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MG MGB Technical - Most Miserable MGB Task

There was a thread like this fairly recently, and I submitted replacing the fender bolts behind the dash on a GT. Ah, but yesterday I replaced the clutch MC on my '73 Tourer. After removing the rubber plug as per Haynes, it took me 45 minutes of fishing with the socket and extension just to FIND the lower nut. And of course, reassembly is the reverse... Right? I thought it might be easier to guide a bolt rather than a nut in from the back - and succeeded only in losing a 5/16" bolt somewhere under the MCs. I can't see it, I can't feel it, but when I get back on the road, I'll HEAR it.

I ultimately did get it together by 11:00 PM last night. Having been out there since noon, my total accomplishment for the day was to rebuild the slave and replace the master. Today I'll go back out and replace the hose. Then, it better work! - Allen


Allen Bachelder

About a year ago replacing the MC for clutch on my rosdster prompted the same thread from me! Tom
Thomas Strombeck

Want to make it easier next time? http://www.shadetreemg.com/master_cyl.htm
gerry masterman

I found that the use of 2 short wobble bar extensions helped align the socket with the nut. A worse part of the job for me was replacing the flex hose and line to the slave. Backnut on the union was so rusted I ended up sawing off the flex hose and drilling up through the union to remove the metal internally. Little bits of hot hydraulic fluid - coated swarf going everywhere.
Vic
V Todman

Thomas,
That must be the thread I responded to. ' Didn't realize it was that long ago. ' Funny that the first responder to my post was a Minnesotan. That's my native state. I grew up in Mpls, but my dad and I built a summer cabin on Cass Lake near Bemidji and I spent a lot of summer weekends up there. Where in MN are you from?

I just finished some other work on this car and came in to find your note and Gerry Masterman's waiting.

Gerry,
The thought had occurred to me that the MC bracket holes ought to be threaded, but it didn't occur to me to do it myself. Next time!

Vic,
For awhile this afternoon, working on the clutch hose, I had visions of your experience - and this was before I read your post. This looked like it was going to be worse yet. In my case, I was able to remove the pipe from the fitting and move it aside far enough to get in there with a 15/16" socket and lots of extensions - with which I was able to loosen it from the topside. ' Took me most of the afternoon though. Sometimes fun is not fun... - Allen
Allen Bachelder

Allen and all - I did just what you suggested, put threads in the lower hole of the M/C flange. The existing hole is only slightly larger than the hole recommended for a 5/16" NF helicoil, so I just tapped it and installed a helicoil. It is now much easier to reinstall the M/C. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Done both of those, what beats them for me was changing the rear/body loom on a wet and oily (not mine) car in winter.
Paul Hunt

There are no miserable tasks...unless you're a professional, working on someone else's car. Working on an MGB has to be a labor of love. Why else would you have one but to work on it? Most people seem to only take them out in fair weather, during the warm months, anyway, if you follow the threads about storage and resurrection that show up each autumn and spring. Therefore it's got to be that the other eight months are for seriously massaging your car's innards. Obviously, the most miserable task is wrenching it from it's warm and dry storage/work area, and forcing it back on the road again for the summer.
R. L Carleen

On the LHD padded dash cars 68-76 particularly, changing the left side windshield washer nozzle comes to mind, or any of the wiper wheelboxes in place, or the dash bolt above the oil pressure gauge, or the oil pressure gauge without pulling the dash....or the rear most tenax stud for the soft top.....but it's all for fun!
Anthony Henderson

The absolute most miserable job, bar none, is grinding undercoat off of the bottom of an MGB.

Those that have done it get chills just thinking about it.

I'm still finding small flecks of tar in my hair and my beautifully coated garage floor will never be the same. I definitely know why being "tarred and feathered" was such a punishment!
sliedavs

For me it has to be the rear cockpit molding.
Leland Bradley

I agree with sliedavs. I've done it and it really, really sucked. Annoying thing is I have to do it again with my roadster. At least when I get to that stage it will be in the garage and not in the carport on hard gravel!

Simon
Simon Jansen

Thanks all for your participation. To R L Carleen, I think our differences are semantic. When we speak of "a labor of love" we are rationalizing difficult, yea even "miserable" tasks. The measure of the "love" of which you speak, is the the difficulty of the task. I do not consider it a labor of love to check tire pressures, replenish the fuel supply, or even change my oil. Putting the hood down? Well... maybe.

To the extent I am willing to endure hours of "misery" to accomplish a task that seemingly should require just minutes - to that extent is the measure of my true love for the car. Labors of love are those that overcome misery, pain, discomfort... Substitute the word "difficult" or "challenging" for "miserable" if you like. But for those of us who suffer the worst of these come satisfactions unbeknownst to those who only write checks.

BTW: the only time my MGs are off the road is during the 5-6 weeks here in the Virginia mountains when there's snow and they salt the roads. The rest of the time, these cars are busy taking me wherever I want to go or have to go - day in and day out. As I use them, the thought often occurs to me: "Isn't this neat; there is not a single thing that can go wrong with this car that is not worth fixing". I'm not sure this can be said of any other usable collector car of any age.

2 more ¢ worth... Allen
Allen

Ugh, all good ones.

Fixing the exhaust on any car in the winter is usually a horrible, dirty job. At least on the 'B, with the exception of the manifold to downpipe nuts, it's not as bad as most.

I hate removing the driveshaft - crammed up under the greasiest part of the car, with my arms over my head, moving each of the 8 lock nuts (so fingers can't be used and a socket doesn't fit) 1/8th of a turn every time is painful, especially the front 4.

Fitting new gear box mounts in situ isn't much fun.

The first time removing the dash is pretty frustrating, not knowing where all of the studs are.

Still, somehow I'd rather do the crappiest job on the 'B than the easiest job on one of my modern cars...
Mike Polan

Mike,

I not only agree, I have no choice! While I've done just about everything I can think of on an MGB, I'm a blithering idiot when it comes to anything built after 1980. I do know how to open the hood on my wife's LeSabre, but that's as far as it goes. I might as well close it again because I don't see any "user serviceable components" in there. The entire engine is covered with a plastic shroud that says "do not proceed beyond this point". In fact, it looks like it cannot be removed without breaking something. So I'm presuming that it's not designed to be removed; rather the entire car has to be replaced.

- Allen
Allen

But modern cars have come to be so damn reliable that there's not much we have to do, other than the occasional oil change and lube. Of the past six post '80 vehicles I've owned the only major thing I had to fix was the rear end of my Dodge PU, which I mightily stressed during a bout of stump pulling. Of course, brakes still wear, batteries die and life is generally full of minor disappointments when it comes to any vehicle. Just saying, that machosists that we are, the worse the MG job is, the more we should be lovin' it. Now get out there in the garage and pull your heater, or something else time consuming, difficult to access, and generally corroded together.
R. L Carleen

In my opinion the worst task is replacing the glass and trim on a GT. Most every one I talk to has turned this task over to a shop.
Bruce Cunha

Allen, you said it best "there is not a single thing that can go wrong with this car that is not worth ficing" and we can fix it ourselves. Not a computer chip within 30 years.

Ken
Ken Harris

This thread was discussed between 21/11/2004 and 25/11/2004

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