Wocha bin doin on your MG this week then?

TA22GT wrote:

Great Pedro! Had a few Hot Rods..I believe they are Fenders best selling amp of all time.
Strangely I have never owned a Vox.

Yes, great amps for the price. If fact I own two, one on them was at another place and now they are here together. 
My AC30 is the 50 Anniversary, I wish I had a vintage one like AP’s

Today I finally swapped the old plastic throttle body for a 52mm alloy one. 
I haven't really noticed any performance increase but it seems much smoother and more responsive. 
I'm going to look at getting a better air filter to see if that makes it even better. 

Installed New/used speakers, woofers and tweeters, the old drivers side woofer was still working, sort of,  well I think I got my moneys worth and the passenger side tweeter never did work. 
Great opportunity to grease the window slides too. 

 

 

Im changing the cambelt on the 135. Now I assumed it would be very much the same as when i did the same job on the F and it has been apart from the pain of running into issues left by the last owner.
I expected to change the bush in the upper engine mount arm and was so unsurprised to see this id already ordered a polybush to replace it . But i really hadn't expected the top of the large conical rubber engine mount to have sheared and just be sitting in place. The metal safety loop above it was nonchalantly facing the wrong way round, may as well not have been there. 
Then I found the previous cambelt change seems to have been carried out by someone with a seriously poor grip on rational thought.   Ive had to replace all 3 plastic timing belt guards; outer, inner and lower as they all been inexplicably hacked about beyond repair. The top outer had been cut in half then bolted on in 2 halves, absolutely no idea why. The lower guard that fits around the crankshaft pulley had been chopped around it's central mounting hole leaving it weakened. The inner cover/ backplate though displayed a more unique and determined approach to doing things badly. The right side of it had been chopped away at the back, just leaving a strip of the outer edge, exposing part of the timing belt as well as losing 2 of its mountings.  Presumably as this had left the timing belt cover assembly with all the strength and rigidity of a snowman in July they had then tried to support it with bracket anchored to the exhaust heat shield.

New covers sourced, cam pulleys, tensioner and water pump are on today. Hopefully sort the timing belt and refit the engine mounts tomorrow.

Such a shame but at least it will be right when you have done!

psymon wrote:

Took my car in for an MOT to find out what else needs sorting before putting it back on the road,   Couldn't believe it when it passed !!

Last MOT (and last driven) in 2008,  was fully expecting emissions failure, various rubbers, and so on, but sailed through all of that.


David Aiketgate replied:-
Simon, I'm flabbergasted! I can't believe you've finished (nearly) this restoration job!😜
This has been ongoing since the inception of "The T Bar" 
Many congratulations 🤣
 

As David says, this has been rumbling around in the background for as long as I’ve been a member, that must be ten years. Could you take some pictures of how it looks now, after it’s landmark MOT & the start point, if you have pictures.
We’ll done, along with David, you must be the last constant name who regularly posts.
Where are all the big contributors now?
M

I´ve wondered several times where cjj (Clive) is. His How tos are masterpieces and are helping me a lot

I only hope he's alright, only with another car now

He's probably up to his eyeballs with the detritus of family life by now.

Hey folks

Today I found a set of 16" hairpins, with 2x falkens on fhe rear :^) and 2x Landsails on the fronts :^/

ive been happy with 15's and think they look great, but was curious and also wondered about fiting AP brakes, when I saw these locally thought it would be a good opportunity to see if anything was lost moving to bigger alloys, before I start messing aroond with brakes.

I was concerned about rotational weight increases, but the different rears weighed side by side are only about 600g heavier per wheel on the 16s with same model tyres, obviously in different sizes.

The alloys are a bit kerbed but all tyres are 6mm and they were pretty cheap and local so I thought I'd give them a go to see what the difference would be to my square 6 spoke 15's. I could always sell them on if they were awful...

After a few hours blasting around B roads and some fast A roads, the 16s are just better, aren't they? I'm a bit upset strangely as I prefer the look of the 15's (I also bought new falkens for them 1500 miles ago) and the 16"s actually look smaller in the arches, which they are looking at tyre comparisons.

But even with 2x Landsails on the front, initial testing suggests that 16's are more controlled and sharper handling than the 15s by a significant margin, without significant decrease in comfort and even an increase in some cases (smoother over some rough or undulating roads, less "float" on the steering and better tracking when pressing on. Car feels more planted and less skittish.

Interesting back to back test, gonna put the 15s back on tomorrow for further comparison in a variety of conditions, but think I'm gonna be disappointed...

Cheers

 

That will be a very useful back to back comparison.

Main things I noticed:

• Increased sharpness on turn in, less understeer (I didnt think it understeered before on 15s, now I do)
• seems to track rough roads without as much buffetting and bouncing
• *slightly* heavier steering
• more road feel for the surface, more feedback
• Very occasionally harsher impacts on potholes or edges of road surface
• smaller overall wheel and tyre diameter probably offsets extra weight in terms of acceleration
• car felt more lively and fun overall, although I know this is entirely subjective
• More confidence inspiring on tight fast corners, felt like safe fast cornering speed was higher and more planted
• 16's with correct tyre fitment look smaller at standard ride height compared to 15's with stock tyres weirdly - arch gap looks larger
• car seems smoother and more controllable at high speeds, maybe increased gyroscopic effect?

Original setup was square 6 spoke 15"s with recommended tyre size Falken Ziex ZE310's (2025) all round

New setup was hairpin 16"s with recommended tyre size Falken ze310's rear (2019) and Landsail somethings front (2020)

So on that basis the 15's had a tyre advantage in several elements for this comparison

Cheers