, loosen all suspension bolts, and drop the crossmember as a complete unit so I can take it apart in the basement where it is a tad warmer than Maine in December in an uninsulated and unheated garage....

It's easier to loosen everything that will eventually be removed while the crossmember is still on the car so I can use the weight of the car as I'm applying quite a bit of torque to remove these old nuts and bolts. No real trouble with this- just a bunch of penetrating fluid and time.

Once everything is loose- I put my floor jack under the crossmember to support it and loosened the 4 large bolts holding to the structure of the car. One of these bolts proved more difficult than the other 3 since there was a large oil cooler line right on top of it. When somebody added air conditioning to the car many years ago, they relocated the oil cooler lines to make way for the AC lines running up to the front of the car. So, I had to remove the oil cooler line:

you can just see the top of the bolt I need to remove under the large black oil cooler line

before removing the crossmember, I needed to remove the coilspring...

so I supported it with the jack, undid the bolt holding the top of the king pin to the shock arms, and leaned the king pin out of the way. This is slightly dangerous considering how much force is held in that spring under compression- so I took it nice ans slow as I lowered the jack and pulled out the spring.

good looking king pin bushing here- that crumbled torn rubber is some of what is being replaced. You can also see the end of the steering arm dangling by itself on the right- it has been removed from the steering arm below it

brake lines clipped to the back of the crossmember had to be loosened- they stay with the car

the other side taken apart to remove the spring


now I have moved the jack to support the crossmember. The steering rack is also attached to the crossmember, and it stays with the car as well. This is easier than splitting the steering column and taking the rack off still attached to the crossmember. I just used some string to support the rack as I removed the four bolts holding it to the crossmember. The piece of wood is there to give a little stability to the rack as it comes down- it wouldn't be fun to have it fall off of the jack.

So- dropping it out was next. No real drama- just a two person job, so Drew helped out here.

you can now see the 4 big bolts holding on the crossmember

It's out!

a rusty greasy mess sees direct sunlight for the first in 40 years

Gone! You can see the brake caliper hanging on the left, the steering rack held by the rope in the middle, and the silver end of the sway bar on the right pointed up out of the way.

So, next up was to try and clean off some of the grime so it would be easier to work on and not make quite the mess in the basement. I just put it on a towel and went to work with cleaner,wire brushes, and running water.


looking better. I just let it dry in the sun before dragging it down into the basement.

I also decided to remove the transmission crossmember from the car while it was in the air. Not too difficult, just quite a few bolts and rubber mounts. I'll clean and paint the thing, and replace all of the mounts. Basically, it's held to the car with bolts and attached to the sides of the transmission with rubber mounts to provide stability to the transmission.

transmission mount- aka butterfly

mount and butterfly again- the trans crossmemer is already dropped out of the way

It's out and filled with years of crud

close-up of the butterfly (now you see why it's called that). I'll replace those round gooey black bushings with polyurethane.

here is where it sits for reference

the underside of the transmission crossmember after cleaning

somebody had removed the crossmember in the past and decided to use the wrong bolt putting it back in and had stripped one of the attachments in the butterfly- so I tapped in new threads

more cleaning and ready for some paint

painted and ready for new bushings

So, that's all for this post- it's already too long..... Next up will be cleaning and painting all of the suspension bits

Here is just a little teaser/cliffhanger to keep you interested:

One last thing- I bought a two year old solid state fuel pump and braided lines from a dude who was parting out his 71 MGB. Original cost was $180 for the pump and $40 for the lines and I got them for $85shipped- not a bad deal! My pump is questionable at best, so this should help with any reliability issues.

Not sure why he included a rusty mounting bracket, but mine is fine. The pump and lines look brand new- and now I won't need to worry about the old points in my original pump.

Sorry- it's been a long time since my last post. Much has happened with the MGBeast!

I bought a second hand windshield/frame and my brother and I replaced the old delaminated unit with this nice clear one. It's a fiddly job trying to get the 6 bolts lined up, so we had to partially remove the dash to give us the access we needed.

Old windshield- you can see the foggy areas along the bottom

another old photo of the old windshield. Boy- that interior has come a long way!

old and new windshields

windshield removed

Installed and vision is restored!

I also polished up a few body panels and they are looking pretty good- for 40 year old paint!

not too shabby!

I also installed a used steering wheel I bought off some dude on the internet- $70! Really looks better than that old cracked one that was scalloped enough that you couldn't reach the turn signals with you hands on the wheel.

old steering wheel

new steering wheel- much nicer.

Next up, I replaced the front anti-way bar bushings and links. One side was loose, so I just rebuilt the entire thing with new bushings.

old swaybar and mount

old sway bar

using the ol' 12 ton press to replace the bushings- worked perfectly

new bushings and drop link- the bar itself I just painted silver- notice the oil leaking out of the steering rack boot..... more to come later on that one!

Next up was removing the air conditioning compressor under the alternator and relocating the alternator wher it is supposed to be. No real trouble, just a ton of bolts and big heavy steel brackets. This system would have been installed in the US by the dealer- MG did not offer this option.

getting started- you can see the compressor poking out under the alternator

alternator out of the way- not it's time to remove some brackets and compressor

all gone- sure is oily/dirty in there- but that was the Brits way of making sure everything stayed lubricated....

here is the junk I removed- probably 30 pounds of useess metal

all put back together with new belt, plug wires, mounting hardware, etc.

while I had the alternator out, I replaced the brushes since they only cost 1$!

Next up was replacing the coolant, thermostat, coolant hoses, etc. Drew helped out with this one. Basically, we just drained the coolant, removed all coolant hoses, removed the radiator to flush it out, removed the old thermostst, flushed out the engine, replaced thermostat, installed new coolant hoses, and refilled. I also replaced the heater valve on the side of the block that controls the coolant going to the heater core in the dash. The red hoses are just stock coolant hoses from NAPA with extra reinforcement so they can handle the bends needed. I also painted the radiator and thermostat housing while I had them off.

old hoses- showing a little swelling. You can also see a body to engine ground strap in this
photo. I just removed it while the hoses and radiator were out of the way and cleaned it up and reinstalled it with some new hardware and dielectric grease.

radiator is out

starting to refit new hoses- new thermostat is already installed under that black part with the tree nuts on the top of it.

all done- including that silver heater valve with the red hose attached to it.

another completed shot from the front of the car.

As I was running the car after replacing the coolant to check for leaks- I noticed a large puddle of oil under the car! OOOppps- after some investigation, it seems one of us must have bumped the oil pressuse guage line right next to the heater valve, so now it was leaking quite badly. I ordered a new line and installed it the following weekend. I'm glad this didn't happen on the highway - could have been much worse. This line is obviously under pressure, so it wouldn't take to long to empty the crankcase of oil while driving at speed.

I am obviously holding the old one with the new one installed from the pressure switch to the block. The car has a mechanical oil pressure guage.

Next on the list was to replace the entire exhaust system. I ended up buying a stainless Tourist Trophy system. No real issues with the install since it was specifically designed for my car. All supports, brackets, hangers, etc fit perfectly. After install, I took her down off the stands and went for a ride- awesome! She has a really nice little burble at low rpms and then really barks at the higher end. I dig it, but I bet my neighbors don't agree (but they must be used to me by now....).

new exhaust system

old and new systems

Installed

Muffler installed- some good looking leaf springs aren't they?

I also installed a new trunk badge for some bling.

new trunk (boot) badge- I cracked the old one while waxing the trunk

Next up, I replaced the battery cables after finding some REALLY nice splices from the previous owner. Basically, they must have wanted to extend the cables so the battery could go in the trunk, so they just mashed the two raw pieces of wire together and wrappen them in electrical tape. Once I removed the tape, they came apart in my hands. I also installed a plastic battery box that houses the battery. Finally, I installed a new fuse box

old garbage battery cable

new cables and ends with new battery box- the original
steel box is too rusted to hold a battery

new fuse box prior to install

Next up, I replaced the steering rack boots, clamps, and rack oil. These boots were not leaking when I bought the car, but once I put a few miles on her, the drivers side split and leaked out most of it's oil. Not a very difficult proceedure. Basically, I marked the tie rod with a marker and counted exposed threads so I could put it back exactly like it was before and not mess up the alignment. Once cleaned,marked, and counted, I just loosened the lock nut and grabbed the tie rod with a pair of channel-lock pliiers and spun it out of the tie-rod end so I could get the boots off. An alternate method is to remove the tie rod ends from the steering arm at the wheel hub and then spin them off of the tie rod, but you risk damaging the rubber seal. Once the tie rod is seperated from the rack, I just removed the old and installed the new boots and clamps. Next up was to remove the top cover of the rack so I could fill with all new oil. Between the cover and the rack are a few very thin shims. These are put there to be able to adjust any loosness in the rack itself by removing the thinnest one. When you tighten down the cover, it pushes on a spring loaded piston that in turn tightens the rack. I filled the rack with oil, and then worked the tie rods back and forth to get all of the air out of the system. After a few applications of oil and working the rack, I could hear no more bubbles (you can't see into the rack without removing it) and could install the cover. I tried it with one less shim assuming it was a loose rack, but when I tried to test steer the car, it hung up in a couple of spots. So I removed the cover again, and reinstalled the shim and assembled it again and all was well again.

marked tie rod

spinning the tie rod out of the tie rod end still attached to the steering arm

end of a tie rod with locking nut still attached-you can see the female end of the tie rod end in the top left

rack cover and adjustment shims

driver's side complete- you can see the upper cover I removed to fill. The side cover you see is there to access the end of the steering arm if required but I didn't touch it.

passenger side complete. Behind the rack you can see a bunch of black gooey stuff- that's what is left from a leaking lever shock and a couple of decades. The other three shocks are dry as of now- so let's move on to the next job:

My car had quite a bit of bounce on the passenger front which made for some interesting handling characteristics... especially over rail tracks! So, after some research, I found out that these lever shocks are designed to leak a little with use and be topped off every few thousand miles. Armed with some 20W fork oil for motorcyles, I decided to top them off. They can be accessed with the car on the ground be turning the wheels lock to lock for the front and through a little plug under the carpet behind the seats for the rear shocks. Pretty cool actually. So, I started with the offending corner and removed the fill plug in the side of the shock.... it of course was bone dry. I filled it while bouncing the car up and down until it didn't seem to take any more. I reinstalled the fill plug and stood up to give it a real bouncing. It seemed about the same! So, I figured I better just keep bouncing to see if the oil just needs to work its way into the shock body. After about thirty seconds of bouncing the front fender,it stiffened right up and started to actually work like a shock!
I did the other three corners, although they all had a least some oil in them. The test drive after was incredible! This felt like a new car in corners and bumps, so I went for a nice long drive! I can't belive I waited this long to service those shocks.