1970 MG Midget 1275

Very nice. I really like your car!

Wings and bonnet back on tonight - the panel gaps on the bonnet are terrible, but I'm not sure if thats me, or the factory.

Also, very annoyingly, noticed that the drivers side caliper is leaking a small amount of brake fluid from -somewhere-. This is the second one I've fitted as the previous one was leaking like a tap, looks like this one is faulty somehow too. Curiously nothing comes out if I stamp on the brake pedal, so have no idea where the fluid is actually coming from.

yesterdays update - got home early from work and put all the wheels back on the car, started it and drove round the garden to warm it up to check for leaks - found a few on the hoses where the clips were a bit loose, but the engine is still running at a very high idle - 2500-3000 so there is a possible air leak somewhere, or a timing issue, or a fueling issue, or something else.
It also -really- runs on when switched off, so that will need investigating too.
The most dissapointing thing though is the crank pully is leaking oil, and the engine needs to come out to get access to that.
That means the rad has to come out (which is full of nice new coolant) and the clutch will need bleeding again, which isn't fun, and the prop and exhaust has to come off again.

ah well.

anyway, some pics of it in my garden

yeah, doing wheelspins on thwe gravel -almost- makes up for having to drop the engine, but only almost

it's just so much faff for a 2 quid seal I'm sure I did it when I fitted the new timing gear, I guess I wasn't put in square maybe ?

cool, thats easier than taking all the carb stuff off, so I'll try that first

yeah, the front crank.

the front crossmember is about 1mm away from it, so you have to raise the engine up to get a socket on it. except you can't as the gearbox then hits the trans tunnel, so you have to then disconnect the prop and so on and on

My next job is to strip and clean the carb manifolds and carbs, fit all new gaskets with a skim of hylomar and go from there

I can see the marks on the pulley, I just can't see the little tab on the timing cover that shows the degrees. I know it's there, theres just bits of car and engine in the way

Ah now I see. I should buy a Midget so that I can stop being so badly informed ;-)

been a bit subdued with the car lately - it's running, but badly. I've checked everything at least twice and still no joy, so I'm going to have to strip and clean the carbs I think.

But in the mean time I picked these two things up from my parents loft:



one is an unused Tonneau cover:


the other is an unused hood cover:


they go with these brace bars:



and the tonneau looks like this when fitted :





cheered me up a bit