Dan's 1976 MGB

Spent about 20 minutes driving the car again last night (before massive thunderstorm!). I put some carb cleaner in the fuel, and also added a couple gallons of fresh gas from the lawnmower gas can. I figure I will do that until all of the old stuff is used up. But I want to keep adding fresh gas as the bottom portion of the gas that is in the tank is probably pretty rough..... I guess I could have drained the tank, but I hate to waste the gas... ;-)

The passenger's side front brake seems to be scraping a bit. I need to check the pads on that side. The look ok peering through the wheel, but it's hard to get light onto the brake pads and still be able to see.

Other things to be done -

1) Driver's side headlight low beam is out, so need a new headlight.
2) Tires - the newest tires are over 10 years old, so I really need to replace all of them
due to age.... Going to get the cheapest Pep Boys tires I can!
3) Ground strap - will need to put a nut onto the strap to make sure it grounds
securely (winter)
4) I think I will rebuild the carb this winter. Rebuild kits are about $60 or so,
much cheaper than having it rebuilt (like $200+). This will be a good winter
project.

I don't want to spend a ton on this car, since it's a real rust bucket underneath, but I do want it to be reliable for regular use. So, once the bad gas is through, I will go through John Twist's article on tuning the Z-S and see how far that takes me prior to the rebuild.

Drove the car a bit more yesterday, I have just over 1/2 tank of gas in the car that is 3+ years old, so I need to work that out before I can really get to tuning it up. But I took Colleen and Kathleen for rides, and the boys drove it as well....

AJ driving....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c30/ddibiase/1976%20MGB%20Engine%20Work/?action=view&current=P7190071.flv

Rob driving.....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c30/ddibiase/1976%20MGB%20Engine%20Work/?action=view&current=P7190070.flv


http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c30/ddibiase/1976%20MGB%20Engine%20Work/?action=view&current=P7190071-1.flv

I noticed a little anti-freeze on the garage floor this morning, so need to chase that down (may just have been overfilled). But the plan is to drive it around until I use most of that bad gas (I might just mix in fresh gas from the lawn mower gas can) and then tune it up.

It's great to have it back on the road!

(Cue Gene Wilder from Young Frankenstein here....)

Well, today, for the first time in about 3 years, the 1976 MGB backed out of the garage under it's own power for several trips around the block! What a great feeling for sure....

On Tuesday, I had the battery recharged. I figured, before I start chasing down power at various points, let me check the battery, make sure it can still hold a full charge. So today, I checked it - 12 volts - and put it back in the car. Decided to try and start it, and when I turned the key, it immediately cranked! What a surprise! So, I cranked it a bit to build up some oil pressure, which took just a minute or two of cranking. Then I connected the coil wire to the distributor, cranked it and it started so quickly that I could not believe it! Here is the video of it running, with my commentary....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c30/ddibiase/1976%20MGB%20Engine%20Work/?action=view&current=P7180066.flv

Pretty exciting, to say the least! But I still had several things to do before I could get on the road -

1) Remove the tires and take to the gas station to fill with air
2) Tighten the crossmember, which I had loosened to check the ground strap
3) Put the transmission stabilizer rod in place - never did this after replacing the engine
4) Check the oil and dashpot oil - added some Marvel Mystery oil to the latter
5) Add some brake fluid

So I fired it up, and moved it back-and-forth in the garage to check the transmission and brakes - they seemed ok, so I rolled it down the driveway and around the block a few times!

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c30/ddibiase/1976%20MGB%20Engine%20Work/?action=view&current=P7180067-1.flv

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c30/ddibiase/1976%20MGB%20Engine%20Work/?action=view&current=P7180068.flv

It's idling pretty fast, so I need to adjust that. And there is a pretty bad smell, which I think is the plastic wrap and label on the exhaust pipe burning off. But it shifts well and seems to run pretty good, so I can hopefully make a few adjustments and start driving it around again!

Well, did some more chasing down and eliminating of possibilities today..... I removed the battery ground cable and cleaned off the battery box where it attaches with a wire brush, to get a nice clean ground. Then I started to do some diagnostics on the non-starting. So I checked the relay (even though it's new) by putting the brown wire on the terminal for the red/white wire, and heard the relay 'click' - so the relay is fine. Then I put the brown wire on the terminal for the brown/white wire - which should turn the starter - no starter, so that probably means it's the starter solenoid. I looked at the wiring on the actual solenoid, and it seems to be okay when I compare it to the schematic in Rick Astley's MGB Electrical Systems. So the next step will be to start testing the voltage at various points, once I figure out how to use my multimeter!