The MGA With An Attitude

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MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (September 16 - September 30, 2026)

Wednesday September 16, 2026 :
Add an off-site link in the mgtech index for restoration of the MGA convertible top frame and front wood bow.

Tonight we should do one last visit to Wednesday Night Garage Club in Lagrange Highlands, IL before leaving Illinois. Moderately small turn out with a full compliment of SUV. The club project was off the trailer, just returned from the Brit Car Fest. Seems to be someone interested in buying it, but it needs a few more finishing touches. Carbs running lean, rough idle, easy adjustment, then fast idle, easy adjustment.

It recently blew a radiator hose, quickly repalced. Wanting to do a cooling system pressure test, but my pressure tester has gone kaputz. Top up with coolant,install the pressure cap, run engine up to normal operating temperature. Then it sat there idling for near half hour, running on cool with no leaks. Good reults. Bunch of friends munching on tacos and chatting, decent end for summer in the midwest.


Thursday September 17, 2026 : Going to rain most of the day, so we hung out in Naperville, IL working on Wednesday's photos and notes, and doing some advance planning. We broke out in the evening, heading for Munster, Indiana late night.

Friday September 18, 2026 :
After breakfast, a trip to Ace Hardware to pick up some weather strip and adhesive. Then early afternoon, heading to brother's place in Hana, Indiana. installing some weather seal at top of windscreen to front of convertible top. Each time I do this I end up with a different type seal, because the kind I liked before is not currently available. But lots of different seals could work, if you just think about how i fits in place. Cut or punch a hole in the seal strip to clear the attachment post, peel off backing paper, and stick the new seal in place flush with front edge of the windscreen frame. This time I thought it might be good idea to drop a couple of O-rings over the peg, as this has been leak point in post installations.

Being rather thin rubber, I put the same seal strip under the front bow to face the strip underneath. Another thought was to brush some talcum powder onto the face of the rubber parts to keep them from sticking together upon initial assembly. Once latched in place, I applied some vinyl tape to the front hanging flap to hold it in place against the windscreen frame. With luck, after some sun heating cycles the canvas flap might be trained to stay where it belongs after the tape is removed. If not, then maybe try a thin varnish to starch the flap. Some of these odd techniques might actually work if I keep trying new stuff.

The two-speed screenwipers we installed two years ago had recently stopped working on low speed. The original 2-position wiper switch was replaced with a 3-position lighting switch, and two relays added for logic switching to the 5-wire motor connector. All of the wires are still in place, along with the nice strain relief P-clips and nicely wrapped harness. The switch works properly, and both relays click when actuated. Repeated switch actuation gave consistent clicking of the low speed relay. As I was reaching for the test light, the thing began working properly again, after which I could not make it fail. Go figure. It might eventually need a replacement relay, but for now it works, and I quit tinkering.

Then we needed to install a new vacuum advance pipe assembly, which is a knuckle scratching job in close quarters. Remove air cleaners, and remove front carburetor. A bit of a fiddle to bend the pipe to suit, getting the small male threaded nut to screw into the venturi port on bottom of the rear carburetor, run under the carb and up the back corner of the engine, then over the heater return hose, across the back of the cylinder head, and under the heater valve to the distributor vacuum connection. That should improve throttle response and fuel economy a bit.

I gave brother a little chore to cut open the last filed brake light pressure switch to show why they fail (burned contacts). I was surprised to see this one has a clear plastic diaphragm rather than a more common rubber disc. It was a novel idea, but in the real world, no better than all the rest that are regularly failing.

Saturday September 19, 2026 :
In the morning, R&R the left door top trim rail to apply sealant underneath to prevent water intrusion during heavy rain. Bit of a sticky chore and clean-up job, hoping it will keep the water out.This car really needs new door panels and rebuilding or replacing of the side curtains, and new leather wrapping for the door top rails, and better door seals. Maybe some winter work.


Afternoon heading East on US-6 with a short WiFi stop near Fort Wayne, Indiana (too cold in the A/C to stay long). Updated a Restoration Tech web page for Number Plate Originality, narrowing down dates for the plate style changes. Then more East to an evening fuel stop at Loves in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Late night working on these notes, so we will stay over for breakfast.

Sunday September 20, 2026 :
Raining early morning. Finishing prior travel log documentation (above). Calling ahead to see what might be planned for Tuesday evening in York, PA. Having about one day leeway, and watching weather (trying to dodge some rain), we bailed out of Upper Sandusky, Ohio by 7-pm. Negotiating through some light rain, arriving Hubbard, Ohio 9:30-pm. the car was occasionally wet, while we were not. Seems like the sealing at windscreen top and driver door top rail are working okay, as intended. And the 2-speed wipers are still working. A very uneventful two hour drive, so what's not to like.

Monday September 21, 2026 :
Rain most of the day. Some phone calls reveals the Tuesday night gathering in York has been cancelled (or not scheduled) due to impending rain (lame excuse). Rain continues to midnight.

Tuesday September 22, 2026 :
Early morning run, Hubbard, OH to Clarion, PA for breakfast. We have a new cell phone number for a friend in York, PA, but no answer, and no voice mail box set up yet. Call again at 2-hour intervals, but still no answer. Ducking between rain storms, we moved on to Brookville PA. More rain, evening to midnight.

Wednesday September 23, 2026 :
Another hour plus south-east, stopping for breakfast in Milesburg, PA. Here we found a dead a zone with no cell service. Seems rare these days, but can still happen occasionally. Cell service woke up later, but still no answer in York.


Thursday September 24, 2026 :
Moved farther east, sitting in Milton, PA most of the day. Began work on new Part Numbers tech pages for Liner bearings for camshaft, rod bearings, nmain bearings, and crankshaft thrust washers. Finish composing and uploading new Part Numbers tech page for /8G2176 Cam Bearing liner set. Moving south this evening, navigator dropped us in Cumberland PA in time for dinner.

Friday September 25, 2026 :
Breakfast in Etters, PA.
Finished composing and uploading new Part Numbers tech page for 1G2331 and 1G2332 Upper and Lower thrust washers for MGA crankshafts (for all MGA 1500. 1600. 1622 and Twin Cam engines). -- Short break in mid afternoon warm weather to tighten the squeaky fan belt on the MGA. Then a down hill run to York, PA to knock on the door of our friend who has not been answering the phone. No luck there, but we may inquire more later. -- Several miles south to a known good WiFi spot at south end of York, PA.

Saturday September 26, 2026 :
7-am breakfast appointment at Village Green Family Restaurant in York, Pennsylvania. We accidentally showed up half hour early, but the place was open, so we strolled in to order, getting a little head start. Others were soon filling the chairs. Most of these folks were friends of Darrell's Garage, but Darrell would not be here today.

Out to the car park at 8-am, half a dozen LBC on hand, Not too cold, but rain in the forecast may have scared off a few. In past years we commonly had 12 to 20 cars for this event. Keep these cars in mind, as they will represent about 10% of the vehicles to be presented on the show field later today.

Crawl out of York, PA by the side streets and follow some back back roads. 40 miles south, across the state line to Rocks State Park in Street, Delaware. Here for the 47th annual MGs On The Rocks car show, presented by MGs of Baltimore car club. This is touted as the longest continuously running car show in North America. Most cars arrived by 10-am, good time to take pictures. Up front are the Premier Class cars, which have won Best In Class in prior years.

There were only about 60 cars on the field today (likely due to inclement weather forecast). Broken into at lest a dozen display and judging classes, some classes will have only a hand full of cars. MGA, four shown here early, two more to join us later.

Lots of MGB in four classes, pre-emissions chrome '62-'67, post-emissions chrome '68-'74, rubber bumpers '74-1/2 to '80, MGB-GT (all years), and V8s (all conversions I think).

Rubber bumper MGBs were over-represented, at least nine of them. Also an abundance of MGB-GT, at least seven (maybe related to the inclement weather). Pretty sure there was a second MGB V8 some where, as they had their own class.

"Other British" cars included two Rolls Royce, one Land Rover, and the Lotus Elan hiding in between. The only Austin Healey on the field, a late model 3000 with roll-up windows, took best of show.

the first Triumph must be a rare "Super 6", followed by two TR8 and two TR7 Two Spitfire, one gloss black with chrome, one hide in the dark flat black with rubber bumpers, and two TR6.

. Three Jaguar, all E-Type, the first early model in racing guise, the second with all the street trim, and then a 2+2 Coupe (very nice). -- One casualty today as this MGA Coupe had dead screenwipers, stopped in mid stroke ten minutes before arrival. Switch key on for circuit testing, power, ground, and switch to ground control wire all working, and the fuse was still good. But the motor got hot enough to burn your hand, so I disconnected the fuse right away. All electrical seems to be okay, but it was mechanically locked up in mid stroke. Possibly a worn out carbon brush broken and jammed up the armature. The fault is inside the motor and gearbox assembly, so it will have to come out for repair, which is two hours of skinned knuckles job. For now we disconnected the power wire from the motor and taped it up to avoid ground shorting, and reinstalled the fuse so other electrical things will work. Remove wiper arms and Rain-X the glass before it heads home in the rain.


As clouds and mist turned into light drizzle, tops were up, tonneau covers on, and a few car covers. We mostly held up for awards presentations. There were food vendors, and the Sailor Girls bake sale under the shelter roof. Not to miss the parts vendors, and the concession selling miniature model cars was big hit.

For additional photos and notes (47 photos) total), see supplemental page for 47th MGs On The Rocks.
After the show we took a quicker route back to York, PA, and got started processing the photos and notes above.

Sunday September 27, 2026 :
Finished uploading photos and notes from the car show (above). Then composing a new Part Numbers tech page for Main Bearing Sets for Austin B-series engines. Five part numbers for standard size MGA main bearing shells. Many more part numbers for undersize shells to enable reground crankshafts. Good progress there, but not finished yet. Thinking I might include MGB main bearings, as MGB engines are often installed in MGA and Z-Magnette cars.

Monday September 28, 2026 :
Most of the day posting new Part Numbers tech pages for MGA crankshaft bearings. part numbers: 8G2081, 8G2175, 8G2257, 8G2288, 8G2323, 8G2335. Six different part numbers for standard size bearings, including changes in mid production of certain models, different for Twin Cam and the 1622 engines. Another 20 part numbers for undersize bearings (for regrinds). Done there, but still need to do the connecting rod big end bearing numbers (good for another full day I suppose).

Tuesday September 29, 2026 :
Half a day was enough to post new Part Numbers tech pages for connecting rod big end bearings. Part numbers: 8G2137, 8G2259, 8G2285.
Three numbers for standard size , and eight numbers for undersize bearing shells. I could not find any factory published numbers for undersize rod bearing shells for MGA Twin Cam engines (not in the SPL's).

Given some time, I also posted a new Part Numbers tech page for MGA Twin Cam camshaft bearing set 8G2261


Then I got a call from a bloke in Connecticut looking for any information about a modified MGA called "Superamerica". And he sent a couple of pictures to fill in more of the history of the car from when he had worked on it in autoshop class in the early 1960's. So I updated the Variants web page VT-107E to add the new photos and notes.

Wednesday September 30, 2026 :
A week after the initial prompt about main bearing part numbers, I got to report to that bloke and to the MGA Twin Cam Enthuiasts Group (on the IO Groups server), the new Part Numbers tech pages (noted above). Also updating the Part numbers index page to add the new numbers with hot links to the newpages, and cleaning up the format of the index page. Looks like now 540 part numbers linked to additional information pages.

Planning future travels, I blundered across another car club we didn't know bout before. Seems there is Laurel Highlands British Car Club with meetings in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. They have existed since 2005, so I'm very surprised we never found it before. Their website has been on line since 2024 (maybe why I found them now). So we may schedule a dog leg to western PA for a club meeting in about a week.