Passenger Rocker Panel, Door Sill, and Inner Membrane Removal

 

Rocker panel removed, castle rail coming off.

Dogleg panel cut off.

Castle rail half off.

 

Last part of inner sill hanging by a thread.

 

Deconstruction complete. The floor needs a few patches, and then new parts can start going in. Luckily the driver side does not seem to be this bad, fingers crossed.

Engine: All the little bits

New thermostat going in.

 

New oil pressure relief valve installed, I messed up my PAINT!

Alternator bracket, oil filter adapter, new heater control valve, and reworked distributor installed.

Pretty lifter covers fitted with new seals.

Manifolds installed with new high temperature paint.

And finally, engine mounts. This concludes engine assembly for a while. Carbs will be rebuilt before installation after engine is back in the car. On to body work now.

Head and Rockers!

New head bolts

New head gasket

Old head, ready to go.

Head on, lifters and push rods installed.

Valve rocker assembly installed, head torqued, valves adjusted. This is starting to look like an engine!

 

Oil Pump

New oil pump

Ready for installation

In there

Torqued

Oil pickup screen installed, done.

 

Timing

Timing gear installation

New seal

New chain tensioner

Shiny new paint, timing gears done.

 

Pistons In

 

New rod bearings going in

Oil control ring

Compression rings

Piston #1

Piston #2

All four done

Engine Progress

 

No, that is not the same engine picture from before. The crank shaft didn't fit right and it had to go back to the shop where they were so nice as to clean the engine for me, again. But I am getting ahead of myself.

 

The block needed a line bore to get things fitting right. So the grand total is .040 off the crank main journals and .020 off the rod journals, along with a .020 overbore. She is ready to go now.

 

 

With the crank torqued in place with all the new bearings and thrust washers installed there is .0045 inch of endfloat, exactly as the manual says it should. Finally I can get to work on putting this engine together!

Castle Rail Repair Begins

 

Time to take the right fender off and begin castle rail repair.

The fender looks fairly good, there are some small rust holes in the bottom that will get repaired.

The rocker, inner web and castle rail are all shot, at least on the front end.

Pedal Work

 

 

I found the pedals had too much play between the bushings and the bolt.

 

The bushings pressed out by hand.

 

 The best piece of scrap I had for the job was the old rear axle strap post, the outside diameter was only a few thousandths bigger than I needed, this made quick work of the project. The best kind of recycling.

 

All back together and nice and tight.

Distributor Clean Up

 

 This thing is a mess, the vacuum advance adjuster won't turn and the assembly is corroded.  

 

Inside it's not so bad, just some varnishing of old oil.  

 

 

Haynes says this number was originally on a high compression engine, if you can call 8.8:1 high compression. 

 

 

The wire wheel cleaned up the vacuum advance nicely, now to apply some clear coat to keep it looking this way.  Also I was able to straighten the threaded part of the vacuum advance.

 

Upon reassembly I found the contact breaker baseplate had some wear on the sides of the slot for the top plate to rotate in. A smidge of filing and a few second with the wire wheel, and everything rotates smoothly again. Time to put it together, for real this time. 

 

 

All done. And look, you can see that it is a Lucas part again. Is that a good thing? 

 

     That's all for the distributor. This should make everything run better, and also make the ignition easier to fine tune with the thumb wheel.

Transmission Mount Bushing

 

 

This task may seem a bit unworthy of its own post, but it was difficult to find this trick on the interwebs. I saw mention of the string method but with no pictures. What we are looking at is the MGB rear transmission mount, or butterfly. The old bushings swelled up with leaking oil and needed to be replaced. It's a tight fit, I tried pressing them in and it didn't work. So here is the string method. Put your string or cord through the mount then tie it to the new bushing waist.

 

 

Clamp the mount in a soft vice so you don't mess up your fresh paint. Then start pulling on the cord. I forgot to mention, lube the bushing up with petroleum jelly or rubber grease first. Get one side through the hole, then pull with one hand push on the other side with a screwdriver.

 

Eventually the bushing will pop through the hole. It is not easy, but it does work.

 

There you go, now you have to get the string out of the way, I used a fish hook shaped pick to pull the knot out. 

 

Repeat on the other half of the mount, add the bolt, and you are done with that simple, yet horrible task. I hear making all the holes on the transmission, mount and cross member line up is almost as fun, can't wait.