| Oily Hand's Life with MGs |
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Pre 1960 cars no longer have to have an MOT. A bad move in my opinion, so I've decided that Numbum will be tested. I don't have a hoist or pit so seeing what is going on underneath is almost impossible and the cost of the MOT is cheap for the knowledge that all is OK under there.
Today it passed with only a couple of advisories.
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It was time to investigate the 'no drive' problem that raised it's ugly head yesterday. I jacked up the car & supported it and pulled the drivers side halfshaft. Nothing wrong there, so off to the passenger side. This is what I found. 
I'm not impressed at all. These were new shafts & hubs fitted last year and the quality is deplorable. I've been chucking this old motor all over the countryside for years on old shafts & hubs with no issues. I fit new ones and one breaks in short order. What the heck happened to quality???
Thankfully the break was at the hub end so removal of the rest of the shaft wasn't a problem. I found a serviceable hub & shaft, so I fitted that and did a brake clean up & service while I was in there. Although it doesn't legally need an MOT now, I've got it booked in for one tomorrow so fingers crossed. This wasn't in the plan for today.  Heading towards Stokesley for the start of the trail there was a slight bump and then no drive. My first though was that it had jumped out of gear but a quick check proved that wrong. It was obvious that we weren't going to make the start so I began the long process of getting the old girl home again and rang the RAC. While we were waiting I decided to see if I could find out where the problem lay but without lying on the ground, which I didn't want to do in my good clothes, I couldn't see if the propshaft was turning. When the RAC man turned up he had no problem getting down on the ground and he said that the propshaft was turning so the problem wasn't clutch or gearbox but had to be back axle. I suspected a broken halfshaft but that would have to be confirmed when I got it apart at home. Once it was confirmed that it wasn't fixable at the roadside (er...I told them that when I booked the call out) we now had yet another wait for the recovery truck. We finally got Numbum home and back in the garage. Having missed the start we got the maps out and looked for somewhere to join up with the rest of the gang and decided on Riveaulx Abbey. Then came which car to take. I preferred the B GT but it didn't have much fuel in it and we were tight on time so as the ZS had over half a tank we decided to take that. Parked up by the side of the road at the Abbey, I set up the video camera while we had a bit to eat. A few of our cars came past and were duly recorded. At this stage we had no idea if we were ahead of the pack or at the tail end, so we decided to follow the last 20 miles of the route book. 20 miles of great roads saw us at the finish at Mount Grace Priory where we found we were at the front of the pack and were able to get some video clips of the cars arriving. After wandering around this lovely old priory and chatting to other entrants, we watched the raffle being drawn before setting off for home. Well, not the day we had planned, but still a very enjoyable one with old & new friends
Tomrrow brings the investigation into Nunbum's troubles. When we bought the ZS I noticed a button for aircon. Nothing seemed to happen when it was pressed, so today I took it to a specialist for investigation. A sniff of gas soon had it working and boy, does it work!
We love this event but it has clashed with a driving event a few times and we prefer driving. This year it didn't clash with anything so we booked it. In previous years arriving late meant spending time in a long queue so we decided to get there early, very early.  With nothing much else to do we took a look round the autojumble which was huge this year and I found an oil filler cap for the MGB at the massive price of £2. I was happy with that. The field started to fill up and the sun shone brightly so we set off to see the cars. This took quite some time as everywhere we turned we met somebody we knew. Catching up on what's going on is always good and we had a great time. This removal van is believed to be the oldest still in regular use.  By mid afternoon the clear blue skies were replaced with dark clouds and it lashed it down for about an hour. A few decided to leave early after it stopped. Pam used the panorama setting on her camera for these great pictures.     We hung around for a while longer before setting off for the drive home. by the time we got back home, we'd been out for twelve hours. Allowing an hour each way driving and about an hour and a half eating lunch and sheltering from the rain, we'd been on our feet for over eight hours. No wonder my legs were aching!! A quiet weekend events wise so today we had a run out and took some video. I now know why films are so time consuming and expensive to make. It took about three hours, quite a bit of driving and loads of editing to get this. After battling with non cooperative video editing software, I finally managed to get some video of test 18 of this fine event. The only way I could get it to work was by making smaller videos. Here are all four of them. The ZR was developing problems. The head gasket was on its way out, it needed rear discs and pads for the next MOT and a few other minor things were cropping up. While we were deciding what to do about it, I drove past a local garage with a Trophy Blue ZS on the forecourt. I was in like a robber's dog. After some negotiation the ZR was accepted in part ex (all faults declared) and the deal was done. It cost me about the same to change cars as it would have done to get the work done to the ZR so that was a win in my book The ZS is a lot nicer car with non of the scabbiness that the ZR has round the wheel arches. We picked it up today and it's lovely to drive. From boy racer to grandad mode in one go.
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AuthorHi, I'm Owen and I've been having fun with MGs since 1970, starting with my 1937 MGTA. Since then I've had three Y types and a couple of Z Magnettes. I now have a 1971 MGB GT along with the TA and my wife and I are still having fun Archives
September 2020
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