Iain's 1970 MG BGT
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DiaryRead about the aim of the diary.
Friday 18th April 2008I have carried out a raft of work on the car recently, but have not been documenting it very well! I used a site at www.mgbclub.com for a while, under the name 1967 BGT, and so there is some info their. Over time I will transfer that to this site so I have everything in one place. In short the work carried out recently is to fit the 3 syn OD gearbox (modified to only work in 4th in prep for the upercharger), a complete rebuild of the front suspension, replacement of rear springs, and just the other night I fitted some very cool gas struts to the rear hatch. Lots to be said on all that, but not just now!! The car is off the road again currently as their is a terrible vibration at the front end. I am wondering if perhaps a balance weight has fallen off the car. I have been looking for anything loose, but so far found nothing. I will report back when I deduce the problem!
Tuesday 23rd January 2007A frustrating weekend! After all there are only 8 nuts to undo in order to take the rear spring off and give me access to replace the bushes. First problem was undoing the drop link arm to spring plate nut. No easy access and it wouldn't budge! I thought I'd undo the lever arm to drop link instead. The bolt came off, but I couldn't separate the two and was reluctant to use a BFH in case i bent the lever arm. So in the end the damper came off, which was two large bolts to undo, but was easy. (Spring was supported while doing this). I was then able to remove the rear shackle and old bushes, and the four nuts on the U bolts easily. Then I came to the front eye bolt. I knew this would need cut, and it did! The nut came off easily. However, the bolted, as expected, was seized in the inner steel tube and the rubber bush prevents easy removal by BFH etc. In the end I twisted the bolt until it moved freely. As it turns out this was due to the rubber bush tearing from it's metal sleeve. I then cut (angle grinder) between the bush and mounting at the bolt head end. The I bent the mounting slightly to allow me to remove the spring. I had to cut the remains of the bolt again as part of the steel tube was still preventing the remains of the bolt from being removed. Finally it was all apart though! That lot took a few hours, but was as expected. The real trouble was my lack of experience! I didn’t realise that the thin metal sleeve left in the front spring eye was in fact part of the OME bush. I then spent about a day trying to press a Superflex bush into this sleeve, and surprise surprise, it didn’t fit! In the end through desperation I cut the poly bush in half and tried to press in from each side. Still no good! I then went on line and consulted the forums and found my mistake! The metal sleeve was removed by cutting with a hacksaw and prising out. The remaining new bush slid into place quite easily when clamped in a vice. The rear shackle bushes were also a good fit, needing a C clamp to push all the way home. I also used the Superflex pads between the spring and mountings. New U bolts and nuts and bolts along with new shackles completed the rebuild. The reassembly was quit straight forward, but you do need to be careful with the spring. I used two trolley jacks and this helped. I attached the front eye first. I then jacked the spring up until I could get the rear shackle connected and in place. I then re-connected the damper with the drop link and spring plate attached before putting the U bolts, new pads and mounting plates in place and tightening up, but not very far. I then dropped the car to the ground, gave it a bounce to locate everything and then tightened everything properly. You should probably do both sides at once, but I need to order another front eye bush (as I cut that one in half!) and I also need the car for work! However, my rear steer problem has gone, so it was either something loose in the suspension or just wear to the bushes that was causing this. I think I was just lucky that I picked the correct side! (I did the drivers side first). One other thing to mention, you don’t need to touch the rear check strap. I followed Haynes and tried to undo this. Of course I simply sheared the stud! It will need a replacement mount welded in place, but that can wait a week or two. I must say that the Superflex bushes are an excellent fit. (http://www.superflex.co.uk) They are a bit more expensive than some poly bushes, but the people who have used them always seem to complement the high quality and the fact that they are between standard stiffness and the normal fast road bushes. So you get improved handling without the harshness that can accompany some bushes. I’ll see what the front is like in due course. I failed miserably in my promise to take photos. Now I know what I am doing I will try and take some photos of the other side. I am planning to do it on Friday evening and am hoping to get it finished in about 4 hours! We shall see! Friday 19th January 2007Well, I am hoping to get some time to work on the car this weekend. The plan is to replace all the bushes on the rear suspension and see if I can find a cause for the rear steer effect I have mentioned. One small problem has been the weather. Since yesterdays storm the village has had no power, so unless it is back on when I get home then this work will probably be put off. I'll try and remember to take a few pics and test the pictures on this site. Wednesday 10th January 2007Happy New Year. It’s been a while but here is an update at last. The car continues to run OK. It’s still not idling right and I have to run with the choke pulled about ¼ out. Need to take the time to adjust the carb idle screw to save me doing this. Santa kindly brought me a dwell meter and I have found that my points gap is to wide, only having the points closed for 38 degrees rather than 55 degrees. I have yet to adjust, but hopefully this will help the idling and running as well. The other problem currently is with the suspension. Not sure if it is front or back, but the back is the suspect! When I suddenly floor the throttle the car lurches one way, and when I suddenly lift the throttle it lurches the other. As I said it “feels” as though it comes from the rear of the car. I have checked the damper fluid level and that is fine, so I am going to replace all the bushes with Superflex bushes in the hope that this will remove some of the play in the rear end. A visual inspection shows nothing broken, but when dismantling to fit the new bushes I’ll be able to check over carefully. I have also got Superflex bushes for the front suspension. I have started the rebuild of the cross member from the 70 car which will be dropped onto the 67 car in due course. I’ll not go into detail now as I do intend to do a webpage within the projects section for this work. The 3 sync OD box and the engine from the 70 BGT are still in the garage awaiting the chance to be fitted to the car!! Monday 23rd October 2006I had to get a tow from the RAC today!! First time in 3.5 years of MG ownership I haven't been able to get home or fix a problem at the roadside. The dynamo decided it was going to seize solid about 3 miles from home. Too far to drive without water circulating and without electricity charging. When I got the car back I just switched in the alternator that came from PTE. This took me about 2.5 hours (not including time for a 10 mile bicycle ride to get some parts!) following the excellent guide at mgb-stuff.org.uk. The mileage showed at 99750 at the change. Not long until it goes round the clock, although I have no idea if that is genuine. Could easily be a second time round! Car hasn't been running great recently. I suspect something in the ignition circuit, but not sure what. It's not really bad, just tends to a little flat on power and often cuts out at idle. Not bad enough to warrant much investigation at the moment, but if it gets worse I'll need to try a few things. Tuesday 3rd October 2006The shell has finally gone!! Between straps, two men and an engine crane we heaved it onto a flat back truck and off it went. Lovely to have the drive back! As far as HAK goes, I have now swapped the drivers seat with the PTE one with a headrest. In the end I only used the diaphragm from the HAK passenger seat as the foams were fine on the seat, it was just the webbing that was shot. I must say that the rubber diaphragm that was on the HAK seat looks a far better solution than the webbing on the PTE seats. The foams were also a slightly different shape reflecting the different pattern on the covers. Interestingly there is an excellent range of movement on the drivers seat, whilst the movement on the passenger seat is very poor. Wednesday 27th September 2006Put the passenger seat from PTE into HAK tonight. I'll now use the good foam from that seat to redo the driver seat from PTE before replacing the driver seat in HAK. The reason for the swap is safety, and specifically headrests. Having been the victim on 2 rear end shunts I am keen that I have a headrest behind my head before the weekend after next! I'll then be taking HAK on a 400 mile round trip over the weekend. That is down to collect the OD box in South Wales, and then back to Birmingham to spend the weekend with friends, before returning on the Sunday. Got the new tax disc for HAK. Used the online service this year and it all worked fine. It is always great getting tax for free! I have sold the shell for PTE on eBay again! The first buyer finally decided coming from Portsmouth was a bit silly!! I could have told them that 3 weeks ago! Am promised it will be collected this weekend. We shall see! This time it reached the princely sum of £10.51! Sunday 17th September 2006Following the popping I found that tightening the manifold nuts helped a great deal. However, they still leaked a little and so today I replaced the manifold gasket, and while I was at it I put the long branch manifold and big bore SSE from the PTE onto HAK. HAK now sounds a bit beefier, even if it doesn't go any faster! The good news is that the popping seems to have gone completely. The mileage was 98392. I have won a 3 sync OD gearbox on ebay, so I am now committed to going down that road, rather than trying to shoe horn in the 4 sync box from PTE. I am feeling more confident about that switch! The box is 2.5 hours away, so not sure when I will get down to collect it. Sunday 3rd September 2006HAK has been running well for the past month until a couple of days ago. The exhaust started to pop on the over run. Following inspection it seems that the exhaust manifold has gone. I have a spare, but don't have any spare exhaust manifold studs, and they look a bit ropey so I'll be ordering some tomorrow before I do the job. Not sure what would have caused this, but hopefully it will be an easy fix. I also took the chance to do an ignition service, changing condenser, points, rotor arm and cap. The cap in particular had a big chip out of it, as though something had flown up from the road and hit it perhaps. Anyway, best replaced. I was going to change the oil filter, but forgot that it is the old paper filters on the 67 car, and so one of these will be ordered as well. As far as PTE goes, the shell is still on the drive!! I sold it on eBay, but am waiting for it to be collected. I think it is likely that the sale will fall through. I have also managed to sell quite a few other parts, but the garage is still a mess! Once the shell has gone I'll get it straightened out and get selling! One other MG activity was to help James swap the engine on his 69 BGT. James had done all the strip down, so I just turned up with the engine crane, lifted the old out and the new in. Straightforward, but you forget how fiddly the reconnecting all the bolts etc are. Hopefully James will have got the car running this weekend. Tuesday 8th August 2006Had a great day on Saturday. By 9:30am there were just 4 of us, and I thought we could have a long day ahead of us! However, everyone, and a few more, had turned up by lunchtime, and there were about 10 people working on the car! At time there were almost too many people, which was fine as JC's car had sprung a leak on the way over and took a few people to fix!! I have a few picture of the day here, and am hoping I'll get a few more from others with cameras! The only difficulties during the day were getting the engine and box out - I have always removed the engine on it's own before, and always will do in the future- and getting the front rear suspension bolts undone. Mr grinder had to help, and a big thank you to Scott who did that part of the dismantling with remarkable persistence!! We were all done by 5:30 pm, when we confirmed that 8 people can very easily lift a BGT shell. In fact 20 minutes later we confirmed that just 2 people could push a BGT shell when I found it was too close to the garage door, preventing it from closing!! Tonight I spent 3 hours rearranging my garage so I could get the 67 BGT in. It is truly remarkable just how much space a broken car can take up!! I also used the first part from the 70 BGT tonight. On my way home from work there was a loud bang from the footwell and the clutch went spongy. Fortunately it turned out it was just the return spring that had snapped. Of course I now had a spare to hand and it was quickly fixed!! Wednesday 2nd August 2006Just about set for Saturday. There are somewhere between 5 and 9 people coming round, so I reckon I have a good chance of getting the thing stripped in a day! In preparation PTE had a final wash yesterday. I still need to clean the interior, but have started spraying WD40 where I can! On Monday I started to use HAK everyday instead of PTE. Mainly because PTE needs petrol and I don't want to put anymore in! After only occasional use since the purchase HAK still seems to be running very well. I do miss the overdrive though! One other thing I need to do is a compression test on PTE before I pull the engine, just as a benchmark as that engine will go into HAK. I have also recorded the ride height of the 2 cars. HAK always looks higher, and sure enough it is! The figures from mid chrome strip to the centre of the wheel are (HAK figures first): DF (driver front) 39cm 34.5cm, PF, 38.5cm 35.5cm, DR 37cm 35.5cm, PR 37cm 35.5cm. Not quite sure what to make of the differences at the moment! Thursday 13th July 2006Have spent a bit of time on my back under HAK! I have had the fun job of scrapping off loose under seal and reapplying. Good news is that so far there have been no nasty shocks. I have done the sills and floor pans on both sides. Still need to do the back end and rear wheel arches. I have also taken the bumper off and used rust killers on the inside in an effort to prevent it rusting through the chrome. I'll use under seal on that as well once dry as it will not be visible and should prevent that problem. I'll clean the outside well and then wipe with a cloth soaked in WD-40, which I am assured will help prevent pitting! On the website front I have added loads of owners websites to the link page. Thursday 6th July 2006The death of PTE is scheduled for the 5th of August!! I have 4 or 5 friends coming round to rip the car apart in a day! The aim will be to get down to the bare shell. If you fancy coming along to help, whether you know MGB's inside out, or want the chance to see a B up close for the first time, then drop me an email! I'll endeavor to take lots of pics and put a web page together. Wednesday 28th June 2006I have been using PTE for the past couple of weeks while I still can! It has been running well. The only thing I have done recently is to take the original wheel off of HAK and put on the Moto-Lita that was fitted in PTE. I had to buy a new boss as the steering columns are different. It has greatly improved the feeling of the car. I have also been selling off some spare parts on eBay. I have sold the spare wing I purchased and the door I had done up. I also sold the original wheel from HAK. Very pleased to bring in over £300 from that lot, so I have some funds once again! I also have purchased an engine crane from eBay on the grounds that if I hire one to swap the engine from PTE to HAK I will need it for 2 weekends. I priced hire and it was £40 for one weekend, so £100 for an almost new engine crane seems like a sound investment! Tuesday 13th June 2006I have now had the car (HAK) over a week and I'm pleased to say it is as good as I had hoped! It's not without its minor problems, but I'm very pleased! I am now working out what needs done to the car to get it really useable, and that will include dropping the engine from PTE into it at some point. It doesn't seem to hard, although because HAK is 3 syncro I will need to bash the tunnel a bit to get the gearbox to fit! I have started to alter the web pages to reflect the new car and the pages altered are listed on the index page, but do include rusty PTE photos, and purchase photos of HAK. Saturday 3rd June 2006And then there were two! Last night I bought a 2nd BGT. A very nice 1967 Mk1 BGT in Tartan Red. It seems really very solid with none of the sill and rust issue that the 70 BGT has. Downside is that it has a 3 synchro non OD gearbox, but I am starting investigation into whether it will be practical to fit the box and OD from the 70 BGT. Picking it up on Tuesday hopefully, so more details and pictures will follow, but in the meantime click here for a sneaky preview! Friday 26th May 2006Changed the calipers today, as well as putting on new brake hoses and discs for the front brakes. Also fitted a new throttle cable to stop it sticking open! Mileage 92610. Brakes are still a little spongy so I'll probably need to have another go at the bleeding. Found a big hole in the nearside sill! I'll either need to get the sills done soon, or start to think seriously about getting a different B. Tuesday 23rd May 2006I moved house at the tail end of last month, and as a result have not had much time to do much with the MG, not to mention that the computer was not online for 3 weeks so I couldn't have updated the site anyway! The new house has a double garage, which is fantastic. I have managed to begin to get it organised and I now easily have enough space to actually work indoors. The first job I am doing is a front brake overhaul. I should get this done on Friday. Today I rebuilt 2 spare calipers with seals and pistons. The overhaul will be new braided brake hoses (2 front, 1 back), rebuilt calipers, new disc and pads and of course new brake fluid. Hopefully will solve my current situation of going through a set of pads every 6k miles! I'll put a page together in the projects once done. Friday 31st March 2006Noticed that the handbrake was not holding fully today, so I adjusted the rear brakes by about a quarter turn on each side. Seems to have sorted the problem with full handbrake returned. Only takes 20 minutes to do, so a quick easy job. Monday 20th March 2006Following my accident in the middle of January the car was repaired last week. It needed a new panel at the back, along with bumper, over-riders etc and then painting. After labour, parts and paint it came to £1000. Fortunately it was an insurance job! While they were at it I got them to paint my door that I am going to replace the drivers door with. Looks good, although you can tell I did the prep work! Tonight I did a couple of little jobs. Changed the oil (91118 miles), topped up the gearbox oil which has been leaking and oiled the throttle cable which has been sticking. Saturday 4th March 2006Well, another quiet month of MG motoring has past! The B is booked into Entune to get the repair done following the accident mentioned below. That will happen in the middle of the month. Today I have replaced the brake pads - again!!! Mileage is 90813. Almost exactly the same 6400 miles as last time! These were Ferodo pads, so they didn't last any longer than the Mintex pads. It's Ferodo pads that have gone in again, but just because Halfords sell them and that was convenient! The whole front braking system could probably do with an overhaul as one sides pads wear faster then the other. The discs are also approaching the end of their life. However, I'll soon be moving house and a double garage awaits, so maybe I'll be able to get more done with some space round the car! Tuesday 31st January 2006Well, I have been really poor at keeping these pages updated! So a happy new year to anyone reading this. The car plods on, but there have been a few issues to report. First was a strange clocking from the drive train. Turned out that one of the UJ joints on the prop was well and truly stuffed. Both joints were replaced, and as I seem to have no time at the moment I had entune do it. Cost about £70, but completely sorted. Also had a major oil leak from the flexible hose from the block to the oil pressure gauge. An easy fix, but I had to bodge it to make it to Moss to buy the part (all of about £10!). However, the most dramatic thing is that I had another accident! Someone went into the back of me on the motorway. Not at great speed, it was in road works, but the estimate is for £1000 for the repair. A real shame as the back was rebuilt 2 years ago when someone last went into me, and has no rust! Anyway, I am awaiting the insurers verdict. I'm sure they will give the all clear to get it repaired, then it's just a question of if I can recover my excess from the other driver. The car just went past the 90k miles this week. Tuesday 22nd November 2005Had a few computer problems, so have been unable to access my web pages. The car continues to run well, and rust quickly!! Changed the oil recently at 88695 miles. I was going to service plugs, points etc, but the car is running so well I decided to leave them till 10k miles (rather than 6k miles). If I breakdown I only have myself to blame! The car is going to need some TLC in the next 1-2 years on the sills and one front wing, so I am thinking of selling and buying another MGB (or even a big Rover saloon). So if anyone wants a reliable MGB as an ongoing project drop me an email! The car is in Manchester. Tuesday 25th October 2005Fitted new rear lights at the weekend. I got the LED type and they are far far brighter. Much happier driving in the dark and rain now. At least on the motorway others will see me! They are the type of LED cluster that has some diodes pointing to the side, which means they are not too directional which can be a problem. They were £30, including P&P, for a pair. Expensive considering normal bulbs are a £1each! But it's a 5 minute upgrade and they should last longer than the car! Wednesday 5th October 2005Car went in for it's MOT. Braced for bad new I was reasonably happy to escape with £220 of damage! Two re-conned dampers and some welding made up most of the cost, but another year of motoring to look forward to. I have covered 10070 miles since it's last test. Not bad for a 35 year old car! Sunday 2nd October 2005Have had a bit of a quick check over before the car is in for it's MOT on Wednesday. I have fixed the high beams so they work and done a little scraping and painting on the underside. Not sure how it's going to do, but we shall see soon enough!! Wednesday 14th September 2005Been very busy at home and work and the website has been neglected, as has the car!! I'm pleased to report it has been running well since my last entry, but none of the projects are any further along! MOT is due in October, so that will be the next priority with other jobs waiting until I find time. Thursday 28th July 2005Having taken advice on the OD problem I have been advised to sort it sooner rather than later as there is a slight chance that it could fail big time on me. So tonight I took the spare OD of the gearbox that has been in the shed for the past couple of months (that's the £27 off ebay!). An when I looked inside the filter there was none of the crap I found in mine, so that is a good start. I'll pull it apart as far as I can easily and give it a once over before deciding whether to use it. The alternative is a fully re-done one, but that will be around £300, so I am keen to give this one a try if it looks OK! Tuesday 26th July 2005The car has been going very well. I have had some time today to try and have a look at the OD which appear to be causing slip when used for long motorway blasts. Here is what I found. Probably going to need an exchange unit to get it fully working again, but I can live with it for the time being. I hoping cleaning it out and replacing O rings in the solenoid will help it to perform for longer. Another job to save up for! Friday 8th July 2005The radio interference suppressor does appear to have made a difference after all. I can now easily listen to MW when driving and also get a much clearer FM reception. Well worth the few pounds it cost. Wednesday 6th July 2005Fitted a radio interference suppressor tonight, but I'm not sure it made any difference! Put a page in the Technical Section anyway. Car fine apart from that. Saturday 2nd July 2005The first website improvement is the links pages. The first revision is now uploaded, but it will take time to complete! The car has worked well since the new brakes were installed. No squeaking at all yet, which is unusual for new pads! Friday 1st July 2005The new WebPages are now live at http://www.mymgb.co.uk Now that I have broadband I hope to improve on the site, but we shall see!!! All contact details have changed. Tuesday 21st June 2005Fitted new brake pads tonight at 84221 miles. Only 6400 miles since the last set!! I have stuck a page together with some pics. Car OK other than that! Still not finished the door! Saturday 4th June 2005Changed the oil tonight, which was a little over due. Mileage was 83762. Did go to Tatton Park, but forgot the camera, so no pics. It is a vary big show with a lot of interesting cars and a lot of rubbish for sale in the auto jumble! Interesting that I could have picked up a brand new door for the car for £140. Friday 3rd June 2005Have been working on the door. It is now in primer but needs a little more work before top coat. Am taking Daniel to Tatton Park tomorrow to a big classic car show. If I get any pics I'll post them in the events section, as I did last year. Tuesday 31st May 2005Have finally started on the replacement door that I bought off eBay back in October last year. When I say started I mean I have taken a few pictures and then washed it! I have started a page in the Technical & Projects section, which is imaginatively titled Door Replacement. Next plan is to remove the trim fasteners still attached and rub the door down. It's then a spray with primer from a can. I'll then need to decide whether to try and paint myself from a can, borrow a small compressor, or have it done for me. Friday 20th May 2005Had the car two years to the day! I have done over 18500 mile in those 2 years, which is not bad considering that it was off the road for 3 months while I built the engine. Looking forward to the next 2! Tuesday 17th May 2005Drove up to Scotland at the weekend. 300 mile round trip. Only problem was with the ignition warning light flickering on. I redid some connections which fixed that, but in doing so the ignition light stayed on when the keys were not in the car! After consulting the BBS I found that the alternator had been wired up completely wrong by the DPO. Now all sorted! I have also bought a new steering wheel (on eBay again!!). It's leather rather than the wooden one, and I must say I rather like it! As they are the same make it is only a 5 minute job to switch them, so I haven't decided whether to keep or sell the old one. The car is at 83300 and is now due an oil change. Maybe tomorrow night! Monday 9th May 2005Couple of thing gone on recently with the B. First, I have finally started on the carb rebuild. Unfortunately this has gone a little wrong! I decided that the spindle bushes need replace on the spare carbs I have. The kit supplied by Moss or Burlen provide the new bushes. I tried to drill the current ones using a simple drill stand. This was not accurate enough and I have pretty much wrecked one carb body! It may well be possible to have it repaired by Burlen. I'll need to speak to them, but it goes down as a "not DIY able" job!! I have also been getting a bit of a squeak from the front wheel bearings (I think). So tonight I dismantled the drivers side front bearing and re-packed it with grease. The bearings looked fine so we shall see if this solves the problem. It may have been the other side, but I was running out of grease!! I'll find out on the way to work if I have sorted the squeak. I'll probably do the other side anyway once I have more grease. Finally I won a spare gearbox from a 76 OD car. Not quite sure what I'll do with it yet, but it was very cheap!! No doubt more to come in the future! Saturday 23rd April 2005The car has been running well on it's new clutch. However , the handbrake has been almost non existent. So this weekend I had a look at the back brakes and tried to adjust them. They were fine. I tried to adjust the actual handbrake cable and found it seized. I couldn't get it freed up, and attempts to grease the cable did nothing. So today I replaced with a new cable. Quite time consuming, partly due to the need to remove the front seat to get at a nut. The cable and many new fitting only cost about £16, so as soon as there was problems I should just have replaced it instead of wasting time trying to sort the old one! Handbrake now seems to be working well, but I've not tried it on a decent hill yet! Mileage at change was 82226. Thursday 15th April 2005Replaced the clutch at the weekend with the help of Martin. On Friday night I spent 2 hours stripping the engine getting ready to lift it out. I hired an engine crane from the local hire shop for £25 for the weekend. Not too bad! On the Sat morning the engine came out, the new clutch (£70 from Moss) went on and then the fun began! Trying to get the engine back in to the car was tough going and Martin and I struggled for a good few hours! Eventually it went, and I'm still glad I didn't pull the gearbox too. By 3 o'clock it was back in and the engine mounts and bell housing bolts were all done up. Another 2.5 hours later on saw the car running again. All in about 10 hours of work. Not great, but not too bad. The mileage showed 81854 miles. I didn't replaced the carbon bearing as it had no significant wear compared to a new one. It was new with the engine 8k miles ago, so was expected to be OK. Mind you, so was the clutch cover plate and it's springs had gone. The pressure plate itself (which wasn't as new) also showed significant wear, and I suspect the slip was due to both these components. The clutch works well now and I have had no slipping since. The only problem now is that the starter motor is not disengaging problem, so it will need taken out and given a quick going over. The car is starting and running well, there is just a grinding noise when I let the key back from start to on at the ignition. Always something! Wednesday 6th April 2005Took the B on a 500 mile round trip from Manchester to Dumfries to Edinburgh and back again last weekend. On a nice sunny day I can recommend the A701 to Moffet from Edinburgh as a very enjoyable road. Apart from that it was motorways all the way, which has shown up a problem. After a long run at high speed when I slowed down I was getting terrible clutch slip, to the point that the car was barely drivable at low speeds. Once cooled it was fine again, but it did occur after every long run. I normally do 20 miles each way to work and had not had such a severe problem, but now I'm looking for it there is slip there at other times. The most likely culprit is the old clutch plate that went on the new engine as I didn't have a new one available. The other possibility is a OD problem, which would mean a second hand gearbox and OD most likely. A new clutch kit has been purchased and the plan is to drop it in on Saturday morning. We shall see how long it takes to get the engine out this time! Friday 11th March 2005Been a very quite month on the B front. The car has run well. The new wheels are good and I'm happy with the handling of the wider tyres. The biggest difference is that the pressures stay the same for more than a few days!! Another recent purchase is an unused front OS wing (£100 off eBay). This will be stored for the time being and will go on when the sill on that side gets replaced. Tuesday 8th February 2005Fitted the new wheels and tyres tonight. I just went for budget Hancook tyres that were about £40 each. Unfortunately the balance machine was broken and so they haven't been balanced. Will need to see if they cause any vibrations. If they do then I can go back on Saturday and get then balanced. They were fitted at 80162 miles. Sunday 6th February 2005Did the 6000 mile service at 79928. Went fine except the new dizzy cap was faulty which took a bit of working out. I also finally got round to having a go with my new grease gun and so I successfully greased one side of the steering. I'll do the other side next week. I have also bought a set of home reconditioned rostyle wheels off Ebay. They are not perfect, but were only 20 quid. They are currently having 185/70 14 tyres fitted and should be on by next weekend. Wednesday 26th January 2005All the technical stuff that I have done has now been combined on a technical & projects page. This will detail all the little bits and pieces that I have done or are ongoing on the car. The car continues to run well, but is almost due a 6000 mile service, so I'll aim to get that done in the next week or so. I also recently fixed the blower in the car. It does clear the windscreen a little, but it's still not great! It turned out there was a loose connection at the switch. Wednesday 12th January 2005The car will be shortly due for both a service and to have the torque on the new head checked. Today I took my 6 week old son (Daniel) for his first run. He seemed to like it!! A couple of pics on the Events Page.
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