It has been a while but I'm back working on the MG. Next, we will be getting ready to take the engine and gearbox out! Hope you're enjoying the videos.
Glad to see an update video! There aren't a ton of us young MG owners on YT, really enjoy your channel. I just cleaned and repainted my wire wheels myself - it was a pretty easy and fun project. If you have the time and feel like doing it, I highly recommend re-doing the wheels yourself. It's a part of the car that everyone sees and that looks nice - but no one really looks THAT close at. Save the money for something else on the restoration and do them yourself. Keep up the great work brother - hello from Buffalo, NY, USA
Great video, moss sells a beautiful wire wheel silver that looks fabulous and is extremely durable. Those disk wheels are rare and I think look great. Enjoy your MG!
Enjoyable video. As others have mentioned It did appear from the video that you didn't open the throttle fully to do the compression test and there was even more of a question mark over this since 2 cylinders were 115 psig & 2 were 110 psig (which may happen if the carbs aren't balanced at idle speed throttle opening). Although the battery is 12 Volts, the charging system should maintain approximately 14 Volts at the battery with engine above idle speed. In my view the original dynamo is adequate seeing as the car is fitted with a 3 coil Regulator (cheaper cars such as the Mini only had 2 coil regulators; the Austin Morris 1100 had the more expensive and technically superior 3 coil units). The 3 coil regulator had a dedicated coil for Voltage & another dedicated coil for Current limiting whereas the 2 coil unit had the current limitation coil & Voltage regulation coil integral on one solenoid; this led to poorer voltage regulation as current had influence on the Regulator Voltage `setpoint' of around 14 Volts (reducing the outlet Voltage as current increases) at all times whereas you only want current limitation to cut in at say 35 Amps. The Regulator's contacts are handling the smaller field current of the dynamo. This seems quite a good website although it doesn't appear to mention 3 coil Regulators and their superiority as compared to the 2 coil units :- matchlessclueless.com/electrical/how-it-works/lucas-voltage-regulator/
Good to see you've sorted the engine :-) I've just got myself a 72 gt which needs light refurb as it is a very solid rust free car. Have a go at the wheels yourself, I'm sure you will do a great job 😊
I'd swap out the dynamo for an alternator (relatively easy to do) and fit an electronic ignition kit. My brothers Stag ran so much better with latter, a big improvement for these old motors.
You mentioned 110 psi. That's pretty low for a UK spec car. I think they should all be around 160. I could be mistaken, but I think those wheels are pretty valuable at least here in the states they are. Do you have the chrome hub caps? That's the hard part to get. They have a nice vintage look. Personally, I'd sand them. If you sand blast, the grit may get into the seams and tough to get out. Put some rust encapsulator in the difficult to reach seam. Enjoying your videos, David (near Boston).
It appears he had the throttle closed while cranking, which would make a difference, and considering the engine's age, I'd expect to lose some past older rings, valve seats that aren't as perfect as when they were new, etc. Also, I'm not entirely sure which engine he's running - some came with 8:1 compression and only made 130 psi from new. The engine number prefix should tell, as I'm told they should start with H for high compression or L for low, but I haven't noticed that info in his vids so far. But the main thing is that they are relatively even, so it's not a catastrophic problem with one or two cylinders. Even a worn engine should run fairly smoothly on all cylinders, even if it's down on power a bit.
Thanks, mate. I thought it might be. Still, it could probably use a valve job to pick it up a bit more - they usually didn't take all that long to lose their seal if you've been running rich for a while (the carbon buildup messes them up a bit.) Good to see it up and running, though - I'm just a little bit jealous. :-)
Hi there, anymore plans to improve or are you just going to run the car as is ? I am currently restoring my roadster 73 and share the pain lol. I have a way to go yet with new floors and rear wings to do but I have also done a lot of upgrades.keep uploading the vids and good luck!
You should be able to sand down the wheels and get a good finish on them without having to go to a professional. I look forward to more videos, it's coming along nicely.
Just a word of warning... I would be a little more careful to diagnose your problem before just replacing everything. As a general rule the original parts on the car are off a much higher quality than anything you can buy new so it may be better to have the generator rebuilt and the regulator cleaned if that was your problem, especially in the UK where there are specialists to do the job nicely. That said your problem was probably just dirty contacts which you solved by pulling them off and putting them on the new regulator or it is more likely that you had a wiring issue thats likely to come back. Its natural to want to se new shiny parts on the car, but its often better to find out exactly what the problem was and fix the original parts. Parts for these cars are cheaper than they were when the car was new for a reason.
greg novak very true that new parts aren’t as good, even one of the regulators I bought didn’t work. However we did test each component and found that they were faulty- Dynamo was only producing 0.5 volts and even with the new dynamo the regulator wasn’t switching like it should - technology changed for a reason as these are temperamental.
It has been a while but I'm back working on the MG. Next, we will be getting ready to take the engine and gearbox out! Hope you're enjoying the videos.
Happy to see you on the project again. Owned a drop head coup for 6 years.Always liked it very much.Looking forward to your journey ahead.
Glad to see an update video! There aren't a ton of us young MG owners on YT, really enjoy your channel. I just cleaned and repainted my wire wheels myself - it was a pretty easy and fun project. If you have the time and feel like doing it, I highly recommend re-doing the wheels yourself. It's a part of the car that everyone sees and that looks nice - but no one really looks THAT close at. Save the money for something else on the restoration and do them yourself. Keep up the great work brother - hello from Buffalo, NY, USA
Great video, moss sells a beautiful wire wheel silver that looks fabulous and is extremely durable. Those disk wheels are rare and I think look great. Enjoy your MG!
Enjoyable video. As others have mentioned It did appear from the video that you didn't open the throttle fully to do the compression test and there was even more of a question mark over this since 2 cylinders were 115 psig & 2 were 110 psig (which may happen if the carbs aren't balanced at idle speed throttle opening).
Although the battery is 12 Volts, the charging system should maintain approximately 14 Volts at the battery with engine above idle speed. In my view the original dynamo is adequate seeing as the car is fitted with a 3 coil Regulator (cheaper cars such as the Mini only had 2 coil regulators; the Austin Morris 1100 had the more expensive and technically superior 3 coil units).
The 3 coil regulator had a dedicated coil for Voltage & another dedicated coil for Current limiting whereas the 2 coil unit had the current limitation coil & Voltage regulation coil integral on one solenoid; this led to poorer voltage regulation as current had influence on the Regulator Voltage `setpoint' of around 14 Volts (reducing the outlet Voltage as current increases) at all times whereas you only want current limitation to cut in at say 35 Amps. The Regulator's contacts are handling the smaller field current of the dynamo.
This seems quite a good website although it doesn't appear to mention 3 coil Regulators and their superiority as compared to the 2 coil units :-
matchlessclueless.com/electrical/how-it-works/lucas-voltage-regulator/
I have enjoyed your videos. good luck with the engine rebuild.
nice to see you back on the MG, you could probably get away with a valve job to raise your psi on your cylinders. looking forward to seeing more.
Great vid.ideally spoke wheels.if not do the existing wheels yourself
Your videos are fantastic, I have just acquired a Jubilee which needs quite a lot of work but I think it can be saved! Keep up the good work! Paul.
Good to see you've sorted the engine :-) I've just got myself a 72 gt which needs light refurb as it is a very solid rust free car.
Have a go at the wheels yourself, I'm sure you will do a great job 😊
Just subscribed, looking forward to watching your car progress.
I'd swap out the dynamo for an alternator (relatively easy to do) and fit an electronic ignition kit. My brothers Stag ran so much better with latter, a big improvement for these old motors.
Did you check the points and condenser when you were investigating the rough running. Definitely powder coat the wheels- will transform the appearance
I have been watching with excitement, so what's the latest ? Have you taken the engine& gearbox out ?
You mentioned 110 psi. That's pretty low for a UK spec car. I think they should all be around 160. I could be mistaken, but I think those wheels are pretty valuable at least here in the states they are. Do you have the chrome hub caps? That's the hard part to get. They have a nice vintage look. Personally, I'd sand them. If you sand blast, the grit may get into the seams and tough to get out. Put some rust encapsulator in the difficult to reach seam. Enjoying your videos, David (near Boston).
It appears he had the throttle closed while cranking, which would make a difference, and considering the engine's age, I'd expect to lose some past older rings, valve seats that aren't as perfect as when they were new, etc. Also, I'm not entirely sure which engine he's running - some came with 8:1 compression and only made 130 psi from new. The engine number prefix should tell, as I'm told they should start with H for high compression or L for low, but I haven't noticed that info in his vids so far.
But the main thing is that they are relatively even, so it's not a catastrophic problem with one or two cylinders. Even a worn engine should run fairly smoothly on all cylinders, even if it's down on power a bit.
aussiebloke609 it is an earlier engine so has lower compression. I’m going to be taking the engine out so we can see how it looks
Thanks, mate. I thought it might be. Still, it could probably use a valve job to pick it up a bit more - they usually didn't take all that long to lose their seal if you've been running rich for a while (the carbon buildup messes them up a bit.) Good to see it up and running, though - I'm just a little bit jealous. :-)
Hi there, anymore plans to improve or are you just going to run the car as is ? I am currently restoring my roadster 73 and share the pain lol. I have a way to go yet with new floors and rear wings to do but I have also done a lot of upgrades.keep uploading the vids and good luck!
You should be able to sand down the wheels and get a good finish on them without having to go to a professional. I look forward to more videos, it's coming along nicely.
Are you still working on the MGB?
Just a word of warning... I would be a little more careful to diagnose your problem before just replacing everything. As a general rule the original parts on the car are off a much higher quality than anything you can buy new so it may be better to have the generator rebuilt and the regulator cleaned if that was your problem, especially in the UK where there are specialists to do the job nicely. That said your problem was probably just dirty contacts which you solved by pulling them off and putting them on the new regulator or it is more likely that you had a wiring issue thats likely to come back. Its natural to want to se new shiny parts on the car, but its often better to find out exactly what the problem was and fix the original parts. Parts for these cars are cheaper than they were when the car was new for a reason.
greg novak very true that new parts aren’t as good, even one of the regulators I bought didn’t work. However we did test each component and found that they were faulty- Dynamo was only producing 0.5 volts and even with the new dynamo the regulator wasn’t switching like it should - technology changed for a reason as these are temperamental.
What happen to the car dude?