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MG MGA - That Catastrophic Final Action

How many times have you done a job on the car only to come to grief with 'the last' bolt or such like. Or you are searching for the dropped washer and find it in 'the last' place you look. Of course, it always is 'the last' place because you look no further once you have found it!!

I mulled this over in my mind last weekend when I was rebuilding my lawn mower. I dropped the very last assembly bolt inside the air cooling cowling and had to strip it all off again to retrieve the bolt. Another hour added to the task in hand.

There must be countless jobs we carry out on our MGAs when, down to the very last process, it all goes to worms.

My extreme case must be the sheared speedo cable replacement on my 5-speed Sierra box. The new cable made no difference. The speedo did not register. Assuming a gear box pinion drive failure, out came the seats, carpeting, floorboards and tunnelling just to replace the pinion, then put it all back together again. Still no joy. I then took out the engine and gearbox with a view to getting a replacement box. However, inspection showed there was no fault with the pinion drive. I put everything back into the car - still no speedo reading. In despair, gripping the inner cable at the instrument end with a pair of pliers I 'finally' gave it a sharp push and a twist and, hey presto, it engaged with the pinion. 10 days that cost me. There had been no problem at all. In this case I had not completed that 'final' action to ensure the inner cable was fully home.

Must be plenty of other 'final' stories out there.
Steve Gyles

I had a few minutes of frustration last week. It was the very last job after refitting my exhaust. I managed to get a ratchet spanner onto an exhaust bracket nut - just - and tightened the bracket till I reckoned it was just about right. When I tried to disengage the spanner, I found that the rising bolt shank had neatly trapped it against the underside of the floor.

Could I undo the nut again, to free my spanner? No - it was a ratchet.

Had I another half-inch spanner? Only on the other end of this one.

Would my adjustable get in there? No.

I decided to go and buy one, so I had to get all my tools in, then when I went to shut up the garage I remembered that I had run the car out a little to get better light before putting it up on axle stands. The doors would not shut by about 3".

I don't think I can go on........

Nick

That final click of the last head-bolt that shears the stud in the block. The wrench loses it solid feel and you lift it to find the remains of the stud inside. That horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach that inevitably means a full strip down, drilling out, reverse tap and long prayers. Then the realisation of the stupidity of not changing the head studs in the first place instead of trying to re-use the old ones!!
Ian Pearl

My latest example of this situation involved fender installation. I carefully cut and fitted the gray fender piping and bolted the fender on, only to discover that the splash plate goes on first (of course) and so I had to take it off and redo it. We learn best by doing things twice.
Harley
Harley Johansen

Did some gearbox work on my Spridget, put everything back in, attached everything, crawled under to attach the slave cylinder to the clutch, nothing sticking out of the clutch housing to attach the clutch push rod to. After a bunch of unprintable words I pulled everything again and put the throwout bearing and fork back on.

Martin (visiting from the Spridget boards)
Martin

Another one was having the front wheels up on the ramps, new oil filter installed, oil filled, engine started - no leaks. Revved up and drove down off the ramps only to see oil all over the place! Quickly put her back up on the blocks, read the manual again and then had to take it all to bits again to change that stupid oil seal at the union!
Ian Pearl

Just had my car in the shop checking a few things underneath when I discovered a loose engine mount bolt. Look a little closer to discover the two top ones are missing. Oh crap! When I switched from a Gen. to an Alt. and had to remove the coil plate and relocate the coil to the inner fender I forgot to reinstall the two top bolts.
Feeling sheepish
Kris
Kris Sorensen

I screwed a bolt into the distributor drive, so I could extract the drive from the engine. The bolt felt like it had turned several times, so I started to extract the bolt and the drive. Suddenly, the bolt got lighter, because the distributor drive fell into the oil pan! You know the rest of the story...
Had to remove the oil pan to get the drive out. Not only that, but the distributor drive was not the problem after all!
Cleve

Not car-related, but still the same theme. I once had to unplug a sink drain. The sink was full of dirty dishwater. I put a bucket under the U trap and removed the plug. Poked around and the sink finally emptied into said bucket. I then proceeded to empty the bucket into the sink, but forgetting to put back the trap plug.
Art

I replaced a head gasket on my old Plymouth. I had to do it all in one day, and finally finished the job at midnight. I drove the car the next day, occasionally getting a backfire. I didn't understand it. A little later, I got a backfire and saw black smoke emitting from under the hood (bonnet). I immediately remembered that I didn't finish tightening up the fuel line, since I never removed it, but swung it out of the way. The choke wire was arcing next to my leaking fuel line.
This would have been a bad deal, except that the only thing burning were the nylon vacuum lines, which sealed themselves shut since the engine was still running, and the next day I went to the local salvage yard and was back like new after spending $5.00. The only question I had was, "Why didn't I remember the night before, and the moment it happened, did I instantly know what I forgot to do?"
mike parker

Had another one!

Replaced the fuel sending unit. Put in a new cork gasket and all was well. Filled her up with gas and no leaks. After a winter of being laid up, with no gas in the tank, I took her out for a spring run. Filled her up, went in to pay for the gas, came back outside and it was leeking peeing out all over the forecourt!! Had to push it over to one side, jack up that side, remove the wheel and tried to tighten the screws - that didn't work! Had to drive out to another town to buy a tank patch kit, then drove around for most of the day to use up the gas as I had no-where else to put it!! Made sure I had a good gasket on there on the second attempt!!

Ian Pearl

Switching my daily driver normal tired wheels for some snow tires equipped ones, dismantling a wheel, I left a hard torqued nut and unscrew the other ones. And finally I had to fight with the "last one ".
Renou

Hi Folks. This is not auto related, but is sort of similar. Many years ago I was building an audio amplifier from a DIY kit. THe kit cost me a princely sum, but would be worth it when completed. The instructions said to use a non metal case, but I wanted a sturdy metal one. So I soldered tiny components onto the circuit board, and then installed the board into the metal case. I carefully isolated the board from the metal case to prevent damaging short circuits. I hooked up my speakers and turntable to test the unit. I didnt have proper speaker connectors, so I jury rigged the speaker outputs. Soon, the Beach Boy's tunes could be heard coming from my speakers. After several days of construction, success was mine! Unfortunately, an unsecured, uninsulated wire from one of the speakers momentarily touched the metal case when I accidentally bumped it. The music instantly died, as the 2 amplifier output transistors fried! (No, there was no overload protection on the outputs) I could have kicked myself! So close and yet so far. Cheers! Glenn
Glenn


Ian Peal writes:

"That final click of the last head-bolt that shears the stud in the block. The wrench loses it solid feel and you lift it to find the remains of the stud inside. That horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach that inevitably means a full strip down, drilling out, reverse tap and long prayers. Then the realisation of the stupidity of not changing the head studs in the first place instead of trying to re-use the old ones!! "

As some members may recall the above happened to me only a few months ago - only I used brand new studs. Can relate perfectly to that "horrible feeling".

Ian Pearl also writes:

Replaced the fuel sending unit. Put in a new cork gasket and all was well. Filled her up with gas and no leaks. After a winter of being laid up, with no gas in the tank, I took her out for a spring run. Filled her up, went in to pay for the gas, came back outside and it was leeking peeing out all over the forecourt!! Had to push it over to one side, jack up that side, remove the wheel and tried to tighten the screws - that didn't work! Had to drive out to another town to buy a tank patch kit, then drove around for most of the day to use up the gas as I had no-where else to put it!! Made sure I had a good gasket on there on the second attempt!!

Same car, I put in a brand new replacement fuel sender unit, taking great care to ensure no leaks between the send unit and the tank. All AOK. Then after the first drive the fuel gauge stops working and a leak develops from the cover plate. As a first attempt to cure the leak I jacked up the car and put a screwdriver on the cover plate screws to nip them up. All seems to be fine until I get to the final screw which shears clean off in the thread (hardly any forced applied)! Dis-heartened I remove the sender unit only to find the plastic float is full of fuel and the thin wire inside the unit is broken... all after a 2 mile trip !

Naturally, I'm now starting to become rather sceptical about replacement parts.
Steven Hill

I thought of another bad memory.
I had a car in the 70s that had a 911 engine on a custom frame. To make it easier to work on the engine, part of the rear sheet metal was removable, along with the tail lights. I had removed the sheet metal and disconnected the harness to the lights, placing it on the top of the engine. After finishing my engine work, I climbed in and started the engine. The large volume of air from the engine fan sucked the harness into the fan and shorted most of my electrical system. At least enough that I had to replace the whole thing! What a job!
Cleve

Hi Folks. Over 30 years ago, I had an MGB with no radio. So I bought a radio, and installed it in the dash. There was no place to connect the Radio's power cable under the dash. Being 20 years old, I drilled a hole in the firewall, and ran the radio cable through the hole, to a terminal on the starter solenoid. The chosen terminal on the solenoid was constantly "hot" since it connected to the ignition switch to crank the engine. When I ran the wire through the firewall, I didnt realize that the crudely drilled hole had very sharp edges! Being late in the day, I finished and tested the radio, and then parked the MG in my gravel driveway, put the car in first gear, and went to bed. When I went to go to work the next morning, I noticed several disturbing things: The car had moved forward in the driveway, and had hit the garden shed. The rear wheels had somehow dug themselves down into the gravel driveway, and the car was buried down to the rear axle. There was a stench of burnt plastic when I opened the car door. When I lifted the hood, my entire wiring harness front to rear was melted. What happened you ask? In retrospect, What happened was that the radio power lead shorted to ground where I had drilled through the firewall. This short enabled the starter solenoid, and immediately sent power to the starter. The car was (unfortunately) in gear, so the car rolled forward until it hit the garden shed. The shed stopped the car, but the rear wheels kept spinning, effectively digging the car down and burying it to the rear axle. During this fiasco, the wiring harness overheated and totally burned out. The starter circuit, in true Lucas fashion did NOT have a fuse or fusible link! Further more, the heavy current discharge warped the lead plates in my two six volt batteries, rendering them SCRAP. Being young and stupid, I then added insult to injury. I was so angry, that I kicked the front wheel, and promptly sprained my ankle! So then I had to limp to work on foot! I ended up removing and buying a used wiring harness from another MGB at the wreckers. It took a week of hard work to rewire the car, and lots more money to purchase a single 12 volt battery, which I re located to the trunk. In hindsight a 5 cent rubber grommet in the firewall hole would have prevented this entire fiasco! So now, whenever I am tempted to take a short cut, or do a half ass job, I think back to that summer day in 1973, that changed my life, and my outlook on automotive repairs. Cheers! Glenn
Glenn

This thread was discussed between 15/03/2005 and 18/03/2005

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