Month: December 2022

An interesting week at the workshop to round off the year…

Tim brought over his race spec Caterham, from Ilkley, first thing on Wednesday morning. Tim had bought the car from a friend of his who used to race it, but hadn’t turned a key for 12 years. When the opportunity arose Tim fancied the idea of taking it on and restoring it to its former glory. With quite a bit to do he set about the list with his son in law, Martin, and sorted out all the electrics, the gear linkages and various suspension components etc etc. The next next step was to have all the mechanical issues sorted. He knew that when he bought the car it had a misfire and no compression on cylinder 4, so he got in touch and asked us to look at this for him.

Once we removed the head we found scoring to cylinder 2 and on removal of the cam rack found the valve spring cap in two pieces, amazingly though although there was nothing holding the valve in place it hadn’t dropped into the engine and we even found both of the collets that retain the valve. With all parts accounted for, and as a matter of course, we replaced the stem seal, the valve, the spring and the collets.

Sump removed, and piston dropped out to replace the liner on number two, this sounds simple (and it should have been), but one of the bolts in the sump had been previously snapped and corrosion had set in, obviously this needed removing to take the sump off, 5 hours later this was achieved! Poor Jon!

Everything put back together, on firing up we noticed that the tick-over was slightly high, an air leak was traced to a blanked off air supply, which was leaking. Once this was sorted the car was sounding very smooth.

Tim and Martin came over today to collect her. Once they’ve worked through the rest of the list they will be enjoying taking her to some track days next year to kick up her heels again as she rightly should! We’re looking forward to hearing of the further developments and seeing the final result.

Lovely to see Adrian on Thursday who popped over from Beverley to have a remote battery isolater fitted to his TF.

Warren dropped off his TF 160 with us on Tuesday as the EML had come on. This was found to be the Lambda sensor, as suspected. Unfortunately, the old sensor wouldn’t come out, and despite trying retap the old flexi section as can happen too many of the threads had stripped out. New flexi and Lambda sensor fitted.

A really good end to the year, and apart from going over to see Paul, in Hull, to sort the head gasket on his TF next week, we will be having a few days off to recharge our batteries, before heading back out on the road again.

Happy New Year to one and all! 🎉 – https://ift.tt/wOqBJoX

🌟🎄🌟 MERRY CHRISTMAS 🌟🎄🌟

Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season, may you find some time to spend with your family and friends. 🥳

Can we please just say a huge, “Thank You”, for the amazing support we have received the warm welcomes we have found on our extensive travels throughout the U.K. this year.

We’ve visited some amazing and interesting places, along with meeting so many fantastic people. A shame we didn’t get to work abroad, as planned, due to the crazy increase in travel costs. It’s been really fab to welcome everyone to new workshop, that we moved into in June, which, we have to say, the move over from the old one couldn’t have been achieved so seamlessly without the huge amount of effort from our friends.

We were fortunate to get to a few events; Pride of Longbridge, The Highlander, Harrogate MG car club annual event at Pateley Bridge and MG Live! Always good opportunities to have time to catch-up with friends from near and far.

2022 has proved to be a challenging year for so many. Let’s hope that 2023 brings about some welcome changes.

Here’s to safe and enjoyable travels, work commutes, runs out, trips to the shops, events to attend and holidays to go on throughout 2023 in your MGs!

Warmest of wishes wherever you may be.

🌟🎄🌟🎄Jon & Claire 🎄🌟🎄🌟 – https://ift.tt/u7w5H3L

Workshop week has gone well, we got cracking on Monday morning with the lists of things to do on a couple of John’s fab fleet.

John had dropped off his ZT 120 on Sunday and we then went over to collect his TF and drop John off at home in the process.

Full underfloor treatment carried out on the ZT, spring protectors fitted to the front. New bonnet cable to be fitted tomorrow morning.

The TF (in PBT) also had full underfloor treatment carried out, rear brake pads and one new caliper, one of the wishbones replaced. Welding to both rear sills. Plus a few other things to get everything sorted on the car, won’t be boring a do a list! Now all ready for the MOT that we’ve booked in for the morning.

Both cars to be returned back to John tomorrow. It was nice to see him today when he popped over for a brew.

Paul brought his Abingdon over from Barmby on the Marsh for a pre MOT check and subsequent MOT first thing on Monday. The car is looking fantastic following the respray he had done. It’s certainly looking really good now, complete with new hood and dipped console and vent surrounds, (should have got a pic!) bit of a contrast from when we first saw the car, so good to see the car being invested in and saved. Good to have a cuppa and a catch-up with Paul.

Not many ‘glam’ outdoor shots this time, there wasn’t really time, thanks to John for pinging me over a couple of shiny ones! Did get a glam one of Jon though 😃

Pleased that the weather rose to above freezing this week, making things a bit more bearable. – https://ift.tt/IVUsXQP

We left the relative warmth of the workshop on Wednesday and headed over to Barnsley, on a very frosty morning, with delays on the way due to another crash, fortunately everyone involved were alright when we passed by.

It was good to meet Steve and his TF 135 (in CMU). He’d had the car into a local garage for a few things previously and they’d noticed that the water pump was leaking, so Steve asked if we could replace this for him. Unfortunately, as has happened before in extreme temperatures one of the bolts sheared off, despite running the engine and warming things up a bit. The rest of the bolts that came out were heavily corroded. Once the pump was off we removed the stub with our amazing ‘saves you a ton of pain’ bolt removers. All bolts replaced with new when fitting the new pump. While we were in the engine bay we noticed that the top torque-tamer was hanging loose. So this was duly fitted back in place with the correct bolt, hopefully there will be less banging about when Steve changes gear now! The coolant cap was dodgy so new one tested and fitted. Thanks to Steve for a plentiful supply of warming brews.

This morning we headed back over to Hebden Bridge. More delays not far from home due to another crash. Again everyone involved seemed to be alright, thankfully. This weather wreaking its usual unwelcome havoc.

We had gone over last week to see Emma’s MGF for a few things, one of which was query head gasket failure. On doing all of the usual checks and replacing a dodgy coolant cap, and running the car up, we couldn’t find anything conclusive. However, on a run out and under load a couple of days ago Emma noticed that the coolant had gone again and had overheated.

Even though the pressure test had not shown any coolant loss, we took minimal parts off at first to see which gasket had gone. After taking off the inlet manifold and seeing the state of that, it had obviously undergone a previous attempt at repair with some strange sealant (see pics) and combined with the smell of burnt oil, it was decided that the head gasket will have also suffered, so decision made to replace this also.

The thermostat housing was leaking and on removing that, it was found to be full of k-seal. New stat and housing duly fitted.

On firing the car up, the tick-over was noticeably lower than it had previously been, this was because we had cured all the air leaks, unfortunately, somebody had adjusted the tick-over to be correct with the air leaks. So we then had to set about readjusting the throttle body to its correct position. Car now running lovely and smooth. Emma can enjoy running about in Gina once more when she returns from her hols.

Bit of a different week, in the end, we had a car booked in for a subframe swap, but that’s been postponed for a while, date to be planned some time later. George’s Copperleaf MGF was due to be dropped off with us at the weekend, but they had to postpone for now. So some last minute and waiting list ones booked in, which was good to get those done and sorted.

It’s been absolutely Baltic and a struggle working in this weather, there is a limit as to how many layers of clothing you can wear before you can’t actually move. Plus big thick gloves don’t work very well with little bolts! Brrr, need it to get above freezing at least. 🧊

Couple of cars to collect over the weekend and take to the workshop ready for a busy week with them next week. Have a great weekend everyone and keep safe and warm. 🧤🧣 ❄️ – https://ift.tt/h4CuApm

Stephen had his MGF steptronic couriered up to the workshop from Llanelli, in South Wales, and Daryl had his TF 135 couriered up to us, from just near Telford.

With doors firmly shut and space heater on full blast we got cracking on with them both on Monday morning.

Stephen’s Steppy (in MNX) was booked in for full cambelt service and check over of a couple of things, but the list had grown slightly in the intervening time of his first enquiry. On all our recent visits to South Wales we just hadn’t been able to factor in a visit to him, so in the end he sent the car to us. This is a really nice example of this model.

Full cambelt service duly done, we set about the other things on the list, one of which was an oil leak, which on inspection was actually quite substantial. We replaced the cam cover, which was leaking everywhere, the cam oil seals and the oil pump seals were also leaking oil, so these were all replaced. A good clean up of all the areas and all resolved. In the boot was a new stainless exhaust flexi section and manifold, these were replaced along with a new Lambda sensor as the existing one was a different size. The back box required a couple of repairs, the main inlet pipe Jon rewelded, and the hanger had a sheered off bolt that required another one welding on. Underfloor coolant pipes were replaced with a stainless set. The coolant cap was replaced as the one on it was one of the yellow plastic ones that are renowned to fail, ultimately causing problems.

Daryl’s TF (in MBB) had quite a few fails and advisories on his last MOT that he wanted us to tackle. The two front mounts on the front subframe we replaced with stainless ones, as these had definitely done their time, discs and pads replaced all round, parking brake sorted, boot brake light sorted, exhaust minor leak sorted.

Darryl asked if we could have the car retested for the MOT, which was done this afternoon.

A full-on busy couple of days, getting everything done, and both cars are now ready for collection by their respective couriers. – https://ift.tt/5PDGT1Y

Driving back home now down a very busy M6 after a very cold day spent working in Dalton-in-Furness.

It was great to meet Adrian and his Mk II MGF 1.8 mpi (in LQW), that he had bought a few months ago, and very shortly afterwards the proverbial happened. Having owned MGs in the past and also an owner of an MGB he’s fully aware of the potential issues.

Head gasket replaced, the one on it was a Mk I elastomer one and had been replaced once before. Took quite some time draining off a load of oil with the severe cold, and which resembled cake mix. It is a very good looking car underneath the thick covering of ice.

Adrian had taken the spheres off his previous car so asked if we could fit them to this one. We were late arriving this morning due to a couple of delays on the way up, but everything all sorted for him before it got dark.

Yesterday morning found us in Sowerby, near Thirsk for head gasket replacement on Will’s TF 135 (in PBT). Will had done a load of work on the car, absolute kudos to him, but unfortunately the head gasket hadn’t taken, and he’d got a bit fed up with it. Happily now everything is sorted the car will be going back to Uni with him after Christmas.

From there we went on to Guisborough where we were saw our first snow of the season. It was lovely to see Kevin again and his fab Trophy that was looking a bit on the low side, so we pumped her up. The drivers window had become very slow, so we took a replacement one with us to fit. Good to have a catch-up with Kevin and Amanda before heading back home.

It’s going to be a bit of a long haul home now according to the SatNav, though gives me time for me to get caught up on the admin and feed Jon chocolate! Have a great weekend everyone, hope it’s not too chilly! ⛄️ – https://ift.tt/P98AzWH

Day off on Monday for a family event, so it was back to it at the workshop on Tuesday.

Warren had left his fab looking TF 160 (in LEF) with us for a few things to be sorted. Heater resister pack replaced, diagnostics carried out for the emissions light being on, all faults cleared. New wiper stalk fitted and a multi-function relay. Some other work to be done at a later date for him.

A visit to Hebden Bridge this morning, and a bit of an icy one too 🥶

Emma had got in touch as her daily car, a MGF 120 mpi (in JRJ) named ‘Gina’, had suspected head gasket failure. Emma had bought the car from London about 8 months ago and had enjoyed many runs out over the summer. Fortunately, for her, following all our standard checks it turned out to be a failed expansion tank cap.

While we were there Emma asked if we could carry out a full check over of the car, hydragas pumped up, as was sitting a tad low. We replaced the passenger side door handle, and adjusted the window, that was being awkward, following an unfortunate incident with a skip! Good to meet Emma and what a fab car she has got herself. Thanks for the brew Emma and hope you get all your bits and pieces sorted and enjoy your fab car.

What an amazing landmark that we passed on the way, that’s often been shrouded in mist and fog, when we’ve been by before, Wainhouse Tower. You can actually go all the way up it, we will have to book in next time we’re in the area, the view should be worth the climb up the 369 steps!

Bit more progress made on the house 😬

Another local call, in the morning, in Sowerby, thermals at the ready! – https://ift.tt/HadzQcq

Back up in the north east again today to round off the week where we started it on Monday & Tuesday.

Wednesday didn’t happen, as the car that was supposed to be with us from Llanelli was unfortunately let down last minute by the courier. As it happens it helped us out with getting more forms to the relevant people to try and secure our house purchase, yes that’s still ongoing, but hopefully nearing the completion date! The Llanelli car will be up with us in a couple of weeks time.

It was really great to meet Mick on Thursday who came over to us from Mexborough, we were going to go over to him, but with the list of things we had to do and the fact he had limited space for the van he suggested coming to us instead and having a run out in his TF 135 (in JHG) that he’s owned for 4 years and is his daily drive.

Cambelt service carried out along with replacing all filters and spark plugs. On the last MOT it was mentioned that the front wheel bearings were needing attention. On inspecting them it was down to top ball joint nearside front and track rod end offside front, plus both front top arms had little or no grease in them, so we duly packed these. Fortunately, for Mick all sorted and after a test drive, we found everything to be good and smooth.

It was also in for query head gasket failure, but we found that the water pump had been leaking, which would account for the one time it overheated in traffic.

A health check carried out and everything else found to be good on the list of queries, Mick will now be looking at getting the body work done. Date to be arranged to go over and check out his TF 160 at some point.

Our first call today was in Shildon, where we met Fred and his recent bargain purchase of a TF 1.8 mpi. He had bought the car knowing the head gasket had gone and subsequently got in touch with us, we advised not to attempt to start the car, as due to his description it may have been acqua-locked, which would have resulted in an unhappy outcome for the engine and the owner! Sure enough this was the case, but Fred had drained off all the coolant. On our further inspection with the borescope there was no further damage to the pistons. A date to be arranged to return and carry out all the work required to get the car up to full spec for him. The bodywork is spot on and obviously been well cared for with the previous owner, so it’s definitely a worthy save.

We then headed over to Darlington to see Terry and the ‘Chairman’. Terry had been noticing that the battery was draining over periods of none use, so we suggested that he might benefit from one the remote immobilisers. This was duly fitted. Great to see Terry and have a catch-up over a bacon butty (for Jon) and a cracking brew! Terry was in the middle of fitting all his Christmas lights, so we look forward to seeing pics of the big switch on! Thanks Terry for the gifts, really appreciated. Jon will enjoy sampling a gin later!

For our last call of the day, and the week, we headed a few miles down the road to see Nev at his new abode and to check over his new car. A TF 160, that he had bought knowing that there were issues as the cambelt had snapped, but wasn’t sure to what extent. We couldn’t see anything obvious with the borescope, so we whipped off the head. The head had previously been skimmed to within an inch of its life, and had 4 bent valves, but fortunately there wasn’t any damage to the pistons or liners. Date to be arranged to go back with a refurbished head and refit everything. Everything else on the car appeared sound and one that’s worth saving, always a good result.

A really great full on week, with lots of interesting stuff going on. Now time for a full weekend off for family time. ☺️ (well apart from still doing the admin for me and some maintenance on the van for Jon). – https://ift.tt/aDHVMqs