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MG MGA - The saga continues

Last Sept 1st I purchased my 1957 Orient red MGA. Afterwards I joined the group here and shared my trials and tribulations of purchasing my car, driving it home and then not being able to restart it again. After replacing the condenser,spark plug cables, rotor cap and various other parts-thanks again Barney for your invaluable help-Diana reluctantly ran, albeit a little rough.

This spring I made arraignments for her to be taken to a very recommended serviceman. Recommended by my local MG group. There begins the story. On arrival to the serviceman the towing company had managed to crush the rear brake line with their restraining chain and puncture the gas tank with the hook end of the said chain. Since I had used Hagerty's insurance towing benefit I notified them of the damage. My serviceman filled out the claim form and being an honest (?) chap determined that yes, Hagerty was responsible for the brake line ($20 reimbursement) but not the gas tank ($329+installation). Although the car left my home with an intact tank the servicemen felt that the hole created wasn't in the immediate area of the hooks dents and puncture. Rather old age was the cause for the hole and I had to eat the cost of installing a new gas tank.

A week later and $900 for my "tune up" I drove Diana home only to have her begin backfiring when I was about 5 miles on my way. The backfiring progressively became worse until she was stalling out at 55mph. I finally made it home and once again the hood was lifted to see what was going on. The previous owner had installed an additional gas filter just before the carbs. The color black immediately caught our attention. The entire filter was filled with a black material. As was the original filter near the gas pump. Ditto for the carbs float bowls. It seems the gas from the 50 year old damaged tank was returned to the new tank-obviously without filtering it! After undoing the mess created by that cost saving maneuver (?) once again we were back to Diana not starting. After going over the alogrithms in the MG manual and Barney's alogrithms I finally bit the bullet and had the car towed to John Twist at University Motors. Unfortunately University Motors in on the other side of the state from me and that brought another towing bill of $600. Total so far $1500+ for a nonrunning newly tuned car.Mr Twist has had my MG for about 2 weeks. He emails pictures of what he has found so that the owner can see for himself what needs replacing. This was my first picture from Mr Twist.

Got your attention didn't it? Sure got mine. So in 4 days of continued inspection I will soon be the proud owner of: new clutch plate and hose, pressure plate, flywheel, new master cylinder and slave cylinder, and release bearing with various and sundry additional parts too numerous to mention. Oh, and the initial starting issue- the new condenser I purchased from Moss-it was defective. Install one new condenser and she started right up. Can you hear me screaming? I'm not too upset about the clutch, etc. I had felt that there was a problem in the 50 miles I have been able to put on Diana in the 22 months I've owned her. So, I'm really not upset with the work being done. I had figured I'd be investing some fairly big bucks to bring her up to the level where I'd feel she was truly road worthy.

The moral to my story-don't trust new parts and beware towing operators that refuse to look at the car's manual saying "I know how to tow cars." They lie!
Jacqueline Peabody

Sorry forgot to include the picture.


Jacqueline Peabody

Ouch!

That is a expensive introductory course in MGA ownership.

A couple of thoughts for future reference.

Bring over fellow club members, they are helpful in diagnosis.

I work in Southfield and would be glad to help in that regard to the extent I can.

Switch to pertronix. Extraordinarily simple ignition solution. Available 5 miles from your house at Jeff Zorn.

John Twist is very good and worth the trip.

Learn how to spin a wrench. Its rewarding and money saving.

I'll look forward to seeing you on the highways and byways. I drive a red '61 and frequently take it to work in Southfield.

Cheers,

Tysen
T McCarthy

I know Jeff Zorn. All of my parts have come from him and his LBC.

I did use to work on my cars, many moons ago. Physically only the simplest maintenance is possible now.

I am hoping to be on the road soon. Although I just received pictures of my carbs. My husband and I couldn't identify anything wrong with them except for needing additional cleaning. Guess we didn't get all of the gunk out as we thought.

I have since found someone that has previously worked on a friends MG that is going to be taking on the minor maintenance of my Diana. For all the major things I think I'll just keep going back to University Motors. Hopefully driven there and not towed. At least I know the person doing the work really knows what he's doing.

I'll keep an eye out for a '61 red MGA. You can't miss mine the plates call out the car-MY '57 MGA.
Jacqueline Peabody

Jacqueline,

If money isn't too dear right now, I'd let John just go through the list and off you go.


Alternatively give him a cap and say "do everything you can up to this number"

You are getting all the stuff done that its taken me 4 summers to do.

I just finished a carb rebuild.....I should have done it first thing.

Enjoy!!!

BTW, are you any relation to the Peabody's restaurant's folks?

If so we have some common acquaintences
T McCarthy

....if you are ever in the Lansing area, stop by and say Hi. I have a stalled but eventually to be finished 56 MGA project. Here is my daily driver,no much to look at but dependable as ever,a 60 MGA.


WYATT WOLCOTT

..........forgot to mention, stay with your points.
WYATT WOLCOTT

Thanks for all your comments. I just heard back today from Univ. Motors. The engine and gear box are back in. So far it seems almost everything related to the clutch is being replaced/ rebuilt. I should have the most thoroughly examined car on the road when all is said and done. New motor mounts, new clutch and assorted pieces, new.rebuilt master cylinder and slave cylinder. The good news is my carbs are fine! Just need cleaning. The speedometer will now be accurate not fluctuating between 10mph, if I'm going 40 that means the needle is flipping between 40 and 50. Never really know the exact speed just sort of guess. I thought Diana actually looked pretty good on the hoist in today's pictures.


Jacqueline Peabody

Now you know why some say MG stands for Money Gobbler!
Mike
Mike Ellsmore (1)

This thread was discussed between 12/07/2008 and 17/07/2008

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