Bush Mechanic

It's been a LONG time since I worked on one of those. I thought I remembered the rear seal on the piston being located in a ring groove, to stop fluid leakage from the rear. The exploded view seems to show the locating groove (on the left end of the piston), but shows the seal midway along. And your photo of the piston does not show a locating groove. But academic, if you have a new cylinder coming. I do remember that the car in question had the brakes locking on, and 2 brake shops had given up on it. I found that the push-rod had been extended too far on rebuild, and the piston seal was not uncovering the fluid-return hole on the return stroke. Hence it was pumping up. That was one happy MG owner, when I reinstalled it. The handbrake sounds like the short term solution. A nice turned-leg kitchen chair tied on there would look the part, to move it outside. I think you are going great guns with it. keep it up!

Jeff, the leaks are to be expected. After all, it is an MG. Cannot tell from the photos whether the Welsh plugs are the cup type, or the saucer type found on MGB's and 'A' Series engines. The latter type have been giving a lot of trouble lately, apparently due to the punches used in their manufacture wearing out. The edges appear a little rough, and they fail to seal, even with Stag, or a non hard setting sealant. The last MGB that I rebuilt leaked from 3 of the 4 plugs. First Welsh plug leaks in my many rebuilds over the years. The fix is to buy over-sized plugs, and turn them to size on that lathe of yours. You can hold them adequately against the 3 jaw chuck with pressure from the tail-stock centre. I used brass plugs, and they turn very nicely. A little non-hard-setting sealant, and fixed. I had to pull the engine out to get at the rear plug, which was annoying, as everything under the bonnet was as-new, painted and pretty. Mick

A UK product, I think. The land of the SU carburettor. Edit. Yes, I have found the instruction sheet. It is a 'Gunson's Colortune', from Gunson's Ltd., Pudding Mill Lane, London, E15 2PJ. Mine is pre-internet, so the address may be a little out of date.

Spinney, they are invaluable when playing with SU's, especially when you are altering your own needles to suit 'improved' engines. There is nothing quite like looking at the flame in each cylinder, and adjusting the mixture to just the right heat/colour. Well regarded by many of the 'fast MG' crowd. Can save you a lot of road time with an exhaust gas analyzer. Also handy when you have spark at the plug lead, but are doubtful if the plug is firing under compression. You literally watch the spark inside the cylinder. Basically a glass spark plug, for the benefit of those who have not had the pleasure.

Great stuff! It's making all of the right noises. MG's are pretty forgiving in their start-up settings. Get it properly warmed up before setting the mixtures. If you can borrow a colour-tune device, it will be a big help in getting the mixtures correct. It's very helpful to be able to observe the flame colour inside the cylinders at different rev levels. Otherwise, the method described in the manual will suffice.

Dandy Dave, I agree with the thirst of those devices. My experience was with a Lincoln Tractapack powered by a Holden 202ci engine, and my abiding memory of that thing is it's ability to consume drums of fuel! It did a good job, though, for all that. Very handy, I found, for welding tyre levers into the broken chassis frame on our Bedford truck, following a mishap out in the bush.

"Hey Curti, I agree I did not like the quite factor either, it just did not feel like I had power under my seat. Neil Young had written an autobiography a few years ago besides being a musician, is also a vintage auto enthusiast, and made a statement that if they want the electric cars to take off they need to attract the true car people and it needs to sound and feel more like a performance car if they want it to be successful" A friend in France was shopping for a EV for a business run-about. One he drove had a sound system built in which gave you a choice of exhaust noises as you accelerated. Perfect for the rev-heads among us, though my friend asked the salesman to turn it off. That easy. Cannot remember the make of vehicle, but obviously the execs listen to Neil Young! And in Norway, where the government looks after the folk who drive EV's, Teslas are everywhere. Not unusual to pull up at the lights and have 3 Teslas around you. Not having been exposed to them previously, it took a while to figure out what all of those cars with 'T' on the boot were! And charging stations seemed to be in most car parks. I believe Norway is a bulk exporter of electricity, which no doubt helps.

Thanks, Carl. That kit is likely the one that I heard rumours about, here in Tasmania, 25 years ago.. Looks good. Requires the the lower sections to be welded onto the guards, so obviously not GRP, ha,ha. Grille is extra, but not expensive. If I had access to the internet in those days, I may have found it.

Sorry Carl, but the chrome bumper cars have considerable differences in the mudguards, (fenders?), front and back. Been down that road. I have seen one conversion of a rubber bumper car to chrome bumper, but it took quite a bit of clever panel work and a lot of time to accomplish. The guards on a rubber bumper finish a lot higher up the body-line, unfortunately. Apparently there was once an aftermarket kit (in Aus.) with, I think, four skirts and a front apron available in GRP, but my enquiries about it proved fruitless. So I sold on the only rubber bumper car that I have owned.

That appeared to be molasses dripping from the green drum. Unrefined sugar. It seemed to do an acceptable job on the surface rust. I was under the impression that the active ingredient in molasses was an acid, but apparently not, according to the narrator. I'm currently using a citric acid bath, which is working well for smaller components.

Greg, they are indispensable where I live, as they still work to call the power company when a tree takes the lines down. And that happens often. Haven't had to clout anyone with it to date, though. Apologies for wandering off topic.

JV, that is fairly close. It won't need the removal of a lot of metal to square it up. Or the addition of metal to the other end. (Sorry, my thinking immediately includes the use of welders). Personally, I cheat and work the other way around. Starting with the flanges bolted to the head, and working outward, tacking with the welder and getting the flows right. It is really interesting watching how a good machinist goes about achieving the same result. Great work, and you are almost there with the exhaust manifold. It looks a treat with those cooling fins.

Bought an early sixties VW beetle to get over to Western Australia in about 1973. Drove across the country OK, then down in the South West, sniffing around for cheap 4WD's to take back East. Late Friday afternoon, and we burned a hole in a piston in the VW. I hitched a ride into the only town in the region, purchased a cheap hotted-up Chrysler Valiant, a tow-rope and a tank of fuel. We towed the VW back to Perth, 250 miles, that night. Next day I pulled the cylinder off and removed the piston. The local wrecking yard charged me the princely sum of $3 for a used piston with rings and gudgeon pin. Got it in the base of the cylinder, onto the rod, bolted her up, and she was fixed. Heard later that the young bloke whom I sold the VW to was running drugs up to Geraldton, and he did quite a few trips before it seized, when he left it on the road side. They were a popular car in Australia, and cut-down VW's were highly regarded work horses in the sheep station country here. The large diameter wheels and slow revving motor made them ideal in sand-hill country. Of course, later they were popular as Beach Buggies and the like, for the same reason.

In Oz the 1939 Chev 2 door was known as a 'sloper', with more of a fast-back styling than the US offering. Mine was sold to me as a 'Businessman's coupe', and the two components of the rear seat were made to release, and to be lifted out. I found this to be an excellent arrangement, combined with the generously sized boot lid. It carried some large loads for me, including on one memorable occasion when I used it to transport a small horse down to the Kindergarten Fete. Seat base out, open the passenger door wide, front seat folded forward, and the pony walked in and stood quietly with his head out the window for the trip. The toddlers loved it, when I pulled up and walked him out the driver's side. That was my first registered vehicle, and I remember it as robust and utilitarian. Not sure of the trim level, as I had nothing to compare it against.

Those SU's look very neat. And the brass fittings set them off nicely. You should have no trouble picking up a pair of original brass damper lids to finish them off. Well done, mate.

Talking to an owner recently, and apparently there is no longer a 2 year waiting list for a new Morgan. They are still hand built, and still persisting with the sliding pillar front suspension. I have memories of my '48 4/4 leaping into the air if it ran over a match-stick on the road. It was quaint, idiosyncratic, and too slow. But a lot of fun. That was a basket case that I cobbled together in 1968. Covered a lot of miles in it, and smiled the whole time. And yes, 1912Staver, there was a LOT of chassis twist, possibly to compensate for the lack of compliance in the suspension. And no doubt exacerbated by the number of fine cracks in the chassis. But, hey, who cares when you are 21?

Martin, there is a steady stream of camper vans going in the opposite direction. Arriving in Canada from Europe, then travelling down through the US, and on to the South American loop. Perhaps look at some of the blog sites which cover this type of activity. We spoke to several of them, in Mexico, but I have no knowledge of where their insurance was based. These problems take a bit of working around, but you WILL find a way to do this. Canadian insurance, perhaps? Progressive gave us insurance without any trouble, (as Aliens), but we had purchased a van in California, and had the use of an address in NC. Good luck, and make it happen. There is a lot of beautiful country to see in the States, and great people.

I'm not an expert on early bodies, but it is quite likely that the door is OK, and the tub itself has sagged outward. The one I'm working on at the moment (1923) has a couple of bad gaps, until I fit the packing pieces between the body and chassis. It is more likely the 'B' post at fault than the 'A' post at the cowl, so I would look first at the steel angle bracket holding the 'B' post. This is assuming that I have understood correctly that the gap is across the body. If it is along the body it will most likely be a packing adjustment issue between the body and chassis. The body is off the chassis, so is free to sag and move out of line. My apologies if I misunderstood your problem. Sweet little car, too.

Wow! That's around 4.9 litres. Quite a large displacement, to my way of thinking. (Though not by US standards, no doubt). It should produce plenty of usable torque at low revs. While I don't know what the upper rev limit would be in an engine of that type, I imagine at 2000 it would be pretty busy. Or do these old girls safely spin well above that?

That came out well. Certainly a substantial component. Can you tell us the displacement of this engine, please? I am sure it is in the previous text, but I have not been able to locate it. It looks such a small car on the flat-bed, while the engine looks to be of a larger capacity.

And the SCAT project that I was chasing was Società Ceirano Automobili Torino. Unfortunately I had a lot of competition from Italy and the eventual buyer, who was from Germany. Another one that left Australia to return to Europe.

Unfortunately I dropped mine, and now it's stuck in Cantonese.

I had not heard of one either. Something a bit heavier would be handy. It's hard to better This Old Tony. I finally watched the multi-metre episode last night. April first release. Tears were running from laughter.

You could build one yourself, when you have nothing else to do...

" but I'm in this so far that I don't see any reason to stop now." Now that's the kind of sentiment we need!