The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (May 16 - May 31, 2026)
Saturday, May 16 2026:
Up early for a 100 mile drive northwest from Lubbock, Texas. We are time travelers again, taking an hour off the clock by passing from Central time to Mountain time while crossing a state line. We have landed in Clovis, New Mexico in time for breakfast.
 Then we had a little shopping to do. Remember needing another brake light switch, or two? Well, in the past twelve years we had one switch last 4 years, and one switch last 3 years, and we know what those part numbers re and where we purchased them. So while navigator was doing lunch, I headed off to NAPA Auto Parts (before 3-pm closing). Need to order it, can be here Tuesday. No thanks, just passing through. Then I wandered over to Advance Auto Parts to ask. Need to order it, can be here Tuesday. No thanks, just passing through. Strike two, will have to leave that quest for later. Then roll over to Walmart to pick up oil for the next oil change, and anti-freeze-coolant for spare in the trailer, and a few personal bits. With a lot of construction traffic hassle, and a few people wanting to chat about the MGA, I was back to the WiFi spot by 5:30-pm.
Okay, nothing else to do here, so head out again after sun down, 8:30-pm, driving another 90+ miles to 10-pm fuel stop in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Checking oil again, this is the second tine the engine took a quart of oil in a littler over 200 miles. Note to self to check and clean the PCV valve after things cool off. Good time for late dinner, and crash for the night by midnight.
Sunday, May 17 2026:
Slept in to 8:30-am. Time to open the PCV valve for cleaning and a close look (maybe way past due). Found a slightly stiff rubber diaphragm, but more seriously it was cracked, so no wonder it wasn't working. It must have been drawing very high vacuum in the crankcase, passing variable amounts of excess air into the intake manifold, only restricted by a small vent in the oil filler cap. That would certainly explain inconsistent idle speed and the excess oil consumption. I do so want to make the PCV system work, but it will have to wait a while longer.
We still do not have a replacement diaphragm, so remove the PCV valve and revert to open vented crankcase. Fire it up and fine tune the fuel mixture, running decent with the correct MB needles, which we didn't change out the last time we installed the PCV valve. Haul ass west on I-40 with traffic at 70-75 mph into a strong west wind with hills, watching the fuel gauge drop. 90 miles on to Edgewood, NM for late breakfast (near lunch time). -- Half past two, with cool engine, check oil and coolant hitting the road again. Another 109 miles past Albuquerque to Milan, NM for late lunch and fuel stop. Four pumps, eight hoses, five Harleys hogging the spaces with waiting lines, so just park it , and we will fuel it later. -- Looks like this will be an over night stay. A bit less than 1000 miles to go, and five days to get there, should be easy enough.
Monday, May 18 2026:
Good morning in Milan, NM. Fill the fuel tank 10.5 US gallons, note the mileage at 200 even, calculate 19.0-mpg, almost exactly what we expected after 200 miles at 70-75 mph into strong head winds and some moderate hills. Check oil level and top it up exactly to the full mark, only 1/2-quart this time. feeling better about the reduced oil consumption, we can now pay closer attention to future monitoring.
The left side curtain stake socket has been trouble, having recessed downward through the soft/failing 40-year old wood trim rail. The nut had fallen off and lost the large flat washer some time back, resulting in the side curtain pulling out in the wind, and wobbling dramatically in turbulence, threatening to damage the door before flying away. I found the fallen nut caught inside the door liner panel, and screwed it back on a few days ago (without the large flat washer), but with the constant shaking it just unscrews itself short order. So until we can order up some replacement parts, we will resort to tying the side curtain to the grab handle with 1/4-inch rope, and have to untie it to open the door, but press on regardless.
60 mile dash west on I-40, mostly up hills at 70-mph, still windy, but not quite as bad as yesterday. Over the Continental Divide at 7275-feet altitude, then more casual 75-mph cruise down hills to Gallop,New Mexico before breakfast.
First stop at a McD's was a bust, no power outlet and locks on the restroom doors. That goes right along with the guy standing at the exit ramp with the cardboard sign begging "give me money so I can be rich" (or more commonly "help the homeless"). Do I sound pessimistic? It gets old after a while. Obviously this restaurant does not want our kind here, so pack up the toys and take our money somewhere else.
Two exits farther on a Love's Travel Stop is more friendly, power outlets, good WiFi connection, and Subway for breakfast. Car running well, more relaxed and no rush, time to catch up the notes and some email tech questions.
Let the sun go down before heding west again. 70-75 mph into head winds again on I-40. It was a wonderfully clear night, so we stopped for a minute to try for pictures of the crescent moon with a shadow of earth-shine. Digital camera at high resolution and full zoom, and clip the center out of the pictures for a close up image. Last time I tried this I was taking pictures of the solar eclipse. Okay, cruise on to arrive in Joseph City, Arizona a bit after 10-pm.
Gas it up and check the oil on arrival. Just 8.5 gallons for 163 miles, 19.1 mpg seemed reasonable iunder the circumstances. But more important, navigator reports no oil consumption since the last careful top-up in Milan, NM. Really? Check again. Sure enough, the oil was still on the full mark after the day of running without the PCV valve.
I n recent times, the fuel gauge has been spending too much time pegged above the Full mark before dropping with fuel consumption, and not enough time in the lower quadrant of the gauge. We could live with it, but it has been buggiung me. On a bit of a hunch, there is a possibility that dirt accumulated and caked onto thge fuel level sending unit has been shunting a smll signal current to ground. So we jacked it up enough to scrape and wash dirt off of the sending unit signal wire terminal, just to see if it makes any difference.
Tuesday, May 19 2026:
Good morning in Joseph City, AZ. No rush now, so have a long breakfast break before hitting the road around 1-pm. Full fuel, full oil, running well, 220 miles non stop on I-40 west, 70-75mph taking some nice hills in top gear all the way, liking this 1800 engine. The fuel gauge did drop off the top peg down to the Full mark by 90 miles, so that looked like an improvement. And we were getting better fuel mileage, so it never went below about 3/8 on the gauge, maybe not a good test of near empty yet. Fuel stop in Kingman, Arizona took 9.9 gallons for 219 miles. ,22.1-mpg at speed into the wind with a few hills. Not complaining, mind you. Best yet, another report of no oil consumption, still on the Full mark after burning two tanks of fuel. We will keep an eye on this.
Wednesday, May 20 2026:
Off to a good start for a travel day. Rolling out of Kingman, AZ, 10 miles west on I-40, then head north US-93 for 75 miles. Crossing over the spillway at Hoover Dam (at the west end of Lake Mead) from Arizona into Nevada. Here US-93 becomes or follows I-11 for a short while. Just a few miles on we split away from I-11 to run a few more miles into Boulder City, NV to stop at a McD's. No power outlet here, so we jumped back on I-11 again immediately after breakfast. 30 miles later I-11 crosses the Northern Beltway Trail at the northeast corner of Lass Vegas, and becomes US-95. We continued on to Amargosa Valley, NV for a quick fuel stop at Area 51 Alien Travel, which is exactly what it sounds like. Fuel stop, Alien bait museum, a neat 50's style diner, a casino and gentleman's club. You know, typical tourist trap, that failed to trap us. We did finally find the oil level half a mark down,about 1/3-quart low. Good, leave it there, check again later.
Continuing north at 11-am, intending to make 125 miles more to Love's Travel Stop in Tonopah, NV by 2-pm or so. Just enjoying the expressway with lots if desert sagebrush all around, while trying to snap a picture of a white cap mountain from the warm valley below. Then it's amazing how quickly things can change. Waddaya mean we're only doing 60 up this long grade? It's floored and beginning to misfire, and sounds like we're dragging something.
Pull over to check, and find we have a shreaded tariler tire, which also put a healthy kink in the rear edge of the left fender. Okay, no big deal, jack it up to install the spare tire, and use the Papa Wrench to pull out the bent rear edge of the fender. While we have it jacked up, knock off the grease cap to adjust the bearing nut one or two flats to reduce excess bearing clearance, replace the split pin and the grease cap. Back on the road in minutes.
Just a few miles on, while we were discussing where we might find a Harbor Freight to buy another trailer tire, we ran across another unfortunate bloke with a flat tire. He had his Mercedes Benz jacked up (with the emergency only jack) to install the emergency spare tire. But the normal road wheel is thick aluminum, and the emergency spare wheel is thin steel. The spare wheel has printed all over it warnings to not use the original long wheel lug studs, because they screw in too far and will interfere with the internal brake parts. Yeah, they weren't kidding. With two studs installed the wheel was blocked so the car could not move. Which brain child German engineer had this bright idea? There is supposed to be a set of five shorter wheel lug studs included with the emergency spare wheel, but none to be found in this car at this time. We are 30 miles short of Tonopah where there is a NAPA parts store and a tire shop. A phone call to NAPA about the shorter wheel studs was no help at all, and closing time is coming quickly in the small town.
Uh, we got this. Toss the flat tire and wheel on top of the Magic Trailer and tie it down. Relocate navigator to sit in the Mercedes (not going anywhere), while the owner takes over shotgun seat in the MGA, and we head 30 miles into Tonopah to get a new car tire.
205-55-R16 please, and yes they have two to chose from. Not long to buy one and get it mounted and balanced. Tie it back on the Magic Trailer, and high tail it back south 30 miles to put it back on the Mercedes.
There's the wonderful little emergency jack that came with the new Mercedes, go figure. Well, if it wasn't for the missing short wheel studs, it could have worked. Navigator was doing his thing to assure all the lug bolts were properly tightened before we were heading north again to find the Love's Travel Stop a little farther on in Tonopah.
One thing they do have in the desert is lots of space, so there is plenty of parking at the truck stop.
On arrival we found this neat 1967 VW Beetle, belonging to the front counter attendant inside. Nice young guy says his father traded a Camaro for it even up. It has rebuilt original engine, and 35,000 original miles. It looks 59 years old inside and out, but it drives okay. Sweet find.
Fuel up the MG again, 8.43-gallons for 173 miles, 20.5-mpg, okay for all the screwing around we've been doing. Oil level now square on the Low mark, which is 2/3-quart from the Full mark. So 2/3-quart used in 755 miles since top-off in Milan, NM. I'd settle for that, better than 1100 miles per quart. Last time I had an MG engine go 1000 miiles on one quart of oil was a new engine just run in before the Alaska trip in 1997.
Thursday, May 21 2026:
Good morning inTonopah, NV. . The billboard across the street from the truck stop says "McDonald's", but the locals say it has been gone for at least five years. It also says, "Just ahead in Hawthorne", which is 103 miles away and more extra travel distance, so we will stay here for breakfast. Now where will we find another 8-inch trailer tire in the middle of nowhere? Navigator says the tire on the other side is thin and very suspect, hardly good for emergency spare, so we should get two more tires. We could get them delivered in a few days to a week, but we don't want to wait.
Lots of searching and phone calls later, our best bet is Harbor Freight in Sonora, CA, which is right on our way, but 254 miles in nearly 5 hours. At least we called to verify they are in stock, and please put my name on them. So we are now going to Sonora, California, with or without the trailer. If we fry another tire on the way, we get to drop the trailer on the side, go get the tire(s), and drive back to the trailer, however far that might be.
Engine cranked a little slow this morning, but it did start. The digital volt meter in the cigar lighter socket said 14.2 volts, so alternator is working, good to go.
Head west ion US-94N/US-6W, and follow US-6W for 80 miles, mostly lined with desert and sagebrush,and far off mountains on the left. Then hang a right on US-120 at Benton,CA for 45 miles, heading into the Sierra Nevada mountains, still some distance away. Another turn onto US-395 N/CA-120 for 47 miles, as we are finally getting closer to the white capped mountains. Now seriously into the twisties and hills as we climb over a few mountains. This is the route that takes us around the north side of Yosemite National Park rather than going through it, which would be even slower. We get some 3rd hear hills here,and occasionally 2nd gear, mostly fun.
Then a left onto CA-108 for 80 miles, which is most of the rest of today's trek, seriously climbing over the Sonora Pass. At entrance to this road here is a sign noting up to26% inclines near the 9624-foot summit. That is definitely 1st gear, and do mind the 10-mph switchbacks, but the MGA handled it okay even towing the 600 pound trailer. The new cell core radiator was performing admirably, hanging around the "I'm cool here" range of the temperature gauge. About the time we were climbing the highest summit, we were noticing some slight sulfur kind of smell, not knowing what it was, but everything else seemingly normal.
Most of the way through this, as we were making our way slowly down through the steep grades and tight twisties, the engine began to sputter occasionally, likely some ignition problem., and the voltmeter was displaying just over 6-volts. Oops, what happened to the 2-week old AGM battery? Or the 6-month old alternator? Not too surprised actually,as the modern replacement "Lucas brand" alternators regularly have very short life span. So find a safe pull-over spot to swap in the spare alternator. Some biker going up hill slowed down to look over his shoulder,and dumped his big Harley over in the middle of the road. A short delay as it takes 2-1/2 men to get it back upright. With the new alternator installed, and the battery dead, the little lithium battery jumper box got the car running again. Still slowly down the hill a few minutes later, the ignition just quit on a mild upgrade, forcing an emergency stop on the narrow shoulder. Bummer.
A few minutes of diagnostics, using the jumper box to crank it over a few times while testing spark, we had two problems. First, a very weak spark, which was cured by clipping on the auxiliary test condenser. Note to install a new condenser in the distributor later. And the contact points were either not opening or never closing, no blinking with a test light. Easiest to pull the distributor out to check on the points to discover the rubbing foot had broken off, gone, so not even touching the cam. While reaching for the next set of contact points, a friendly California Highway Patrol cop stopped by to check on our problem. While installing and adjusting the points and getting the distributor back into the engine, we had a nice chat with the cop about our 300,000 mile road trip. When he asked if we had the parts to fix this thing, that led to the trailer full of tools and car parts, and the world wide web site with thousands of pages of tech information. I think he was genuinely impressed. He was even more impressed when the jumper box got the engine fired up,and we were on our way again.
Rolling down the hill again, The alternator was putting out 16 volts at speed. Switching on the headlights, it went down to a nicely regulated 14 volts, so okay leave the headlights on. Something else odd, touching the horn button would instantly kill engine as the indicated system voltage went to zero. That was certainly food for thought.
We needed a fuel, as it would have taken at least our last 1-gallon reserve to get us into Sonora. Stopping at the sole Chevron station in Long Barn,CA, Welcome to California and $6.49/gallon. The magic jumper box got the engine started gain, and we rolled the last 20 miles down hill to the Harbor Freight Tools in Sonora, California. Pull in, kill the lights, buy the two new trailer tires,and get them installed in short order. Look Ma, three new skins.
But then the jumper box had lost all of its magic, and the car battery was still at 6-volts, no go. After a while someone gave us a jump start,and we managed to drive the last 22miles up the hill on CA-4 Ebbetts Pass) to our planed destination, Brice Station Winery, just north of Murphy's, CA. 269 miles for a very long day. The horse got its nose into the barn before we let it rest, and here we have friends and tools and work space. Put the car on a battery charger, and poke around a bit with the volt meter. Pretty sure the 2-week old expensive Odyssey AGM battery has failed completely.
Friday, May 22 2026:
Catch up day, mostly posting yesterday's photos and notes. Also borrowed a car for a short run three miles down the hill for supplies from the local market. Evening BBS and forums, tech questions, and other normal" guru" grunt work. Tomorrow we may get a different battery into the MGA.
Saturday, May 23 2026:
Fix it day. Get the two week old Odyssey AGM battery out of the car for testing. It had been on charger, reading 12.5 open circuit voltage. My nifty pocket battery tester said it was good for 575 amps cranking power. Like new? No way. We used jumper wires to connect it back to the car cables, and it was still reading 12.5 volts. Switch on key for fuel pump and ignition coil, which would be maybe 6 amps, and the battery voltage went to near zero, no power output from the battery. Very odd that the electronic battery tester thinks it should be good. There were a few more batteries sitting around, supposedly good used batteries, all larger and would not fit in the MGA. They all tested good so we hooked one of those up with jumper wires, and the car cranked over okay. Hard to see in the pictures, but our failed Odyssey sealed battery was bulging out on all sides like it had lots of pressure inside. So my best guess is that the Lucas alternator was overcharging just before it failed, so by the time the alternator failed it had cooked he battery first. So toss the dead battery and failed alternator into the borrowed car, and head 12 miles down the hill to an O'Reilly's Auto Parts store in Angels Camp, CA.
Look up the alternator model number to get the correct test connector nd spec's. give it a spin, and sure enough it failed.
It failed everything miserably. I may have felt better if it was actually charging 16 volts, but no such evidence here. Then the problem was, they could not find any record of the two alternators we picked up from O'Reilly in Florida six months ago. Last one we bought from O'Reilly on their records was from Georgia in 2022. There are at least 4 on their records going back as far as 2016, all of those the more expensive model with lifetime warranty. But the failed one we just brought in is the less expensive one which could have a one year warranty, except we do not have receipt for it. So they are not going to honor any warranty. And they don't want to take it as a core return against the newer model with lifetime warranty. How's that for a whole load of BS? -- The only good news here is that they can get a new alternator out of Stockton, CA, and it should be here later this afternoon.
Meanwhile sell us a new battery, $212 exchange with all the California fees and taxes. Supposed to be sealed, but it has removable caps, and it sloshes inside, so definitely not AGM type. Damn, such is life. But run it back up the hill and get the new battery installed, with the normal amount of fussing with J-bolts and hold-down clamps. At least it looks like cables and terminal clamps are okay, so in the end the car starts and charges properly again. We also re-checked the spark, with and without the aux-test condenser, and it has a hot spark either way, so put the test condenser back in the doctor's bag.
There is an art show going on next to the pottery shop from about 10-am, and wine tasting officially from noon to 6-pm. And there is a concert in the park with about 400 attendees at 7-pm, so we are mostly trying to stay out of the way and take the opportunity to do our own thing.
For the failed alternator, remove the pulley, fan, woodruff key, shaft spacer and adjuster bracket bolt, and stash those bits in a zip bag for future use. -- Call O'Reilly after 3-pm to verify the new alternator has come in, then take the dead one 12-miles down the hill to exchange it for new.
Now O'Reilly has fetched up both models for the new alternator. The cheaper one with 1-year warranty has a tag that says 28-amps, while the same model we took off the car has a similar tag saying 34 amps, and I thought they were all supposed to be something over 40-amps. their sales listing calls it 42-amps. The more expensive one with limited lifetime warranty also has a sales rating of 42-amps, but there are no tags or markings of any kind on the alternator or on the box, just the part number on the box. And the picture on the box does not look like the part inside, so everything is a total mystery. I don't think it even said country of origin. This looks like they put the same part in both boxes with different part numbers, so they can charge $30 more for the "Limited Lifetime Warranty". The more expensive one did come with fan and pulley included, although it did not show that on he sales screen. Okay, sell us the more expensive one (which is the only model we ever buy anyway, and do give us the printed receipt to hold in our precious legal papers lock box, so we might have some chance of exercising warranty next time it fails. Out the door exchange, within $1 of the cost of the new battery.
Back to the shop to see what we can do with the new alternator. The first red flag is that the hole for the adjuster bracket screw is not even tapped, not metric or inch size, and it has an 8-mm bolt through it with washers and a hex nut, and the it is loose in the hole. That means the hole may be too large for a 5/16" Heli-Coil. -- . But of course it is impossible to get two wrenches (and hands) underneath the alternator to tighten this bolt and nut after installation. So consider a Heli-Coil. 5/16-24-UNF screw is 0.3125"major diameter. If you strip out the female thread, then the Heli-Coil tap drill size should be 1/64th inch larger, or 0.328" (21/64") tap drill. Measuring the hole in the alternator, I find 0.340" clear bore size. If I tap that hole for a Heli-Coil, the coil will have less than nominal bite in the base metal by 0.006" on the radius. Been here, done this, but you have to be real careful.
Clean everything, and oil the Heli-Coil tap. Use all the eyes you can muster to hold the tap straight in line, and go slowly with a soft touch. The tap will turn very easily, as it is not removing as much base metal as intended. Once through, rinse the tap with lacquer thinner before backing it out, so you don't scarf up the new thread with debris. Clean the new thread and the new Heli-Coil insert with lacquer thinner, blow dry, and wait a bit to be sure the solvent has all evaporated, now perfectly clean and dry. New tube of thread lock adhesive, dope the female thread all around, and likewise the outside of the Heli-Coil insert.
Using the prescribed insertion tool, screw the new coil in until it is flush with face of the hole (no coil remaining exposed on top). Turn the insertion tool backward slightly to expand the coil inside of the tapped hole. Remove the insertion tool, and very gently screw a bolt into the new Heli-Coil, in and out a couple of times without disturbing the break-off tab that is exposed in the back. This move is to insure that there is no thread lock adhesive inside of the new female thread. Last move is to use a thin abrasive cut-off wheel in a Dremel tool with a gentle touch to cut any coils that may be exposed on the back side
Then you can just keep in mind the missing 0.006" of base metal at the wall before tapping, and try not to over tighten the fastener when in use. I think the path to success here is to be sure the tap goes in really straight so you don't hog out any extra material before installing the Heli-Coil. And now we can throw that nasty coarse threaded metric bolt and nut into the dust bin.
For the record, this is the same model alternator as the one just installed in the car a few days ago, with the same odd Heli-Coil treatment. And this one is going back into the Magic Trailer for our traveling spare.
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