1973 MGB GT- A little rust 30/08

[adam73bgt]

Well it was my birthday on monday and I think I'm just about recovered enough to do a little update on the B

We start off with things arriving in the post, firstly a 'new' wiper motor with cable/rack. According to the casing it was also made in 1973 but 8 weeks after my original one was made It also has a sticker saying it was supplied as a Lucas replacement unit in 1978 so it will be interesting to see how it works once I hook it up.



Of course it may still be that the motor isn't the issue but the wheelboxes.. but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

The next thing to turn up was my pair of springs for the carbs, when I visited an MG specialist last month he suggested that my idling issues may be coming from old carb piston springs and sure enough the old springs did feel weaker and were a bit shorter too..



New on left, old on right



Fitted them and initially thought my problem was solved but after a bit of a drive in traffic and the idle speed was creeping up again So next thing to try is fitting my new throttle cable as the car's idle speed will drop if I move the throttle spindle at the carbs by hand, so I'm now thinking that excess resistance in the throttle cable (when hot) is causing the throttle to not return to idle fully.

The new carb springs have helped though as before when the car was idling high if you then shut off the car, it would run on pretty badly due to the piston not dropping properly, so thats got better

Then on the day of my birthday I found this.





I'm pretty curse word off about this as although the spotlight was free and wasn't particularly powerful, it was a nice period piece that looked right on the front of the car imo. looks as though someone has just backed up into it and not bothered to leave a note or anything, that really annoyed me. Considering I only spotted this on my actual birthday as I was starting a shift at work things could have gone better But I did pick these up from work to cheer me up a bit..



They're the small chrome spotlights usually found on new mini's etc. so they won't be going on the front of the car as they'd look a bit odd, my plan is to mount them behind the grille so they're hidden until turned on (idea nicked from a certain other green '73 BGT on here.... ) unsure whether to link them with the high beams or have them on a seperate switch at the moment, probably will just add to high beams as they'll be blinding otherwise, gonna have to get some relays and stuff to beef up the headlight circuits a bit as these are more powerful than the big old Lucas spotlight.

And last but not least I got some early MGB rear light units in the post too



They came up on ebay for a pretty reasonable price, I think this was due to them being all red lenses.. but that was more of a reason to buy them for me They should make the rear of the car look a bit sleeker, especially once I get rid of the rear overriders.

And to counteract my new red indicator lenses I've been having to get a bit creative



More to come soon!

[flyingphil]

Shame about that broken lamp!
PS "Happy Birthday" - some nice presents...

[adam73bgt]

As with all birthday presents I've been playing with them straight away

Thought I'd start by having a go at fitting one of the rear lights to see how they compare to the later ones for fit, I'd expected there to be a small gap at the top of the light base unit but I've got some silicone sealant to sort that, its not going to need much

The 'old' later style tailights which I'm not a massive fan of compared to..



The early style tailights, a much more elegant design to me, and I much prefer the look without the amber lenses



But its the lack of amber lenses which is proving to be the sticking point at the moment, my green painted bulbs flash very dimly through the lens and they don't flash particularly amber.. (probably painted on too thickly) So I experimented with some other bulbs, tried a standard amber bulb and it was back to being as bright as the other lens which I hadn't changed. So that allayed my fears of the early lens causing the lights to be too dim, using an LED bulb did cause the indicator to light up amber but it didn't flash due to there not being enough resistance in the bulb to work the flasher unit..

So my options are either buy some green bulbs which might have a thinner layer of paint so flash brighter and amber-er, or get an LED bulb and mess about with resistors until the inidcators work..

Heres a comparison shot for leaving on



What with the removal of overriders, black plates and now mk1 rear lights, it seems like I'm trying to create an early MGB.. this wasn't entirely my plan

[Rich]

Oct 31, 2013 17:49:30 GMT adam73bgt said:

As with all birthday presents I've been playing with them straight away

Thought I'd start by having a go at fitting one of the rear lights to see how they compare to the later ones for fit, I'd expected there to be a small gap at the top of the light base unit but I've got some silicone sealant to sort that, its not going to need much

The 'old' later style tailights which I'm not a massive fan of compared to..



The early style tailights, a much more elegant design to me, and I much prefer the look without the amber lenses



But its the lack of amber lenses which is proving to be the sticking point at the moment, my green painted bulbs flash very dimly through the lens and they don't flash particularly amber.. (probably painted on too thickly) So I experimented with some other bulbs, tried a standard amber bulb and it was back to being as bright as the other lens which I hadn't changed. So that allayed my fears of the early lens causing the lights to be too dim, using an LED bulb did cause the indicator to light up amber but it didn't flash due to there not being enough resistance in the bulb to work the flasher unit..

So my options are either buy some green bulbs which might have a thinner layer of paint so flash brighter and amber-er, or get an LED bulb and mess about with resistors until the inidcators work..

Heres a comparison shot for leaving on



What with the removal of overriders, black plates and now mk1 rear lights, it seems like I'm trying to create an early MGB.. this wasn't entirely my plan

If you don't want to keep the lights, I'm sure they would find a good home on ours haha! Stick with it buddy. Make sure the lights are finding a good earth, they earth through the bodywork which is terrible as it's all painted. Try adding a dedicated earth to somewhere in the car (the boot striker bolts are the OE earth points)
The resistors you need are stocked in halfords but I would recommend you fit a modern electronic indicator relay as well. Takes a few minutes with the only addition being an earth wire for the relay. You'll still need resistors but it will add reliability to the system.

[adam73bgt]

Haha I think I shall persevere, I like the look of them too much yeah the earth path doesn't seem great yet all the rear lights are pretty bright ah I shall have to have a closer look next time I'm in then (I'm lucky enough to work there...) Have you got a modern flasher relay on yours? my indicators are not too bad usually but I suppose it would be nice to have a constant flasher speed

[ChasR]

The electronic indicator relay is one of the best (and simplest) modifications that my Spitfire and Stag have. You need to create another earth, but that is not tricky. No more waiting a while for the indicators to light up, no more slowing down when you are at a set of lights, in addition to there being an audible click just in case you forget to turn them off .

Clean earths on the rear light mountings is crucial. I have never required a suplemental lead, but using good nuts (the brass ones with an inbuilt washer Ford sell are perfect ) does help alot.

Regarding your idling issue, have you tried spraying carb cleaner on the throttle spindles with a extension tube? On my Spitfire, they were leaking despite the carbs having new spindles (the bushes in the body were shot). That would idle as high as almost 2000RPM, despite the idle speed screw not even being in contact with the cam (balancing them was fun, not).

[adam73bgt]

Ah yes the standard ones are rather quiet, hadn't thought of that advantage..

As for the carbs, I did try spraying carb cleaner at the spindles but I couldnt seem to get the idle to change much. As the weather is getting colder its getting easier to drive around that issue, but I still would like to sort it, I need to get under the bonnet anyway as the carbs are a bit lean really

[adam73bgt]

More engine fun... Firstly its been making a couple of new noises recently which need investigating..

This I could live with, the second thing I can't Went to Asda after work and just as I was leaving the carpark, the engine died. Tried to restart it and it would crank happily but no life, managed to push it back to the petrol forecourt with the help of a couple passers by (despite being unable to see through my steamed rear window )

And found this under the bonnet



theres a part missing there.. the dizzy cap was also off when I opened the bonnet so I'm not sure whether the cap came away and knocked the arm off the rotor or the other way round

But I'm just happy I had a spare, anyone know where the best rotor arms for these can be found? this one has only lasted about a year :/

[ChasR]

Ah, you have discovered how fun rotor arms can be .

Generally speaking I have found NOS items to be reliable oddly enough (certainly for my old 'B) but you do have to be lucky (I found a Unipart item still made of the old material along with the top part no being riveted onto the plastic itself like the newer items are.

Otherwise, the Distributor Doctor items are said to be decent, but cheap they are not. People (and I) have had success with the red rotor arms sold by Powerspark, which are said to be the same as the DD items .

[sciclone]

I've heard MSD, Megajolt or Acuspark are the go

Seriously, I love old cars, but the ignition systems on new cars are much better.

[adam73bgt]

Nov 5, 2013 22:00:10 GMT ChasR said:

Ah, you have discovered how fun rotor arms can be .

I did wonder how long it would be I was gonna ask you actually if you hadn't already commented haha hmm the spare I've fitted is a red one but I can't remember where I got it from.. I suppose I'll get a couple of the powerspark ones and hope for the best

[adam73bgt]

Nov 5, 2013 22:32:45 GMT sciclone said:

I've heard MSD, Megajolt or Acuspark are the go

Seriously, I love old cars, but the ignition systems on new cars are much better.

I do have an accuspark system fitted actually but I suppose its still hampered by being fitted in an old school distributor

[ChasR]

If your arm looks like this the chances are that you are OK:



I would probably get another rotor arm just in case . I'll be down at the NEC if you want me to pick up a red arm if you wish .

[adam73bgt]

Damn, its a bit different to that.. the metal arm is symmetrical on mine, I was fairly lucky as I think the one I had in the car I only happened to get when I bought a couple sets of points to keep as spares in case the accuspark gives up the ghost haha

Thanks for the offer but I've already ordered a powerspark one NEC? Is it classic car show time again??

[adam73bgt]

ARGH! IT BROKE DOWN AGAIN!

Went for a little drive to work to check my hours and the engine died twice on the way there

I believe the issue to be with the new rotor arm (which has a DD printed inside it which I assume stands for Distributor Doctor?) basically theres a 'key' on the inside of the rotor arm body which slots into a slot on the distributor shaft but for some reason, the key was too big, which wasnt allowing the arm to sit on the shaft properly thus causing it to slip and stop rotating with the shaft, killing the engine.

Luckily, I work at halfords so when I limped in there I had some tools to attempt to bodge the rotor arm back on. After some time I managed to whittle down the key in the rotor arm using a razor blade and got it fitted back on the distributor properly, although it has some play in rotation still :/ so I've got extra variable ignition timing

The distributor cap is also wobbly so I don't know if thats down to a bad cap, dodgy spring clips or something else.. The carbon brush in the centre of the cap is also pretty worn which is annoying as the cap isn't even more than a year old :/

To balance this negativity, I fitted the mk1 tail lights



So at least it looks a bit nicer while I'm pushing it...

I'm thinking I may have to swap the MG in for something a little bit more modern as the novelty is kinda wearing off now

[tineca]

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/171010084512?lpid=83&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=83&ff19=0


I fitted one of these kits to my crossflow. they are excellent value. cheers Jed

[goldnrust]

Nov 8, 2013 20:07:15 GMT adam73bgt said:

I'm thinking I may have to swap the MG in for something a little bit more modern as the novelty is kinda wearing off now

don't do it! Drive something modern and bland for a week, borrowed or hired or whatever, after a couple of days the novelty of electric everything and demisters that work, and engines that don't have quirks will wear off and you'll just be bored. Keep the faith!

New throttle cable is a good move, also worth checking throttle pedal pivots/linkages/etc. I always think a car with a nice light smooth throttle pedal action feels more enjoyable to drive. Same goes for clutch cable and little touches like well adjusted and lubricated gear linkages. Just makes driving more pleasant.

The B is coming along nicely, sort this ignition problem out and go for a nice drive and you'll love her again

[adam73bgt]

Oh don't worry I wouldn't go for anything too modern, but try as I might, things like MR2's, Supras, MX5's, Turbo Brick Volvos, Jag XJ6's, 944's, RX7's just aren't quite floating my boat so it looks like as much as I moan about the MG everytime something goes wrong, I'm gonna end up stuck with it still

Nov 8, 2013 20:44:00 GMT goldnrust said:

go for a nice drive and you'll love her again

And annoyingly I know that'll be true too

[Deleted]

complaining about an old car when it goes wrong is all part of the old car ownership experience. New rear lights look very nice, makes the rear end look ever so slightly more stylish somehow.

[adam73bgt]

Nov 8, 2013 21:34:30 GMT @volksangyl said:

complaining about an old car when it goes wrong is all part of the old car ownership experience. New rear lights look very nice, makes the rear end look ever so slightly more stylish somehow.

That is true and I probably shouldn't complain too much as the issues I'm having really aren't that big (touch wood) Thanks, I much prefer them too, it seems like quite a small change but the profile of the lens follows the lines of the rear wings much better. The indicators don't flash very amber but they look cool


In other good news, I've ordered a new rotor cap, arm, and plugs and leads so hopefully the B will be back to strength soon..