Some miscellaneous work in prep for a new wire harness.....

Next on my agenda was to pull the dash to clean up all connections, properly align the windshield, install a new choke cable, replace the broken/cracked windshield washer hoses, and clean up the guages.  So, removal of the dash is really not difficult on paper, but once you try and stick a big hand up there behind it- the problems become obvious.  It's attached to the car with 6 ( I think ) nuts across the top and two on each side of the bottom.  I started by removing the glove box and two main guages to get at the upper nuts. After that- it's just trying to figure out what needs to come out of the dash to get to the upper nuts.  Next out was the center air vents.  Finally, I could barely get to each nut and completely removed the dash.

various vent and heat hoses behing glove box

glove box and dash vents out of the way

getting at the upper nut above the oil pressure guage

almost there......

It's out!

back of dash

This is the point in this job that it chaged direction dramatically. So, I started to notice a recuring melted strip spiraling around the main wire harness, so I decided to pull off some of the blue wrap- and this is what I found.  Two of the brown wires (always hot on this car) had melted into the surrounding wires for at least 36" of the harness.  The more blue tape I peeled off, the worse it became.  Obviously, I came to the realization pretty quickly that I would be needing a NEW complete main wiring harness for this old girl.

uh-oh- this looks troubling

you can see here some of the other wires a melted brown wire took with it.

I'm suprised the car actually ran/drove with this mess

So, while I waited about 8 weeks for the harness to be made and shipped over from the UK, I started in on some of the other projects that might as well get accomplished while the dash is out.  I removed the wiper motor so I could disassemble it and replace the old grease inside it.  I also removed the wiper  drives for all three wipers and cleaned/lubed them up as well.  Replacing the windshield washer hoses are simple with the dash out, so those were replaced as well.

wiper motor with broken ground wire

wiper motor and mount is out

old grease inside motor

these are the metal vents that are behind the dash.  The thin ones are the pieces on top af the dash that the defrost air comes out of.

clear tubing is the new washer tubing- the old stuff was crumbled and cracked

behind the dash with new washer tubing.  I obviously labled the wires as I pulled them off.
You can also see the brass looking thin tube which is the feed for the mechanical oil pressure guage.  Below that is the end of the speedometer cable that has the silver sleeve on the end.

(3) wiper drives

wiper drive close-up

three wipers.  One of the wiper drive chrome covers is laying next to where the drive was.

So, I also needed a new washer fluid container since the original was a weird gray vinyl bag that was cracked and torn.  I remembered that i had removed a coolant overflow tank from a car a sold a few years ago.  I dug it out and figured I could just use that instead of buying a new bag.  All I had to do was make up a bracket for it so you can just pull it out instead of actually boltong it to the car.  No real reason for that- it just seemed cooler and I had some time to kill.  I bent up and riveted together some scrap aluminium and it seems to work just fine. The original hose connection actually fits perfectly in the top of the old cooland tank.

it's a little ugly, but that is some yankee thrift right there.....

instaled- looks like it's always been there..... I guess.

 

I was also able to get an original plastic fan from the gentleman who sold me the rear leaf spring- so I went ahead and cleaned it up and installed it.  No big trouble except I had to move the radiator forward a little bit to get to the bolts that hold it on to the end of the waterpump.

old and new- the metal one was aftermarket.  I assumed it was installed with the air conditioning to provide more air movement

cleans up pretty well

installed!  Now that is starting to look like a proper MBG powerplant.

That is good enough for this post.  Next up- I install the new wiring harness.

Here in the new harness in the first pic and how I felt with this daunting task in front of me (fyi, the install itself took approximately 20 hours...) in the second photo:

new harness- I had already started to tag some of the wires to help me later

Help!!!

Suspension completion

So, I left off with the front suspension taken apart and ready for cleaning, painting, install. It's still quite surprising how easily this car  is coming apart.  Nothing really fancy concerning the cleaning and painting- a wire brush, a wire wheel, and some sandpaper.  I used epoxy spray paint for some parts, and the same paint I used on the floor for other parts (crossmember, driveshaft, etc.)  Here are a few shots of the progress:

front crossmember ready for assembly

steering rack shim- I had to rivet it to the crossmember

flushed, refilled armstrong shock

two of the four pins that bolt the crossmember to the car

coming along

using some RTV glue to hold the pads to the crossmember- the pads go between the crossmember and the car

So- the next step was to  install the crossmember.  Only the shocks are attached prior to install- the other bits go on after it is attached to the car.  Drew helped on this part since this is really not a one man job- the crossmember is heavy and could easily fall off of the jack without someone there to steady it.  There were no problems getting it back in the car.

muscling the crossmember into position

done- not much time or hands for photos during this

another angle- the steering rack is still held up by the rope

Next up was to install the transmission crossmember with it's new poly bushings. I have no earthly idea why the British decided to make this task so complicated.  The transmission crossmember is held to the outside structure of the car with two bolts a side, and then it's held to the trannsmission with 4 bolts through rubber mounts that are in turn bolted the the "butterfly mount" with two more bolts.  All of these pieces can be installed backwards or in the wrong holes (that are there for a car with overdrive).  I took good photos when I took it apart, and it still wasn't simple.

old cruddy butterfly mount cage

test fit of the new bushing and transmission mounts (the two black angled blocks of rubber- those bolt to the sides of the transmission)

painted transmission crossmember without trans mounts

installed on the car- after three hours of trial and mostly error... I was ready for a beer or three after that adventure.

While I was working in the area, I also installed a piece of steel angle I cut and drilled to replace a chunk of structure somebody in the past had removed to take out the transmission. I total hack job done by a lazy mechanic.

cut, drilled, and ready for paint

painted and ready for install

here is where it  is going- seems like that bit of structure MIGHT be important?

installed- you can see the transmission crossmember on the far right in the photo

Next- I installed the remained of the front suspension.  Nothing really complicated here- just bolt it in.  The only tricky bit came with installing the front springs.  They are slightly compressed as you jack up the bottom of the suspension, and pop into place with a little "bang".  I admit I jumped a bit when it first happened.

Add caption

spring pan installed

ready for the wheel hub/ brakes, etc.

Finished!

The rear suspension was quite a bit simpler.  I wasn't planning on replacing the rear leaf springs, but I bought a new set from a nice MGB owner down in Massachusetts. I was planning on replacing  the leaf spring pads, replacing the shackle bushings at the rear of the springs, replacing the shock links (one was broken!) and finally replacing the rebound straps. This all went pretty well.  I also flushed and filled the shocks with oil.

old rear springs and pads- the handbrake mechanism on the back of the brake drum is at the top of this photo

interesting photo- the right spring is original, in the center is the new "lowering spring" I bought, and the left one is part of a used set the seller basically threw in. I can only imagine how high the back of the car would sit with those installed!

some paint for the rear leaf parts

installing the new springs and bushings

another angle

finished- with new rebound strap (black nylon) and shock link (the black thing with the ball joint at the end that connects the rear shock to the bottom plate of the leaf spring).

 Finally for this installment- I removed, rebuilt, painted, and installed the driveshaft with new u-joints and fresh grease.  No real problems here as well- other than installing the new u-joints.  They proved tricky because the yolks that hold them to the driveshaft are not parallel with each other- so pressing out the old u-joints was more difficult than it needed to be. A little trial and error with my bench vise and all was well. 

replacing the u-joints

ready for paint

factory alignment mark for the sliding yoke- of course it was not aligned correctly by the last person to have the driveshaft out

the other alignment mark

almost finished

all greased up (red grease)and ready to go back in to the car

Installed.  There are 4 bolts/nuts attaching it on this end to the differential, and 4 at the other end attaching it to the transmission output- of the 8 bolts, 3 were loose and one was gone when I took it apart. Needless to say, I'm glad  I went ahead and pulled this out to rebuild it.

The last quick job was to replace the outer tie-rod ends and align the toe-in for the steering. Pretty simple- aside from the fact that I had never done a toe adjust before.  Basically, I used string to make two parallel measuring points and then measured the front and back of the front tires and adjusted as required to get it within specification.  I'll still take it in to get aligned by a pro, but thought I couldn't hurt to give it a go.

new outer tie-rod end

aligning the front- it's difficult to see the string (actually it's fishing line) attached to the two jack stands. The pieces of urethaned wood under the tires have grease in between them so I could adjust the tie-rods with the weight of the car on the ground.  It actually worked pretty well and the wheels turned very easily.

I also put a little metal polish on the bumper.

 Here is my original list of tasks for the old girl.  Most have been accomplished- so I guess I'll just start a new list.....