Ken G's Journal

So this is my first entry for my MGB project. I bought my non-running MG for a guy who was moving down south. I was looking for a project car that I could work on, learn some new skills and teach my kids some skills at the same time. It has been ages since I had a car that had to be worked on and it is amazing how much you forget. This website has been great for help. So here is the car as I picked her up 11/17/2020.

So got it home and started to look into what I've gotten myself into. Cleaned up the carpets and vacuumed the interior. The floor pans are rusted and there were a lot of interesting electrical "modifications" . The fuel pump was directly wired to the battery using a household switch and there were cut wires everywhere in the engine compartment. The distributor was a 25D that had parts from a 45d in it.
The battery was turning the car over but even with starter fluid it wasn't starting.
I replaced the full ignition system with new coil, distributor, wires and plugs, set the timing many times and while it kept turning over it would only start using starter fluid.

The car came with a nice looking Weber DOCE, something I've never worked with, it seemed stuffed into the engine bay, but it was what I have so I'm working with it.

The first thing up was to replace the fuel pump, based on a couple of recommendations I removed the inline pump and jerry rigged switch that the PO had installed and bought a new Hardi pump and got that installed into the original mount. I blew out the steel lines and replaced the hoses and filters. I was still not getting a steady supply of fuel out of the hose or the tank, it appeared that there was sediment in the tank.
After checking it out I decided to buy a new tank instead of trying to get the old one cleaned and tested.

I got that installed over the Christmas holiday, the car was now trying to start but wasn't getting there. I pulled the idle and main jets from the carb, cleaned them up and cleaned out the float chamber which was a little junky. And we had Success!!
On Dec 28th I was finally able to get the car running, Adjusted the carb a bit and advanced the distributor and it smoothed out pretty decent.

With the car running I was able to work on some basic maintenance items for the car. I changed the oil and filter and the coolant. With the engine warmed up The tach started working, the heater gauge was alive and one of the two electric fans was turning on and off so that means the switch is working, Lots of geed news. I did break the accelerator cable so I need to replace that.

Originally my plan was to get the car running and then completely strip it down, sandblast it, fix the rust, paint and put it back together. Now I'm reconsidering that approach. At this time I think I'm going to start to work through the different systems one at a time, clean and fix them up and have the car in a running condition in the Spring. Drive the car a bit into the summer and then begin the teardown at the end of summer.

I Thin this will give me a better handle on putting the car back together and be less of a mess in the garage.

This week I've got to sort out the alternator, I installed a new battery which is doing well starting the car, but I've been forced to put on the charger as the alternator isn't doing it's job. I suspect it isn't connected properly as it only has a single wire running to it, but it isn't original so I have to do some research.

Pulled the Alternator today. It has a single large brown wire connecting . According to the wiring diagram I have another brown and yellow/brown wire that need to be connected to the alternator.

Looking at the alternator on the bench I cannot find any markings or ratings. On the back are three copper tabs, I believe that I should connect the other two wires to the tabs but I'm unsure if there should be a plug or just tabbed on. more research.

Reinstalled the Alternator today. Based on the advice here I connected the yellow/brown wire to the small post in addition to the larger brown wire on the center post. Now when I start the ignition light turns on and the battery is getting a charge and looks good under a load. Success!!

I started looking at the cooling fans, last week one was working but the other was not starting. Today I let the car warm up and neither fan started whish was a bit annoying, yet another step back.
I tested both directly and they both worked fine. I rewired them up and let the car run and get heated up and still no luck. I'm not sure if the thermostat switch went bad or I blew the circuit breaker. I plan on fiddling with that more tomorrow. Not sure how I can test the thermostat switch or the circuit breaker yet but I'll do some continuity testing on the lines. I suspect I will be replacing the original fans with a single new pull through fan and install a relay, but in the mean time I'll work with what I've got. I also need to source some of the original plastic plug connectors. Many are brittle and corroded.