The Webmaster Zone

Lots to report, first I finally got a new speedometer installed. I ordered a large-face 1280 tpm speedo from the UK to match my later top-fill overdrive transmission. Only the UK spec Mark II MGBs retained the large face speedos in that specification, since in North America they had converted to the small gagues with the new safety dashes. Unfortunately the supplier I ordered from doesn't test the used parts before shipping them. The first speedo I received had an inoperative needle, but the odometer worked and it was in very good condition. The supplier immediately sent me a second speedo at no extra cost, but that speedo was also broken, the needle worked but the tripmeter was broken and the face appeared to have water damage. Rather than wait for a third speedo, I combined parts from the two and made one that completely worked and looked good. Buyer beware; make sure your supplier guarantees used parts have been tested!! It's great to have a speedo again, it reads correctly (approx 3400 rpm = 60 mph in 4th gear, overdrive off). On the way down the I5 to Seattle this weekend I did a check on the odometer accuracy, I drove 75 miles as indicated by the mile posts on the highway, but the odo read 78.4 miles which works out to an error of 4.53% fast, probably because of my non-stock tires. Next up was refitting the windscreen. This is a notoriously difficult job, mostly becaues of the tight areas you have to work in (unless you remove the dash - no thanks). Of course the first time you do a job on the car is always the hardest but once you get over the "learning curve" its not so bad. I needed to refit it because the "Speedy" window place that replaced the seals didn't do a very good job of putting it back on - the seals leak, and only one bolt was holding the windscreen to the body on each side. Not to mention their is a bit of that milky discolouration at the edges of the windshield now from them pushing it so hard to get it lined up - I told them to use a 4" c-clamp to line it up but when I got it back the guy said "it took 5 guys to get it on!". Great.. this is why I would rather do things myself. Getting it off was pretty easy, then I trimmed the frame to body seal so that it lined up properly with the post seal and tightened the frame screws. At some point I should drill out the frame rivets, they are getting a bit rusty. Then I sanded down the area on the body where the frame sits and ran the bolts through the frame (out of the car) to clean up the threads; the left bottom bolt had been crossthreaded to top it all off. Getting the screen back on took about 5 tries; I'll skip the details but basically follow the instructions in Art's windshield fitting article below. I managed to get three of the bolts in, but for some reason the lower passenger side bolt hole would just not line up.. something is physically blocking the frame leg from going down far enough on that side. Rather than risk crossthreading it again, I've left it out; I'm pretty sure the reason is the fender. The fact that the C-clamp method worked just fine on the driver's side leads me to believe that fender has had serious accident damage at some point; its actually two fenders welded (poorly) together, and I bet something is out of line inside that is preventing the windshield leg from seating properly. Since I'm replacing that fender anyway, it can wait. Since I was working under the dash anyway, I thought I would fix the wiper system. I've been running on one wiper for quite a while since the splined part the wiper arm clips to twisted completely off several months ago. It had been wiping less and less of an arc for quite a while - it looks like the previous owner had actually drilled a hole and screwed the wiper arm to the spline and probably caused it to fall off. The wiper motor was easy to remove, but figuring out how to get the faulty wheelbox off was tricky. First, remove the nuts on the back of the wheelbox which releases the tubes that the cable (rack) moves inside of, which turns the gears which turn the wipers. Then you can draw the rack out, either with the motor, or by detatching the cable end inside the motor and drawing it out by itself. You can see the rack and the faulty wheelbox in the picture below. I spread the grease around and slid the new wheelbox on, and then fed the rack back into the tube under the dash. I rotated the good wheelbox (driver's side) 180 degrees before feeding the rack back in to give it some "fresh" gear teeth to engage. Don't forget the hard rubber spacer between the wheelbox and the inside of the body, and it helps to tighten the nuts that secure the tubes to the backs of the wheelboxes last, as the flexible cable makes it a lot easier to get everything lined up. Gave it a test with the garden hose, works great! Almost looking forward to a bit of rain to see how much better it is. Almost. Did a few more things that I haven't been able to take pictures of yet. I emptied, propped open and dried out the boot in the sunny weather, it had all kinds of crud in it from years of having a messed up lid and bad filler neck seals letting water in. After it was dry I attacked it with a wire brush and a vacuum cleaner and then gave a little shot of rust paint to slow down a copule of areas until I can get the whole car sandblasted. Later I went to a carpet store and picked up a 4x6 black carpet remnant and, using the old smelly filthy carpet as a template, cut out a nice new carpet and laid it in. What a difference, now I don't mind putting things back there for fear of the smells and stains it might pick up. I also flexed my soldering skills, if you read back you will find in my journal the time when smoke started coming out of the dash when the parking lights were on which I traced back to a short circuit in the boot. To prevent further problems I simply cut the damaged wires which led to the license plate lamps and taped them up. I bought some 14 gauge wire and new Lucas 2- and 4-way connectors and rewired that whole system. I used a lineman's splice with solder and heatshrink tubing for splices, and a butane lighter to heat and solder the bullet connectors to the wires. After assembling I packed everything with vaseline to prevent corrosion and so now that's all fixed too.