Dangers of Extended Maintenance Intervals

moving an MG TD

Butch & John muscle another TD to the barn, with some help from Reilly

Some cars arrive here under their own power.  Others do not.  When it’s possible we farm recovery work out to our favorite Triple A tow facility, Rod’s Towing & Repair in Putney (802-387-4771, ask for Greg).  They have a knack for overcoming the boundaries of geography.  For instance, to the south  Meridan, Connecticut seems to fall within the Triple A Plus zone.   Not that I’m at all unwilling to travel.  Buffalo, New York is my Saturday destination, if it doesn’t rain too much.

heavy sediment in a TD cooling system

Cooling system disorder

The owner of this TD told us that for some time his car got very hot climbing a grade, but cooled off on the down hill side.  Lots of TD’s do that.  Because he wanted to take it to an upcoming  New England “T” Register event in the White Mountains, it seemed like a good time to look into it.

You are too, now.  This looked serious, so Butch stripped off the manifolds, popped out the bottom row of core plugs and gave the water jacket as good a scrubbing out as you can do, short of a hot tank acid bath.  The radiator took a quick trip to the radiator shop, and in fact I put paint on it only about an hour ago, so it will be ready for re-installation in the morning.

Float bowl cover full of sediment

Fuel system disorder

We have our quarrels with Moss Motors over quality control issues, and the TD 4.55 ring & pinion set from Hell is still a sore subject here, but to give credit where credit is due, they have produced some wonderful fixes for these MG’s over the years.  The Tompkins Steering kits for TC’s are one, and their thermostat housings with replaceable thermostats are another.  Both are well deserving of praise.  That’s what will be going back in

Another disorder of the ageing process is illustrated here: Fuel system sedimentation.  The MGA from whence this float bowl cover came was given over to bouts of brilliant performance, alternating with exasperating fits of the blahs.  The problem, as it is said, was obvious.  That it ran at all is a testament to the gutsy stamina of these cars.

John hoe’d it out, but the gas tank really needs to come out for a good cleaning, as well.

Butch welds seatbelt anchorages in an MGA

Butch welds seatbelt anchorages into the MGA

MGA 1600 MK II’s, like the one seen here last week, had seat belt anchorages installed from the factory.  Regrettably MGA 1500 & 1600 cars never had ’em, and an MGA without seat belts is a stupid thing, like Morgan +4’s which had no room for air cleaners.  It’s one thing to kill your engine, and quite another thing to kill yourself.

So we put ’em in, although the Morgans require some outside sheetmetal work.  My MGA actually has three point belts, but it does make it a bit of a chore to put the top up and down, so I just leave it down.  Call us and we’ll tell you how we do it.

Green cars in the 'Morgan' room

The 'Morgan' room, Thursday around 6:00: 3000MkII & TD MkII, with one owner from new.


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