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Well we had a run over to Galgate near Lancaster today, nice run over the Pennines with a mixed bag of weather as you’d expect.

SatNav kindly directed us to our destination, only to find there wasn’t an MG to be found. After waiting for for some time and trying fruitlessly to contact said owner of MG, a kindly neighbour came over to ask why we were there, and she explained that the car wasn’t there, it normally is, but not today.

Bit strange as one of the things we had it booked in for was gear cable replacement as the one on the car had snapped, so we had ordered cables in for the job. Plus it was booked in and confirmed for a cambelt service.

A 5 o’clock start, a 260 mile round trip, 5 hours in travel and £90 in fuel for nothing.

I won’t add anything else apart from what a shame when we have a waiting list for people desperately wanting their cars sorted and a whole day wasted for us. Thanks Jack. – https://ift.tt/HWixVGK

It’s always a picturesque run through the Lincolnshire wolds and we headed back over there again to our first call in Donington, near Spalding this morning.

Dave’s TF 135 (in HFN) had unfortunately suffered from the proverbial and he had contacted us a few months ago to see when we could get back over to him to sort.

The head gasket had previously been replaced some time ago with an MLS, but as we have found over the years it seems the Victor Reinz ones rot after approx 7 to 8 years. The inlet manifold was missing its gasket altogether and had been daubed with sealant. All cleaned up and new gaskets replaced today.

What a great morning, lots of conversations and laughs. Great to see Dave again and meet his lovely wife Julie, who had heard the rumour that Jon is partial to a bit of cake. Thank you, so much for all the cakes! You made Jon a happy man. Plus it was great to have doggy fusses with Poppy and Ruben and meet their very entertaining African Grey parrot, Billy! So funny. Thank you, both for your fab company. Glad you can get out and about again and have some fun days out. Hope you have a great time at Cadwell Park this weekend.

From there we headed a few miles along the road to Gosberton. Emma had got in touch thinking that the clutch had gone in her MGF 120 mpi (in CMU). We last saw her in 2016 for head gasket replacement etc. From the description and mileage it was, as we suspected, down to a stiff clutch release arm and seals blown on the slave cylinder.

New slave cylinder fitted and the release arm freed off. Minor service carried out and hydragas pump up and her fab looking MGF is all set to go again. Didn’t see Emma, but thanks to her partner for a brew.

Good drive back home with fab weather all day, plus a bit of an air display.

The exhaust flexi section on the van was blowing a bit, so I think Jon was enjoying the drive home a bit too much, with the trusty steed sounding more like a Land Rover Discovery, with a straight through pipe! Pleased to say the required part arrived today and he’s just fitted it in the driveway. A tad quieter now! – https://ift.tt/m69KcBO

Back at the workshop for the last couple of days.

Steven dropped off his fab looking TF 135 for some work with us at the weekend.

The car had previously been jacked up on the sill, which had subsequently stoved it in, not long after he had had the car resprayed. It’s a standard JFM paint code, but with a rainbow fleck added in. I know glitter isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I love it, looks great when the sun catches it.

So Jon welded up the sill and the vertical section pulled back out. All now looking good again.

Steven also wanted some bigger brakes, so four pot calipers were fitted along with new discs and pads.

Simon also left his TF 135 with us (in MNX) to investigate a random non-starting problem. Code reading couldn’t bring up any error codes. Checked and cleaned up starter motor connections, and the fuel pump shut-off relay connections and checked the output from the crank sensor.

Bit of a wimp out for me today as had to have two teeth pulled. At least I got the van all unpacked and restocked yesterday ready for the next few days on the road again. Plus got the ‘photo shoot’ done. Bit of a late finish for Jon, but I did busy myself with the admin so wasn’t completely useless today – https://ift.tt/dhAZEfj

Our last day on our trip south, we left our digs in Seale, near Farnham and headed a few miles along the road for our first call of the day…

Robert had got in touch just after our last visit to the area and asked if we could come and see him on our next trip to the area. His very lovely MGF 1.8 mpi that he’d owned for the past 18 years was needing a couple of things doing.

The underfloor coolant pipes had certainly done their time, so we replaced these. The hydragas needed filling up and he was doubtful about the radiator, whether that would need replacement, so went armed with a new one, but the one he has is still in good condition.

A visit booked in for next year to replace the engine bay coolant pipes with stainless and a service. It was a pleasure to meet Robert and we look forward to seeing him again next year, plus he makes a very good brew!

From there we headed up to Lower Earley near Reading for a minor service and a check over of David’s MGF VVC, that he had bought during lockdown, what a very nice example, it has obviously been well cared for and serviced regularly in its previous ownership.

Great to meet David and have a chat about a few things that were on his mind about the car, we reassured him that he’s got himself a very good example. Another cracking brew and cake and we bid our farewells.

So from there we should have been heading home, but the continuing diagnosis of ‘Big Ears’ was required, plus having the benefit of an early finish we headed back over to Worcester Park, rather than stay another night.

Following on from Mark’s test drive as detailed in yesterdays blog, and taking in the description of symptoms Mark said that the car had a markedly improved performance on power, but after a long spell when stationary in traffic it would overheat. Diagnostics therefore plugged in today and ran the car back to to temperature once more. The readings we got from the ECU were all correct. However, as the car approached 100 degrees on the coolant temperature, the gauge inside the car would shoot towards the top. On the previous day we had already replaced the sensor, but to make sure we replaced it again. When the same result occurred we took apart the engine wiring loom to try and find a break or possible earthing point in the loom.

We piggy backed a wire on the existing one just to make sure there was continuity and we also metered the existing wire and found that there were no breaks in it.

The strange thing is if we just plugged another sensor into it and rested it against the engine it all behaves as normal. The only strange thing was if we metered the cars wiring loom we were getting continuity to earth. So the next port of call to test, is a new temperature gauge itself. When this has been fitted we can test the continuity of the wire from the front to the back of the car.

Good job we like a challenge now and then! On the plus side, the engine itself is running extremely sweetly.

Bit of a late finish, but that’s just how it goes. On the M1 now and about 100 miles to go. Looking forward to seeing the cat. – https://ift.tt/WDqn0ae

A pleasant and short run from our digs near Farnham to Haslemere this morning, for work on a great looking TF 160 in LEF.

The head gasket had gone again unfortunately, so we set about replacing it. What a nice car to work on, couple of missing bolts etc needed replacing, and once fired up it settled down to be a very smooth quiet engine.

Great to meet John and his lovely wife Liv who made us very welcome, good to have a chat with them. Jon enjoyed the excellent bacon sandwich.

From there we went to Southampton for our annual visit to this lovely looking MGF 120 mpi in Copperleaf, for minor service and ease off of the clutch release arm, which wasn’t too bad at all. As always really great to see Mark and Joanne and have a catch-up. Thanks both for the tea and the doughnuts. We look forward to seeing you both next year.

Really good weather so far, no need for the gazebo, that I finally remembered to pack!

Back at our digs in Farnham now for another night here. – https://ift.tt/K2uMbWX

We’re now on our way to Farnham after leaving Eastbourne this evening.

Really good to see Chris, as always, for some more things on his fab MG TF 135 ‘Avril’.

Chris had heard about the benefits of the soft ride kit and we had chatted about it on our last visit, plus he wanted a bit more of a ‘sportier’ sounding exhaust. So he treated her to a few things this time.

Soft ride kit fitted and a TT Mk 7 fitted too. We look forward to hearing how his run out in Avril went this evening.

A bit of a detour made on the way this morning to North Cheam, near Worcester Park as Mark’s always very tidy MGF VVC 143 had developed a couple of issues since we had replaced the head gasket back in April. Bit of an investigation undertaken and various sensors swapped out, including new throttle body as it had been messed with and not set up correctly. On hearing back from Mark earlier (whilst writing this) on a test drive the problem still persists. We shall return to investigate further and see why ‘Big Ears’ is misbehaving…. – https://ift.tt/7y0Znw9

Back to reality today, after a really fantastic time away in Greece…

We headed south to a lovely little village called Pentlow, in Suffolk, where it was really good to meet Gary and his lovely wife, for work on their very tidy MGF Steptronic, that her father had bought for her some years ago. Unfortunately, for them the head gasket had gone again and the car was also over due it’s cambelt service.

The dreaded K-seal had been added at some point in its life, so we cleaned away what we could of that hideous stuff. Couple of bits replaced to get her back to rights and it was so lovely seeing the smile on their faces when she was fired back up.

Really nice morning chatting, together with welcoming brews and butties and some good weather thrown in too.

We then headed further south and are now in our digs in Westerham.

A good start to the week to get us back to it. – https://ift.tt/0noBU8G

So this morning we have woken up on the island of Crete and I think for the first time ever our suitcases don’t contain tools!

We’re having 10 days R&R on this beautiful island, that we last visited on our honeymoon.

I will try to keep a check on the admin and will respond to messages etc soon as poss and will have a big catch-up once we’re home.

Wonder how many MGs we will spot on our travels here. – https://ift.tt/KThv2tZ