1973 MGB GT- A little rust 30/08

That's a very dangerous site indeed...

Adam do you want to organise the container from the US or shall I?

Adam New on the Upgrades4MGs-facebook page might be able to give some feedback on their K-link rear suspension set up. He bought the left overs from my kit after a few of the parts were stolen from my lock up. I think he is still using it in his Caterham R500 (Duratec) powered MGB GT.

Not made a huge amount of progress on this, have mostly been sorting out my stored parts which has been a bit of an eye opener! (Some of the wiring I did for my auxiliary gauges and spotlights at uni is a bit cringeworthy, looking back )

On the subject of stored parts, wiring and spotlights, I fairly recently bought a second Lucas spotlight to go with one I bought.... some time ago.



I ran a single yellow SLR576 on the car back in 2013 or so until it got broken by a careless parallel parker. After that I ran two smaller, modern spotlights behind the grille, this gave a better light output but I like the style of the big, old Lucas lights.

Of the two I have, one is another SLR576 and I believe the other is an SFT576. They're not in perfect condition, but then I didn't pay much for them







I'm renewing the wiring and the fibreboard bulb holders as the ones in both lights had seen better days. The rest has been given a little clean up and polish and that'll do. Currently just awaiting me doing the wiring and putting them back together and they can go back into the storage pile.

The other thing I've been working on is the front suspension. Last time I was left pondering what to do with my front spindles/kingpins, I think I've worked out a plan for those but I'll reveal more when it starts coming to fruition. One of the last elements of the front suspension/crossmember that I needed to pay some attention to was the steering rack.



I've had it kicking around for a bit since I initially cleaned all the muck off it when I removed it from the car. It wasn't in too bad condition really, but I'd bought a service kit off here a few years back so figured I might as well use it!

The track rod end boots did have some damage from where my old wheels had been fouling them when I first fitted them and got my offsets a bit wrong.. It was my first time fitting different wheels to a car, back in 2013 or 2014 I think



The inner end of the track rods have this odd circular nut and lock nut arrangement going on (on the right side of the pic below)



I went out and got some pipe wrenches to get them off, but they weren't too bad in the end. Just had to knock out the locking tab then get a good grip on them





These are the bits that come out. Now I was led to believe that there should be some shims in there also to adjust the "tension" (for want of a better word) on the track rods, but neither side had any shims! They both seemed to be OK though so perhaps they weren't needed on this rack after all...



Then it was a case of taking off the plate opposite the bottom of the column and withdrawing the column with a bit of wiggling, then the other plate can be taken off and the rack withdrawn also



I've got some degreaser coming tomorrow as I ran out, so all of this will get a good clean, I'll paint the rusty part of the rack casing tube thing, got a seal and a gasket to replace and it'll all get put back together with plenty of grease

Then it should be just the spindles and I can make it a roller again. I'll also get some new wheel bearings and do those while I'm at it

So as promised, an update on the steering rack. I'd basically got it to the point where it was apart but needed a good clean, so I got myself a 5L bottle of GUNK and a bucket and brush and got to work. Before long I had a load of clean rack parts everywhere



In the middle of the bottom bit of kitchen towel in that pic, are the shims which go under the plate which covers the plunger/piston type thing I had to pry out before. That assembly was the main focus of my attention with everything apart. The piston was very stuck in the housing so I spent some time cleaning/polishing up the piston and the bore it works in, I also took a couple burrs off the edge of the bore with a file.





You can just see a bit of fluff catching on a slight burr in the bore of the housing, I'm not sure how the damage got in there but there were some marks on the underside of the piston also



With the filing, cleaning and polishing, the two parts were moving freely again. The next bit is the small bronze "damper pad" that goes inside the piston with a spring to keep it loaded against the rack.





This didn't have the same sticking issues as the piston, but I thought it was interesting to note the wear pattern on the end of the pad. the rack slides along the pad so a linear wear mark is expected. These pads are no longer available though, so if it becomes too worn in one direction, it can be taken out and reinstalled at 90 degrees to wear on fresh material. Judging by the cross on this pad, someone has had this rack apart in the past which could also explain some of the marks on the other components possibly. New racks for MGB's seem to do away with this arrangement and the shims under the cover, instead having a plastic version of the piston to act on the rack and having the cover drilled for a stud for tension adjustment.

Anyway, with that out the way, I masked up some of the parts ready for some paint





Then reassembly, this is a bit pic-light as grease and phones don't mix as you can imagine





To get to this point, I put a load of grease up inside the rack housing, wiped the rack down with grease and put it in. I positioned it roughly where it was when I took it apart, and then while holding it in place, pushed the pinion through from the bottom of the rack housing.

There is a ball bearing at the base of the pinion which I packed with grease before putting it in. With the pinion in place, I put some more grease in the "dome" of the cap that goes over the end of it and loosely bolted it in place with the new gasket I had for it. Then I put the spring and pad into the piston with plenty of grease and then put that into the housing, put the shims on and bolted the cap down for that also.

Checked the rack moved happily either way then tightened down the caps.

Last job I've done on it so far is to attach the tie rods to the rack, a small spring goes in the end of the rack first



That outer locking nut got wound further on, then the tie rod assembly could be screwed on. This is the rod which has a little socket above it that the spring acts on.



Chucked a load of grease all over it, then attached them to the rack using the large round nuts which are then locked in place by the round locking nut. I set the tension of the tie rods by tightening them until there was enough resistance such that you can move them about and they don't drop down under gravity, but not so tight that they lock in place



I'm just waiting for some punches to arrive so I can lock the locking nuts in place, then I'll put the boots and track rod ends on and its job done.

I also bought myself a 1 5/16" socket to undo the crank pulley bolt so I can continue taking the engine apart, so might have a crack at that tomorrow

Steering rack came out really nicely. Will be following your lead as am about to do mine.

Gearbox looks in good condition as you say. I'd be very wary of attacking the overdrive though, damn complicated things, so fair play for giving it a go.

Might be worth another watch of the Mark Evans series where he rebuilds his... Or rather gets someone else to! 😉😂

Been meaning to do an update on this, not a great amount of progress but there has been lots of cleaning going on! Bit of before and after on the body of the overdrive itself





The remote housing came up nicely as well with a bit of wire brush action



I then spent ages cleaning up every last bit that I'd taken off so that everything was reasonably clean of muck and grime





Bit hard to see with all the overdrive internals laid out, but there were essentially three main sub-assemblies that I removed, the Relief Valve (bits on the left), the Solenoid Valve (bits in line with the black cover, without the solenoid itself) and the Oil Pump (parts laid out next to the sump)

I had bought an overdrive "seal/flter" kit some years ago, turns out the O rings in this kit just covered the ones that are part of the Solenoid Valve



This was well worth doing as some of the O rings had gone a bit flat and hard over time so were overdue a change. This did mean I had to get onto ordering new O rings for the other bits as well



I think I've said it previously, but while they're not the cheapest, Moss really are probably the most handy place to get MG spares when you just need odd little bits here and there. This lot netted me the O rings needed for the Oil pump and Relief valve along with some other bits.

These are the component parts of the oil pump, going from the plug on the right, up to the piston that rides on a cam thats on the mainshaft going through the gearbox/overdrive





The piston was given a clean and polish up to ensure that it moved really freely in the pump body. The O rings on both the pump body and the sealing plug were replaced



That assembly has been set aside for the moment as I think it's going to be easier to refit these after the gearbox and overdrive have been reunited as its quite crucial to get the piston lined up properly on the cam to ensure that the oil pump works.

Next up was the relief valve



As with the Oil pump, I had to do a bit of work to the 4th and 5th parts in the above photo to ensure they moved smoothly in relation to each other, the 4th bit (can't remember/don't know the proper name) also has a washer and two thin shims on the upper side which I was very careful to keep track of



The O Rings were pretty straightforward to swap out, and a new fibre sealing washer was put on the plug. Oddly it was a copper washer that I took off, but I trust it will do the job.





I was going to change the mesh but on closer inspection its fine really, so I just assembled it all together and have installed it back into the overdrive body, using some oil to give it a bit of a pre-lube.



Last thing I've looked at is the solenoid itself and unfortunately it's looking like its seen better days







To ensure I'm only doing this job once and to ensure future reliability, I think I'll replace the solenoid altogether. I'm also going to get a new wiring harness for the gearbox/overdrive also, so it should tie up nicely.

Next job should be to split the gearbox from the intermediate housing and to clean the rest of it all up as its still pretty greasy and horrible!

Love the engineering on these parts. All that is required is to clean them and replace the o rings.

Still been chipping away, gave the gearstick and retaining plate a bit of a tart up and fitted new gear knob





I'd bought one of these gearknobs way back when I had the car on the road but promptly ruined it by screwing it down too far the nut on the gearstick should help prevent this happening again!

My new solenoid for the overdrive arrived from Moss



There is a subtle difference between them, there is a copper spring which acts as an ground for the solenoid, on the original one its on the top of the solenoid, but on the new one its on the bottom.





The new one is more "springy" anyway so thats good. These are the components of the solenoid assembly



From the top on the left to the bottom on the right. The ball bearing goes in the underside of the top cap on the right like so



The plunger (I think its called) then goes up underneath and holds the ball bearing in



To get it in the overdrive unit itself, I found it easiest to put the unit the right way up with the hole for the solenoid assembly on the bottom and then push the top cap/ball bearing/plunger assy up into it. Once its in, I could then turn the unit over



The casing slides over the solenoid and the bottom cap fits in place then I slid these both over the plunger into the unit



Finish off with the gasket and cover, I appear to have mislaid two of the screws...



That kind of concludes my work on the overdrive for the time being. Next I turned my attention to splitting the gearbox from the intermediate section where the remote housing bolted on.

The bit on the left with MOWOG on it needs to be removed. Not sure of the name but its related to the selectors, takes a bit of wobbling to get out but will come eventually. I found putting the box into 3rd made it easier to get out







With that out and the nuts and bolts holding the two cases together (which I'd taken off previously...) the two parts separate





Naturally there'll be much cleaning and re-gasketing to come

Lastly, going back to the front of the gearbox after getting most of the gunk out of the bellhousing, I got the clutch fork out







It doesn't really show in the photos but I thought the hole in the end looked a bit ovaled, I'll check it again after cleaning it up a bit. I also got the front cover removed as there is a gasket and oil seal in here to change which will hopefully help keep the bellhousing cleaner in future!





Removing this did yield an odd/worrying find



This material was caught under the front cover, it looks like part of a really chewed up shim, but it isn't clear where its come from. Some investigation is required

Having read up on it a bit today, I believe you're right. No idea how it managed to get so chewed up though as with the cover on, there shouldn't have been much room for the shim to move around..

Also I'm not sure where the rest of it has gone! I'll see where I can get a new shim/s from as it seems to be a part that Moss don't sell

Edit: scratch that, they do sell them just need to measure the remnants of mine to see what thickness I need, they come in either 2 or 5 thou thicknesses