Day 4 and 5 (weekend #2)

Well, there was a bunch of progress on the MGBeast this weekend:

My parts order (with new fuel tank) arrived on Friday- perfect timing!  So, on Saturday, we started by removing all of the flexible vent lines in the engine so we could take them to NAPA for new hose.  With this old car, every hose clamp was a little tired, so new clamps were in order as well.  No big surprises with this- just pull off the old and replace with new.

Old cruddy fuel lines

We started replacing some of the hoses, painting brackets, painting some of the metal lines and finished them on Sunday.

New fuel lines.  The rusty main feed line on the left has been replaced since this photo was taken.

I also installed the fuel pump- no problems once I figured how the newly painted bracket was aligned with the pump (looked at the older photos). Obviously from these photos, the battery box is rusted out, but I'm just going to install some plastic inserts that are available and deal with the rust later. How on earth did the designers of this car think that these flimsy steel battery box frames under the car would not rust is beyond me!

The pump is in!

We also got the underside of the trunk cleaned (since the fuel tank was out), taped off, and painted with some truck bed liner to protect it a little.

After cleaning

Looking better under here!  The blue tape is covering the studs that hold the tank.

Next up was the new fuel tank install.  We got it almost completely installed, and then realized we forgot to install the new foam gasket that seals the tank filler pipe to the trunk- so we had to pull it back out!  Once we had the gasket in place, I also installed the rubber strips that came with the tank to isolate the tank from the trunk floor (some people have decided to skip the strips since it invites a place for water to sit on top of the tank and rust but I figured that this MGB will not see rain very often).

Fuel tank level sender wiring

The new fuel tank is in!!

So, with a new tank, new fuel and vent lines, and a functioning fuel pump, it was time to try and fire her up!  Drew installed the muffler (we removed it to make it easier to get to the driver's side tank bolts) while I went to get a few gallons of gas.  I dumped a couple ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil and the fresh 4 gallons of fuel in the tank.  We also installed some flexible tubing at the exhaust tip to vent the (potential!) exhaust gases out of the garage.  I pulled the new fuel line off of the carb so I could keep the first few ounces of fuel (and whatever crud might be in the lines) from getting into the carbs.  I stuck the line into an empty bottle of pinot grigio (sp.?) and had Drew turn on the ignition. After a few seconds, fuel started pumping into the wine bottle, and it looked clean!  At the same time, I saw a small drip of fuel coming out of one of the vent lines from the carb..... uh oh, looks like I might have a stuck float in one of the carbs!!  Well, we decided to give it a shot to see if she would run again, but she only coughed a couple of times and started to leak at the charcoal canister.  She was not going to run tonight, but we made great progress.  Now I know why she leaked a little fuel when we ran the car at the previous owners house.....

Filling a wine bottle....

Tucked away for the week.

Well, it looks like rebuilding the carbs is next on the list.  I bet I'll know a lot more about SU carbs in the very near future.