Luv2Wrench

Took the choke linkages off to switch them and while doing so noticed there was a lot of slop in the whole system. First part of the problem was I didn't get the needle/jet sealer nut tight enough. Once I got that tighter it would pivot correct but, of course, that meant the jets were not centered anymore. Had to take the dashpots back off and go through the centering process again. I found a fairly simple way of doing so. While Moss sells a tool I forgot to buy it, instead I got some shim stock and formed a metal straw of sorts. I stuck that between the jet and the main body which, in effect, holds it centered (as these are concentric circles all I'm doing here is filling in the gap so the inner 'circle' can't move). After getting that together there was still more slop than I wanted. I noticed that the previous owner had replaced one of the pins in the linkage with a bolt. I replace the bolt with the proper pin but what I didn't notice was the PO had enlarged the hole to get the bolt in. I turned a new pin, drilled a hole for the cotter pin and that cleared up the problem. So now I'm done with the carbs, again. I need to bake the exhaust manifold and then get that on. After that I need to swap the ring gear, install the flywheel, starter, pressure plate, clutch, bell housing and gearbox. There are a few odds and ends up front that need to be finished and then I'll be able to put it in the car. That will certainly be a milestone moment! Bush Mechanic: yeah, brass damper lids would look great!

Fantastic job, it looks fabulous sitting there on its own wheels!

Thanks Joe. I could still use the other valve cover, I didn't think about it. When I saw it was different I just assumed that it was because the parts car was a year older. I'll check into that... it is a good idea.

I thought it was illegal to use angle iron to bend sheet metal, I thought you were required to buy a fancy brake. Nice job!!

Done!!! or so I thought. Mounted these guys on the engine to see how they looked and noticed that I have the linkages backwards.. I'll pull it apart tomorrow and swap them, will need to go get 5000 small stainless cotter pins. Those things are miserable to work with.

Roger, I was showing this thread to a friend yesterday and I really wish you could have witnessed the amazement they expressed. We're used to your incredible work as you keep just doing one jaw dropping task after another for 8 years! To see someone who isn't used to that try and take in the near finished product all at once was a real treat. After their initial shock wore off I explained that you started the project by *making* the tires and then took them back to page 1. It was really fun to watch them try and wrap their brain around the fact that each part was hand made. Wish you could have been here to see it!!!

Pretty close to being finished. I needed to plate a couple of linkage pieces so I'll add those tomorrow. I have no idea if I did it right or if they will work, but I was able to follow all the steps (sucarbs.co.uk is a great source along with Joe's site) and was fairly confident that I was doing what the directions said to do. I'm cautiously optimistic that'll they'll work with a little tuning.

Got a little time in today and managed to get the carb parts cleaned up. Unfortunately when I took the carbs apart I didn't take a lot of pictures. I figured I'd be swapping in the new parts and putting them back together almost immediately. Life interrupted and now I'm looking at a puzzle. I've got a reasonable exploded parts diagram and a few pictures so I should be able to manage. Is is typical that the *one* time I didn't take a lot of pictures would be the time that this happened.

You've been doing a great job leading, I vote you stay in front!

Wow, that's fantastic!! A 2003 Bridgeport, Kurt vise, DRO and collets... simply amazing! The area I live in is pretty much an old iron desert as well. It is rare to find old tools and when you do they're usually back in the mountains and have been seriously neglected. I've yet to find a vertical mill. When I first started looking for one I saw a mint Index mill for $850. Since I had just started looking and had no idea what a mill was worth I didn't know it snap it right up. I had my chance and missed it. I kick myself for that pretty often.

One other small task completed as well. The rear axle has check straps and those check straps have a strip of rubber in the bottom where they go around the axle. Obviously the rubber in mine was long gone. Unfortunately Moss doesn't see replacement rubber rather they sell new check straps for about $45 a piece. That's probably a great deal if you don't already have the strap, but for just the rubber and rivets it seemed like a lot. It took forever to find split rivets that had a big enough head but I finally found them and they worked perfectly. Another small task complete.

I did manage to get the throttle shaft completed. I had some 4-40 screws that I was able to use to screw the old shaft to the new shaft. With them together I could put it in the vise and then adjust the rotation of the shaft such that the drill went clean through the old hole. Then it was just a matter of tightening the vise, switch the drill for a center drill, moving the cross slide over a bit, starting the hole in the new shaft, switching back to the drill and finishing it out. There was a little bit of eye-ball work needed but it went smoothly. With the old shaft connected to the new shaft it made it trivial to cut the new shaft to length. I media blasted the bodies (at low PSI as suggested by Bush Mechanic) and cleaned up some of the other parts. I silver soldered the holes in the worn holes in the levers (as suggested by 1912Staver) and drilled them back out. Still a lot more to do but moving along.

Trip went smoothly though I didn't bring home the tool cutter/grinder. It was pretty far gone and the power hacksaw weighed a good bit more than I thought so I was running close on weight. Had the grinder been in better shape I probably would have brought part of it back and then driven back up to get the rest of it and (if I'm being honest...) drag home the Kempsmith horizontal mill disaster. I wouldn't be surprised if I do go back up there and get both of them but for now my resolve remains strong. I did find a Hardinge Cataract bench lathe, a B&S magnetic check, bunch of hold-downs, lathe dogs, stainless bar stock, etc, etc. It was a great trip. The lathe looks worse in the pictures than it is. It was stored in a basement that had small streams running through it so the humidity was 100% and thus a lot of surface rust. (update 3/1/2020). So 18 months later my resolve failed... I went back and got the Cincinnati Tool Cutter & Grinder.

Someone will chime in with something better... but a hole saw will work.

Dealing with machine shops is the primary reason I decided to start putting together a machine shop. It has been a fairly uphill struggle to get good tools and learn to use them but not having to deal with machines shops is a huge reward for that effort. The shop I used to go to, and I love the guys there to death, would take what I brought them, place it on the floor with a hundred other things and then I'd never hear from them again. Any written instructions I left would be, at best, taped to the work. I'd call starting about week 3 and the normal response was "oh, yeah, will get to it next week because we're slammed". I finally just started showing up after week two and the parts would still be sitting in the same place and I'd have to explain what needed to be done again, however, it seemed showing up repeatedly would somehow make the work get into the flow and get done. I'm worried about your transmission guy as well. There's a lot more challenging parts to rebuilding that tranny than getting the tail shaft off. The workshop manual isn't the best, that's true, but he could Google that and find the answers in "his english" real quick... a lot quicker than 3 hours.

Looking very nice! I like the idea of the primer after the soda blasting but I'd probably want to inspect the parts before they applied it. As said, miss something there and it'll come back some time later. Nice shop btw!!

Hey thanks Mike! Please do post a link to you MGB V8 rebuild as I'm sure everyone here would love to see it.

Yeah, just got the same shaft, way too long, no hole for the idle stop lever, etc, etc. I did manage to ream out the old bushings and press new ones in and the shaft is nice and snug now so I'm pretty happy about that. I won't be getting any work done this weekend as I am on a old machine tool hunt. I've found a few interesting items and I'll be driving about an 8 hour loop to look at them. Hopefully I can bring home some goodies. An old Racine power hacksaw is target number one and I feel good about that one. A very old Cincinnati Tool Grinder/Cutter is another target but I think it may be too far gone. Should be a fun trip.

Without that valuable episode I wouldn't have realized I could weld with my Multimeter. I have the same Fluke so it was particularly helpful for me. I didn't know about the voice synthesizer mode either, and boy is that helpful.

Wow, just WOW!!! It already looked amazing but somehow when it is put together it looks EVEN BETTER.

Wow, that's really looking great now Joe!!

I'm a subscriber to This Old Tony and had never even heard of a two piece vise until that episode. Finding one immediately on CL and then Joe using one was quite the odd coincidence. I tried to follow along but my kitchen knife couldn't cut the steel stock I started with.

Great work as always, really great to see it taking shape on the engine! That's a nice two piece vise. I found a Bison on CL but the seller doesn't want to ship it and I'm not willing to drive that far for a vise that doesn't fit a table that I currently own. I'll need it one day and I'll probably regret that decision. The hold downs with the mini-stair steps looks really useful, what is that called?

Woot!!! Can't wait to see.

Not much to report. Ran the brake lines and fuel line, hopefully didn't get them crossed. Identified more brass washers I was missing and ordered those along with other small various items that I can't figure out how I didn't know I would need. Getting ready to replace the throttle shaft bushings in the carb, should have the bushings mid-week. I think I have the rest of the parts to complete the carb overhaul but I thought that already, twice.