MG Sports Cars

I guess I'm not following you Jim on the shock mounts. Are the eyes in the shocks 1/2" ID? and the mounts on the Jag lower control arms 5/8" OD? Those are bolts that run through the lower control arm so what you need is some shim of some sort to take up the difference between a 1/2" bolt and the control arm? If that's what you mean then try a piece of 1/2" copper plumbing tubing. It's thin wall and shouldn't pound out in this application. If there's any play at all you can tin the outside with some solder and drive it in place.
Jim can you get a photo of the clutch side of the engine and bellhousing like you did of the starter so I can get some idea of the clearance we're dealing with, maybe I can come up with one of my hair brained ideas for the clutch. ;-)

I will try the copper tubing. Need to buy some bolts.

The title for the car came in today so that part is done. Also Dave Van Wyck has informed me that he's sending the template for the exhaust flanges so I can test fit it before the parts are laser cut. I did a little bangin' and beatin' on the front sheet metal that needs attention, and now the motor will need to come back out for final tweaks and welding of the sheet metal and the engine mounts. I also have some parts to make for the IRS yet, and the fenderwells need to be cut.

I'm about ready to give up on the mig welder and just use the gas torch. Bill and Carl have been a real big help but I just can't get consistent results. I'll try more tension on the drive wheels and see if that helps though.

Bill, here are some photos of the clutch arm area.

Jim

Jim, thanks for the photos. I've done a bit of brain work and decided you are correct, no way anything is going to fit in front, so it's either a pull type slave or a HTOB. Take a look at this slave cylinder from Speedway and see if you think it will work for us with the bore size and stroke length? If so I'll step up and buy it, just sold an old Midget jack so am flush with cash, well enough to cover most of this anyway. [www.speedwaymotors.com]

Tell you what Bill, there's a clutch fork coming up on auction in a couple hours, I'll see if I can get that. Then once it gets here I'll take measurements and try to decide if it will work. Just at a guess, maybe if we can use a M/C with the 11/16" bore.

I shipped the flex plate out to Dale today, and picked up some bolts and washers for the shock mounts and engine mounts. About $50 worth. There are some places where stainless just should be used and coil-over shock mounts is one of them. Since I needed most of the same parts for my car I picked up the tab but there's a limit to how much of that I can get by with, I'm no different than anybody else there.

Jim

Bill, how about this. We know some of the V6 Buicks used a cable clutch. A search turns up:
[www.rockauto.com]
Clutch fork, $19.12
Clutch cable, about $20-30 depending on which one you buy.
These parts are for the 1978 Buick Skyhawk so the cable and arm will be made to work together with only an anchor point for the cable required, and configured to work with the clutch pedal. That much we can do, the parts should be available locally to test fit and return if necessary. It seems easier and more straightforward than cutting off clutch fork arms and juggling hydraulic cylinders.

Jim

I have been talking to the t-shirt man again. It was discussed at the Winter Party that Gray was the desired color. Do you know how many shades of grey are out there?
I will be choosing the shde soon( with help from the group) . Should have t-shirts to sell soon.
I will post a picture of the revised shirts soon. Looks like they will sell for $12 for small through x-large and $15 for the xx-large and up. I will need orders for the xx-large and up shirts. I plan to order 50 this year.
Any thoughts.
Also, I can pick up stuff from Dale and bring it to KY if you need.
When do you want me to come up and help.?
Steve

Whenever is convenient for you Steve, there's lots to do. The gages from Bill Guzman just came in today and look right good. We'll need to put a dashboard and seats in the car and start hooking things up. There's a seal washer and parking brake pawl to install, plus other stuff too.

I'll ask one more time. Does anybody have a good set of rubber front bushings for the rear leaf springs? I've cut the forward 6" off the main leafs from the green GT but the rubber is in sad shape. I'll use them if I must, but I'd much rather have something better. Those leafs can be cut with a portaband or zip wheel on an angle grinder, no need to press them out. Just leave at least 3" of the leaf extending from the wrapped eye and I can make it work. Those are the big ones that go towards the front of the car.

I have to match-drill and finish the tie bars and front brace and then make up the diagonal brace arms, for which I have to also come up with some sort of a pivot. It's a bit unusual because the arm leads off at about a 45 degree angle. I'll have to give that some thought. I expect to get all that done by the end of next week and then get back to the bodywork. At that point I'll probably cut the rear wheel arches.

For the most part things are coming along well. Here's a photo of the gages.

A slave cylinder behind the engine needs to be a push type cylinder. Cables and pulI cylinders go out towards the front of the car. I used a CNC push cylinder on my Ford 302/T5 set up by making a bracket for the cylinder that bolted to ribs on the transmission case. For the master cylinder, I used a Tilton unit. The Tilton master cylinders have a mounting flange that bolts up in place of the MGB cylinder, and the Tilton units come in about 7 or 8 different bore sizes, so it is possible to find the ideal cylinder for any slave cylinder bore. The only problem is that the Tilton stroke is only 1 inch and so the push rod bearing hole has to be moved down on the clutch pedal. This also means that the push rod itself has to be bent so that it is a straight shot into the master cylinder. But these modifications are easy, and much better than a pedal stop as the full clutch pedal stroke and leverage is available. This set up has been reliable on my car for over 25,000 miles. Let me know if you need more details and/or pictures.

Jim,
I have a set of poly spring bushing is that will do. Be aware that they are purple, hope they won't clash wit anything.
I'll bring them up next weekend.

Steve

Those will be fine. I just ordered heim joints for the diagonal brace, heim joint seals for those and the shocks, a 3/4" x 16 tap and I need to buy a length of some 1" x .156" wall tubing. I want everyone to be aware this stuff is all out of pocket. I know I'm sort of expected to do at least some of that, but I operate on a tighter budget than most of you and the only way I can do this is by selling off stuff on ebay, whether it's BADASS stuff or my own. Most of my really good stuff is already gone. Usually when I need stuff for my own car I just buy double if it will be used on the Roadmaster too, but I have my car to finish as well and I can't pay for everything. I've listed the doors from the mule for $100 each and you could really help the cause by buying them for spares or whatever. I'm also going to list the steering rack off of Arthur's suspension which is brand new and maybe we can get a hundred out of that.

Anyway, I have the uprights off at the moment and will shim the bearings, install the coil-overs and button that up and probably cut the wheelwells while waiting for the heim joints.

Jim

Is that a CB or RB rack? I can't remember.

It's CB

Figures.

Jim,
How much for the rack?

Steve

Hundred bucks. Want it?

Jim

Jim,
Yes, I'll take it. See ya, Thursday.

Steve

Found it!

It's not new & shows it. Has a bit of scoring, too much?

Not at all. The wear plate we got from TA will take car of that anyway. That's great Carl.

The details are beginning to drive me buggy just a bit. I had ordered seals for the heim joints and shocks for both cars... I thought. Came up one pack short of each and had to reorder. Decided to cut the threads on the pivot rods at full size (5/8-18 NF) and should have gotten the die for that days ago. Luckily it looks like Graingers has a couple of good choices.

As it turns out, in order to be able to position the brake calipers a crescent shaped piece has to be cut out of the passenger side battery box. This I did on the test mule. Even then it will be difficult to get at the caliper bolts and I think it may make more sense to just drop the suspension to do the job. Let's see, a u-joint, pair of brake hoses, 6 bolts and a brake cable. Well I guess it's a toss up, but that way the battery box doesn't have to be cut.

But wait! There is a different brake caliper configuration available. I have yet to identify it since all I have are the caliper mounting brackets, but they each only have one bolt hole that passes through a milled slot and is out in a location where it should be easy to get to. If that turns out to be correct, it could be a very neat solution to the pad change problem. I will continue to investigate, but sadly the Jaguar dealer is a 45 minute drive so that may not happen right away. Here's what the bugger looks like:



And here's another shot of how it bolts the the two holes on the bearing retainer where the earlier style calipers all bolted up:



I'll try to get a photo of it on the housing tomorrow but if you can imagine those two inner bolts are the very dickens to get at to remove and reattach the caliper. The single point spaced further out would just about have to be much easier. But it would take an entirely different caliper to make it work.

Jim

We had quite a weekend, just finishing up. Along about High Noon on Thursday these two rascals showed up on my doorstep:



Most of you know Steve, on the left and a few may know Tom Caine. Anyway, by the time they left early Sunday morning they had nearly worked me to death, meanwhile complaining to Edith that I was a workaholic slave driver. I'm in a little less of a panic about making the meet with the car running by now, at least it looks like we can make it if enough of us pitch in to help. I'm still stiff and sore but at least my hands have quit hurting enough that I can bang out an update. As usual Steve and I got a lot done, and Tom's presence ratcheted the whole works up a couple more notches. We started with the bushings and soon had one cross brace completed except for paint. I think I'll box in the ends to keep dirt out, but except for that and the rub strip this one's done. The heim joints came in and we did some more work on the IRS which is nearly sorted out, Steve mounted the coil-overs and cranked them up enough to give us some tire clearance, and I finished the tie bars. Meanwhile, Tom took to the bead blaster like an old pro and kept coming back to us with new looking parts we hadn't even missed yet. Now that I think back on it I believe his theme for the weekend was cleanliness, because he did more to make the parts and work area neat and clean than I've done in two months!







In no time at all the engine was back on the stand and had been touched up a bit for more steering clearance, the steering column was bolted in, and we were hard at work completing the welding work in the engine compartment. I'll get to that shortly but first some more photos.

Jim

Carl was right about the bump stop humps. So as soon as we had the IRS on the mule assembled enough to properly look at clearances it was obvious that hump had to go. We did both sides of the mule, minus the welding of course and the following photos show exactly what is involved. It is a simple procedure, carried out with a 6" zip wheel, sawzall, and ball-peen hammer. First a slot was cut straight across the bump stop pad along the inside of the frame rail, and then a "V" cut up the side. The long slit was made as deep as the zip blade would go and finished with the sawzall. There is an internal brace under the pad which must be trimmed.



Here you can see the removed pieces and of particular interest is the "V" shaped cutout which shows how much metal has to be removed to lay the ends up against each other for welding later.



After that we worked the bulge down with a hammer, going from the edges of the bulge inward towards the cut.



And, the finished job, ready to clamp and weld. This can be done on the car without much difficulty and results in a good 3/4" more tire clearance to the inside.



I'll be back soon with more of the report.

Jim