MG Sports Cars

Max said someone pointed the washer nozzles forward so I Guess we'll Rain-X the shaker scoop, but at least it'll be nice and sparkly. Maybe this afternoon I'll get a chance to double check the new wiring, zero the advance pots, and fire the beast up again and see how it runs with the new ignition. But right now I'm cooking turkeys for a benefit dinner.

As for the Lucas smoke, I was just wondering if this would work?

JB

Here you go Jim! Just trying to help!

[www3.telus.net]

Well, it does have a 455 Stereo! :)

Sorry, I forgot the link:
[mail.quentwhys.info]

Carl, it's really surprising how quiet the car is at highway speeds. Most of the noise is from the R&P gears and the driveshaft vibration. The stereo would work really well on long trips. Umm,... that is, if it worked.

JB

JIm:

Okay, hate to say it, but-- stop whining about the G-D radio!

There are THREE wires to power up a frickin radio: One ground, one ignition, one battery. The ground and battery are in the center console, the ignition comes from the switch. Find the break-- fix it!

The radio WAS working when it left HERE (!!!!)-- as evidence I give you those PHOTOS I posted for everyone here in this Forum-- there is a back-end shot of the car a blaze when the lights were checked--- you can clearly see the RADIO is all fired up as well!




Maybe the radio just doesn't LIKE you, Jim? :-) It's testing your resolve. It's upset at your absence. It wants an Antennae for Xmas? Who knows with a British Car..... :p

M

Now this is turning into fun reading.

Rob, you're stiring the pot aren't you? I understand Jim though, when I bought my Subaru I couldn't figure out how to get the radio in that car to work either as the only knob didn't seem to do anything. All tiny push buttons without much labeling. I'd settle for an older type that had two knobs, one on the left for power and volume and one on the right for tuning and perhaps balance, but then again my hearing is so bad I don't listen to the radio much anyway.

Well, crap!! The radio isn't working in my Silverado, either! The heated seats do. ;)

We have heated seats??!!!!?? Who Knew?

JB

What?! Rick didn't install them under the Mr. Mikes covers?!

A bit of news, the rewire of the ignitor did the trick and after a few hiccups the car is back to something close to what it was before. It had begun idling a bit rough earlier on and was no better afterwards. Worse in fact but most of that was traced to a loose distributor cap and incorrect placement of the plug wires. I had noticed that Tom's reorganizing job looked just a little too good but I hadn't questioned it. GM plug wires look like a nest of snakes no matter how carefully you arrange them. Then there was the black thing I'd seen on the floor a day or two earlier. Turned out to be a large vacuum cap split down the side and that made a significant difference in the idle. Oh, and the idle mixture screws were out about 6 turns which accounted for the rich idle. I ran them back in to 2-1/4 which is right where they should be and the car idled well and smelled better. Checked the timing and set it to about 15 with the vacuum removed, that went to about 38 connected and that's maybe a bit more vacuum advance than we need. However, I don't think the car likes 15 initial too well either as it wasn't all that happy starting with it. So tomorrow I'll probably back it off some and then maybe look at what the mechanical is doing. If I get real energetic I may see about making a stop for the vacuum can. About 16-18 should be just right, that will be the 23 or so it has now minus the 7 or so the base is advanced over stock and should at least be in the ballpark. Then I suspect the mechanical is going to be high also. That means pulling the rotor and magnet disc and then finding a way to lock the advance mechanism. That's not something I've done before so suggestions are welcome. Once that's done the timing computer can handle that part of the curve. I think it has initial advance (useful for setting base time on the dyno maybe) slope, and the rpm point where the advance starts. Then there is a chip to retard high speed advance a few degrees if needed. It seems pretty limited to me but we can work with it.

In the midst of all this I installed a pin on the intake to locate the tray and air cleaner and keep them from turning. The air cleaner had a tendency to spin around on the filter and it actually put a small chip in the paint in one spot. But it's not very noticeable. Anyway that is fixed now. And I'm re-plumbing the air ride. We moved the compressor to the tail of the car so it had to be done. Still a little work there but I expect to have it ready to drive again tomorrow afternoon.

The plug Dave Kirkman bought for the speedo drive came in late this afternoon. Twenty bucks for a pigtail. Ouch! But we needed it. That should go in tomorrow too I hope and maybe we'll be able to get that working. The Tach seems to be dead. But, maybe we will get lucky and it's a power issue. More on that later on.

Bill Yobi thinks he may have an rpm chip we can use for the rev limiter, which would be a real good thing. Carl says they can be modded to give the rpm you want so if Bill can't come through for us maybe Carl can. Regardless one way or another we need to get that sorted, especially until the tach is fixed.

So there are a fair number of things corrected and I think I may just putter about in it for awhile before looking at any of the other issues. Like the radio for instance. I know that still isn't working.

JB

I'm just guessing that I found the problem with the radio, the tach, and the console light. There's a burple wire (or was that Violent?). Anyways aforesaid wire has a bullet on the end but no matching socket in sight. I found this by removing the dashboard. Happy, happy, Joy, joy. Looks a lot like the console will have to come out to see where it goes. Good times are here again.

On a lighter note, the PCV is all worked out, the speedo sender is connected and a very butch shielded twin lead cable I found on the road dead yesterday (Seriously!) is routed up behind the dash all ready to connect. Tidied up the wires on the dash a bit, so once I've figured out Steve's ghost wire and where the Violent wire goes I should be able to tidy up this nest of snakes a bit and slap the dash back in, just in time for the trip to appear at the W.... uh, wait. I think that's supposed to be a secret. So....., where's the Violent wire go? (Oh yeah, to ANOTHER Violent wire.)

Anybody got a Mk-II temperature control knob? We don't have one.

JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2011 07:23PM by BlownMGB-V8.

I'm sure I have temp control knob-remind me what it looks like again and where to send it. dave bash

Thanks Dave, it is the cone shaped black knob that was used before they began using back lighting on them, so it is completely opaque, jet black everywhere, with a chrome button in the middle and white lettering that says stuff like warm and hot. We have the one that says defroster and it looks new, so we're good on that side.

Jim Blackwood
Blackwood Labs
9406 Gunpowder Rd.
Florence, KY 41042

I've got a question about the way the radio is wired up. This car does not seem to have an ACC position in the ignition switch. That means any time the radio is on, the fuel pump (NOISY) is also on. Is this the way we want it wired?

Found the socket for the violent wire, it was loose. Typical bullet plug failure. I squished it with pliers and it didn't split so we got lucky. Probably should zip tie it so it doesn't come apart again. Did I mention I hate bullet plugs? I thought so. Well now I hate them more. If that's possible.

JB

Steve's ghost wire (green/blue stripe, but that stripe is really hard to see) is now active and his substitute blue wire removed. The problem was a bad ring lug installation at the sender, which illustrates that even the very best termination (and it was, adhesive lined heat shrink and all) is of no use unless it is properly installed. The wire was not fully inserted. More likely it slipped out just as it was being crimped. Regardless, the adhesive got in and insulated it from the lug. The new lug is a little less sophisticated, but it is well crimped and insulated and should do fine. That leaves some leak-down testing on the air system before it all goes back together, and it will be ready to drive, but I want to have a look at the headlight wiring. It would look a lot neater if it was routed under the slam panel in the channel above the radiator and would be a shorter run as well. As long as it's on the lift.... And then I think I'll take a look at the way the chin spoiler is attached. May not be able to improve on that, but then again, I'll never know if I don't look at it. Then I'll be ready to take it off the lift. Hopefully that will all go reasonably quick.

Don't worry guys, I'm sure there will be other things that need to be done, but isn't what we all really want, to be able to drive it?

Besides, my name is associated with this car and I want it to be right.

JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2011 09:07PM by BlownMGB-V8.

Jim:

Your ignition switch has only whites, browns, and the white w/ red (starter). There is no "aux" position. An alternative is to connect the RED from the radio also to the purple-- now radio will be HOT all the time (and you'll have to use the Power button to turn it OFF.)


For someone who gave little guidance about how he wanted the car DONE-- boy, you sure have a lot of comments about how it WAS done!!

If I'd known you were going to make it a point to REDO all of Tim's, and Mine, and Carl's and Steve's hard work-- hell, I wouldn't have done it in the first place!

I'd have gotten less negative feedback from you having done NOTHING to the car ("Don't worry-- we won't think any less of you"-- remember?) than the work actually being done!


Part of the trouble with a Car done by Committee--- it doesn't get to be the way YOU want it. It doesn't get to be the way anyONE wants it. It's a symbol of everyone's efforts! (And a collective mis-mash to boot-- oh well.)

Your reasserting Your Will on the car is just stepping on a lot of toes, Boss.

You gave up control and shipped it to Pete, then Terry, then Jack, then Us. You should accept all the work that was done and appreciate the fact that it WAS done!!!.

I would only change that which needs to be "fixed". If you don't like how something was done-- lump it. [Otherwise, you should have kept the car and done all it it yourself if that's how you're going to be about it.]

We spent a LOT of time wiring up those lights. And they work. Leave them alone, please. There is other stuff that actually needs to be FIXED. Do that.

[Jack was right-- next time, I'll just let it sit at the shop for 2.5 months. I'd get less grief!]


I'm not excusing some of the errors (with a crew they happen, it's unfortunate, we find them and fix them, etc)-- but going back to REDO stuff that others have spent brain power on is just insulting.


I did exactly what I said I would do-- assemble the car. I did it in the time I stated and I spent the amount of money (within a few hundred) that we initially budgeted. We even handled MORE of the mechanical issues than expected because we were trying to get to the Dyno as well (The "Carrot") and (like you're finding) there were More to do than initially thought. Well, the car wasn't fit mechanically, so we had to punt that for a later time.

You're now sitting in a MUCH better position with the Roadmaster than you could possibly have imagined back in May, Jim, and yet all you do is bitch about the way that it got there! You should be happy you're driving it around! When we talked in May you weren't even sure it would be ready for next year!

You're basically showing that you don't trust anyone else's ideas--- so, why should anyone else bother to help? I certainly won't bother going to the Winter Gathering. Instead of feeling like I busted my hump for a Car the Spurious could enjoy, I feel I made a personal car for someone who doesn't even appreciate it.

$.02

Max (who really wishes he'd never bothered because Jim has been such an ungratious @#$%&)

Also, Max-- who would like his name REMOVED from the car, because it IS basically just "Jim's Car" and I was stupid enough to work on it FOR FREE for 135 hours!!!! I had a LOT of fun with my crew over three weekends, and that'll be the memory I keep. But I'm not going to keep coming back here to give Jim back-information so that he can redo stuff we all slaved at. That's just nuts.


Enjoy the rusty, impractical dinosaur with the wrong distributor, wrong carb, and incorrect, worn out differential!! THOSE things need fixing! But by all means, waste time on a steering wheel you knew about for YEARS and the fact that YOU don't like where the light units were placed! J F C

(Yeah, yeah, I'll regret sending this later. But i'm REALLY pissed about those lights!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2011 09:13AM by madmax.

You could try the Dagobah System!

Wow.
OK, I'll try to lighten up. And I apologize for needling you Max. You do realize that you make yourself an easy target though, right? I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Really I don't want you to feel unappreciated. The interior looks great. I'm just absolutely amazed at what you guys did with the headliner. And you know what? I think the radio is even going to work now. Oops... sorry again. You guys did an awful lot of work in a very short time and it was expected that there would be some things that wouldn't come out quite right. Was it irritating to have to pull the dash back out to hook up the speedometer? Hell yes. Was it unexpected? No. Would I rather have avoided it? What do you think? And would you have bitched any less if the roles were reversed? I doubt it. It doesn't mean I value your contributions any less, just that I'm guilty of being something of a perfectionist. I ask you in all seriousness, do you really think anyone would have looked at the wiring job and said, man that's a neat job, I'd like to wire my car that way? That's a rhetorical question. The interior, yes, the wiring, no. And in your defense, let's not forget that you did not originally plan to do the wiring, only the interior. Only a stray comment over a beer and a tight schedule (yours btw) caused that particular curse to descend upon your head.

Like it or not, this car is destined to be a show piece. People are going to be looking over and picking at it from every angle. So where a piece of corrugated loom can help the appearance I think it should be used. Where a wire can be re-routed to hide it without too much trouble it should be done. That is the purpose of this final phase of the shake-down, and I have little choice in being the one who has to do it. Do you think I'd have been the only one who bitched about the tach, radio, and console light (that I didn't even notice) not working if I hadn't fixed that wire? Of course not, Steve already did. So while we're getting all offended, lets try to keep in mind that I'm the one who is putting in countless hours on a car that everybody else will get to play with while my own car languishes right next to it.

As for it being my car... no, I don't think so. Sorry you didn't get to drive it first, sorry you haven't gotten to drive it at all. But we'll fix that pretty soon. Change your mind about the winter gathering please, you will be missed by all. I never had any intention of getting you all pissed off Max. I'm probably guilty of over-reporting on all of the minutiae of the work being done on the car, and I never got the memo about keeping hands off any work anyone else did. But here's how I see it. We've all done a lot of work to get the car to where it is now. It works and is driveable. But it isn't what it could or should be, and what is going on now amounts to a bunch of little tweaks to bring it into a car we can be proud of on the Power Tour. Without every person's individual contribution we would not be at this point. Now, these small tweaks individually don't amount to much, and I don't think anybody would object to a little modification of the job they did if it makes the car look or work better. But they do add up. In the end it's even reasonable to think that enough of these tweaks could completely replace what someone has worked long and hard to do to the car. But that does not make their contribution any less valuable, because we wouldn't be here without them. Or you.

How about the guys who worked on the green body shell? How about Denny Williams who took on the nastiest job of the entire build, cutting out panels from the Mule, which then ended up not being used? That good fellow was covered from head to toe in rust and grinder dust! Was his contribution wasted? Absolutely not! He did a job that needed to be done, did it gladly, and made his contribution. It will not be forgotten. And when the car goes out on tour my time with it is done. You and Pete and Steve and Terry have served another very valuable purpose. You have provided a break and a relief that I could not have continued without. So without you I certainly could not have done my part in all of this. You can believe me when I say that it has been a very heavy burden to bear, (Ted and others will attest to that) and I honestly have no way of seeing when it may end. You, as much as anyone else, have made that burden light, because I've been doing it for the benefit of friends like you. Please don't take that away just as we reach the end of the tunnel.

JB

Update:

Dashboard is back in place but not bolted in. 2 minor wiring issues resolved. Headlight wiring is repaired and re-routed (4 wires running under lower radiator support had insulation ground off). Speedometer sender is connected. Everything should be back to normal.

Max, Tim, Carl, Steve, and Max's assistants did a really good job on the wiring. It might not have been all that pretty but on the whole is functional and effective, and looks like it should be reliable. That's really all anyone could have expected given the time constraints they were laboring under. I have added some corrugated loom tubing in the engine compartment and other places where it looked to me like it would do some good, and I think the appearance is improved. I haven't changed any of the wiring circuitry, and only re-routed those four wires that were damaged. Thanks guys, and I'm sorry I let my frustration get out of hand. I think I'm better now.

I added a pair of leads to the fuel gauge and will try connecting those to a capacitor to see if it will damp out the wild fluctuations in the needle. If it does I'll experiment to find a good size and mount it somewhere out of sight.

At this point I think everything should be pretty much working as it should, although I have more work to do on the air system due to changes needed in routing the lines. I also have a better compressor on the way and will install that when it gets here. We have a brake line that really should be re-routed, but it does work fine as it is. The differential is still leaking a little, possibly at the vent tube. And we still have a slight oil leak somewhere around the rear of the engine. I think we can balance the driveshaft in place if we go about it right, The R&P should be OK for quite awhile yet before we have to replace it and that should give us time to decide if we want a different gear ratio. (current ratio is 3.54)

So as soon as it's all buttoned back up I think the car needs to have some miles put on it to see if any other issues come up. I hope to have that done by the end of February, leaving some minor tuning and dealing with the oil seepages and such. Bill Young, as soon as I feel the car is going to be reliable enough, you will have the green light to begin the rotation. There is not necessarily any need to wait until May.

The carb seems to be working well. Although some fine tuning of the fuel metering rods could be beneficial, (particularly the secondaries, as Steve was getting 20 mpg on the primaries) we may find the current settings to be as good as it gets. The distributor I believe we can deal with by limiting the vacuum advance, locking the mechanical advance, and using the timing computer to set that. With those changes we should be able to get a near ideal timing curve.

Max, have you reported to Bill Young on the local events you would like to take the car to? It's important to get that done in order to get on the rotation schedule, and if it's possible for you to do it, it might be a good idea to coordinate with Dale Spooner as it makes good sense to schedule his rotation adjacent to yours to help out with the logistics. Of course Bill is in charge of that, it's just a suggestion.

Guys, I realize Max might not be the only one with symptoms of dissatisfaction but I'm grateful to him for bringing it to the fore. It's not my intention to be high handed, but I can see how I might act that way in trying to get this project finished up. I'd like to apologize for that, and want you all to know that it is your responsibility to keep me in line and tell me when I'm not. I know that, you know that, and I'll not hold it against any one of you.

JB