Greetings, listers,
I have retrieved my car, and it is now sitting in my garage. I was able to get
the hood open (after rather draconion measures - of which more later), and I
drove it home.
First of all, a great big thanks to Tom and Linda Long for allowing Leon to
drive their truck to my house, and storing the TR6 till I could retrieve it.
Also, a great big thanks to Fred Thomas, who freely offered to drive the 250
miles to Blacksburg to help me if I needed it. Luckily, with Tom's help, I was
able to return the car to drivable condition, and Fred did not have to drive
that great distance. Mighty kind of him to offer, never-the-less, don't you
think? I sure do.
Evidently, my car did not like Leon, as he had more troubles with it in the
two weeks he drove it than I've had in the 8 years I've owned it.
In the previous 8 years, I've had five failures, 2 at home and 3 on the road:
1, alternator failure,
2, split diaphram in the brake booster,
3, melted wire,
4, loose screw on the throttle linkage,
5, leaky clutch M/C
While Leon had the car, there were 6 failures:
1, broken ws washer switch,
2, broken tach cable (the replacment cable also broke),
3, stuck hood latch cable,
4, split in the radiater outlet pipe,
5, alarm siren quite working,
6, engine went sour
1, 2, and 5 are self explainatory, so I'll just discuss items 3, 4, and 6.
ITEM 6: when the car left here, each cylinder had between 150 and 170 psi
compression. Now, the compression checks as follows:
#1 = 155
#2 = 50
#3 = 25
#4 = 145
#5 = 170
#6 = 35
Putting oil in the cylinders raised the compression around 5 - 10 psi each. A
check of the valve clearances showed zero on the exhaust valves for the low
cylinders, and very little or zero on most of the others as well. I haven't
done a thorough check yet, but it appears that somehow the valve clearance has
decreased across the board. Any one have any ideas as to why this happened?
How much damage do you think I am looking at? None of the adjusment screws
seemed to be loose. I see no sign of water in the oil, nor oil in the water,
so I assume the head gasket is good, and neither the head nor the block is
cracked. The car only used 1/2 - 3/4 quart of oil in the total 2800 miles -
normal for that car - so I don't think I have any bottom end damage.
Needless to say, the car runs like crap. It barely will idle, but once up to
speed, it runs fairly well.
ITEM 4: A small split in the solder joint around the outlet pipe allowed a
little water to leak out each time the engine was shut down, and only after it
was shut down. I ran the car for about 15 minutes in Tom's driveway, and no
water leaked at all till I shut it off. The temperature gauge never got above
just a little over half scale during that time. Evidently, enough water leaked
each time the engine was shut off that the water level got low, and since the
hood couldn't be opened to add water, there finally wasn't enough water to
cool the engine, and it overheated at the begining of the last leg of Leon's
journey. The steam that he saw in the driveway was the radiator cap releasing
the pressure. The overflow tube was blown off the radiator fitting, so the
steam came out around the right headlamp area.
ITEM 3: The hood latch itself was OK, only the cable was stuck somewhere along
its length. I haven't pulled it yet to see just where. I can't pull the cable
from under the dash, but I can easily push the cable in at the latch area. The
weak of heart, or the purist, should not read any further, because I took
drastic action to get the hood open. As Leon mentioned, I bought a 3 inch hole
saw, chucked it in my Milwaukee right angle drill (there is not enough room
for a normal drill), and drilled a 3 inch hole in the sloping sheet metal,
just above the passenger's footwell and adjacent to the hood latch. I was able
to stick my hand in and release the catch (I brought along a piece of fuel
hose, which I had split, to put around the hole as a grommet so as not to
slice my arm off as I worked). As I said, the latch was OK - it only took
minimal pressure to release it.
Don't be too upset, though, as the final result looks quite professional,
almost like it came from the factory that way. The drain holes in the floor
boards are also 3 inches in diameter, so the rubber plug for them exactly fits
the hole I made. Rest assured, I will never have a problem getting the hood
open again. There is enough room to get a wrench in there and completely
remove the entire latch assembly, both pieces, if need be. A three inch hole
is probably not big enough for most of you, but I have small hands. On my
TR6/302, I am going to make an even bigger hole. MGs have a rectangular hole,
about 3 X 5, on both sides of the firewall, with nice rubber plugs to fill
them. I will make a hole like that, then even those with big hands can get in
there if needed.
One thing did upset me quite a bit, though, about the hood episode: someone
tried to use a screw driver to pry the hood open. In the process, they scarred
up the scuttle and the right fender, and the screwdriver slipped and carved a
4 inch gouge in the top of the hood, clear to bare metal. That's going to cost
me a quite bit to get repaired, hoping I can get the paint to match without
having to do the entire front end.
That's all for today, as I am quite tired. My son retrieved my grandson on
Sunday, and I made the 8 hour round trip to Blacksburg and back, plus fixed
the car, on Monday, so a good rest is in order.
My grandson is as well behaved, and as sweet dispositioned, as any child could
be, but I'm a bit too old (I'll be 58 on Monday) to try to keep up with him.
Climbing on the playground equipment with him, crawling through the obstacle
course, sliding down the slides, and generally behaving like a small boy
myself, has taken its toll on my poor old joints! Never-the-less, I can hardly
wait till he returns for another visit with us.
I'll let every one know what I find as I dig deeper.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored, but a bit puny right
now.
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://www.sky.net/~boballen/mg/Masters/index.html
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition - slated for a V8 soon
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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