The entanglement of my MGB into the rest of my muddled life continues:
- My twin 6V batteries finally succumbed, so after a few weeks of
parking on hills (Hills? So close to the Mississippi Delta and the Gulf
Coast?) I sacrificed a Saturday to the Spirit of Battery Shopping.
Despite at one point finding myself parallel parked on a busy
thoroughfare in driving rain with two lifeless batteries, I managed to
wind up at a DAPS, where twenty minutes with a brainless mutant
eventually resulted in what I consider to be quite a find: A 72 month
Ford Motorcraft (purists piss off) Group 26 12V battery for $45. I'm
actually quite proud of that one. Tip of the Week: When buying a
battery for your MGB, don't forget to bring along your bottle jack with
which to remove your dying 6V Pep Boys specials, which of course don't
have any sort of handles for lifting them out of the battery bins (the
new battery has a very nice integral lifting handle). Observation of
the Week: Folks who visit auto parts stores on Saturdays generally know
lots of nifty things about cars. One fellow parked next to the 'B while
I was sworking on lifting the old batteries out. "Got a pair of
pliers?" he asked. Of course I did; he had a second pair, and suggested
using them to grip the battery terminals. Done this way, the batteries
lifted out quite easily. The new battery is an absolutely perfect fit
in the battery bin, having a perfectly smooth outer case.
- Addendum: When installing your new battery, give careful
consideration to installing an auxiliary ground strap from battery to
engine. I used a 78 inch cable with a side-post terminal on one end and
a piece of metal with a hole in it on the other end. The side-post end
fits nicely on the bolt holding the battery ground strap to the battery
bin; 78 inches of cable is just long enough to allow the other end to
reach the clutch slave cylinder mounting bolts. Even though my other
grounding strap is intact, the additional ground gives me lots of
much-needed peace of mind.
- I've often bragged on this forum and others about my S.U fuel pump,
purchased new in 1993, and considered fully responsible for eliminating
that nasty float bowl overflow condition. The pump has happily
soldiered on now for four years, until the other day, when the engine
started losing power at speed. Sure enough, tapping the fuel pump
produced that telltale clattering. This wasn't supposed to happen, as
the new S.U incorporates a diode to prevent points burning. I removed
the pump and removed the end cap for the very first time. I was
relieved to actually see the diode, which I had really only assumed was
present up to now. I was distressed to see how badly the points, which
I must naturally assume were installed at the factory and not by some
gorilla in Poughkeepsie, were bent. Bent! Bent in such a way that one
contact engaged well before the other one did. It was even more
disheartening to discover that one of the contacts was actually loose,
rattling around on its mounting. I removed the points, carefully noting
the positions of all wires, and installed the worn-but-serviceable
points from the parts car's pump, which meant carefully peeling the
diaphragm from the pump body and spending more than a few enjoyable
moments inserting spacers. Not surprisingly, after all of this effort
the sun had retired, so I grabbed a jumper wire and tested the pump
operation outside, using the Volvo's battery. Even though the diode was
intact, I was surprised at the amount of arcing happening at the points
(nice brilliant flashes showing up well in the dusk). Oh well. It
works, and I no longer have to rap on the battery bins every minute with
my BFS (obligatory and disposable LBC tool used for prying and smashing;
S = Screwdriver; don't leave home without one).
- The metal dash conversion I wrote about previously is working well.
The black wrinkle-finish paint gives the dash an incredible sheen in
direct sunlight; it's almost as though the thing is covered with
zillions of tiny black sequins. The chrome instrument bezels look great
set into the fresh black sculpted section of the dash. Still no
capping, still no glovebox, and still nothing occupying the position
formerly held by the dash light rheostat (tentatively planning on an
intermittent-wiper unit).
- My bores are seriously worn. I'm losing lots of oil from the
crankcase pressurization from all of the blow-by, and it's starting to
seep down onto the hot exhaust manifold, which makes that distinctive
odor that I get to enjoy every time I park. It's even starting to come
out of the exhaust, such that I feel like James Bond using the smoke
screen on his famous Aston Martin ("Interesting car of yours, Mr.
Bond!"). I can afford to take a cavalier approach, with the spare 18V
slated for a rebuild Real Soon Now (balancing, porting, 9.0:1 pistons
and a Piper 270 cam, since you asked), and the original motor still
making decent power. My life is so gosh-darned wonderful, except for
all of the money that I haven't got...
--
Todd "This brain intentionally left blank" Mullins
Todd.Mullins@nrlssc.navy.mil On the lovely Mississippi (USA) Coast
'74 MGB Tourer that needs bodywork, too
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