1958 MGA Coupe

[bobs77vet]

tonight i made the wiring harness for the parking lights, i am doing one thing different here and on the left front I am putting a ringed ground on a fender bolt just like on the right side tied into the same wiring ground harness and the parking light. i also will be bringing individual grounds to each of the tail lights, just because over the years i have realized that its a good thing to have solid ground connections at lights

also the parking light wires are soldered, wrapped in electrical tape (like rolling a cigarette, not like a bicycle handle bar), and shrink wrapped. the splices are off set. you do this becasue if you have an errant wire poking through the shrink wrap when its heated and the splices are in the same place you can create a short or other funny wiring problems. wrapping it in tape and then shrink wrap minimizes the poke throughs

this soldered splice is off set but it sure doesnt look like it in the photo, the off set also lets it slide through the tubing easier

 

[bobs77vet]

glued the under dash pad in place. the funny thing about contact adhesive is that you paint both of the mating surfaces and you have no ability for repositioning once its made full contact

so i did this in 4 steps....the first was the middle vertical panel with the big hole and that big hole for the wiring harness was my spot that i aimed to get perfect and then i painted the side to the right , and then the side to the left. lastly i did the heater shelf portion as one unit moving from the back to the front. this made it small enough portions that i didnt screw it up. then when it was in place i cut out the heater shelf hole and brake pedal hole.



those are basically the section lines i wound up using



sorry i cant rotate these for some reason

i let hang over my lower support square tubing and painted it





looking at it from the engine bay


and done, use a small roller to make sure everything is pressed flat

 

[bobs77vet]

the inner dash pad is a pretty substantial piece, i believe it will work well.


today continue with wiring harness install and put in the headlight dimmer switch. i marked the dimmer switch input with a white dot so for future reference you can see it easily. the dielectric grease also works well to help the grommets slip into place

how much extra wire and i suppose to have down at the dimmer switch end?














move to the wiper motor bracketry




the end of the hanger right before the hook works well for grabing a stud

 

[Sam Cogley]

That's starting to look dangerously like a car.

 

[bobs77vet]

oh yeah i agree, i actually see an end....

take out dipper switch wiring harness so it can go through the MC bracket, sand and prep the MC bracket, grease the wiper motor and test it and paint stuff, test voltage regulators





sand MC bracket and use some metal prep on it.





test wiper motor with power supply





greasse it up with some of my green goop.....i found a thin washer folded in half in the gear area????




painted wiper motor and tubing







havent we become high tech....power supplies and tablets to read up what you should be looking for



look at that 19v in and 15.4 at the post and all the magic happened at about 16.4 volts





cut out at 9.3 and cut in 12.9...still need to work on the second regulator it is off by 10 volts...

 

[bobs77vet]

tonight match up fasteners for the electrical parts taht get mounted on the fire wall, i carefully put all screws,washers and nuts back on the parts.

wash with warm soapy water



spray with clear



clean terminals stuff with paper and use cardboard to blod off internals and spray with clear

 

[bobs77vet]

well my preparation for the grommet install was not as good as i thought.....too many parts left over, and my fingers are exhausted




i guess tomorrow i will spend some more time researching what goes where

i have all the cables for tach speedo, choke, starter, heater valvbe, water control taken care of as well as blanking plugs for the brake assembly and the oil pressure line



wiper motor ready to go in



if any one wants to identify the remaining grommets please do.....i do have holes left over for the wiper motor cable, and the water temp capillary tube

 

[bobs77vet]

worked a little more on the harness....all the grommets are in place except for the water capillary , it s looking pretty good up close and in person....

 

[bobs77vet]

today do more on the wiring harness, install the wiper motor, hook up some wires, add vin tag and tags to heater....about 4 hrs of work.

added a rubber gasket fron a tire tube to the wiper motor post and used a leather punch to make the hole




installing these wiper motors is a PITA...







hook up wires and made this long so its easier to replace, my flasher unit doidnt pass testing so i need to buy a new one

 

[Sam Cogley]

Out of curiosity, why did you stick with the mechanical voltage regulator vs. hiding a modern electronic version in the box?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Happy 4th re-birthday little MG

 

[bobs77vet]

it says thanks

more electrical work...
connecting tool in action



full compression



adding a ring and additional ground circuit to the ground to go to a body bolt on drivers side


test all circuits to make sure everything works

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

It's alive!

I always consider it a major milestone accomplished when I power up the circuits

 

[bobs77vet]

yes sirreee its close...


worked on those triangular pieces and putting down cork for the frame to body spots





some black goop for an air tight seal



this spot has to be below the goal post top



i used rivets to make it nice and tight



seems like a gasket is a good idea here





and lastly put in the fuel sender unit

 

[bobs77vet]

made some progress tonight unclogging my vacuum port on my HS4




i was able to open up the port, this was .030 mig wire



got the hole open



turns out to be about .060



it must have been debris sucked into it i didnt really have to remove any metal to open it up. now what do i put in there to mate up to this



any and all ideas appreciated, what have others done who are using HS4s

thanks bob

 

[bobs77vet]

worked on the heater tube today and the firing order tag.

 

[bobs77vet]

back to the carb ported vacuum opening

this is my best choice so far

 

[bobs77vet]

and done, after thinking about it way too much i just drilled the hole. theres no reason not to take the carbs off if you wanted to.

i used an air vacuum ( for AC systems, do not use a shop vac around gas fumes) to clean out the carb infront of the butter fly

chucked up the bubble flair and did some file work on the profile









just waiting for the rebuilt distributor to hook up the vacum line completely

 

[bobs77vet]

and time to take car of an easy one



any body have a good cleaning method for this original bottle?

sand , clean, sand , clean....prime and then paint

 

[Sam Cogley]

Wouldn't a car of that era have had a glass bottle for the washers?