Ken G's Journal

Well not completely starting out as I've done the front and rear axles and brakes all around. I spent some more time doing clean up and started a few items.
I removed the hood and have that setting out of the way, removed the original zenith intake and exhaust manifold. Installed the replacement exhaust manifold from a 1970ish mgb, and a weber DVG. I may eventually go to a pair o SU's but right now\ I have the DVG and i like that much better than the Zenith.

After that was done I worked on the wiring harness, I found one wire that needed repair so that was sorted out. I installed a new fuse box and began labeling connections in the engine bay. I wasn't able to locate a rear harness in the various boxes of parts that came with the car so that was added to the shopping list.

Reviewing things under that car I found that the main fuel line is intact, I had found a section of fuel line so I thought I might need to replace the whole line. When I get a new gas tank I'll inspect the line and make sure it is in good shape.

Next items are continue sorting out the wiring harness and install some of components, clean up the dash and clean or replace any broken parts. (I really want to find a replacement dash as this one is in bad shape)
Things to research:
I'm missing the charcoal canister so I need to find a replacement or a way to bypass that.
The air pump manifold is still installed so I want to sort out how to remove that properly
I'm going to do a heater delete, but Moss's panel is pricey, I have to believe there is a less expensive option

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I was able to make a little progress, of course not as much as I'd hoped.
I met a member on this board who was selling some items and found he lived only 15 minutes away from my house so it was a nice surprise and chat.
My accomplishments were few but needed to be done. I removed the brake, hazard and fan switches from the dash and worked on cleaning it up. It looks better than it did, (at least it is clean) but I have some major cracks. It should be serviceable until I can either track down one in better condition at a reasonable price or spend the time to do the service on it.

In the mean time I installed my new to me charcoal canister, cutoff valve and oil sensor unit and sorted out some wiring.
The car came with out a distributor so I'm installing a 25D from a 1972 mg, this means that the wiring needs to be adapted a bit as it will not accept the plug from the wiring harness. After doing some research I've decided to follow the information in one of Jeff S. old post. I'm going to use a 3. ohm coil and run a new line directly from the fuse box to the coil +. On the negative side I'll use the existing dual white/ black wire to go to the tach and the distributor. As I understand it this will eliminate the need for the resistor and should be nice and clean.

I have a big pre-Christmas order coming from Moss and once that arrives I think things will come together a bit quicker.

Not so much woes but dilemmas.
The car is a 1976 and while I thought that the wiring harness was for the car, it seems like it might not have been.

Last night I was working on the steering column and testing the connections for the turn and wiper stalks. The turn stalk fit right in but the wiper stalk gave me some issues. The stalk that was in the car has a 9 plug female pin using 8 wires. The wiring harness has a 7 male plug with 6 wires attached. The extra wires on the stalk are a yellow and a white wires, (appears for an overdrive).

What this means is that my wire harness is for a later car, which should not be much of a problem, however it does complicate things. If I order a new stalk with the correct plug it will not fit the 1976 steering wheel column, so I'm going to change the plug on the harness to a 9 pin out, leaving the two wires in the plug but not connected to a wire in the harness. This leaves the OD switch as an option in the future and will make it easier if I ever have to change the switch out.

In other news I worked on cleaning up brackets for the instruments and put some more time on the dash. I hope to get some led replacement bulbs for the dash in the mail today or tomorrow.

There is so much needed to be done it is a bit overwhelming. What I've been doing so far is to work on a section until I hit a hurdle of a missing part or lack of knowledge and then move to something different. This keeps the project sort of moving forward but no feeling of accomplishment as everything is in limbo.

Last night I installed the front and rear running lights, reverse lights and license plate holder, trunk switch and lights. I began running the new rear wiring harness and found that it did not come with the bullet connectors, which is a problem since the light connectors are male and the harness plugs are also male. I looked through all more boxes of junk that came with the car and found none of these so yet another order and delays.

I was going to install the headlight buckets and ran into another hick up, the PO had painted them and done a decent job but they snipped off the bullets at the end of the pigtail, and had wrapped the pigtail in masking tape before they painted. It keep the paint off the pigtail BUT the tape was never removed so it is a gluey tape mess, I'm going to try to clean them off but may just order new plugs.

So I think that Spring has sprung in NJ and this weekend gave me some good weather, and time to work on the MG's.

I uncovered the yellow 77 after 3 months, put the battery on the charger for a few hours and I'm happy to report that it started up around the 5th try. Pretty surprised but I'll take the win. I plan on reviewing a few things with it over the next week or so and hope to have it back on the road.

After I spent Saturday morning cleaning the garage, I was able to clean up the work area and get put in a little time on the red 76. It had been 3+ months and I had forgotten where I was at with many of the projects but going through my new parts box I reset my agenda.

I'm going to first focus on the brakes, clutch and pedal box, then sort out the electrical issues and dash, then the engine and fuel systems.

Sunday, I was able to get the hard lines for the brakes and clutch reinstalled. They had been removed by the PO and were bent so that was a bit of trial and error to get into place.

I've got all the parts for the pedal box together and laid out, I hope to fit it back together and move to the clutch and brake cylinders.

Lots of things to do but the warm weather has energized me.

Weather and life have been busy but some minor progress has been made.
I added some fresh gas and charged up the battery and it starts like a champ, first time when the weather is warm. Second or third try when it is a bit colder.

I spent some time rewiring the turn signal and the windshield wiper plugs. The car is a 1976, but my wiring harness is a 1977+. Which means that the plugs for the 1976 turn and windshield wipers do not fit the harness, but the stalks from the later cars do not fit the steering column. Bit of a hassle. I cut the wires from the turn stalk and fitted a new plug from British wiring, on the wipers I pulled them out of the old plug and was able to put them into the new plug. (I only wrecked one getting it out of the old plug)

Now that I have the ignition, both stalks and the dash harness connected, (dash is still out) I just need to run the rear harness to the front of the car so I can begin to do some testing.