Steve Lyle's Journal

I bought my B in 2008. Rebuilt it from 2008 to 2014. Drove it quite a bit until about 2020, when the Lotus Elan I bought in 2015 was finally reliable enough for long trips.

Since that time, the B has gotten limited use. Generally only when the Lotus was down for repairs. Which, to be hones, wasn't all that rare.

But the Elan gave me an appreciation for light weight cars with powerful engines and a sophisticated chassis. The next logical step was the spiritual successor to the Elan, the Lotus Elise. Instead of 125 hp driving 1500 lbs, as in the Elan, it's 190 hp driving 2000 lbs. A similar equation, only more so. Along with mid-engine dynamics and 30 years or so of other automotive tech improvements.

That meant that the B was destined for even less use. At least as long as it was mine.

I had considered selling it even when its was only one of my two toy cars. Now that it was third...

I had mentioned that inclination to my sons, now in their 40's. One expressed an interest. So he got an ultimatum - if you really want it, speak up, because with the Elise coming on board, it's put up or shut up time.

He shut up.

It's a real nice car, and I didn't want to give it away (other than family). So I figured I would go the auction route - I just didn't think I'd find a buyer for what I was asking, firmly, easily. But what the hey, it's really simple to go into the MG Experience and mark the car as for sale. And almost as easy to put a Facebook Marketplace ad out. So I did, and figured I'd go with BaT or Hagerty Auctions as we got closer to the springtime.

But what do you know, 4 days after the FB Marketplace ad got listed, a buyer called. His neighbor's wife turns 70 in May, she used to have a bright red MGB when she was in her 20's and misses it, and her husband wants to surprise her with one on her birthday. The caller is a British car guy, and said he was basically acting as the buyer's agent. I described the car, pointed him to my MGE journal and vehicle listing, and warned him that the price was firm. He said he'd talk to the buyer and get back to me.

One day later, he called and Venmo'd a deposit. About a week after that he drove down with one of the buyer's employees to put the car on a trailer and take it away.

So I'm now B-less. It's been a great experience. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and enjoyed many wonderful drives. Thankfully, the MG club here in Tulsa is ok with having a Lotus driver as a member. So I'll still be around lots of MG's and MG people.

I'd like to thank everybody on the MGB Experience for their contributions to my very positive MGB experience. This is a great community, and I'll always appreciate it.

About a year ago I was backing the B out of storage and ran it into the tailgate of our pickup, which I had lowered and forgotten about. I busted the tail light lens, bent the lens frame (still need to straighten that a bit), and chipped the paint and filler just below the chrome strip. Luckily no metal damage. This weeks project was to fix it. I got a new quart of the paint I used when I painted the car in 2013, luckily it was a perfect match, or at least it is to my eye.

It's been quiet on the B front the last few years. The Elan is getting most of my mechanical attention. And the B is just running fine. I'm confident I can hop in it anytime and go anywhere at this point. Basically, it's about as close to being "done" as a B will get, I suppose.

But, there was one nagging electrical gremlin that I believe I've solved recently that merits another journal post. So here's the story.

At MG2016 in Louisville I noticed that I had a tail light electrical issue. This was traced to the fuse box, which was one of the only electrical components I didn't replace in my restoration. So, no biggie, I ordered a new one and it fixed the problem. This got done in the fall of 2016.

Fast forward into 2017. In one of my first drives that spring I noticed that the turn signals didn't work. Hmmm - what could that be? I assumed (dumb move) there was some failure in the harness, so I ran a new power feed line, picking up 12v from the input to the voltage stabilizer, running a wire across to the flasher on the passenger side. It seemed to solve the problem. Emphasis on "seemed".

Later, I noticed that other things started failing. The strangest was the tachometer. I had mine converted to voltage sensing from the original current sensing that was used in 1972. The issue was that the tachometer would intermittently just start going bonkers - the needle would swing down 1000 RPM or so, swing back up, swing back down, etc. I checked with the guy who did the tach conversion - he was clueless what could cause this internally, and told me to look elsewhere. OK, how about the stabilizer - let's try a new one.

It was pretty obvious early on that wasn't the fix. The problem got worse - sometimes the same problem would occur, at other times the tach would just drop to 0. And at other times it read fine.

Then I noticed that when it dropped to 0, I also lost the temp and fuel gauges. And that the brake lights and turn signals were gone at the same time.

OK - so that means the entire green circuit is gone.

Which led me back to the fuse block. Which was practically brand new. I knew the white circuit that fed the green was good, because that's where my + coil feed was coming from, and the car ran fine. The rivet connections were tight (which was the problem that forced the replacement).

The only thing that seemed out of kilter was the tightness of the brass fuse holders. On close inspection they held the fuses, but very lightly.

Odd, but it was the only possibility left. So I took some needle nose pliers and bent the contacts so that they FIRMLY held the fuse. After a few hundred miles, there's been no reoccurence of any issues with the green circuit.

So, just because you have a new fuse block, don't assume it can't be a problem.

Attached is a picture mid-correction. The bottom 2 fuse contacts have been corrected, the top two are as delivered.

We've been to this show 3 of the last 4 years, and with the car running better than ever, and the promise of good weather, why not go again?

The Greater Ozark British Motor Car Club puts the show on. I've described it in other journal posts, but it starts with a parking lot cookout on Friday night, then a show at the Carthage, MO town square, and awards banquet on Saturday, and finishes up with a breakfast at a historic home in Carthage Sunday morning.

The car ran great for the 146 mile trip up Route 66 from Tulsa to Carthage. The GOBMC club were tremendous hosts, as always.

Between the show and the banquet we drove over to Wells, MO, for refreshments at a biker bar on Route 66. I think we were the only people in the bar without a tatoo, but we were warmly welcomed, and the car got lots of positive comments.

The chrome bumper B's were, as always, the largest class in the show, with 10 beautiful cars. Ours tied for first, which was quite an honor.

After a great breakfast on Sunday, it was another nice 146 mile drive back down Route 66. All in all a very nice weekend.

I'm using the Tourist Trophy exhaust, complete with the TT stainless header.

Over the last 4 years since the car has been on the road, I've come to the conclusion that I had an exhaust leak at the header manifold of the middle pipe that serves cylinders 2/3. I'm not sure if the leak happened over time, and I just noticed it as it got worse, or if it was always there, and it just took time for me to realize it.

But eventually, the leak showed up as carbon stains on my valve cover, and I could feel the hot gasses escaping. So there was no doubt.

But the car was otherwise running fine, and there were other things to spend time on, so I didn't take any action.

This past weekend I hosted the Green Country MG Register's monthly Tech Session in my garage. We covered setting front suspension toe-in using toe plates. And once that was done, I got our resident SU carb guru, Bob Johnson, to take a look at my mixture settings, because I had doubts that I got them right during my spring tuning. (spoiler alert - somehow I got them right, so that was reassuring).

But during that carb session, Bob mentioned that it sounded like I had an exhaust leak.

That was the motivation I needed to get off my duff.

So the next day I pulled the carbs and intake manifold off. I figured the fundamental problem was that the the intake manifold, while in theory a match for the headers, since it was the later, HIF version with thinner flanges, was not a perfect fit, and worse, was slightly thicker than the header flanges. That meant that the washer was contacting the intake flange first, and maybe not putting sufficient clamping force on the exhaust flange.

I measured the intake flanges at .420 inches, nominally, and the exhaust at .390. A .030" difference, which I guess could be significant. But it was the best theory I had for the problem.

I took the intake manifold to my workbench, and used a mini die grinder with a cutoff wheel to carefully massage (grind) about .030" off of the intake flanges. This was the only tool I had which could get at the full surface of the flange and remove material at a "goldilocks" rate - not so slow that it would take me forever, and not so fast that I couldn't control it. I basically used the flat surface of the cutoff wheel as a sanding disk, applied it for a few seconds, then measured the result, and repeated until I got the measurements I was looking for - .390 or a little less.

Once there, I bolted everything back together and started the engine up. Unfortunately, there was still a leak - maybe not as significant as originally, but still there. I could feel it and see it.

So, while contemplating what Plan B should be, I went to the MGB Tech forum and posed my issue.

As usual with these things, some responders didn't read my post and jumped to incorrect conclusions. They assumed I had the older, HIF intake manifold with the much thicker flanges. Nope - but I guess I buried the fact that I didn't in paragraph 2 (and my car info - most people familiar with the intake flange differences know that a '72 uses HIF carbs.) And some people don't read past paragraph 1, apparently.

Whatever - I ignored those and focused on those responses that comprehended my issue.

A few good ideas came back: 1) that my header flange may be warped or misshaped somehow; 2) or that my gasket my be damaged.

So the next night, the headers came off. That involved: 1) jacking the front end up as high as possible; 2) removing the front and rear mounting studs; and 3) snaking the header out from below.

What I found was that my flanges were perfectly flat, but that my gasket had failed at the top and bottom edges of the middle pipe flange. The gasket is a sandwich of a soft, non-metallic material facing on both sides of thin steel. The non-metallic material was burned, and the steel was rusting.

Basically, the best possible result. Much easier to replace a gasket than to resurface a flange, or replace the header.

I had a spare gasket in my parts supply. I cleaned off the old gasket, put on the new, reinstalled everything (I'm getting pretty quick at this...), crossed my fingers, and fired it up.

I got a nice even sound from the engine, and couldn't feel any hot gases coming up from the middle pipe. Success!

It's taken 4 years, but the car is running better than it ever has. Apparently, every MGB owning experience is a rolling restoration, assuming the car rolls!

It's been 4 years since the car went back on the road, and 12,000 miles. Time for the normal spring maintenance (valve adjustment, oil change, chassis lube, brake adjustment including parking brake), and adding in an ignition maintenance cycle in honor of the 12k miles. I'm running points, and haven't touched anything in the ignition system for 4 years.

Which was clearly not a good idea. Even though the car was seemingly running fine, when I pulled the distributor and checked the point gap, it was down to .002 (should be .015). I've been carrying replacement cap/rotor/points sourced from Adv Distr's in the boot, so it was time (ok, past time...) to put those to use. From now on I'll at least check the point gap every spring.

When I put the dizzy back in and went to time it, I found that the dial-back function of my timing light was no longer working. So I static timed it instead. That'll have to do for now until I get a replacement light.

I replace brake fluid every other year, and this was an "other" year, so that got done too.

I finally addressed a couple of problem areas. The transmission has always seeped/leaked oil at the OD, and the speedometer cable attachment. I had sourced all the OD gaskets and o-rings, and the speedometer output shaft seal and o-ring, years ago, I just hadn't bit the bullet and replaced them as of yet. So this was the year for that. Yes, well past overdue, judging by the junk I found in the sump. I also hadn't changed the transmission oil in the last 4 years/12k miles. Likely overdue.

I used John Twist's videos as a guide, along with the VB parts catalog. Pretty straightforward. I added teflon sealing tape to the transmission bottom plug threads as well, since it's been leaking there. After about 50 miles of driving, and a week or so of sitting, no drips, so it looks like success.

I also replaced the differential gasket, and sealed it this time, and the drips from there have stopped as well. Woo hoo!

The car has always idled high for me. 1000 RPM was as low as I could get it, with the idle speed screws totally backed off. I figured there must be a slight vacuum leak somewhere, but I could never find it.

When doing the valve adjustment, though, I finally noticed that there was a vent in the bottom of oil filler cap. There shouldn't be one - the only crankcase vent should be the valve cover tube with its small hole. So I plugged the vent, and Voila! I now have to turn up the idle adjustment screws, and can get it to idle at 900, or lower.

The one thing I struggle with is tuning my HIF's. The diagnostic lean/rich test where you lift the venturi and see if it dies, or climbs, or climbs a bit and settles down - doesn't seem to work for me. So right now I figure I'm running rich, judging by the spark plugs. I'm hosting our local MG club for a tech session this Saturday, so maybe someone can teach me now to do adjust these properly then.

A few upgrades got done. I've switched to the Moss Tourist Trophy steering wheel. I'd been using the cheap VB wheel. It was functional, but didn't have the highest quality finish, nor was it the sturdiest. The TT wheel is finished very nicely, and is a bit heftier, both in the rim and the spkes. Definitlely a higher quality unit, and worth the extra $'s.

I added a dead pedal for my left foot. I sourced it from Ceres Motorsports. I'm sure I could have made my own, but this is a "nice bit of kit", and it was easy. I located it per their instructions, and my left foot loves it. Very natural, like it came from the factory that way.

Finally, I've been struggling to find a reliable phone mount. I don't like the window/suction mounts. I have a Scosche plate on my phone, and like the Scosche vent mounts, which I have on my driver, but that mount didn't like my MGB vent - it wouldn't reliably stay up. So I'm trying their cigarette lighter mount, and so far it looks like a winner.

I took the car for a test drive, it drove great. But, you know, it's always something. On the way out, the turn signals worked fine. On the way back, they didn't. No power on the green wire to the flasher module. Somewhere between the voltage regulator on the left side of the dash, and the flasher module on the right, there's a disconnect. I dove under the dash and tried to find it, but no luck. So I just ran a replacement wire, using the provided and previously unused extra spade on the regulator.

So right now, at this instant, I'm good for the driving season. Let's go!