Topic

However its a B not F!!

Just done a deal on a MGB GT this morning and will be after some expert knowledge, you lot have been so much help in the past with F's that I thought the T-Bar was the best place to turn.
Anyone an expert on the MGB's I only have a few questions! Or should I head to the dull world of the MG forums!!!!

I've got one I'm doing a major rebuild on, so I will try my best to help.

What age is the one you are restoring? This is a 1975 it has chrome bumpers but rostyle wheels so I assume it was originally a rubber bumper one.

I have to go get this one started in the morning, it has the twin 6v batteries, which the current owner has told me he couldn't afford to replace therefore he stopped using it, this was 2 years ago.
The oil level is fine plenty of coolant and fuel, I am off to try and buy a couple of batteries in the morning. Anything else I should check before I attempt to turn it over?

Turn over by hand before cranking

Can you give me a quick idiots guide as to how I will do this?
Car is sat on a drive way so everything accessible what tools and rough procedure would I need to do/bring with me.
Thanks

Twin 6V are expensive to replace so the common single 12V option is a 063. You may need to cut the lugs off the base to get in the bin. However your car may well be a late registered 1974 model so could be a genuine chrome car. There were a few changes in the 1975-1976 era but a single 12V was used on the rubber bumper cars later on. That 12V battery won't fit the earlier cars because they enlarged the battery cradle for it. You could also look into Mazda MX5 batteries as these are smaller. Fitting a single 12V is easy enough, buy a new earth lead cable and fit it to the cradle in which you will have the battery, usually o/s where the power lead goes forward to the starter under the floor pan. Cable tie the old leads out of the way that are now redundant. It's not worth trying to remove them as the bolt/nuts are usually seized, plus you need a set of imperial sized spanners...

With regard to starting, check all the fluid levels (coolant and oil) before hooking up electrics, remove the plugs to reduce the resistance from compression and then try to turn by hand using the nose of the crank. You probably won't have enough room to get a socket on the crank pulley bolt (assuming you have a big enough socket) but you can grip the belt and try to turn it. If it is free then squirt a little engine oil into the plug sockets and then rotate slowly by hand. If all seems ok, then hook up the battery and leave the leads and plugs out of the way and spin the engine on just the starter. If all is ok, then check for some sign of oil pressure showing up on the gauge. If that is ok, then go for an actual start. If it fires it will be smokey from the oil in the bores but should clear.

Watch for oil pressure and temperature.

If it doesn't fire then it may be stale petrol or a sticky pump. The pump should make an audible ticking sound when first switching the ignition to the on position before starting. Unless it is a modern replacement pump that is quieter. Stale fuel is normally only a problem after about 5 years or more in my experience.

If you don't want to faff around changing the battery then you can hook jump leads onto an earth and the back of the starter in the engine bay, saves having to open the back seat up and access the battery trays. This way you can quickly release the battery cable if there is a problem as opposed to hooking up in the boot area.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions, will do my best to help. Also, if you get into modifying then www.upgrades4mgs.co.uk is worth a look.

Sounds like you should kick off our MGB section at our sister site MG Crowd
http://www.mgcrowd.com/forum2/mgb-gt

Thanks for all the info Martin.

Well I managed to get it started, ended up with a 12v battery it is from a Fiat Punto and is within a cm of the original 6v battery size, so fits really nicely just need to get a slightly longer earth strap.
We had to change the plugs before it would fire properly.
Lots of smoke and some very rough running but we got it home.
Gave it a clean and striped all the interior last night, the paint is fantastic looks freshly painted with just a couple of blemishes.
I think it will need an exhaust as the one fitted does not looks in great shape and we had smoke coming from all angels on the drive home, also needs a good service tune up and all the old fuel replaced.
All in all I reckon I got a good one!

Excellent, look forward to hearing updates.

Well the B is going well not found a bad point on it yet and tomorrow I will be putting the newly cleaned interior back in and should be able to get her MOT'd on Wednesday.

However I needed a few bits so I have purchased another one!! This is a write off but has lots of really nice parts including a leather interior and wire wheels. I will strip it all down but before I start listing on E-bay and dealing with all the messers I thought I would mention it on here and see if any other B owners need parts.

I intend to go on the other forum mentioned above, but last time I had a MGF in a similar state everyone on here needed bits, I know not many will have a MGB as well as a MGF as an existing T-Bar member I would always want to give you lot first refusal.
It's a blue 1974 chrome bumper model interior is blue carpets and cream leather, engine was
Apparently re-furbed fairly recently and does look in good condition.

Let me know if you need anything and I will give a price.

Sorry if this needs to be moved to another area let me know

Thanks

Tony

Good luck with the strip down. Mine is a 1966 Mk1 so completely different in every way to the post 1970 cars. I managed to get an o/d 3synchro box for mine recently which should make it more comfortable for cruising than currently. Any pictures of your car?

Tony, the site wont let me reply to your PM for some reason, You are in good hands with MartinW, he knows a bit about MGs!!

Sounds like you have a nice GT there, needs a bit of tlc.