Thanks to everyone who responded about the tranny oil. I haven't done
anything yet because it works well enough but someday, the A will get new
tranny oil.
MG's can use more advance for a couple of reasons, I suspect. On older
cars, Abingdon probably purposely limited total advance because, 40 years
ago, fuel quality was not as consistent as today. I would guess that they
may have been overly sensitive to this given the early Twin Cam experience.
On later models, advance was limited for emissions reasons and has nothing
to do with better performance. In either case, a person would be better
served to have the distributor recurved rather than to just bump up static
timing. Speed shops can do this and it is amazingly cheap, if my memory
serves me correctly.
My MGB had a flat once on a wheel that was seized onto the spline. Newer
cars have safety rims which hold the tire in place in case of deflation and
really complicate tire changes. I took the car into a service station run
by an old timer (I can't remember how I got a car with one flat tire to the
station but I know that it wasn't towed- I was way too cheap) and he spent
the better part of an hour pounding on the wheel with tire irons and a bfh.
He did get the tire changed and charged me a very reasonable amount. The
wire wheel makes a really neat sound when subjected to that level of abuse,
by the way. The tire went flat again about a month later and a torch was
used to persuade the wheel off the spline.
For getting a car off the ground, the best investment I ever made was a 2
1/4 ton hydraulic jack from Sam's club. This is the full sized jack and
they had them for about 55.00 compared to 99.00 at Sears or the local
automotive chain store. This year I also bought a small 2 ton jack at
Target. Having two hydraulic jacks is wonderful and I would recomend doing
the same to everyone. I always leave the big jack under the pumpkin and
block under the front wheels when I work under the car. getting squished
is not my idea of fun.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA that has avoided the jacks stands for over a month now
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