MGB V8 Roadster restoration project Report 159

Transcription

1 29th July MG DRIVES OUT OF THE GARAGE FOR THE FIRST TIME. I started my reports on the 15 th January 2015 when I pushed the Yellow Peril into the workshop. Little did I realise that it would be this long before the MGB saw the light of day. Six months off with depression didn t help. On average I have spent five and half hours every day since then on the car, including Saturdays and Sundays and without any holidays. I suppose that works out at about two years work on the car. Was it worth the all the work? I think so; at least it got me out of gardening and housework. Now I have got to try and persuade myself to use the car and not spend so much time in the workshop working on my various other cars and motorcycles. Waiting for the smoke to disperse from the exhaust manifold heat insulation and black exhaust manifold paint that I sprayed over the exhaust wrap it took some time stop smoking. God, my back hurts from fitting the speedo cable yesterday! While I waited for the smoke to clear I tightened the wheel nuts up to 60ftlbs. V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 1

2 And, still smoking! There are bound to be some problems to start with and this is one of them. With just the engine running and everything else switch off the needle on the tachometer reads 700 to 800 rpm, which is fine. As soon as you switch the radiator fan override switch or the heater fan on the needle on the tachometer springs up to 6,500 rpm. Has anybody any suggestions why this should happen? At present I am stumped for a reason. Still smoking! It rather seems a waste of time painting the exhaust wrap with the black exhaust paint if it is going to turn grey with the heat. I wish now I had gone for the Zircotec s Ceramic Coating. At the time it seemed rather expensive when I ed them for a quote. Perhaps next winter I may get the manifolds coated. Zircotec can be contacted on sales@zircotec.com. V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 2

3 The exhaust parted on the right hand exhaust. It didn t do my nice new alloy heat shield much good either. Eventually the exhaust stopped smoking. I drove the car down the road to turn it round and drove into the garage front wise to check the fuel injection system with the Rover Gauge. Graunch, graunch, followed by rather loud exhaust note. The exhaust had grounded on the rather steep concrete slope that I have going up to the garage and I had pulled off the right hand exhaust system at the joint by the right hand down pipe. I think the angle I went into the garage didn t help. Pete connected my laptop up to the fuel injection ECU so we could check the information on the Rover Gauge software. In no time Pete, had the software up and running. The only fault showing was the RH oxygen sensor, which I hope, is because the RH exhaust pipe is now off. With the car at last off the axle stands it was time to tighten the rear hub nuts and fit the split pins. The torque on these nuts should be 150lbsft. If you were lucky like I was the split pin may fit in straight away. The proper engineering way do the job is not to loosen the nut back until the split pin fits in, but to fit a correct size shim washer behind the main washer so the split pin and the slots in the castellated nut line up at 150lbft. Always use a split pin of the correct diameter. It should be a reasonably tight fit in the hole. V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 3

4 All four heights were checked at each wheel between the floor and the waist moulding and the measurements noted in my book. If the split pin is too long don t just bend it out of the way but cut the leg that points down fairly short and cut the other leg longer and fold it over the front of the bolt or shaft. The advantage of coilover damper units is that you can fairly easily adjust the suspension height or corner weights by rotating the adjustable spring platform. On the Hoyle front suspension they supply GAZ coilover dampers and the spring platforms are locked in place with a small grub screw with an Allen key head. I removed this grub screw before using a C-spanner to raise the front of the car by moving up the spring platform. Hoyle doesn t supply a suitable C-spanner with their conversion. Luckily, I have a selection of C-spanners and found a suitable one that would lock into the cut outs in the spring platform to rotate it in a clockwise direction to move the platform up the damper. Before I got on with fitting the self inflicted exhaust problem I thought I should measure the height of the body on each wheel so I could adjust the height of the spring platforms on each of the front and rear coilover damper units. After raising the ground clearance of the MG I checked the camber of the front wheels and locked the adjusting bolts up tight. V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 4

5 Today is Monday 31 st July 2017 and it is MOT day for the MG at 2pm. I still get nervous taking cars in for MOT testing; it feels like when you did exams at school. I suppose it is a pride thing, you don t want the car to fail on something silly that you have overlooked. The first job to do this morning was to connect up the Rover Gauge software and see if I could clear the fault that showing on oxygen sensor that checks the fuelling of the right hand bank of fuel injectors. Thinking about the why the problem was showing, I now think that the problem was there from the major accident the MGRV8 had when it was written off. I remember that the wires had pulled out of one of the connector plugs to an oxygen sensor. A few other little jobs needed doing. I bought a new window winder handle for one of the doors as it had a very loose knob, very painful!. The door handle gasket was sitting on the ground with all the other bits for the door, but I couldn t find it. Jane had swept up the floor so I blamed her and got on with making a new one from the cover of an A4 lever arch file. You know when the ECU is connecting to the computer when the red light is lit on the USB plug that is connected to the laptop computer. To clear fault codes you click on options, choose fault code and click clear. The door glass was a bit loose so I changed the racket round the other way as I had on the other door, which sorted the problem. I also found the spring on the first rod from the door handle had moved and had made the inner door handle feel loose. V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 5

6 A word of warning. These orange rod fixing clips that are sent out now as replacements for the originals only work once the new ones I had fitted before broke the orange plastic when I tried to remove them. Luckily I had a couple of spares I could use. I have just noticed the old yellow paint, I thought I had removed all traces of the yellow! A run round the block to check everything is as it should be. There is even time for sandwich, and a cuppa before going to Jaymic Systems Ltd for the MOT. Door pull on, and a then a wipe with some plastic polish and the door should be back together. It is a long time since I have watched an MOT and I thought it may be interesting for others who have not seen MOT testing before. Many of the operations of the test are now carried out automatically. Firstly the car is driven onto a pair of plates that weigh the car at the front and then shake to test the dampers and springs at the front. The car is then driven onto the brake testing rollers to test the efficiency of the front brakes. The car is then driven forward to do the same tests to the rear of the car. This is all done automatically with no input from the tester in the car. I thought at least he would have a remote in the car to start the test, but no. V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 6

7 The results of the test come up on the testers computer screen. This is the shake test. The red wheel on the screen shows the corner of the suspension that is being tested. Screen showing the results with the total weight of the car, presumably including the tester, shown in the right hand bottom corner of the screen. I believe this is the screen where the braking efficiency is tested, again, all automatic apart from the tester applying the brakes. Next test is the emissions testing for Carbon monoxide and Hydro carbon. The pass rate for an 1800cc 1978 MGB is a maximum of 4.5% CO and the 3950cc V8 engine giving 0.96% this is definitely a pass. The same with the HC 87 parts per million with the pass rate at 1200 ppm. The tester does have to get out of the car for this test as he has to poke the exhaust gas pipe up the exhaust and press a few buttons on the computer. V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 7

8 Martyn says Let s see if you have left any suspension bolts loose. I say You know if it fails the MOT I ll put the garage rent up! The tester then drives the car onto the lift to inspect the vehicle and test the headlamps for alignment and the operation of the rest of the lighting. Inspecting the underside of the MG for any faults. The MG all tested and MOT ed, with no faults or rectifications needed. I was thinking, I might launch the MG with a bottle of champers, then I thought again it might dent the alloy bonnet, I d better drink the champagne instead! You can me at: mikemacartney@btconnect.com with any hints or tips which may help me, or other V8 register members. 1 st August V8 Register MG Car Club V8-restoration-Mike-Macartney-Report-159 8