MG Update
It's amazing what a good, solid push and the pop of a clutch can do for a 70's era car.
On Thursday, I decided that it was time to get the MGB home. The battery was completely dead and even a half hour charging session did nothing to help that. I put about two gallons of gas in the tank (which may or may not actually be empty as the gauge doesn't read anything) and gave it a swift push across the parking lot. A smooth release of the clutch in third gear roared it life almost immediately.
Sounds great and it was. Getting a car for free leads to all sorts of bad thoughts about how bad the situation really is. Needless to say, when it actually started and drove around the parking lot, I was pretty stoked.
So it starts. Great. How does it run? Not so great. Seems to be only firing on two cylinders (hoping a simple set of new plugs and wires will fix that) and it has a nice blue tinted puff of smoke that accompanies each take off from a stop. That one is most likely a piston ring, I guess. Either way, it ran well enough to drive it home with the top down for the 12 miles or so it took me to get it in the garage.
So far I have pulled the air intake set up and the carb off of it and intend to give them a quick once over before I put them back on. I also pulled out the center console and under dash console which were pretty much trashed. Then I pulled the drivers side carpet which led to a nice rusty surprise.
So rusty in fact, I was able to stick a screwdriver right through the floor board and see the ground. I guess that needs to be replaced. The good news is that seems to be the only MAJOR rust damage and that can be easily fixed.
I can't wait to get this thing running well and out on the road!
posted by Jeremy @ 1:48 PM
2 Comments:
Reminds me of my old '77 Regal. After putting my foot through the floor Flintstone style, it was determined that large sections of the undercarriage needed to be replaced.
Depending on where it's located, you might want to give the gas tank and lines a once over as well. I ended up replacing most of the fuel system about a year after the floors.
Oh and fuzzy dice. Every old car must have fuzzy dice.
http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?productID=572
I checked the fuel tank (located under the trunk) and it is in great shape. In fact, in may have actually been replaced at one time. It is really clean. I need to check the fuel lines. That is a good tip.
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