Well, just thought I'd post this for my fellow MGB fanatics out there (I can
always use a cheering section).
Kingpins are back (for the second time) with the *new* spindles on them
(discovered the old ones were bent when we tried to reassemble them on the
car). New bearings pressed in on all four wheels, rear end is repainted and
installed (but not hooked up), rear leafs (GT leafs) are just about ready to
go on the car. Assembling front crossmember last night, no glitches this
time! So, it's just about ready to go back on the car (temporarily). Either
late this afternoon or tomorrow morning, Rags will go to the frame shop to
have her left frame rail straightened and welded. (necessitating removing the
front crossmember again). After that, back in the shop and remove the
crossmember *again* to replace the motor mounts. We're nearly there! Three
days, maybe four if I run short on time, and it will be time to do another
engine test. :) :)
Hooboy, have I learnt a lot from this exercise.
It started out rather simply. Front bearings went kind of dodgy on me, and,
before I had a *real* problem, I thought I'd fix them. Upon close
inspection, noticed that the bushings in the wishbone arms were gone or
going, so, with all that, how about re-doing the front end, eh? And whilst
we're at it, heck, it's only 8 bolts, why not remove the crossmember, totally
rebuild the front end, add a swaybar, and paint the whole thing with some
chip resistant paint? Great!
And what the heck, the car is gonna be out of commission for a bit, why not
do the rears as well? Driver's side leaf springs are getting a little tired,
why not replace them too? And how about those shocks? Hmmm. Close inspection
reveals that the straps on the rear end are cracked and just about gone.
Replace those too, hmmm, and you know, those brake lines don't look so good.
So, replace the brake lines (all of them, as there turns out to be lots of
little dodgy spots in them) and while we're at it, why not give the old
master cylinder the heave-ho, and how about that clutch master while we're at
it?
This set of exercises revealed a great deal of damage done by DPO's: front
right bearings weren't pressed in correctly, hence wore very badly and ruined
the rotor and sheared off a bit of shoe on the brakes. Okay, new rotor. Renew
brakes. Left front caliper partially frozen. Hmmm. Rear drums actually packed
full of grease ... uh, no real wear there, since it seems as though we've
never really had much in the way of rear brakes atall. No wonder the parking
brake never worked! Wishbone arms are ovalled at the connexion with the bolt.
Hmmm. New wishbone arms. Um, we're starting to get into some money here. Good
news! Shocks are fine. Need a bit of oil, is all. Whew....
Then disaster! Upon removing the crossmember, discovered that that 'little
fender bender' that I thought Rags had been in was actually some sort of real
crash: left frame rail is bent and has started to crack. Um. Um. ::sigh::
So.... call in the body guy. Park the car in his shop, and start the real
work. He gets to do some fun stuff, too. Goody. More money.
He takes *forever* to do his bits. Grrrrr.... Well, why not fish out that
heater box in the interim? And re-do the heater system as a whole, since the
car's going to be idle for a bit... Hmmm. Four months into the project, and
the car is no longer recognisable as a car. Sad looking, actually. Looks like
someone else's donor car.
Discovered that the motor mounts were bent. You mean they're not *supposed*
to be canted forward at 30 degrees! Gods! New motor mounts. Oh, and the
adjustment support at the rear under the tranny is cracked. New one of those,
too. Off to the junk yards again... in the blizzard. Yay. Well, this explains
why I went through a tranny and rear end in the first year, anyway. Sheesh.
Then, discovered (after getting the kingpins back from the machine shop) that
the spindles are bent. No bloody wonder the car always cornered like hell. I
thought it was the kingpins. :;groan:: Out to the junkyard again...
Well, nine months into my bearing replacement exercise, my car has a
completely renovated front end, rear end, and springs. Everything a nice
chip-resistant semi-gloss black. Oh, pulled the oil pan, cleaned, checked the
lower end of the motor, painted the pan same chip-resistant black, and
reinstalled with a new gasket. New heater core, nicely painted box, new
cables, fixed that little glitch with the heater shunt, new steel-coated
hoses all round, new brakes, rotors, kingpins, spindles. New stainless steel
brake lines throughout, with new steel-braided rubber hoses. New master
cylinders (both). New rack boots, refurbished rack. New headlamps (why not?).
Installed a battery box. New top (the old, tired one finally dry-rotted away
in the shop). Clean oil, and had the motor flushed once. New motor mounts
(soon) and new rear adjustment/support rod. Fixed the licence plate bracket
in front. Lots of little bits.
Nine months! Soon, I'll be back in Rags, hopefully in time for MG Indy.
We're coming down to the wire ... everyone cheer me on and hope that no new
glitches surface whilst we're finishing the installation!
Sorry for the long post ... but I've refrained from bitching this long, I
just couldn't hold it in any longer.
Corey
75 MGB 'Rags' (soon, soon)
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