The checklist for seeing if “she” starts is getting shorter: Get the scuttle on, with dash in-place, wired and plumbed; secure steering column and cross-scuttle support once the dash position is known; route choke cable; do a static coolant leak test (ie, put coolant in the system); add a fuel filter (I bought one for an MGB and forgot the MG uses a larger diameter fuel line); find and fix prodigious leak on diff; re-hang the exhaust…and once the dash is in place, turn the engine around to pump some fuel and see where that system leaks. And leak it will.
Category: 1955 Morgan +4 (Page 4 of 9)
The fuel tank, which has at times felt like a project on par with the entire car, is installed, finally. And I fixed the sending unit for the gauge, if you want to call my repair “fixing” rather than “bodging”.
OK, the problem above wasn’t so baffling; it just shows the JB Weld applied to the tank pickup, which was loose. Once in place on the car the pickup is held in place by the line leading to it, so the JB Weld is mainly providing a seal rather than structural strength. That said, I admire JB as a statement of hope; it’s often deployed as a last-ditch effort to fix something; fingers get crossed, everyone relaxes, congratulates each other and thinks “thank goodness”.
And then it fails. In my experience. Let’s hope this is different!
I bought a pair of reproduction Lucas Windtone horns off eBay–though I think the Morgan probably only was delivered with one rather than a pair–and installing them proved to be a fairly satisfying evening, a rare thing on this machine, which has a habit of taking “two hour jobs” and turning them into ten day nightmares!
The carbs are mostly done, though I need to paint a few more bits black…nearly everything on this car seems to have been painted black if it wasn’t body color or “natural” metal, which suits me, as I hate having stuff plated and black is easy to touch in. I need to run the choke cable, still.
I spent a lot of time trying to get the scuttle to fit before it dawned on me that the issue was that the dash support was too narrow. The original which was on the car was in poor shape and the homemade dash had been done because of the way they “fixed” the car. I needed the dash hoop to be 3/8″ wider than it was. Not the most opportune time to discover this…
I’d like to get the car running. For this to happen, the following need doing.
Note: I’ve been really ill for almost three weeks…and that, combined with the holidays and ongoing “life events” has meant not having had a lot of time to devote to the Morgan or just about anything else.
Talk about maddening. The new tool tray, which I’ve been waiting months for, is the wrong one. So I decided to just make new side panels for the original, to match the new firewall. Took only a weekend, the first real work after three weeks lying in bed coughing my larynx out.
Note: I’ve been really ill for almost three weeks…and that, combined with the holidays and ongoing “life events” has meant not having had a lot of time to devote to the Morgan or just about anything else.
The painted body went back on the car (in a semi-permanent fashion), and that lets me get on with some firewall stuff.
Note: I’ve been really ill for almost three weeks…and that, combined with the holidays and ongoing “life events” has meant not having had a lot of time to devote to the Morgan or just about anything else.
I did get the body glued together, painted and had a local spring shop repair one of the leaf springs.