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The first thing was to get the engine out of the car and
the first step was to get the head off. It was found to be an MGB 1800
head that are supposed to be interchangeable with MGA blocks.
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Up to this point in time the engine had not turned over
and appeared to be seized but in taking the head off I found that the
valves on cylinder 2 were frozen. |
With the head off the engine turned over with no problems
at all by hand. |
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Next step was to get the head studs out and the push rods
and tappets. One tappet was found to be badly pitted - one of cylinder
2's. Note block is marked as a 1600 and has the original engine number.
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Looking at the sump it was obvious that the car has either
been jacked up on it or the car had suffered damage in the past from
an off road excursion. The chassis has collision damage underneath as
well. |
With the sump off the damage to the sump was passed on to
the oil strainer that is split and possibly cracked or bent. |
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I continued dismantling the engine by getting the pistons
out so that I could see the block bores and piston rings. This is when I
discovered that number 2 piston was non MGA. You can see from the picture
that it is a more slender shape the the other 3. This will not have helped
the balance of the engine. |
Here is a close up of the odd piston & conrod (lower)
compared to the original piston & conrods at the top. It is probably
an MGB conrod so I am now looking for a second hand MGA 1600 conrod and
cap. Any offers?
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The engine seized through a sticking valve. Above is the
top surface of the stuck valve cam follower. You can clearly see the
impact damage caused by the pushrod. The rest are unmarked. Apologies for
the poor picture quality
They will all be checked for cracks and replaced as
required. |
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Step 1 in dismantling was to get the brake caliper off.
This side was easy but the other was frozen on and had to be
hammered off some time ago in order to be able to roll the car around. You
need a puller to get the hubs off as shown above.
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Both came off nicely after
taking off the castle nuts and split pins revealing clean spindles |
Next step was to use a trolley jack under the lower
suspension pan and raise it until it starts to compress the spring without
lifting the chassis. The lower fulcrum bolt is then unbolted and knocked
out as in the above picture |
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Once the bolted is knocked right out using a drift to get
it to clear the lower wishbone arms and the lower steering trunnion on the
end of the kingpin, the jack is slowly lowered. The lower wishbone arms
should free themselves from the lower trunnion being forced down by the
spring as in the above picture
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The jack is completely lowered off
and removed. At this point the lower arm can be manually pivoted down out
of the way and the steering spindle/kingpin assembly rotated out wards
pivoting on the upper damper arms. At this point the spring can be removed |
As you can see from the above I discovered that one of my
springs had broken at the top inside the upper 'turret' where it is
located. I have read that this happens when the spring stops being able to
rotate? I did not even realise that they were supposed to rotate. |
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Taking the kingpin
assembly off is a simple matter of unbolting and drifting out the top pin
from the shock absorber arms. The shock absorber, bump rubber/spacer and
spring locator disc inside the turret are simply unbolted and mine came
off easily for a change. The lower suspension arms pivot on a fulcrum bar
bolted to the chassis. Its easier to take the full assembly off and then
dismantle it. Its the triangular piece in the picture to the left.
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The lower suspension
arms unbolt from the triangular pan. I have included the picture above to
illustrate how the kingpin bolt holes in the arms can elongate themselves
through wear and poor maintenance. Most wear and corrosion issues
always occur on the components that face the front and get the most
exposure to the elements. This leads to woolly feeling steering and
eventual failure
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This is the lower suspension fulcrum arm that the lower
suspension arms are bolted to. Again you can see that the end facing the
front is badly coroded compared to the opposite end that was facing the
rear.
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The above bushes came from the
inner ends of the lower suspension arms and here you can clearly see how
they became worn and the holes go from being circular to oval |
Here is one of my steering/kingpin assemblies. Again the
lower end of the kingpin has been badly corroded compared to the top
portion |
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Here
is on of my lower steering trunnions that screw on to the bottom of the
kingpins. You can just make out the corrosion damage to the thread on the
inside of the fitting facing us. You can also see that there is damage to
bearing sleeve in the other hole. Barney Gaylords website has masses
of useful data and tips about dealing with suspension including rebushing
and reaming suspension trunnions. The Tech Index is a goldmine for anyone
restoring and running an MGA and I highly recommend it to everyone.
http://www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/suspensn/susp1.htm |
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car steers on and that holds the trunnions on the kingpin is an ACME type
with a flat top to thread and in my case the corrosion on the lower half
of both kingpins and the lower trunnions was excessive and for safety
reasons I have gone for replacing the kingpins and all trunnions. This
requires some serious machine press capabilities and is not something that
can be done in the garage at home. I will let you know how I get on with
this later on. There have been cases where cracks have been found in the
suspension components and it is recommended that you have all suspension
components crack tested. Its not worth risking a failure at 70MPH.
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As a footnote I thought
that you might like to see the state of one of my calipers complete with
spiders web. As you can see the pistons are out as far as they can go and
that the car was just about out of brake material on the pads. Needless to
say the pistons are frozen. The two assemblies will be restored
professionally, again for safety reasons. |
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Removing the back axle was a
challenge thanks to completely seized bolts in areas where you could not
get to with a saw. On the left is the chassis on its side. The garage is
getting crowded now. On the right the axle minus leaf springs, drained
ready for stripping/ |
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I've included these pictures for those not familiar with
the basic axle assembly. Above is the back of one hub showing the simple
layout. The rod is from the handbrake system and the pipe is the hydraulic
line to the brake piston. |
Here is the front of the same hub with the wheel off |
Here is the same hub with the brake drum removed showing
the simple single brake piston that forces the brake shoes out. Note the
retaining spring positions and the adjusting mechanism on the other end of
the brake cylinder |
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Here is the inside of the brake drum and shows that it is
relatively clean and not scored so at least this part has survived without
damage. The brakes shoes have been removed and placed in the drum. |
Back to the rear. To get the brake piston out step one is
to disconnect the handbrake linkage and the hydraulic pipe. There is a
large bolt that secures a banjo connection that incorporates a bleed
nipple. The brake cylinder slides within the cutout of the back
plate |
Next step is to remove the protective rubber from around
the back of the brake cylinder. The arm is the hand brake lever arm that
mechanically pushes on the brake piston. |
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slide backwards, tipped outwards and removed from the front of the back
plate. It seems as if it does not come out this way but it does and needs
perseverance to do it. Dont force it in any way. It should come out by
hand force only. |
The above shows a
clean back plate. The top brake shoe pivot point is a normal bolt
connection. The lower brake cylinder slide opening shows how it is wider
for half its length. When you move the cylinder to the wider end of the
slot and rotate it at the same time, it will come out as if by magic |
To get the half shafts out is a simple process of taking
two pry bars and gently levering the end plate up the wheel retaining
bolts. The plate is welded to the axle and the whole axle should now slide
out. |
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Here is the half shaft probably out for the first time in
50 years. I have the normal 25 spline type. Both were in good condition
and showed no sign of damage |
Make sure you keep
the oil seal that will probably be stuck to the bearing safe and sound.
Note the large retaining nut. One bearing is rough and I will be
changing both. Watch this space to see how I handle using the specialised
eight sided box spanner. |
Here is the differential unit. I have to do a detailed
examination of this but visually it looks ok. I found no metal in the
axles oil and I could not detect any back lash any where which surprised
me for an old car so I suspect that it has been over hauled at some stage. |
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Here
is the bare chassis ready for restoration. Its nice to be able to put it
on its side and work stand up for a change. My back appreciates it as
well. I did some basic checks to see if there was any twist or visible
distortion anywhere. There was damage to the main tubular crossmember and
one set of front extension connector brackets appears to be 1/2 inch
higher than the other side. Everything else checked out within tolerances
. Phew |
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Here is the dent in the tubular cross member that was an
easy cut and weld fix. This appears to be a common dent on MGA's |
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and it has the usual rust through areas. The whole surrounding are was
checked to determine the extent of the rust. |
The rust was cut
out, the square box section reinforced and new metal welded in |
The square cross member was capped
off again. It had lost its original cap at some point in its past.
Fortunately the rust in the cross member was not terminal and repairable.
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Here is one of the
rear body mounts (the one that you have to be a contortionist to get to.
If my body lines up with these mounts I will sacrifice a chicken (a frozen
one that is). Fortunately there was enough left of the old one on this
side to repair and reinforce it. Note the tubular caping was missing from
here as well. |
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On the
left is the state of the chassis on the other side with a substantial rust
hole already apparent. On the left is the rust section cut out along with
rust in the firewall support member and and an area around the body
mounting bolt. Here are the repair pieces welded in and on
the right the same area dressed and primed.
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On the left is the area around the front rear suspension
mounting points is a common area where the floor rails rust away to
nothing. You can see how bad this area was on my car from the picture
above. With the chassis on its side I was able to clean up the area around
the front rear suspension bracket. The bracket itself was sound. You
can see rust damage to the rear floor board support bracket as well. |
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On the left is the
same area ready to receive replacement sections. At this stage I had
removed all the rusted floor board support rails. On the right is the rear
floor board replacement piece ready for welding in. |
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On the left, the
next floor board support repair piece is in ready for welding. This piece
follows the curve of the chassis and closes the gap between the floor
board rail and the chassis. It links up with the rear and new side floor
board support rails. On the right is the finished area showing how it
neatly fits to the rear suspension front mounting bracket |
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On the left is
the poor condition of the back board support plates and on the right is on
of the repair pieces in place. For some reason you can't get these repair
pieces in the UK and I had to go the Moss US to get them. I ended up
replacing both together with part of the rear floor board support rail |
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I have included these two pictures to show you how bad
things can look. My floor board rails looked like this at the begining. It
takes a lot of effort to cut out all the old rusted metal and get it
prepared ready for welding |
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Here is the
chassis with the new floorboard rails welded in. Generally the replacement
rails were not too bad and just needed trimming to length. Just when I
thought I was finished with the rails I discovered some rust in the front
floorboard support rails. More on this next time. |
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