Vintage Viewpoint

The Newsletter of the Vintage MG Car Club of Chicago

Vol. 51, No. 1 January 2017

The Open Cockpit By Bob Lee, President

Making progress…

I have been able to spend some time in the garage

“working” on the TD. My wife might say I am

“playing” but that is a story for another time. The

front motor mount may not have been “perished”

but it was very oil soaked and bloated.

I figured I would loosen everything up prior to

raising the engine and then swap it out with a new

mount. The mount to frame attaching nuts would

not come completely off without the mount being

raised up above the frame. My initial thought was:

who was the idiot who designed this arrangement.

After calming down and reflecting, my thinking

now is that the design was thought out with the

objective being to prevent the mount from

completely becoming dis-engaged while in service

– brilliant! The new mount is installed.

I do not remember how I replaced the rear spring

shackle bushings in 2012, although I did review the

workshop manual and I am pretty sure that I

tightened everything before letting the car down on

the wheels. Since I am hunting the source of a

slight klunk noise, I ordered new urethane shackle

bushings. I did rotate the rear wheels looking for a

drive line klunk but found only what I believe to be

forward/reverse slop in the rear end. However

while loosening the spring to axle U bolt nuts I did

note after un-locking the bottom nut that the top one

could be tightened more without a lot of effort. I

attribute this to the rubber pad on the spring

accepting its fate of being squished and

compressing over time. Hummm, several

participants on the MG forums mention when the U

bolts are not tight the axle movement can cause

clutch judder. Could this be a source of the klunk?

I removed the rear apron and removed the rear wing

The next regular meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 11,

beginning at 8:00 p.m., at the Pizza Joynt, 39 W. North Avenue, Northlake, Illinois.

STEVE'S BRITISH CONNECTION

WANTED: EUROPEAN antique, classic

cars. Jaguar, Austin-Healy, MG, Morgan, Triumph, 356,

190SL, Alfa Romeo, Riley, Land Rover,

Singer.

Also pre-War cars and other interesting

European cars in ANY CONDITION, ANY

LOCATION

Please call 630-553-9023

E-mail SBCINC@aol.com

www.stevesbritishconnection.com

(fender) attach bolts and replaced the shackle

bushings. The rubber bushings were a little

distorted but quite solid. I put some copper anti-

seize on the urethane bushings and installed them,

tightening the shackle pin nuts after putting the

weight of the car on the wheels. These tightened up

solidly. I am not as positive about the axle U bolts

nuts. I used an 8 inch combination spanner and

tightened them pretty tight – but I know I can go

more. I experienced an uneasy feeling that I was

going to snap the bolts and stopped. My

compromise is to put a couple of hundred miles on

the car and then re-tighten or tighten the bolts more,

maybe until I am unable to go tighter. I am open to

recommendations from the collective wisdom of the

members.

Other odds and ends:

I got the radiator cleaned and checked, the tubes

looked clear before I took it in and I was told it

flowed well but flunked the pressure test. Jim at

Lake Zurich Radiator only put 1 or 2 psi on it, he

said, the equivalent of filling it with antifreeze,

since the TD has an unpressurized cooling system.

He found a leak, patched it then found another; he

believes the metal is worn thin. He would do a re-

core for $900 but I elected to replace the unit for a

lower cost.

I used a step drill to open up the center hole of my

swap meet plastic fan and used the water pump

spacer to drill four holes to mount it. It is about 11

inches in diameter, smaller than the MGB fan but I

will see how well it works. I painted most of it

black, leaving the blade tips orange for visibility.

I ordered a water pump with a six blade impeller

and will likely replace the thermostat housing.

Mine looks a little corroded. I have a replacement

aluminum one but have read that they corrode very

quickly – which is maybe why I did not install it

years ago. I do not remember.

My gearbox leaked a lot this past year at the

speedometer pinion drive housing. I got one of

Doug Pelton’s housings that is machined with a

groove for an O ring seal and now have it installed.

A very impressive fix. It hasn’t leaked yet but I

have not re-filled the gearbox yet.

Whether it is very cold or mildly cold we will have

our next meeting on January 11. Hope to see you at

the Pizza Joynt.

Minutes of the December 14, 2016 Meeting of the

Vintage MG Car Club of Chicago

The meeting was called to order by President Bob Lee at

8.00 PM. Thirteen members were present.

The Minutes of the November 9, 2016 meeting were

approved as published in the Newsletter.

Reports:

Treasury – Ric Maitzen – The report was circulated. Membership – Greg Hoeft (presented by Ric Maitzen) –

We have 30 paid members so far for 2017. There are no

new members. Regalia – Lou Louchios – Not present. Driving Events – Reinout reviewed the awards won by

VMGCC members presented at the Holiday party.

These are detailed in the December Newsletter. Old Business:

The Christmas party was a big success.

Although limited to 80 people, two additional people

showed up at the last minute. Two other people were

unable to attend, so we had 80 people net. There wasn’t

a significant number of people who wanted to attend and

were turned away. The room was adequate and the food

good. Rick Rausch would like suggestions for other

venues so they can be investigated long before next

year’s party. Rick Rausch is recording total “T” mileage for

2016, so please send him your total mileage. New Business

Bob Lee asked members to consider the giving

of memorial flowers or donations. He suggested that the

club give donations to charities instead of flowers and

that a dollar limit be established. Jerry Cihak recalled

that such a policy already existed with the dollar limit of

$50. Members present passed two motions. One to

increase that limit to $75, and the second to make

charitable donations in lieu of flowers. Doug Pelton, of “From the Frame Up,” is

offering 10% off on orders received by 12/24/2016. Technical Topics

Bob Lee took out his original radiator and had it

tested. Unfortunately, it needs a new core. He received

an estimate of $900 for the work and is investigating

buying a new radiator. Win Gould’s MGB V8 with a 5-speed Borg

Warner gearbox has a gearbox leak at the front main

seal. Repairing this requires pulling the engine and

gearbox. Steve Skegg, in Downers Grove, is going to

do the work. Win asked that when the time comes (in

March) some assistance would be welcome. Reinout

added that Steve has a very nicely equipped shop to do

the work. Bob Lee is also having his radiator slats stripped

and will paint them the same color as his car’s body

(red) to match his red interior. Bob is installing a one-piece rubber seal at the

front of his XPAG engine. He brought his crank pulley.

It looked good enough so that it will not need a sleeve.

He also brought his deteriorated original front engine

mounting block for show and tell. He will install a new

one. Last month Jerry Cihak noted that the website

www.teregister.org will let you look up the build date

for your car. Ray Costa went to this site and found out

his car was completed (the first time) on September 10,

1952. Program:

The program was Gerry Risner reciting a

wonderful spoof on the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” The meeting was adjourned at 8:43 PM. Happy Holidays to everyone, members and non-

members alike!

Ray Costa, Secretary

Tourist Trophy

Deadline: January 15th

All entries for the 2016 Tourist Trophy must be e-mailed or postmarked

on or before January 15th 2017.

Send your total miles driven for the year to:

RWRauschJr@aol.com or Rick Rausch, 701 Inverness, Lisle IL 60532

Happy New Year to all and a great 2017 Driving

Season for you and your MGs. 2016 was a very

good driving year for our clubs. And with a little

bit of planning, 2017 can even be better.

What do I mean with better?

Well, in the first place I would like to see more

participation. Most events in 2016 already saw a

record number of MGs but there is really no reason

why we can’t have even more MGs come out in

2017. We had a fantastic variety of driving events,

from rallies, garage tours, weekend tours, social

outings, autocross, and technical meetings. If you

participated in some of these this year and liked the

experience, plan on returning in 2017. And if

you’ve never been to some of these varieties, plan

on trying out at least one in 2017. If we all do that,

2017 will easily beat the 2016 numbers.

With better, I also mean more events. We had a

little bit of everything this year and I hope that we’ll

find some new events or event types in 2017.

We’re planning to bring back an early summer tour.

It may not be exactly like the Secrets of Jo Daviess

County Tour, but something along those lines. I’m

also looking for someone to pick up the Lake Tour

and maybe return to the Burnham Park Yacht Club

like we did for the 4050 Tour. And wouldn’t it be

nice to do four or five rallies again in 2017? All it

takes are a few people to take the lead and be the

rally or tour master and put the event on the

calendar.

And finally, we can try to do a little better with the

invitations for our events in the Driveline and

Vintage Viewpoint. Timely announcements will

allow you to plan ahead and block your calendars to

keep the day free from other commitments. That

way, when the events come, you can participate.

And after the events we can maybe provide the

newsletter editors with more photos and more event

reports, maybe even a little personal story of how

you experienced the event. The readers of our

newsletters who didn’t participate want to read

about what is going on with the Driving Season.

And if the stories and photos look really good, they

may think that they missed out on a great driving

event and decide to join us for one of the next

events.

Did you notice that the things that can make our

2017 Driving Season even better have one thing in

common?

Yes, that’s right. All three involve you, the

members. The MG Clubs of Chicago need you, the

members, to come out with your MGs to participate

in the tours, rallies, autocross, and technical and

social events. We need you, the members, to think

about new events and maybe step up and organize

something. And we need all of us to do better

publication before and after the driving events for

the newsletters.

We’ll start planning the calendar soon and I hope to

hear your ideas, suggestions, and plans for the

events that we are going to support. If you have any

questions please let me know. Or, you can take a

look at the list of awards that we handed out at the

Holiday Party, The people who won the awards in

the various categories are the ones to ask, They

know how it is done, The complete list was

published in the December issues of the newsletters

and I’d be happy to send you a copy if you prefer.

New Directions

Monthly Column of Driving Events

"The more you think about driving, the more

you smile".

-- Reinout Vogt

Save the Date

Sunday, March 19 – All British Swap Meet!

Same great place as previous years: the DuPage County Fairgrounds. More details to come!

The 54 Horsepower Snow Thrower by Charlotte Raymond

The restoration shop my husband Michael

started is doing well. Winter is here, and the old

cars can’t be driven in the snow, but Michael has

plenty of things to do in the shop when he’s not

busy being a middle school science teacher.

We had a big snow, which is not that

unusual in the Chicago area. It started Friday night,

and by the middle of Saturday, we had more than a

foot and a half of the vile stuff. Michael used our

little five horsepower snow blower five times in

twenty four hours, just to keep up with it.

“Never again!” Michael cried as he came in

from blowing snow the last time. “I need a bigger

and better snow blower. Maybe, even, the

ULTIMATE snow machine!”

“So just go out and buy one,” I said.

“My dear, you just do not understand. I

want a really, really big machine: One that can take

a lot of snow, all at once, and blow it over the

neighbor’s house.”

“Ooooh Kaaay,” I oozed. “What are you

proposing?”

“Let me talk to the boys at the shop and I’ll

let you know,” Michael said as he tromped off to

change clothes.

For the next week, I didn’t see much of

Michael. He spent every evening at the restoration

shop and would not tell me what he was up to. He

did, however, start smiling more and more.

The next Saturday he disappeared, and came

back three hours later with what looked like a clone

of our red, 1952 MG TD save for one important

difference: There was a massive snow thrower

bolted to the front where the bumper should be. It

was painted to match the car.

“Michael! What did you do to our poor

MG?” I screamed.

He grinned. “First, this isn’t our nicely

restored, show-winning car. I picked up this MG

last year as a partially burned out basket case.

Lenny and Squiggy have been working on it down

at the shop on-and-off for months. If you look at it

closely, you’ll see that it still has no interior or

instrument panel, and it still needs paint and body

work. But the engine, gearbox and brakes have

been redone and it runs fine. So I thought I’d turn it

into an MG snow thrower!”

“And now, I suppose, it is worth nothing at

all?”

“Au contraire, mon ami,” Michael crowed.

I bought a used five foot snow thrower attachment

from the John Deere dealer for peanuts. Lenny

rebuilt it and painted it. Then Squiggy welded up a

bracket so that it can be bolted to the same

attachment points as the MG front bumper. I had a

crankshaft pulley made up so that it can turn a

second belt. The belt goes to a shaft that we

mounted on the bottom of the front sub-frame, and

that shaft drives the snow thrower. It can all be

removed in a couple of hours and nothing on the car

has been modified. I added snow tires to the back,

and with a couple of bags of sand stashed behind

the seats, I think this baby will really do the job. I

had to rig up a lever so that I could raise and lower

the snow blower, but again, that’s bolted to the

frame without drilling any new holes. I also added

a heater, and with the tonneau cover in place I

should stay nice and warm. I can’t wait for the next

snow to see how it works.”

“Michael, you are one crazy guy, but I still

love you. Don’t get hurt with that contraption,” I

admonished.

A month later we were hammered with

another huge snow. Michael started up the MG-

five-foot-snow-thrower and proceeded to do our

long driveway in three minutes. Then he drove to

our daughters’ houses and cleaned off their

driveways. He came home and cleaned off the old

T-type.

“That thing works so well I may never

restore it. I think I’ll take it to the British Car

Festival next year. Won’t that be a hoot?” he

grinned.

The following September Michael did

exactly that. I drove our restored TD, and Michael

drove the 54 horsepower snow thrower. Guess who

won best of show?

Note: Author Charlotte Raymond is the nom de

plume of a VMGCC member. "The 54 Horsepower

Snow Thrower" is published with the permission of

the author and may be re published with full

acknowledgement given to the VMGCC newsletter,

the Vintage Viewpoint.

XPAG OVERHEAT – An unexpected but common cause

by Doug Pelton, From the Frame Up

Engine overheat is a common problem within our

T-series cars. It has been discussed on many forums and

there is a logical decision tree to go through to help

trouble shoot. However, it is not uncommon for the

problem to remain after exhausting the list of common

sense things to check. First, let us review the obvious

and then reveal the not so obvious solution.

Radiator – Flush your radiator and block periodically.

If you have your radiator off, you can check if your

radiator is plugged by filling with a garden hose and see

if the flow in from the top is equal to the flow out at the

bottom. If blocked have it rodded out by a professional.

Proper cooling fluid is mandatory and the additive

“Water Wetter” may also help.

Water Pump – Understand that the water pump pulls

cooler water from the bottom of the radiator and forces it

into the block to circulate and cool the block and head.

Then the hotter water exits the head through the front

water outlet, up through the thermostat, and on into the

top of the radiator to recycle and cool down through the

radiator to repeat the flow. If pump is bad there will be

no flow, but this is not the common problem.

Thermostat – The thermostat is closed at start so the

engine can warm up to operating temp. While it is

closed, no water goes to the radiator top tank. Instead

the water coming out of the head returns to the engine

block via the bypass hose and into branch pipe to the

water pump and then block. This cycle continues until

the engine is warm and then thermostat opens allowing

hot water to go to the radiator top tank to cool. There

are 2 scenarios involving the thermostat to be the

problem. First, it could be plugged or frozen. If so,

water will never get to the radiator and over heat will

occur. Second, overheat could be caused by the bypass

port being full open and thus the water is bypassing the

radiator. The outlet on the side of the thermostat

housing should be partial blocked which will deny full

flow of water to bypass cooling and return to the block

even with the thermostat open. Original thermostat

housings automatically blocked this port when

thermostat opened. Modern replacements have this port

partially blocked for same purpose.

Fan blades – Fan blades can be installed incorrectly.

Install originals with the rear blade having the offset

holes and the reinforcements facing forward. A common

change for more cooling is to install the 7-blade fan from

the MGB. This will give more air flow and may help.

However, if you have an overheat problem you should

find the source of the problem and not mask the

problem.

Block – Engines that have been stored for a long period

tend to be full of corrosion. You may be able to

chemical flush the block while in the car but the best

way is to clean during engine rebuild.

Carbs – If the carbs are adjusted too lean this will cause

the engine to run hotter. Making them a little richer will

help your engine to run cooler. However, check your

plugs first. If they are dark with carbon, your carbs are

already on the rich side and the carbs are not the cause of

overheat.

So, the above are all the commons things to check.

While these topics are all common sense there is often a

root cause that is not on the list - the distributor.

Distributor – Engine timing can greatly affect the

operating temp of the engine and a worn distributor can

have a serious impact. The engine is normally timed at

idle at 0 degrees TDC. However, with modern fuels you

should set the timing on the advanced side. But what

happens with a worn distributor at high rpm? If the shaft

and bushing have end play the dizzy gear will ride to a

higher contact point on the cam gear. This retards your

timing at high speed and can cause over heat. Your

advance weights and springs can also be the culprit and

add to the problem. There is a simple check you can do

for your dizzy. Remove the cap and rotor and pull on

the rotor shaft to see if you have any end play (up &

down movement). If you do, have your dizzy rebuilt or

replaced. Although this is the last item in this article,

consider this one of the first things to check. The

dizzy’s are 60+ years old and are tired and need

attention.

FTFU will be glad to assist trouble shooting your over

heat issue. We also offer every one of the above

discussed items to include rebuilt distributors.

Don’t run it hot – stay cool Doug Pelton 480-588-8185

www.FromTheFrameUp.com

VMGCC Club Supplied Regalia Qty. Item Price Amount Send Regalia orders to:

Lou Louchios

3101 West Frontage Rd.

Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

Orders may be picked up at regular business meetings

with no postage charge. Contact Lou first.

e-mail: Mgairline35@aol.com phone: 847 397-0623

First Name

________________________

Last Name

________________________

OCT2016

Lapel Pin 1" 5.00

Key Ring 1" 5.00

Stick Pin 1" 5.00

Charm 3/4" 4.00

Tie Tack 3/4" 4.00

Lapel Pin 3/4" 4.00

Name Tag 12.00

3 1/4 Iron on Transfer 1.00

VMGCC Gril Badge 25.00

50th Grill Badge 40.00

50th Lapel Pin 5.00

4 in. sew-on Patch 6.00

VMGCC Cap (black or tan) 12.00

2005 GOF Lapel Pin and Plaque 1.00

Postage 3.00

Total

Name: Address:

Phone:

Membership Application and Renewal

Dues and registration: $25.00 per year

Make your check payable to: Vintage MG Car Club

Mail your payment to: Ric Maitzen, VMGCC Treasurer

2881 Fredric Court

Northbrook, IL 60062

Include the following with your dues. We will use this information to update our membership directory

Name:___________________________________ Spouse or Partner:_______________________________________

Address:___________________________________________ Email: _______________________________________

City, State and Zip:________________________________________________________________________________

Home Phone:_________________________________ Cell Phone: ____________________________________

Send me the newsletter only by email: ____________

Please list your MGs, including Model and Year: Send me a hard copy of the newsletter: ____________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________ OCT2016

Vintage MG Car Club

c/o Editor 1814 Illinois Road

Northbrook, IL 60062

First Class Mail

Officers and Directors – 2017

President: Bob Lee; Vice President: Don Ross; Secretary: Ray Costa; Treasurer: Ric Maitzen; Board of Directors: Jerry Cihak, Brian Dubin, Win Gould

Newsletter: Greg Hoeft- Editor Website: www.vintagemgchicago.com

Email Contact: editor@vintagemgchicago.com

Upcoming Events:

January 2017

11 – VMGCC Meeting, Pizza Joynt, Northlake, IL, 8 p.m

10 - Natter'n'Noggin at Finn McCool's

16 - CMGC membership meeting, Mack's Golden Pheasant, Elmhurst, IL

February 2017

8 – VMGCC Meeting, Pizza Joynt, Northlake, IL, 8 p.m

14 - Natter'n'Noggin at Roundheads Pizza Pub

20 - CMGC Annual Business Meeting, Mack's Golden Pheasant, Elmhurst, IL

2017 Dues are now due!

Check the mailing label on this issue of The Vintage Viewpoint.

If the year printed at the top shows 2016, your dues are due.