This weekend I tackled the job at home I've been dreading all winter. It was
time to clean out the garage, and that involved backing out the 73 B
roadster that has perched therein, unmoving, for almost two years.
This is a car in undetermined mechanical shape with an unknown number of
miles. The engine last ran in early 2001, and then only for about three
minutes.
A car sitting in the garage for two years becomes a convienient place to
store stuff. After removing the stack of boxes from the rear trunk lid, the
soccer balls and toy trucks from the passenger seat, and the three garbage
bags from the engine compartment (bonnet removed, of course), I decided to
see what she had.
I've kept the key on my keychain since I bought her in September of 2000. At
that time I replaced the two 6v tar top batteries with a nice Napa size 26.
I got in, pushed the clutch to the floor and stuck the key in and turned it
to the run position. The fuel pump clicked nicely behind me. After it
stopped I crossed my fingers and turned the key. Four cranks and it was
running.
Not running well, mind you, but it was running all by itself. Any use of the
gas pedal other than a slow gradual increase caused the engine to sputter
and fail, occasionally backfiring.
So I threw it in reverse and slowly let out the clutch, and the engine died.
I fired her up again, same thing.
Oh, wait, I'm an idiot. Reverse in an MG is left and down, not right and
down. Trying to let the clutch out on a semi struggling engine in fourth is
sure to kill it :) Got it in reverse for real, and backed it right out.
Forgot that the brakes were shot and misjudged the distance to the van
parked at the end of the driveway and tapped bumpers. I'm thinking that
taking six feet to stop from three miles an hour in reverse with full
application of the brake pedal means I need some brake work :)
On the upside, out in the driveway under direct sunlight, without a big
black oil mark beneath it, I was able to tell very clearly exactly where the
oil was coming from.
I almost immediatley start losing oil out the dipstick. I'll be ordering one
from Moss today. What I couldn't tell was whether it was coming from the top
of the dipstick tube or the base where it meets the block. While I'm usually
of the opinion that the simplest explanation is the best, and the dipstick
is unusually loose in the tube, I'm also a bit paranoid about the condition
this car is in. Anyone ever heard of it leaking from the base of the tube?
It also, as I suspected, is losing oil from the front tappet cover plate.
I'll be replacing that gasket as well.
And bleeding the brakes, and finding out why nothing on the dash but the oil
pressure gauge works until the engine heats up, and refurbishing a whole lot
of electrical connections......
I may actually have a driving MG this summer.
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Chris Thompson
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