Month: October 2021

Back at it today, after our shorter than planned break, and an enjoyable one in the north east…

Jarrow was the first stop and great to see George again for investigation of an exhaust blow and fuel smell in the cab on his fab looking modified TF 160. Exhaust manifold gasket was past it, so a new one fitted. The front 3 engine cover bolts were all missing, so these were replaced, which all in all will resolve the stinky fuel smell in the cabin, sounds a lot smoother too now.

We then headed over to Seaton Sluice, Whitley Bay, for replacement hydragas spheres on Terry’s Trophy 160. Terry had been experiencing a bit of an uncomfortable ride in the car for some time and after a few hydragas top-ups, decided that the time had come to replace all 4 spheres. All done without any problems.

Susan had dropped her TF 160 at Terry’s as she had noticed that the coolant temperature gauge wasn’t working. This was found to be a broken wire to the sensor, so this was duly repaired and then heat shielded, gauge now working again. Shame not to see Susan as she was at work.

Really good to see Ian today too who came over to say hello, in his always great looking TF 135, and have a catch-up.

Big thank you to Kate for her hospitality today, lots of nibbles, lunch, cakes and a cracking cuppa!

We then headed a few more miles up the road, to Blyth, to fit the new hood on Les’s TF 135. This had been professionally replaced, a couple of months ago, by Jeff at our workshop, which included all the tabs for the full tonneau cover. It looks so good on this already very well cared for car.

Good to see Les and Pam as always and have a catch-up, albeit brief, as we then headed further north to our digs in Beadnell.

Bit of a change in our plans, we were supposed to be on holiday, but we had an amazing break in the Yorkshire Dales last week with a call on the way on Monday in Skipton on Andy’s lovely MGF in Old English White, that needed some back lights wiring in and the clips on the underfloor pipes tightening up. Unfortunately, my pics have gone off my phone for this one, it looked really good with the hard-top on, a heritage one, in what looked like Volcano, but it was lashing it down at the time anyway.

Had a brilliant few days away, in a remote location to recharge the batteries. ☺️⛰ – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

Another weird one sorted, we went back to see Judith again in Oxspring for a problem that she’s had for some time with her MGF VVC mems 2J.

We had previously changed the coil pack, but this hasn’t resolved the issue. So today we changed the throttle body from a 48 mm plastic one to a 52 mm aluminum one. Swapped out the cam sensor and the coolant temperature sensor. Pleased for Judith that this has now resolved the problem with her car, that she’s owned for approx 18 years and for the last 2 no one could diagnose the problem. As mentioned it was a bit of scratchy head one! Multiple faults compounding into one very peculiar result.

We then pootled down the M1 a bit further to Holbrook, to see Ruth’s fab TF 135, ‘Destiny’, that wasn’t performing very well under braking. It appears that the front pads may have been sticking in the calipers. Freed off and copper eased them and all seems to be a lot better. Lovely to catch-up with Mark, shame to miss Ruth as she was working. Beautiful weather today again, which made for some nice shots of the car in the sunshine.

Bit of a long tedious journey home with multiple hold ups and the usual Friday afternoon traffic. But, we made it back in enough daylight to do a quick, combined tackle of the jungle of a garden!

It was supposed to be a another holiday day, but really glad to have got these two things done. 😌 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

Michael had been monitoring the coolant loss on his MGF Mk 1 VVC mems 2J in Nightfire (CAQ) for a while, and after having previously been over to Ratby to pressure test it, it was a definite that the inevitable had occurred.

Gaskets all replaced. The exhaust flexi-hose had blown, so Michael had asked if we could replace this too. Didn’t help that the manifold gasket had all been siliconed, plus the manifold studs were very lose and one was missing. All sorted, resulting in a very nice smooth sounding car.

Great to see Paul Johnson too, who popped over to say hello, along with his two lovely woofers. Fab to have a quick catch-up with Michael and Paul.

Thanks for all the cuppas Michael, glad to have got your wife mobile again in her daily car! 😀 Look forward to seeing you again next year. – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

So pleased to have finally got Adam’s TF 135 completed today.

This was originally booked in for a few things as squeeze-ins, with other work we had booked in at the workshop in September. Once with us though the list kept being added to, which isn’t a problem at all, but we just physically didn’t have the time to do as quick as would have been liked, by us, as well as Adam.

But, happily we got there in the end and gave up today’s day off to get completed and the MOT carried out.

• Cambelt, water pump and tensioner replaced
• Annual service items replaced
• Piper cross induction kit fitted
• Pektron unit relays replaced and additional fob supplied – outsourced to Technozen
• Four wheel alignment – outsourced to MEDDS
• Exhaust manifold gaskets replaced
• Exhaust hanger fitted as missing
• New alternator and alternator belt
• ECU remapped – outsourced to k-maps.
• Rear subframe forward mounts replaced with stainless steel
• Mike Satur bell crank fitted
• Full underfloor treatment done
• Brake fluid change
• Windscreen wipers
• MOT – outsourced to Pickards

A clean up and wash down inside and out all ready for Adam to collect. The car has come a long way since Adam bought it a year ago. We replaced the head gasket shortly afterwards and he’s done a couple of little mods himself.

Hope you have loads more fun in her Adam! 😃 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

An enjoyable sunny Sunday morning spent just along the road in Hull…

Having had our details passed on, with thanks to Helen Blake, it was great to meet Rick whose TF 135 had suffered from the proverbial. With the car being his partners daily, and only car for work, we went and did what we do.

On our usual checks, before carrying out any work, it was found to be a definite. Head gasket replaced and everything cleaned up. The cambelt service was overdue so cambelt, water pump and tensioner replaced, plus new alternator belt.

What an enjoyable morning in Rick’s company, good chat and the car had no awkward bolts, well only one small cover bolt. Really good to get them mobile again. Date to be arranged to return to fit underfloor coolant pipes.

I made the most of the fantastic weather we’ve been experiencing and walked home along the foreshore from Hessle. ☀️

Grand Prix highlights on the telly to catch-up on and we have a day off planned tomorrow. 😀 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

A few visits today just down the road in Sheffield…

Our first call was a clutch issue, which was, as we suspected down to the slave cylinder, on Mike’s good looking TF 135. A new slave cylinder was duly fitted and with only 63k on the clock the car should be good for a while longer. Great to meet Mike and have a chat, date to be arranged to return to fit a soft ride kit.

We then headed a few miles north of the city, to meet Tony and his fab looking MGF mpi 120, that he had bought to have some fun days out in along with his wife. He had a few niggles he wanted checking out and also a minor service.

Really good to meet Tony and so glad that we had time to have a chat. Thank you, to Tony for getting in the the cakes especially! They went down very well. 🍰

We then headed a bit further north, hitting all the football traffic and everyone heading to the match, good to see though.

Lastly, we went to see Jeff, who had been experiencing a misfire with his MGF 120 mpi mems 1.9 that we have worked on a couple of times over the years. Jeff had changed the distributor cap, the rotar arm and the 4 plug leads, which hadn’t resolved the issue.

On running the diagnostics it was found that there were a few sensor errors logged. We temporarily fitted a Lambda sensor and a coil pack to eliminate them. Another was found to be relating to the ambient temperature sensor and the coolant temperature sensor. As the car is an early mems 1.9 they don’t have an ambient temperature sensor.
So the ECU coolant temperature sensor was changed, which, happily for Jeff, resolved the issue. – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

What an enjoyable day, we headed over to Northwich this morning where it was really great to see Clare and her ‘Cilla’, her fab looking 1 of 3 stepspeed in Celestial Blue, again, that was due for the annual service.

Really good to have a quick catch-up. Shame we couldn’t stay longer. 🤗

We then headed over to Birkenhead where it was great to meet Tom, whose TF 135 was suffering from quite a bad oil leak.

The leak was found to be coming from the cam cover and the camshaft oil seals. Camshaft oil seals on the gear-box side were both replaced. On removing them they were found to be very brittle and old, so not surprising they were leaking. Cam cover gasket replaced and everything cleaned up. Hopefully this will save Tom a small fortune in oil top ups.

Great looking car, with a fab sounding straight-through exhaust!

Lovely sunrise this morning as we headed west and sun all day long ☀️

Good run back over the M62 and spotted some very fancy cones on the way! 😄 – https://ift.tt/363HZbI

Having had a few conversations with Paul, in recent months, he saw on our post last night that we weren’t too far away from him, in Alsager, so asked if we could pop over.

Happy to do so, we left our really fab digs, in Congleton, this morning to investigate the source of an oil leak with his very nice looking MGF Trophy 160 that he’d owned for just over a year.

There was found to be several culprits of varying degrees; such as VVC plunger seals, cam seals and then the main one which seems to be the crank seal, plus a possibility that the VVC mech gasket was also an issue.

Really good to meet Paul, and have a chat about track days and other cars he’s owned. A date booked in to come and sort all of these issues out for him.

Good run back over to the workshop, with a bit of a contrast in the weather today, and cracked on with a few things there.

The pub we stayed at in Congleton is worthy of mention, The Plough. Such fantastic rooms and at a very reasonable price. Not that we often venture out for food, it’s usually a ‘just eat’ option in our room, we made the effort to go across to the pub itself to eat and the food was so good. One on the list of places to stay at again.

Didn’t get a pic of the car unfortunately, too busy talking. – https://ift.tt/363HZbI