Topic

After



recently buying what may be the world's worst MGF still with an mot he's is the list of work done in the past few weeks....

2 replacement wings
2 replacement wishbones
3 drilled and tapped subframe mount holes
Nearside rear track control arm replacement
Replacement hood
New bonnet cable
Replacement interior mirror and mount and wiring
Replacement mike Satur wiper linkage
New wiper blades
New alternator belt
Repairs temp gauge wiring
2 new rear abs sensors
Repair airbag wiring
2 new rear tyres
New front discs and pads
Unstick all callipers
Repair stuck handbrake cables


More to go... And it'll still be a tatty VVc...

well with the festivities and all that....just had the time today to fit 4 dustcaps.....only cheapies....after a while the mg emblems flyaway.....

I've had the driver's headlight out of the car twice this week! I noticed the head light seemed to flicker when moving. The problem was the lower adjuster. The plastic casing it fits in to had broken and the epoxy quick fix that had lasted for 2 MOTs finally gave up allowing the reflector to vibrate.



Rather than bodge it again I decided to rebuild the light on to a second hand casing and was able to buy this one from welovemgfs after a negotiation on delivery to the far north (normally £20 including delivery but £25 to you sir).



The case was sound, if a bit dirty.

I brought the old headlamp in to the warmth for an hour before stripping (glass removed to allow the heat to circulate). This reduced the risk of plastic breaking. Nothing broke and I was able to transfer all the 'old' bits to the 'new' case. A couple of tips, don't touch the reflectors as nothing will remove marks, do lightly lube the ball joints to facilitate reassembly, when replacing the reflectors, it clips on to the yellow adjuster first then presses on to the fixed ball and white adjuster.

Finished unit:



Here is the socket on the car ready for the lamp. I waxoyled, cleaned the bugs of the radiator and greased the cable release while the bumper cover was off.


And here we are back together again:



The smug feeling lasted 10 minutes. The lower (white) adjuster jammed in the fully 'up' position (ie wound out). Apparently they will all do this if wound right back so never wind it so that the white plastic protrudes beyond the black casing!

What to do? I had several spare adjusters and thought I could probably remove the old one in situ - turn anticlock wise until loose then pull. However, there was no way to attached the ball joint on the new one as the reflector would simply move away from it. So it was bumper off, light unit out, adjuster exchanged, all tested before replacing the bumper then bumper on and very careful adjustment - this time with success!

Richard

Threw out my spare wheel as it was a tatty 11 spoke I picked up cheap from Bitz just as an emergency spare until I got summat better...and to be honest was quite embarrassed about opening up my bonnet when anyone was about because the tyre had less rubber on it than a condom!
Nice shiny new black 11 spoker and new tyre in the bay and now looking good with the bonnet up!
Will probably get the old wheel refurbed and store it.

Sundance

This week I have replaced my old manual door mirrors with electric version, and installed tweeters. Also fitted bleed nipple upgrade for the radiator.
Trying to bring up the spec of my TF115. Glad due to rover cost savings all the relevant plugs and connectors were there waiting for me.
Just have to fit aluminium inlet manifold, new 421 exhaust, fix my cracked font bumper and cure the acceleration issue.

In the last week or so I have had a new engine fitted, I've restored my headlights and today I'm swapping over both door handles due to damage. One of the screws holing the handle on has been lost so I'm rummaging through my screw box looking for one with a similar thread....

S

I've just changed the alternator adjuster with the rose jointed unit from Oilphil; great job apart from the15mm nut, no more embarrassing squawks from now on. Thanks to David Aiketgate for his original How To from a couple of years ago.

Finally got round to fitting my Toyosport Stainless exhaust manifold and flex pipe. The original was not bad but I was going to change the O2 sensor anyway to try and get rid of the misfire and choking at low revs. All started well, the cat was reasonably new so all the bolts came away no problem. Next the 6 bolt flange. OK first nut fine, second just turned the stud, and the third, forth and fifth fine no sixth ???.
OK remove manifold nuts, all came out some with the stud thats ok, but the center top stud and nut missing. Funny because I have heard no exhaust blowing. Trip to the DIY store picked up a couple of disks for the grinder and an M10 bolt to replace the one missing.
grind through the pipes and allow enough room to remove the manifold and remaining pipes..Great all clear.
New manifold in place, fit new O2 sensor to flex pipe......Really it wont fit, out with the dremmel grind off the lip in the exhaust till it fits. Bingo its in, another hour trying to line up all the bolts and tighten.
Start car.. no exhaust blow:clap: Go for a drive cleared the misfire all worth it then.
It great when you fix a problem only to discover you created another, alternator light now not working, suspect just a loose connection.
The only down side to this is that the better half said at the beginning that the exhaust was the problem so I let her have the win, although I suspect that it was the O2 sensor, not the exhaust.

I finally got around to changing out the instrument pack on my MGF. A couple of years ago I had installed LED lighting and illuminated needles. It was a very fussy, no fun job that gave mediocre results in the lighting department. The needle on the speedo wasn't balanced properly and gave wildly innacurate readings. I was able to get them accurate up to 100kmh but the readings were still wildly innacurate over that. I was able to find a kilometre instrument pack out of Germany with a similar mileage and finally got the car's mileage high enough to change them over without feeling cheated. I only added 600km to the car with the swap.
While I was at it I sprayed the binnacle with Plasti-dip to cover the discoloured carbon fibre skin I had applied a couple of years ago. I'm hoping the finish will last until I can come up with a better solution.

With patience it is possible to alter the mileage on the mk1, not so easy on later cars.

Last week actually. My brother, who is a toolmaker, made me a brake servo bracket out of stainless steel. It was built following the plans in this thread from a few months ago. Fitting it was fun for two reasons. The snorkel was a pig to remove as someone had fitted it down tight with some kind of hard glue or mastic. The bolts, without the correct spacers, were so tight that the plastic mounting was distorted. I fixed that by heating it with a hair dryer and clamping it between bits of wood. I replaced the foam seal with some 20mm wide self-adhesive neoprene strip from ebay. Fitting the bracket was a challenge as in my car (and in my brother's TF too), the holes for the two servo bolts did not line up correctly. An hour of work with a rat tail file sorted this out. The servo is now solid on pressing the brake pedal hard. The feel is very much improved. Whether it actually improves the braking or not, I am not sure but they certainly feel better.

Fitted black mesh to the rear. Held on with cable ties. They don't show do they?

Heath Robinson