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SundanceUK wrote: wrote:

Detailed Shadow ready for the Tatton Park classic car show tomorrow. Quite looking forward to this one.
A happy 5 hours polishing the TF listening to the cricket and pleased with the results.
Sundance

Which results...........the polishing or the cricket?

After having to vacate the garage that my TF has been tucked up in for the last 4 years and being stood outside for the last week I found that it has leaked most of the biblical amounts of rain into the nearside front . Found that it was pouring in from the snorkel seal . Removed the glove locker to confirm , then set about removing the offending item to seal it using silicone sealer plus a rubber draught excluder around the inside of the snorkel. Also as a precaution I removed the blanking plate for the LHD steering and sealed that as well.

Had a brand new black hood fitted today. Looks great. Also fitted new primary rear seal, fixed cracked T Bar, and modified T Bar push-on fittings witth capped screws.

Have 12 month old rear replacement heated screen, which was removed as new hood was complete, rear screen in excellent condition. Available for sale if anyone one wants. PM me for details etc if interested.

Robert

On the way home from an Mg meeting in Jedburgh the passenger side suspension collapsed on my mgf. Front sphere knackered. It was a long drive home!!. Two days later took it to my brother Gerry. He does all the hard work. Swapped out the faulty sphere and pumped up the hydragas.(we have an original dalek for hydagas) All good. Back on the road. Now considering sending a full set of spheres to the Kennedy's for regassing .Anybody got any opinions on their workmanship?
A photo from Jedburgh. No sign of the problems I would encounter on the way home.

Made good use of a day of and the fine weather to give Shadow an annual service so out with the ramps, oils, filters and grease.
Also a big tidy up in the engine bay and good general check round, will grease the front nipples tomorrow when the wheels come off for a full detailing before Sundays Topless around the Peaks F and TF run.

A good tip if you use ramps like mine is to tie a strap ( I used a couple of old single use slings thrown away at work) to the ramps and then drive over them as you climb the ramps to stop the ramps from slipping as you drive up them! Works a treat!

Sundance

After 18 months of dithering I've finally decided to strip down my TF and do a restoration.

Day 1

Fitted an external thermometer. Has a 12v supply so comes on with the ignition.

Finally sourced a replacement gearbox for the steptronic . Only problem was we had to strip the engine and gearbox out of the scrap car (a rover 45). Undaunted Gerry stripped both out . Split the gearbox from the engine and prepared the gearbox for the MGF . He told me he was going to remove the mgf gearbox via the rear drivers wheel.!!! Photo













Didn't believe we could do it. However on a Saturday morning we removed the old box with a bit of a struggle. And then immediately fitted the replacement gearbox through the same wheel arch. Job done. The new box is working fine there was no need to do a fast adaptation..

Was it easier to do it this way rather than split the body and sub frame. I think it was.

To get the box out through the wheel arch you need to strip as much as possible from the box, strip the suspension and slightly lower that side of the subframe, you need to do all that and much more to drop the subframe.

Removed via the PASSENGER side wheel arch

I have been trying to find neutral.

Had my coolant level alarm starting to flash when cornering, so looks like a slight drop in the level. My alarm is a homemade contactless sensor that fixes to the outside of the expansion tank and will activate when the level drops to exactly just under the halfway seam on the tank.
I put in half a cupful to get the level back up to where I normally like it.
As a precaution I decided to check the integrity of the coolant system with my pressure test kit.
Pumped up to just over 1 bar pressure and left the system pressurised for 15 minutes. Happy to report no loss in pressure, so will put the loss of coolant down to venting of the expansion tank cap over the last 12 months or so.
The testing kit is a great item and cost me less than £30 from Ebay. Well worth the money and it will do most makes of cars.

Sundance

Testing the system...


Pressure test kit...