MG Sports Cars

Donations to the Roadmaster Project can be made to:

Bill Davidson, Treasurer
7208 W 54th Terrace
Overland Park, KS 66202

913 677-0884
Bill74mgb@yahoo.com

Checks should be made out to:

British American Deviant Automotive Sportscar Society
or
BADASS

Had a great day Saturday 5-4-13 and RM performed very well. I failed to reset my Garmin so I don't now my miles driven. About an hour each way to the car show and only used about 6 gals of high test gas.

And here are a few other observations.

Each front fender(wing) has been damage from a stone thrown by the front wheel, looks like it's been center punched from below, and the leading edge of the bonnet is showing more stress cracks than I remember from last summer. One other item I want to check soon is the exhaust, it may be leaking again on the right side header. But I don't want to sound too negative, the overwhelming comment by people who see the car is how good it looks, adjectives like stunning, fantastic, beautiful, wonderful, and remarks like how did you do it & I can't believe you got that motor in there.
The car drives well and I can feel the difference from all the work has been done since last year. Yesterday I drove about an hour each way on back roads to a picnic and car show. It was as good a drive as one could have! RM certainly was appreciated by the enthusiasts at the Higgins Farm British car meet, most had never heard about the project. I sure enjoyed myself.

It doesn't need high test, PJ.

I don't think any work was done to ign at Rick's except the coil.
If it ping, use high test

Steve

The high test solves the violent shut-down issues, and the "pinging" was reduced. I ran it exclusively on Premium.

$.02

M

Must need a tune up. Compression should be just under 8:1

Jim

Is it possible the vacum advance mechanism is sticking, and causing the violent shutdowns ? roverman.

Is the spark control box still connected? Or did that go away with the MSD? I think timing has a LOT to do with the pinging, the starting, the shut-down, etc. (I'm biased, though-- don't like manifold vacuum.)

I'm most curious, though, if any of this was there BEFORE we had the coil failure (Rick/PJ's last tenure with the car)? It was so bad at times, for Me, that I wondered how it was driven all last summer.... (unless the Power Tour was a 60mph parade?)

$.02

M

I had no issues with shut down. It did backfire on start-up ultimately causing the cast part of the starter housing to break; that's why I added the bracket to reinforce it. Haven't heard folks talk about backfire on start any more, is it still doing that? Does sound like something has changed. Anyone nearby have or have access to an old Sun scope to be able to see what it's doing?

The timing has everything to do with all off it. It did not act this way last year. Something in the timing has changed.

No violent shutdowns, no backfire. Jack guessed carb & or timing might be a little off but IMHO it is running better now than when I drove it last Aug. Not perfect but but it pulls a steep 5 mile grade with no problem in 5th. I notice a little hesitation on hard acceleration. Max, I just remembered that the
fuel pump was replaced the evening before the heavy thunderstorm and the coil failure.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2013 10:51PM by lawnvett.

Rob:

I had some hard "hot" starts that seemed "Unpleasant", shall we say? :-) One of them I remembered thinking "So... that's how Rob broke a starter!"


I didn't get around to either checking the timing or scoping it. PJ said he could take the car and it was gone before the next weekend. (Besides, I'd had it long enough. It needed to be on it's way to Omaha...)

The car is still a work in progress, alas. But it's getting there-- certainly much nicer to cruise in with the vibration and gear noise gone. :)

I think getting Dan and Jim to drive it will be a big help-- they can see where it's changed from initial runs and hopefully make a few improvements on their way to V9 2013. :-)

M

I had the car "hard start/buck" on me at least once during the Power Tour.

The ONLY thing replaced here in St.Joseph last fall was the coil. Nothing else was disturbed.

Where can I get one of those V9's, Max?

Is the distributor locked or are the weights still active? Sounds like a dab of dielectri grease on the pads and pivots might help if hanging up.

I took it for a short drive last night. Heard a funny noise, then the starter started grinding while it was running. I went to turn the key off and it was stuck in the "Start" position. Switching it back to the running location stopped the noise but now the starter is broken.
Last year when we were having all the starter issues, where did the most recent starter come from? Does it have a warranty?

I.sent Dan the info. Last summer I didn't replace the starter. I only replaced the cast aluminium nose cone. I bought 2 so we'd have a spare. Sounds like the good news is the bracket I made is still saving the nose cones from breaking on start-up backfires... doesn't help Dan though.

Dan, I think Tue starter itself is less than a year old. There should be a receipt from Carquest where I tuning Bill and Curtis got it.

the "extra nose cone" is next to the spare tire.

Sorry you are having trouble

I called Carquest in Huntington. They said it should have a lifetime warranty but they don't have one in stock. It should be here tomorrow.

Dan:

I'm trying to swear less, so.... "Cripes!"

Random thoughts (just sharing, not nagging):

a)check flywheel teeth when starter is out
b) have you verified it's KEY sticking (in tumbler) or Ignition SWITCH issue, or something electrical?
b-2) I bring this up because we have that replacement Column to be installed, and so any issues with the ignition lock assembly might best be addressed on the NEW column, rather than screwing around with that old one. $.02

Sorry to hear. Make sure to note in logbook (and write part # for starter, j. i. c.?)

cheers, M