| THE MG |
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 | |  | November 11, 2010 - The T56 transmission has a lockout on reverse.
It's triggered by the ECU, and locks out reverse anytime you're above 5 mph. Pretty smart - I've driven cars with the same lockout triggered by the brake lights, and that works fairly well until you try to downshift from 6th to 5th while braking, and get reverse instead.
The problem is that the solenoid is pretty big. It wouldn't fit in the transmission tunnel. Instead of modifying the tunnel, I decided to leave the solenoid off and then build an access panel in the side of the tunnel so it can be installed once the transmission is in situ. I also need to put a small bulge in the panel to clear the solenoid, but not too big. I'm almost done that now.
entry 444 - tags: reverse, transmission, fitment | | | November 11, 2010 - Janel asked me a good question.
"What do you have to do in order to get the car to the point where you can drive it around more?" The answer? Not that much, really. The biggest delay right now is the master cylinder (which should be here tomorrow), some anti-rattle hardware for the brakes (ditto) and the cooling. Since there are no fans on the radiator at the moment, I'm a bit leery about driving it too far. I'll have the new radiator and fan setup before too long and then I have to mount it.
But really, it's not far off. Sure, the car will look rough with the cut-out wheel wells, a stripped interior and exposed wiring. But it'll be mechanically sound enough to take on longer drives on real roads. Maybe I should commit and get a set of plates for it!
entry 445 - tags: almost there | | |  | November 12, 2010 - It really doesn't have much to do with the MG, but the new book is here!
Actually, working on this book did prevent me from working on the MG for a while. Still, it's an exciting day. After spending so much time with the book in digital form, holding it in my hands (it's heavy!) is a treat.
More information on the book can be found at slowcarfast.com.
entry 446 - tags: book | | |  | November 13, 2010 - I felt like making some noise today, so it was time to modify the bumper supports.
The original design had the bumper supports bolted laterally through the frame horns. Those were cut off quite some time ago, and there's a crossmember in the way. Luckily, I realized this was coming when I installed the crossmember so I welded some captive nuts inside for the bumper to bolt to. The front bolt was left as-is.
All I had to do was cut the support in half, turn the rear section 90 degrees and weld it up with a little plate for strength. Voila!
entry 447 - tags: bumper | | |  | November 13, 2010 - I also spent quite a bit of time goofing around with the Special Tuning air dam.
It's almost like I'm trying to adapt a piece designed for a different car to an MG. Almost. Anyhow, I've drilled a bunch of holes and hung it in approximately the correct location. The bumper's on quite crooked here to really finish off the appearance.
I'll paint it black at some point and when the car is finished, spend some time evaluating the look. I know it'll help at high speed, but I'm not really worried about front-end lift over 100 mph.
Sharp eyes may notice the Nova badge zip-tied to the grille in the same approximate location that MG put the V8 badge on some cars. I like it.
entry 448 - tags: body, spoiler, bumper, badge | | |  | November 13, 2010 - The access panel for the reverse solenoid lock-out is in place.
It sure doesn't look pretty, especially in shiny black paint trying to make the welds look a boogery as possible, but it does the job. The idea was to 1) make it removable for future transmission removal or solenoid access and 2) add a bulge to allow the solenoid to clear the tunnel. It'll be covered by carpet eventually so it'll never be seen again, and I sealed the gap around the edges. So, not an easy thing to remove. But it can be removed.
The solenoid seems to be working. The spring inside certainly adds to the effort of hitting reverse, and as far as I can tell it's locking out reverse completely above 5 mph. I'll test it further once I'm on the road.
entry 449 - tags: reverse, transmission, fitment | | | November 14, 2010 - I've been hearing from all sorts of people following the "first drive" video.
I feel a little guilty for not making it a better video to watch. The next one will be better.
I get an email every week from The B Hive with weekly specials. It's actually kind of amusing - almost none of the specials are for products I can use, as they've been replaced by non-MG parts in my car!
entry 450 | | |  | November 15, 2010 - With the video of the first drive getting attention, I'm fielding a few questions about the car.
The most common is about the wide track and the suspension choices, typically with people pointing out that I could have used a bolt-in setup from Fast Cars. I did actually use a rear end similar to their design. But here's a recap of the thinking, all gathered together in one place. This is taken from an email I sent to someone.
About the BGT's suspension - I decided to go with Miata suspension on
the car, in large part because it's a setup I understand very well
given my history. I also have a large collection of spare parts, and
this makes it much easier to keep a fleet of cars happy. Being able to
swap brakes between the Lotus replica and the MG came in handy just
last week as I borrowed some parts off the Lotus to get the MG
driveable. It's also much less expensive than buying one of the
coilover setups on the market for the B, and allowed me to toss the
stock subframe and other bits. As an unplanned side effect, I also
saved quite a bit of weight.
So, going with the Miata front suspension meant I had a wider front
track. I could have narrowed it, but then I would have messed up those
beautifully controlled roll centers that I think are a major
contribution to the Miata's handling.
Now I needed a wider rear track to match. I seriously considered going
with a Miata rear end, which is a nicely packaged independent. I've
seen photos of a BGT with this rear end installed, but there were a
couple of problems. The first is the amount of sheer destruction
required to the rear of the car to make it fit. Secondly, the rear end
wasn't strong enough to deal with the assault from the V8, so I would
have had to modify it for a different differential. That's not a major
problem but it was an additional expense. By mixing the appropriate GM
parts, I was able to use the differential from the Camaro and a
standard-length axle housing to make the best use of what I had. If
the live rear doesn't work out, I'll change it over to a Miata rear
eventually, but I'm pretty happy with the overall engineering of what
I have. The car is stronger for it.
entry 451 - tags: suspension | | |  | November 15, 2010 - The top of the diff disagrees with the bottom of the car at full suspension compression.
It's due to the extra bracket on top. So I made a little house for it. I haven't checked to see how the rear seat will sit on top of this, some further creativity may be required.
entry 452 - tags: clearance, rear axle | | |  | November 15, 2010 - With the hood mounted, I found myself staring at a really ugly combination of peeling black paint and old Aqua.
So it had to go. A bit of Reflectix heat shielding and some foam tape and voila! All shiny and pretty. It does a nice job of distributing the light into the engine bay as well.
Reflectix is heatshielding and likely won't have much effect on noise, but it's what I had around the shop and it's cheap and basically weightless. I'll be putting down some heavier stuff inside the cabin and I might put some under the hood as well. We'll see.
entry 453 - tags: heat, pretty, hood | | |  | November 15, 2010 - Here's the current state of the engine bay.
Still some way to go on wiring, but I'm waiting until all the wires are run before covering them up. I'm not sure how to handle the big junction by the fuse boxes, between the MG bullet connectors and the sheer number of wires it's a pretty big bundle. I'm tempted to just build a box to sit over top of it all and hide it from view! Until the car is fully debugged, I'll probably just leave it exposed and ugly.
Currently, I'm in the middle of setting up some relays for the future cooling fans. And in case you're wondering, the note on the rad says "Hook up heater controls" - a reminder to do it when the rad comes out.
entry 454 - tags: engine bay, wiring | | |  | November 15, 2010 - The interior needs a bit of work still.
Again, lots of dangling wiring. I need to finish swapping over from the MG column switches to the Miata ones which will clear up that particular snarl nicely. I think the tach zip-tied in to the base of the windshield is a nice touch though.
One thing to check off the to do list: brakes. Janel helped me bleed them this morning and the pedal is nice and firm. Just the way it's supposed to be. I do have to remember to bed the pads though, it's easy to forget that when months pass between installation and driving.
entry 455 - tags: interior, brakes | | |  | November 18, 2010 - I stuck the license plate bracket in the bead blaster to clean it up and let me tack-weld those screws in place.
Much to my surprise, all the black paint came right off with minimal damage to the Aqua underneath. This is the biggest section of this paint I've found. That's quite a color!
Why was I messing around with the plate bracket? Because I have a set of plates to put on the car! It's legal! Insurance was handled through Hagerty for an amazingly low price - that's the benefit of driving a classic that doesn't get used for commuting. And yes, they know exactly what the car is. With insurance, plates were simple as there is no safety or emissions inspection in this area. It was just a matter of paperwork. I did get the unpleasant surprise of finding that Colorado now charges a "late fee" if you dare leave a car unregistered after the ownership is transferred. It doesn't matter if the car's been in the garage for two years. California does the exact same thing, and I had to go to quite a bit of work to wrest the title for this car from them without having to pay $600 or so in fees. Well, Colorado took a smaller bite but it still stings. I'll be doing things differently in the future, and Colorado will make less money as a result.
But never mind that - the car has tags!
entry 456 - tags: license plates, aqua | | |  | November 18, 2010 - I'm still working my way through the wiring.
Not quickly, just a circuit or two at a time. The final MG circuit got power yesterday - horns and interior lights. The car has a most hilarious BOOOOP! horn from the factory. It should have two, but one has not yet come to the party.
One of the big debates in automotive aftermarket circles is "solder versus crimp". Solder advocates say that crimps are failure-prone and difficult to do well. Crimp advocates claim that solder joints are likely to crack and fail. Personally, I'm in the latter camp - a good crimp joint works better than a solder joint in the high-vibration environment of a car. It's telling that there are no solder joints in a factory wiring harness, for example.
But the crimps need to be done well. I use good-quality crimp connectors with a heat-shrink sleeve over top. The heat-shrink not only waterproofs the connection but also provides mechanical support for the wire so there's no way for it to vibrate and crack. The crimping tool itself is a ratcheting one with interchangeable jaws. It's a bit harder to find than the usual cheap-and-nasty variety, but you can often find them for $20-40. The ratcheting action prevents the tool from releasing until the correct squeeze has been put on the terminals - most people don't crimp them hard enough.
entry 457 - tags: electrical | | |  | November 18, 2010 - Work continues.
I'm going to fix up the slight bit of rust on the passenger's floor - these two sections will be trimmed out and replaced.
Meanwhile, the radiator has been pulled out. The new one will be ready today and I'll start working on modifying the bracket at the front of the car.
entry 458 - tags: cooling, rust | | |  | November 22, 2010 - Here's the new radiator along with the old one.
The size difference is even more dramatic in person. The fan shroud is a really nice piece, it's laser-cut aluminum built specifically for this radiator. The fans are two fairly high-flow SPAL units with high-torque motors to help them pull against a restriction like multiple heat exchangers. Not a problem here, but most "low profile" fans will fall off dramatically even when asked to deal with just a single radiator.
The rad itself is the same basic design as the other one, but with a more efficient core. Based on testing at Flyin' Miata, it should actually outperform the big guy.
This is all off-the-shelf stuff designed for LS-powered Miatas by Flyin' Miata.
entry 459 - tags: cooling | | |  | November 22, 2010 - Test fit of the new rad.
The fan shroud comes with two sets of 1/4" spacers. Ideally, you want the shroud as far from the radiator core as possible while still being sealed. In this picture, here's the amount of room left with none of the spacers installed. The nose of the water pump sits nicely between the two fans, maximizing the amount of room available. Nice. I'd love to say it was cleverly planned, but really it's just a happy coincidence.
The shroud still fits well with one 1/4" spacer, but two makes it basically impossible to install. Still, it should work quite nicely.
entry 460 - tags: cooling | | |  | November 22, 2010 - The fully installed radiator.
The lower support was moved a bit more than 2" for more curb clearance and to match the lower edge of the stock front valence. The fan shroud has been fully installed with gasket material around the edge, forcing every single molecule of air to go through the radiator. The upper brackets holding the rad in place are ones from a 1999 Miata and they look nice and factory. I even put a couple of brackets on the top of the shroud to guide the steam fitting hose nicely around the intake.
I'm really happy with how this turned out, it looks really good. Now I just have to sort out the lower radiator hose now that the outlet has moved up by a couple of inches...
entry 461 - tags: cooling | | |  | November 22, 2010 - It hasn't been all radiator work here over the past few days.
I also repaired the floor. First, I cut out the rotten section including one small patch on the sill. A patch (of fairly thick gauge) was welded in. Nice and solid, ready for another 40 years.
entry 462 - tags: rust | | |  | November 22, 2010 - Next step: seam sealer.
Makes for a nice smooth finish and protects against pinholes.
entry 463 - tags: rust | | |
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