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I recently changed the hazard switch
in my 1980 MGB. It is possible to connect the
switch to the connector "upside down". If you do
you will find that your windshield wipers will
move in unison with your turn signals flasher.
So make note of the correct positions for
connector and switch before installing the
switch in the dash.
-Brian Dawkins
To restore that new look to your vinyl,
spray it with vinyl spray paint. One coat
usually does the trick. This works especially
well with the darker colors and white.
-Mike Gibson
Tonneau cover zipper difficult to zip.
Try lubricating the zipper with Chap Stick.
Candle wax also works well.
-name not supplied
Juddering wipers? Put a very small
"twist" roughly central in the wiper arm (not
the blade) using 2 adjustable spanners.First
attempt will inevitably be in the wrong
direction and make matters worse.
Secondly, clean the screen using a small amount
of toothpaste - spakling,bright !!!
-Gordon Davies
Trying to reassemble your front discs on
your MGB can be a real hastle. While putting the
required shims in to space the new wheel
bearings the hub wants to keep moving out from
the spindle. Cure, use a wood workers 4" squeeze
clamp (rubber tipped) and clamp the disc to the
backing plate. The spring loaded clamp lets the
disc move without coming off, frustration
solved.
-Kim Fernied
How do you find the cause of a constantly
blowing fuse? If, with everything switched
off, the fuse blows immediately the battery is
reconnected how can you start to trace the
fault?
The simplest way to do this is to substitute
an inspection lamp for the offending fuse. If
the fuse holder is easily accessible, remove the
fuse and clip the leads of the inspection lamp
to the fuse connections in the fuse holder. If
access is difficult, solder wires to each end of
a blown fuse and refit the fuse. The inspection
lamp can then be connected to the other ends of
the wires.
Now reconnect the battery and, assuming the
short circuit is still present, the inspection
lamp will light. No damage will be done to the
wiring as the current flow will be limited by
the resistance of the bulb. You can now search
away for the elusive fault. Once the fault has
been cured the lamp will go out. The inspection
lamp and modified fuse can be removed and a new
fuse can safely be fitted. Problem solved!
-name not supplied
Looking for a cheap alternative to replacing
the headliner in your MGBGT? If the
headliner has stains in it from water, smoke, or
whatever, just use some shoe whitener on it. Get
the stuff in the applicator bottle for about $5,
clean off the headliner and apply some of the
whitener. Because you have to hold the bottle
with the applicator up, you'll have to shake the
bottle and maybe press it down on something to
get some of the liquid out, then rub it onto the
headliner. A few coats should do the trick, just
put a thin layer on, let it dry, then put some
more on. The whitener should cover most of the
stains.
-name withheld by request
Oil filler caps on 1500 engines with stock valve
covers are standard radiator cap size, and the
spring loaded part won't interfere with the
rocker arms.
-Chris Neggers
The Vyback rear window on convertible tops
sometimes becomes badly creased due to
incorrect stowage of the soft top assembly. We
have found that these creases in most cases can
be removed satisfactorily by simply filling a
plastic bottle with hot water and rolling it
across the creased area and at the same time
supporting the opposite side of the window.
- Tom Broberg
Cheap white vinegar dissolves
rust. Pour some into a coffee can and
drop in those rusty bolts. Let is sit for a few
days sloshing occasionally.
Also works as a gas tank cleaner. Filling it
with vinegar and letting it sit for a few days
will give you a tank cleaned down to bare metal
with lose flakes that can be easily flushed out
with a garden hose.
- foxtrapper
Along the same lines...
I recently refurbished a fuel tank that was
severly rusted inside. It was so bad that the
fuel sending unit components had been totally
eaten away! I filled the tank to the top with
white vinegar and let it set for 48 hours. The
vinegar took it down to the bare metal! All rust
gone!. I rinsed it, applied etching solution,
then Bill Hirsch tank sealant, installed a new
fuel sending unit and it worked like a charm!
The 10 gallons of white vinegar cost me $11
total!
- M. Puls
Does the horn not work on your 1971-76
MGB? If you determine that the horn brush is the
cause of the malfunction, use a click-type
ballpoint pen to replace it.
Cut the plastic barrel down to 2" in length, and
the brass ink cartridge inside to 2.5".
Be sure to crimp the end of the ink cartridge.
To be safe, put a towel on your lap when you
test the horn; the electrical current will cause
any liquid ink to ooze out of the cartridge and
onto your pants!
This last-minute fix allowed my 1974 MGB to pass
state inspection just in time for me to drive it
to Lime Rock Park one Memorial Day weekend.
- Dan Meenan
One hint on main and rear seals. If your
new seal leaks try putting a 1/32" gasket behind
the seal. That moves the seal contact just
enough to hit a new surface on the shaft. This
solved my leaks. You can obtain gasket material
from any auto store and cut to fit.
- Bob Ross
So, you don't have enough room in your Midget
trunk for anything bigger than a shaving kit
after you put the spare tire, jack, and
toolbox in? I stumbled on this by accident. I
have a motorcycle trailer that I needed a spare
tire for, so while at Walmart one day I saw both
the wheel and tire (mounted) for less than
$30.00. I bought it and took it home and set it
in the garage by my Midget. After walking by it
for about a day, I noticed the trailer wheel and
my midget wheel seemed to match--lug nut wise. I
jacked up the Midget, pulled off the rostyle and
lo and behold I had a perfect match. the holes
are slightly larger in diameter, but fit
perfectly. Now I carry the little tire in my
trunk which looks just like one of those new
temporary spares on new cars.
I probably wouldn't try to go 80mph on it, but
to go 50 to 100 miles at a reasonable speed is a
snap.
note: If a rear tire goes flat, swap the
front from that side to the rear and the put the
spare on the front and that way you won't do any
harm to your rear end. The space you gain in
your trunk will allow you to carry a suitcase
plus!!!
-Mike Clemens
I put a rebuilt engine in my 77 MGB but the
oil pressure took 10 seconds to indicate
any pressure each time I started it. Discovered
that the tall oil filter I had was the problem.
Put the small recommended filter on and now the
pressure comes up immediately since it doesnt
have to fill the oil filter first.
-Jim Demello
During restorations, often it is desirable to
paint bolt and screw heads to help them
match or disappear into the background. To do
this, it is helpful to get a plastic container
(such as a margarine tub), and drill
appropriately sized holes in the bottom. Insert
the fasteners and spray away. The plastic holds
them upright and together in a small area, where
they can stay while they dry. Of course, you can
reuse the plastic holder many times.
-Martin Secrest
Rebuilding front swivel assemblies on
your MGB can be a real task. Here is what I did
to make the job easier.
I started with the removal of the lower bushing,
I used a Sawsall (a jigsaw would work) with a
metal blade to cut through the length of the
bushing, it pops right out. I then used a socket
slightly smaller than the machined grove in the
bottom of the swivel hub and pressed the new
bushing into place using a 6" bench vise. No
reamer no problem, I located my little hone (3
stone) used to deglaze brake cylinders and with
some patience sized it perfectly for the new
kingpin.
I have done a number of these now and in each
case the lower bush was the only one needing
replacement, the upper was good in each rebuild
although a similar approach could be taken with
it.
- Kim Fernie
Valve cover gaskets have a nasty habit of
leaking, no matter how hard you try and line it
up. An old racing trick is to glue the gasket to
the valve cover with gasket cement. Let that set
for several hours. Then smear the other face of
the gasket with grease where it meets the
cylinder head. Reinstall valve cover, no more
leaks, from the valve cover that is ;).
- Tim Burston
Ever have to put rivets to tight places
were the rivet gun won't fit? Stack a few very
small diameter nuts or washers on the shaft of
the rivet before placing it in the gun. You
effectively extend the tip of the gun. Just be
ready to catch all the nuts or washers. Works
great in any recessed channels.
-Paul Tegler
The screw-top from an old spark plug works
also.
-Atwell Haines
If you have an early Sprite-Midget with a
generator and are having problems with smoke
coming out of your "gen" when the battery is
connected or have the batt discharge you may
have the connector at your voltage regulator
installed backwards (the brown wires 2 on 1 side
& only 1 on the other). Look at your wiring
diagram!
-Dave Tucker
Regarding the manifold tightening
(intake/exhaust) on 1500 series engines. The
wrench needed to tighten the two center nuts is
one that has a slight bend in it (kind of a
gentle u-shaped wrench). The wrench will be
9/16" on one end and 5/8" on the other.
This wrench makes it easy to get to those bolts
and does not get into it's own way like the
straight ones do!!!
-Alfred Hester
When rebuilding brake calipers, manuals
say something silly like remove "remove pistons
from the caliper" but any that has ever tried it
is never that easy especially when the pistons
are rusted in. Start with the calipers removed
from the car. Screw in one of the bleeders from
the other caliper about half way into the hole
where the brake hose came out. Use a bicycle
pump attached to the loose bleeder and pump it
up. Be sure to put a piece of wood or other soft
material between pistons as piston can shoot
out.
When one piston is out, clean it and put it back
into the caliper just far enough to make an air
seal. Use a C clamp to hold it in place and pump
up caliper again to extract the other
piston.
The great thing about my bike pump is it had a
feature that clamped the hose to the bleeder;
hands free! Also, it had a built in pressure
gauge. It took between 80 and 100 psi to loosen
the frozen pistons.
-John Goethert
Another technique for re-installing the
driveshaft is to use masking tape around the
front u-joint. This will allow you to install
the driveshaft all by yourself with the aid of a
decent light.
-David Lieb
I got a '67 Sprite last year and decided to
replace the points, condenser, and rotor
(just for drill). After about 100 miles, the
engine died abruptly. I had kept the old parts
and found that installing the old rotor got it
running again. I then bought a new LUCAS
sentence five times. I Mic'ed the notch in the
dist. shaft and the key inside the rotor. I
Shaved off about 0.010" from the key of another
new rotor with a mini-grinder and installed.
Have not had a failure in several thousand
miles. The key was slightly too wide and when
installed, put the plastic rotor casting
(actually molded) under a slight strain. After a
few miles, this resulted in a breakdown of the
insulating properties of the plastic, shorting
the high voltage pulse from the coil to
ground.
-Clay L.
Trying to see if you are getting spark
but don't have an assistant to crank the car?
Let jumper cables be your assistant. Remove the
plug from the head. Push it back on the ignition
wire. Clamp one of the cables to the threaded
area of the plug and the other end to a good
ground. The stiffness of the cables will hold
the plug high enough above the engine to be seen
from the driver's seat. Caution: before
turning over engine make sure cable is clear of
the fan blades.
-Tom Broberg
Use a toilet plunger to pull out large
dents.
-John Goethert
Fixing hail damage or other small dents
is often easy with some simple tools: a
welding/heating torch, a bucket of "ice water"
and a hand towel soaked in the ice water. With
medium flame, run the flame around the ouside of
the hail dent keeping the hand moving
continuosly, the dent will pop up, imediately
place the icewater towel over the poped up dent
and it is removed.This method will burn off
paint so repainting is required
-Fred Thomas
One of the most difficult maintenance items on a
Spridget is to fill or top up the
transmission with the unit in the car. I
have found the best method for me is to drain
the oil and refill completely. I use the same
Castrol 20w/50 as I use in the engine for both
my '72 street car and my '67 vintage race car.
Once I've drained the transmission, I refill it
through the shift lever hole. Just remove the
gaiter or metal housing, remove the three 7/16"
bolts that hold the retaining plate to the
tailshaft, pull out the lever carefully and pour
in the premeasured amount of oil. Be sure to
pour slowly as there is a small hole on the rear
side that will allow oil to escape and get all
over the transmission or the carpet. Have
patience and watch that the oil drains down
quicker than you put it in.
-Bob Spruck
When using the shiftlever hole to fill the
tranny of an A-Series Spridget, it fills much
faster if you go ahead and pull the "normal"
fill plug. This will also allow you to see when
it is full.
-David Lieb
I have found a simplified way of inserting
driveshaft into rear of transmission. Drive
or jack rear of car on ramps. Remove gearshift
gaiter from inside car, remove carpeting from
front of trans tunnel. There is a gap between
back of trans and body take an ordinary metal
clothes hanger an bend into a u shape. Have
someone under car manipulate driveshaft while
someone puts metal hanger around end of
driveshaft and aligns it with back of trans. The
whole procedure takes about 30 seconds and your
on your way!
-Kenny Senft
Over filling and under filling fluids
should both be avoided. Engines, brake master
cylinders, and radiators each have visual or
mechanical means of measuring fluid contents but
transmissions and differentials do not. In order
to insure that I neither overfill nor underfill
these critical and expensive to repair
components, I pre measure the correct amount of
fluid and then pour it into the cavity. To do
this easily and accurately, I use a clean oil
bottle that has a clear strip on the side and
has graduated markings in liters and ounces.
Valvoline bottles work best since they are white
with a clear strip while other brands are
colored and it is more difficult to see the
amount of fluid inside. I cut an appropriate
size opening on the top behind the screw top so
I can fill the bottle with transmission oil or
diff oil, leaving enough of a lip to be able to
pour without spilling.
-Bob Spruck
If you've ever tried to drill holes in a
floor-pan through the carpet, you know that
catching the fibers and pulling out a chunk of
the weave is inevitable. To avoid that, but a
slit in the carpet with a razor and then insert
a short steel tube slightly larger that the
drill bit. Now you can drill through the
tube.
-Scott
If you've ever tried to drill holes in a
floor-pan through the carpet, you know that
catching the fibers and pulling out a chunk of
the weave is inevitable. To avoid that, but a
slit in the carpet with a razor and then insert
a short steel tube slightly larger that the
drill bit. Now you can drill through the
tube.
-Scott
Along the same lines....
The best and easiest way to put
bolts/screws through carpet and
insulation is to locate the holes with small
nails and then doing the following. After all
holes have small nails in them and your
carpet/insulation is laid down, then take a
small piece of steel tubing with a diameter just
slightly larger than your bolts (I used an old
piece of a golf club shaft). Holding the tube
with pliers, use a propane torch to heat the
tube. Center the tube over each nail and press
through the carpet/insulation until you fell it
hit the metal. Twist the tube a bit to make sure
you have burned/cut completely through. Make
sure you always hold the tube perfectly upright.
Then lift the tube out and you will have a
remarkably clean and perfectly round hole for
your bolts/screws. The nail and cut-out
carpet/insulation material will come up inside
the tube. Drop the tube in cold water, then
remove the carpet/insulation material and nail
from inside. You have to do this because you
will need to reheat the tube for each hole and
if you reheat with the material inside, it will
catch fire. I made all my holes for the entire
interior in less than 20 minutes!
- M. Puls
An easy way to reach those tight spots
where only the screw will fit. Cut a section of
vacuum hose, and slip it over the tip of the
screwdriver. Push the head of the screw into the
hose and that's it.
-Scott
Bleeding Brakes/clutch--limit the travel
of the brake pedal if using the pedal to bleed
(as opposed to pressure bleeding or vacuum
bleeding.) If you allow the piston in a used
master cylinder to travel beyond the area of
normal travel, the layer of gunk on the cylinder
wall can tear up the cups, causing failure of
the master shortly after. We put a block or
blocks under the brake pedal to hold it about as
far off the floor as it is when the brake is
applied. If you happen to be replacing or
rebuilding the master at the same time, so that
you know the bore is clean all the way down,
this tip does not apply.
-John Goethert
Finding a small exhaust leak can really
be a pain. One trick is to pour a little
automatic transmission fluid into the carb
throat while the car is running. The mass of
smoke will result seeping out of any hole in the
system.
As a plus, it cleans out the carbon too and I've
been told by a mechanic that it lubricates the
valves.
-Bill Miller
Ever have a blowing fuse that you can't
track down the reason. And then after playing
with it for two hours, wiggling wires,
stretching and wiggling cables, pushing on the
dash gauges, and nothing on the 10 mile test
drive helps, what do you do? Attach a 12 volt
buzzer, such as Radio Shack no. 272-055, with
one terminal on each side of the fuse. Then when
the fuse blows, the buzzer will sound. It will
enable you to know exactly when and under what
conditions (such as a turn or railroad crossing)
the short occurs.
-Martin Blais
Found it impossible to bend brake lines
without crimping them? Try pushing a
straightened out coat hanger into the line
before bending. I have also heard filling the
line with sand will keep it from crimping but
never tried it (be sure to clean it out well
before fitting!)
-Tom Broberg
Tip for cleaning discolored aluminum
brightwork
OK, you're restoring your British sports car and
now you're up against scratched and discolored
aluminum brightwork. You would like to buff it
out to bring out the luster but there's a hard
anodized coating that will have to be removed
before any polishing or buffing can take place.
The first time I tried to rectify this I used
emery cloth, but it was dusty, time consuming
and somewhat frustrating. I'll never do it that
way again! Here's a neat, clean and fast way to
overcome the problem:
1. Trot down to your neighborhood grocery
store and pick up a can of Easy-Off Oven Cleaner
and a pair of rubber household gloves.
2. Spray the oven cleaner liberally over the
anodizing and let it sit for 15 to 20
minutes.
3. Rinse with water and wipe the part clean.
Voila! Pure uncoated aluminum. Re-anodize if you
wish but I prefer mine uncoated and
polished.
WARNING!-Remove the part from the car prior
to applying the cleaner. This stuff can ruin
paint and upholstery!
-Chicagoland MG Club
Problem: Overspray from UV protectant
(Armorall) not just getting on the tires but
getting on car's paint
Solution: Office supply stores sell a
thin squeeze bottle with a sponge top commonly
used for moistening stamps and envelopes. It is
called the Sterling Master Moistener.
-George Blumb of Noblesville, IN
(USA)
A good way to help stop loosing brake
fluid when disconnecting lines is to place a
large sheet of plastic between the master
cylinder and its cap. This will create a partial
vacuum and helps stop fluid from leaking
out.
-Mike P.
Trying to remove a brake drum with no
success? Make sure the adjuster is fully
released, the emergency brake cable is slack and
the screws holding the drum to the axle are
removed. Then with a lead or brass hammer, hit
the brake drum with a single hard blow on the
face of the drum next to the center where the
axle protrudes. This sudden blow causes the drum
to slam against the axle flange and the rebound
will cause the drum to pop free. Repeat until
this drum is loose. Suggestion: do not hit on
the holes where the screws held the drum to the
axle, but rather move around the circle 90
degrees.
-name withheld by request
To loosen a cylinder head prior to
removal , first remove all the head nuts
(remembering to loosen in the correct order) and
then with the spark plugs still in place but NOT
connected, operate the starter briefly a couple
of times. The head should now be easy to
remove.
-name withheld by request
Ever have trouble removing a cylinder
head off of the block? Rotate the crank so
one of the middle pistons is at the bottom of
the stroke. Remove the spark plug and thread in
some thin rope filling the cylinder. Then rotate
the crank and the rising piston will "push" the
head loose.
-name withheld by request
Removing a steering wheel or anything
else that is splined can be made easier by first
tightening the nut before trying to loosen the
object. By tightening the object moves slightly
on the splines, breaking any corrosion that has
formed which makes it easier to remove.
-name withheld by request
It can be frustrating trying to find where
screws go through new carpet when you put
the seats back in your car. Locate the "welded
on nuts" under the car and push a large sewing
needle up inside the nuts and into the car. This
will show you very quickly where the screws are
supposed to go through the carpet.
-Tom Broberg
To maintain the best electrical
connection at joints, such as a wire plug
and socket union, clean the plug and socket
thoroughly (emory paper, fiberglass eraser, and
tuner spray washdown), then fill the socket with
some silicone grease and just plug it in. The
grease will prevent corrosion from re-occurring
at that connection.
-Jeff Burns
For more tips visit:
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1080/spitfaqs.html
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