Month: April 2022

🏔🏔🏔 MG Highlander 2022 🏔🏔🏔

Absolutely brilliant few days away in the Scottish Highlands. So much fun with a lovely group of people and their fab MGs,
taking in some amazing roads and beautiful scenery.

A good turn out of MGFs and TFs of various models. Nethybridge hotel was our base, with lots of good food and fun on an evening. The weather was pretty good too so tops down all the way. ☀️

Big thanks to Alan for organising it all 😃 – https://ift.tt/q8sLcGX

Back up in a very Bonny Scotland and we headed over to Kippen this morning to see Des and Gail’s TF 115 ‘Bumblebee’.

When we had visited last, the cylinder head was trashed, with 14 valves bent, so we took the head away to be refurbished, but it was cheaper and more economical to replace the head. The damage was caused by the tensioner giving way and literally cutting the cambelt in two, length ways! The alternator belt was definitely past it’s best too.

New head fitted with all gaskets, cambelt, water pump, tensioner, alternator belt and new spark plugs.

Multiple codes cleared once it was fired up, and happy to say that Bumblebee is all sorted and running nicely again. Hope Des and Gail have a great time in her when they travel to and around Stornaway in June.

We traveled up yesterday, with a call in to Darlington on the way to see Terry and Craig, to fit the rear control arm to the ‘Chairman’ that we didn’t have with us on our last visit. Really pleased to get them sorted and to hear from Terry today that the retest MOT is a pass. Happy travels to them both for their runs out over the coming months.

We made the most of our surroundings this afternoon and took in a visit to the Falkirk wheel (last time we went it was closed for maintenance) and another visit to the Kelpies (last time we went it was tipping it down). We also had a walk around the Helix, all absolutely fantastic places and well worth a visit. – https://ift.tt/LH38ylv

✨PRIDE OF LONGBRIDGE✨

After a hiatus of 3 years this fantastic gathering was back on and what an amazing turnout!

We decided to give ‘Chandon’ the Chatsworth (number 1 of 3) a stretch of her legs.

Absolutely fantastic to catch-up with so many lovely people from near and far. Just not enough time to talk to everyone properly!

Didn’t get to take as many pics as I usually do, but there are plenty on other peoples posts to fully capture the essence of this amazing worldwide marque that is evident of a such a strong following.

Thanks go to all the people who organise this event, usually, weather permitting, pandemic permitting, year on year, who give up their time to bring us all together and remember how it all started.

Weather wasn’t too bad either and an enjoyable top-down run home ☀️ – https://ift.tt/fc5ghAd

Wisbech today and a good end to the week…

Emma had got in touch about her MGF 120 mpi (in HAM), that was due the cambelt service, but she also suspected that the head gasket was on its way out. From Emma’s description of the symptoms and the obvious signs on our inspection this was the case.

New head gasket fitted, together with cambelt, water pump and tensioner plus a new alternator belt as hers was a bit tired. The engine mount bolts were on the side of awkward with potential to move to plan B, but eventually we got them out.

We didn’t catch on when we made the booking that we had met her before at her parents previous house, in Sudbury, when we had been there to do some work on her sister, Claire’s TF about 3-4 years ago!

What a fab morning chatting to Emma, lovely hospitality from her parents and a welcome bit of sun too.

A welcome early finish with a good run back through the picturesque Lincolnshire wolds. – https://ift.tt/fc5ghAd

A couple of local ones today…

First up was this great looking TF 135 (in HFF), belonging to Lilian in Barnsley who had got in touch back in February asking if could come and sort the head gasket out for her.

Head gasket replacement carried out plus new cambelt, water pump, tensioner and alternator belt. Quite a few of the bolts were wrong or missing, and the fuel rail hadn’t been put back on and was on the wrong side of the manifold. A tidy looking car, with a really nice looking green hood.

Lovely to meet Lilian, glad we got everything sorted for her and returned her faith in the car as she had been considering selling it. Date booked in for the minor service in a years time.

Next visit of the day was to Rotherham to see Jo’s lovely TF 135 ‘Eglantine’ that her sister has been using for her work.

Minor service carried out and also replacement of the nearside front shocker, which had come up as an advisory on the last MOT.

Jo wasn’t there, but it was nice to have a chat with her mum and dad and a cuppa. Will be good to catch-up at an event sometime soon hopefully 💚 – https://ift.tt/jT4ptn2

We said we would follow-up on previous blog on Monday regarding Stephen and Marie’s LE 500 ‘Ellie’ (number 108) with the ABS problem…

It turns out to have been multiple problems; the first being the offside rear ABS sensor that was faulty, the rest being all four of the reluctor rings, causing intermittent signals. The LE 500 reluctor rings seem to be massively more corroded than any of the earlier MG ones. With this in mind and limited, or no stock available of the LE versions we replaced both rear drive shafts, and both front half shafts with early TF ones, which are still 100% in better condition than the LE ones.

Once all this was fitted, it was found to be back to a smooth drive and smooth braking, which included being tested on gravel to see if the ABS would kick in and everything works fine we’re pleased to report.

So she’s all good to go for their next trip to France. – https://ift.tt/jT4ptn2

An enjoyable day in Darlington today…

Terry’s MGF 75th Anniversary, ‘The Chairman’, needed a couple of things sorting, nearside wishbone replaced and top ball joint, unfortunately we didn’t have the correct arm for the rear with us in the van 🙄 We shall return on Sunday on our way to Scotland to fit one!

Lovely to see Terry and Craig, as always and have a bit of a natter, big thanks to Terry for his lovely hospitality, especially so for his thoughtfulness for the veggie option for the fussy veggie! 😋

We then went a couple of miles along the road where it was lovely to see Mervyn and Janice again. The minor service was due on their LE 500 (number 394 and paint code 111), plus the EML was showing and on code reading it was found to be down to a checksum error.

Mervyn will be taking this car to the Le Mans Classic in June this year. Wish we could go, that’s twice now in the last couple of weeks we’ve been asked to go! Hope you have a fab trip Mervyn and meet up with Mark & Alan et al who we mentioned to you.

Although Terry and Mervyn live only 3 miles apart and both own an MGF 75th Anniversary, in the same colour (Mulberry), they had never seen each other or their cars until they, by chance, were staying at the same B&B when they were staying over after the ‘MGF 25’ event in Gaydon last year and happened to park side by side in the car park! There’s always a story with these fab cars. 😀 – https://ift.tt/loY65Dq

An early start to get cracking on the cars that had been left at the workshop, from various parts of the country over the past few days whilst we had a couple of days off…

Ben’s 80th Anniversary TF 160 (in HQM) was due it’s annual service, Ben also wanted us to check over a couple of other bits whilst we had her in. A new key fob programmed too, as he only ever had one with the car.

Richard’s TF 135 (in LEF) had discs and pads fitted all round, plus the underfloor coolant pipes were replaced with stainless steel ones.

Stephen and Marie’s LE 500 (number 108) ‘Ellie’ was having some issues with the ABS. Some investigation was carried out today. It’s fine above 25 mph, but slowly trips in under 20 mph. None of the sensors are reporting a fault, but doesn’t mean to say that one of them is having an issue. The front stub-shafts have been changed for decent secondhand ones and we may need to change the rear ends of the drive shafts aswell… to be continued.

It was lovely to see Laura and Leona who came over this afternoon, in ‘Princess’ their MGF 1.8 mpi, as she had been squealing on start-up for quite some time. Alternator belt replaced as the one on it was a bit tired, plus an alternator shield fitted. Nice to catch-up with them and good to see them heading off for gosh and chips at the coast.

Not too much of a late finish, good to have some fab weather, plus our neighbours at Black Sheep Customs were in, so it was an enjoyable bank holiday Monday all round. Hope everyone has had an enjoyable Easter weekend, wherever you have been, it looks like there are quite a few pics to catch-up on with various events being back on again.😎 – https://ift.tt/loY65Dq