[Mgs] Re; Cowl vent drainage

[Glenn Schnittke]

Phil,

Jack up the front of the car, get your best safety glasses ready (or 
diving goggles, you might have those in Fla.). Underneath, on the right 
hand side of the transmission, just behind the bulkhead, is a rubber 
tube with a spherical end on it that will remind you of a change purse 
that you squeeze to open. This is called the duckbilled tube. It is the 
cowl drain on an MGB. It is also the cowl drain on an XJ6 and  a few RR 
models as well as several other British cars. Don't squeeze it. No 
matter how much it looks like it wants to be squeezed. If all you see is 
a round tube then someone has already taken that step.

Take a piece of wire, preferably something like a solid core 12 ga. 
electrical wire with the insulation still on it about a foot to 18" long 
and coil the end to resemble a drill or just bend the end of it over 
about 1/2". Close your eyes, stick it up into the opening and twist it. 
Even wearing goggles and closing your eyes, you can pretty much bet 
something will get lodged in your eye. Then take another piece of 
straight wire and poke it all the way up. That should dislodge anything 
laying in the bottom of the air plenum. From there, you can attack the 
debris from the top with a soberly equipped shop vac. Repeat the 
procedure until nothing comes out of the bottom of the tube.

You want to be careful not to squeeze it because it is old rubber and 
very fragile and no one makes it anymore. For as many British cars that 
use this item you would think that by this time someone would show the 
initiative, but no one has up till now, and I'm certainly not going to 
with limited funds and a limited market. You can't replace it without 
hunting a NOS part and if you find one it will be ancient and fragile. 
And if you do find a good one, getting the old part out isn't the 
problem. Getting the new one in is kind of like a cross between 
push-starting a Jumbo Jet and having a colostomy bag attached, even with 
the car stripped down for a paint job. It's certainly something for your 
twelve year old nephew who you are trying to get interested in the 
hobby. Unless you want to keep him interested.

Let me know if I haven't instilled enough fear in you. In reality, it 
could probably be replaced with a tube that runs down along the 
floorboards, but BL wasn't thinking that way. The point of the duckbill 
was to try to keep engine fumes out of the passenger area. They stopped 
making it fairly early on which just goes to show you we think more of 
them than they thought of us.

Glenn



> Subject: [Mgs] Cowl vent drainage
> Message-ID:<20111030.195556.20023.0 at webmail55.vgs.untd.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Can anyone give me some tips on how to restore the cowl vent drainage, if any,
> in my 67 MGBGT?   Every time I'm caught in the rain, (happens often in Fla),
> water gets in and when I open the cabin vent, water slops all over the
> footwells.I've poked around with a coat hanger and looked with a flashlight,
> but can see no drain hole. Is there one, and if so, where is it?  Any tips on
> this would be greatly appreciated.  Guess I need to get one of those magnetic
> covers, but I like the ventilation.... TIA,  Phil Bacon 1967 MGBGT