The Dark Wob

Lunatic!

Spent a good amount of time last night cleaning this and giving it a good polish - including the glass! Just as I finished, a pair of swallows flew over and shat on it. Argh.

Anyway it's supposed to rain tomorrow and I didn't get it to storage in time before it closed. So I thought I'd might as well take it for a blast and make use of it being shiny.

Went a bit further today and had a little run up and down Cheddar Gorge. Unfortunately it's turned into a bit of a boyracer rat run, so there is a 30mph limit on most of it. You now need to be a bit careful of both police cameras and idiots over cooking it and going onto your side of the road.

However in the MGB, you can keep to that speed limit while having fun. I did try filming the route down but the phone mount fell off. I turned around and went back up filming again. The second time had large parts ending up as jelly-vision.

I wasn't going to bother uploading it, but as it's not all bad, I decided to. Also got stuck behind an Audi A1 at the top who was completely unable to deal with corners.
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I'll have to figure out a better mount or something and do it again. Maybe wedge the phone in the passenger headrest or something.

Finally started mine after 8 months hibernation. I switched on, left gave it 2 seconds for the gas to come through and it fired on the first turn when I spun the engine over to check it had oil pressure. So I got the phone and this is it firing up
With no petrol to go stale it starts as it would if had been left yesterday and immediately settles to a slow idle.


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Nice! Also a good 15-20psi extra pressure than mine reading on your gauge.

When you say no petrol to go stale, do you leave your fuel tanks empty?

Now the weather is less boisterous, I'm tempted to swap it around for a couple of days fun.

SiC wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 6:18 pm Nice! Also a good 15-20psi extra pressure than mine reading on your gauge.

When you say no petrol to go stale, do you leave your fuel tanks empty?

Now the weather is less boisterous, I'm tempted to swap it around for a couple of days fun.

Cros' MG runs on LPG gas so it doesn't go off

DodgeRover wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:14 pm

SiC wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 6:18 pm Nice! Also a good 15-20psi extra pressure than mine reading on your gauge.

When you say no petrol to go stale, do you leave your fuel tanks empty?

Now the weather is less boisterous, I'm tempted to swap it around for a couple of days fun.

Cros' MG runs on LPG gas so it doesn't go off

Ah yes I forgot about that.

I don't normally use what's in the tank so there is the danger of that going off. However last summer in France I found LPG wasn't as easy to get as it is here- the price difference isn't so great so I guess its popularity has waned. Another thing that caught me out was that many supermarket garages are unmanned except at peak hours and the Lpg pumps only work when there's an attendant so it's nearly impossible to find on a Sunday. I got through quite a bit of petrol and had a good flush through.

As mentioned elsewhere, after the success of the 1100 and it removing itself from the garage, I pulled this back out.


Obligatory cold start video that I've seemed to make a habit doing.
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Ran well on the short journey home and was a pleasant place to be.


It's nice to wash a car and then put it away out of the elements once you've done it. Also this angle looks so right to me on the BGT. Pininfarina did a great job on this.


One thing that has been bugging me for ages is the broken flash-to-pass. Especially as I forget and I'm sat there flicking the stalk with no effect. You can buy replacement stalks cheap but the switch feel is just nowhere near as nice on the reproduction ones.

So I took the stalk off to fix. Being 1974 there are no clock springs, steering angle sensors or anything such like to get in the way of removal. Four bolts to remove the cover and then these two bolts to remove the stalk.


Then disconnect the multiway connector and remove the metal cable tie.


Once off, it's obvious on the fault.


Usually I wouldn't want to solder such things and rather crimp. Crimp is generally better for connections that vibrate. You can solder but you need to make sure you strain relief if you don't want the joint to work harden and break off at the end of the solder joint.


So to provide strain relief I used two different sizes of heatshrink.


Hopefully this will allow the stalk to continue functioning for a good few more years now.

Next up was the self cancelling being intermittent. Something that has given trouble before and I used bits of insulation tape to try fixing. However that quickly fell off.

Looking at the action, it appeared the real fault was the lack of friction. Over many years use the mechanism had worn smooth. A bit of 180grit on both the fingers and cam gave it more than enough to start functioning properly again.


I'm hoping to go for a run in the evenings. Dependant on whether the weather co-operates! Due for thunder and lightening over the next few days here. It runs happily in heavy rain but it's not a fun experience and one that isn't really worth the effort to go out for a jolly drive when it's like that.

The self cancel failed on my Midget & I much preferred it without. Half the junctions on the road these days seem designed to turn indicators off as you approach them.

I did fix it once & within a week I rebroke it as it was nicer to drive without it.

The flasher unit on the 1100 is under the bonnet. I frequently failed to cancel it and knocked the stalk. But not hearing it tick makes me look like I'm an old giffer driving along...