Zed, Block Party of 1

Brief post today. After completing the various projects on Hapy (1972 VW bus) and Oliver (1978 MGB), I decided the weather was starting to look promising for getting back after the paint on Zed. Today's short post is re-entering the world of body work.

Where Were We

Last Autumn, I seized an unseasonably warm dry day after rainy season had started to shoot some hi-build primer onto the shell and other removed body pieces. I thought this was the best way to protect the largest portions of the exposed steel from rust. My thought appears to have been spot-on, and the shell appears to have fared quite well. Consider that the shell sat outside all winter under a temporary car port.... until February when we were hit with an incredible ice storm. Power was out across the Portland area for days. I did not lose power, but Boo and I had to go out into it to save the cars parked under the car ports. The ice had been building up, and you could see the material starting to flex. So, we pulled the opaque plastic sheeting off the frames and instead covered Zed with a pair on regular tarps. I knew this would encourage moisture to gather underneath, especially as the ice melted away, but I feared leaving the primer exposed to the elements more. The car ports were restored and the tarps removed within a few days.

Assessing, Sanding and Re-Priming

even under the fenders

Now, months later, our weather is considerably more suited to outdoor play. With various grit's of sandpaper, I started sanding the primer, and looking for rust. I was pleasantly surprised to find very little. Before I could really get started, though, I spent some time cleaning Zed, and vacuuming everywhere with the shop vac.

I started with the front clip (valence in front of the windshield and the exposed sections which will be covered by the front fenders. There were no new rust spots, but the sanding took most of a day. I took the hi-build down as smooth as I could with 150-grit first. The primer was so rough, it took the sandpaper down fairly quickly. Once smooth-ish, I would shop-vac all of the dust and wet sand with progressively higher "grit", starting with 220 and finishing with 400. Once smooth, I cleaned the area with oil and grease remover and then shot the area with self-etching primer.

halfway around

Once my process was defined, I spent the rest of the weekend, and the next week (around my work schedule) working my way around the rest of the shell. Overall, the body withstood last winter's weather very well. Of course, there were many places where I sanded through the hi-build primer down to the bare metal again. I found a few (less than 5) surface rust spots that I needed to sand down to bare metal as well. Still, the overall condition was quite good.

And Then More Sanding

Once the shell was completed, I shifted to all the other body panels (2 doors, the rear tailgate and the massive hood). Those parts represent more than half of the entire car surface area, so I expected that I would be sanding for quite some time. I did find, however, that using a block did move the sanding much faster, but the block can also accelerate you through the primer. So, I am using a mix of the block through the larger flat areas, leaving the edges for doing by hand, or much more slowly with the block. This balance has been working. Also, I only dry-sanded, focusing on 220-grit with a quick pass with 400 (again, dry), out of concern that the hi-build primer would absorb water.

More Bondo? Why, Yes, Thank You

there are always more spots

The shell that sat outside all winter needed better priming, but the body panels that were stored inside all winter needed more body filler. I had thought the hi-build would help cover up more of my bodywork misses. Nope. So, once I got the hi-build down smooth, I went hunting for waves in the panels. I found a few, and returned to the Bondo-Sand-Bondo cycle (See Bondo Zed) . I do want to stress that at no point is the filler more than 1/8" thick; I have 1 of 2 issues continuing to appear: over-sand or under-apply. In either case, the result is a need to go at it again. Fun. Eventually, I will have the panels in a condition where my hand cannot feel wobbles in the panel and then I'll be done. At that point, I will re-shoot with the hi-build over the Bondo spots as well as re-shoot on top of the self-etch on the main shell (this will insure better paint adherence). And then, of course, sand where I shot. Whee!

That's really all there is to talk about. I expect there will be a break in posts unless I take a step away from Zed to do something small on one of the other cars or take a trip or something. So, if you don't see a post, you know why. Once Zed is genuinely ready for final paint prep, there will be a new story to tell, and I'll post on that. Whether we are celebrating US Independence Day or Hapy's 50th birthday before that... well... Let's See. I have discovered along the way that we are missing the front air dam thing that goes under the front bumper. And, I don't have a solution for the rear bumper yet, so I'll be thinking about how to fill those gaps in an interesting way as well. If the solution will require painting to body color (likely), then the actual application of top coat may move further into the future. Cool.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

MGB - Ignition Complete

My last couple of posts have spanned 3 weeks, and, honestly, most of the work has as well. Today's post ends with a running car, and covers the final step in the ignition journey.

 

Best Laid Plans

I thought my plan was so simple. I would just pull out a box of bolt-in ignition parts and I would go from a running-crummy car to a magical sled. As you have witnessed from the last couple of posts, it was not that simple. First, the battery was dead, then the fuel pump was bad. Now, we are finally ready to set the timing, but there doesn't appear to be any spark coming from this new ignition. Why?

Lucas, Lord of Darkness

First, that's not my joke; I borrowed it from Hal. Thanks, Hal. Years later, its still funny, and in so many cases, its still true.

Lucas CEI ignition wiring diagram

I figured that the red and black wires for the ignition signal in the new distributor could just re-use the red and black wires that had been feeding the old distributor. That was my mistake, because I did not recognize this was not your standard distributor. No... this was a Lucas CEI ignition system. While I imagine these were great in their day, this set up was a little more complicated. The 2-wire signal going to/from the distributor does not go directly to the coil. It routes through an amplifier box. This amplifier box appears to only work with the Lucas stuff, though. I believe that either the replacement hi-power coil, the new distributor or both are not compatible with the amplifier box.

The amplifier does not make things much more complicated: it only adds 2 wires to the coil, but the wiring around the coil is already a little confusing. Add in some extras and some grease shmears and trying to figure out what wire is for what starts to get more difficult, especially when the wires are not in the standard diagram. The image above is correct, but it is not in the standard "advance autowire" wiring diagrams, nor can I find references to the Lucas CEI in the MGB shop manual that I have. Still, this research did tell me that there is no ballast in the circuit from the coil to the distributor. There is a ballast between the coil and the fusebox (and that remained), but I figured I should be able to direct-wire the red/black wires to the +/- on the coil directly. The picture below should help show what a "ballast" coil set up looks like. See that "distributor resistor" in the drawing below? It is not in the drawing above so I don't have that. So, we start over. Kinda.

 

Final Install

standard 1978 ignition wiring diagram

I started by removing the distributor again. I had moved the 2-pin plug from the Lucas distributor onto the AccuSpark so I undid those solder joints and soldered on 2 1-foot lengths of 16ga wire (black and red for negative and positive, respectively). I heat-shrink'd the solder points. To the ends of these wires, I added female wire disconnects and heat-shrink'd those as well.

Next, I disconnected the wires going to and from the amplifier box and then removed the box itself. I re-installed the coil and the 2 things that shared the mount-points with 2 shorter bolts. Then, I slid the distributor back in, and re-set the mounting bolt to hold it firm. I had found TDC earlier, as noted in my previous post, so I oriented the distributor visually into the same place (took a picture before removing). In theory, everything should be fairly well set, at least well enough to start, albeit roughly. I optimistically pulled out my timing light just in case.

On an aside, the MGB battery is behind the passenger seat. This makes use of a timing light challenging. To remedy, I sat an old battery on the floor by the front bumper on the passenger side and clipped my positive and negative leads for the timing light onto it. 

It's Alive!

tidied up

I double-checked my under-hood connections, turned off the KBOO and then returned to the driver seat. I turned the key to run and heard the click-then-hum of the fuel pump as well as a click from the engine compartment. Thinking that was the coil leaping to life, I turned the key to start and Oliver started immediately. I mean immediately. No ba-ba-ba beforehand, no choke needed. He just started, and then dropped into a lope-y idle.

Setting Timing

Thrilled, I clipped my timing light sensor on spark lead #1 and pointed it at the main pulley. It flashed on the timing mark, indicating I was around 10* before top dead center (BTDC), which was in the ballpark (suggested 6-14 degrees advanced from TDC by AccuSpark). I tried rotating the distributor housing a little bit to advance or retard the timing, and found that Oliver was most content around 12* BTDC. My light is a cheapy, and does not have a knob to check full advance. So, instead, I used my ears, revving the engine up and down and then revving it up and quick-pulling my foot off the pedal. This last test was when Oliver used to backfire. There was none of that now. Of course, he is not under load right now either. Undeterred, I went back up front and checked his timing again: he was still settled at 12*.

I turned off Oliver's engine and tightened down the timing adjust set bolt (5/16") so the distributor would not rotate on it's own, and his timing would be locked in. I was done. Wow. I hadn't expected that. So, I spent a few minutes cleaning up some of the wiring that I had earlier cut loose from the taped loom by encasing it in some basic wire wrap.

leads now

I included the before picture of my ignition below (blue leads) and a picture of the ignition now on the right here (red/orange leads), taken from about the same spot. If you look closely, you will notice that the newly installed distributor is oriented at least 45* anti-clockwise compared to how it was before. So, either I had moved the dizzy a little before taking that before picture or the engine was running so incredibly off it is kind of a miracle it was running at all. Perhaps the backfires on deceleration could be attributed to the timing being so far off that the dizzy could not get back to a fire-at-the-right-time state when I took my foot off the pedal.

At this point, I'm not sure it was ever firing at the right time. Based on how quickly he started, and how well he ran after I revved him a few times, I am confident the mark I used for TDC and his timing are correct. The lesson here, I think, is to give your new-to-you car a tune-up as soon after you get it home as you can. I have been given this lesson before (See Bay City Blues), but I guess I need multiple examples before I learn sometimes. Bare minimum, I will start looking at my spark plugs during oil changes so I have a regular insight into the combustion. Might be worth a quick validation of the timing when I do that.

Next?

Oliver is pretty much ready to go again. He hard-started a few days after I did the timing I mentioned above. So, I still need some carb adjustment time, and he needs to go through DEQ, of course. An oil change is overdue as well. Otherwise, he is practically ready for Summer. As am I. Just thinking about a top-down drive with Boo for a picnic at a park sounds just about perfect. I'll post on the carb tuning when I get to it.

leads before

I'm not sure what I will be working on next, but nice weather is right around the corner so returning to the paint on Zed is inevitable. Some of him sat outside all winter, so I imagine there is quite a bit of rework coming before I can think about laying paint. Meanwhile, T is due back in the Pacific NorthWest to fight forest fires somewhat soon, and he will probably want/need Nemo on his off days. So, maybe I need to get that rear end sorted. Of course, Nemo won't start now or even put a signal to the OBD2 plug, so he is going from bad to worse fast.

Regardless, there's always something to do at ShadeTree, like helping a local kid swap out his muffler. Oops, I guess I forgot to post on that. We had fun and he learned something: a fart can muffler on an otherwise stock exhaust doesn't really do anything. For a meaningful change in tone and performance, he will need to remove at least one of the other resonators. He is saving up for a cat-back; that will be fun.

Thanks, as always, for following along.

MGB - Fuel Pump 2 Step

Picking up where we left off with Oliver, the 1978 MGB, we had completed the ignition swap out and we were ready to start the engine and set the timing. Until the battery went flat.

To Start Or Not To Start

AutoZone product picture

At this point, I was ready to test-start it. Or, so I thought. Last Fall, I thought Oliver's battery was going bad. It later turned out to be the clock sucking all the juice while left sitting for weeks (see MGB Battery Monitoring). Before I learned that, however, I swapped the battery out for the battery from the donorZed. At this point in my electronic ignition install, I discovered that the donorZed battery actually was bad. I mean bad. Like, I would put it on the charger overnight and then I could put a voltmeter on it and watch it discharge down to 0. Fortunately, I had left Oliver's prior battery on the trickle-charger, because I guess I was not 100% convinced it was bad. So, I swapped his old battery back in. I turned the key, heard the fuel pump click once, and then heard nothing. In the past, I have had this happen when the fuel pressure had not let off since it was last running. Since the engine had not run since October, that was unlikely. Perhaps the inertia switch got nervous and is preventing the fuel pump? Well, then I would not have heard the one click. Still, I pushed the reset button. No change. Then, I jumpered around the inertia switch, running the wire disconnects through a 3A bladed fuse instead of the inertia switch. Same single click.

Fuel Not Pumping

what arrived

I concluded that the fuel pump, which had not been behaving consistently (sometimes just not working at start up), needed replacing. I slid under Oliver's backend and recalled that the original fuel pump had been replaced by the prior owner for what looks like a universal pump. I can't judge. Quite the contrary, I was not going to invest in a $200US+ original MG fuel pump on the assumption that the fuel pump is the problem either. So, I ordered a Spectra fuel pump from AutoZone for $48US delivered next-day-ish. This pump meets or exceeds the requirements for pressure (3.8psi) and delivery volume (18gph) for an otherwise stock MG engine. I sourced the requirements from this page on the MG Experience. The Spectra offers 2.5 to 5 pounds of pressure and 21gph, has reviews on Azn from MG owners saying they work great and even AutoZone shows these are a direct replacement for the Midget.

It is possible to over-power your carb with too much pressure, so that's one for the back of the mind while trying to diagnose what's going on with the fuel flow through combustion. I may introduce a pressure regulator, but one could argue that adding a cheap pressure regulator on top of a cheap fuel pump starts approaching the cost of a good stock-style replacement pump. While that's very true, I am not running a stock carb either. The prior owner installed a SK Racing (now known as OER) side-draft carb, which seems like a combination of the Mikuni PHH and the Weber DCOE, but this blog post has some great information about them. My knowledge of carbs is extremely limited, so I am accepting this as a learning opportunity.

Fuel Pump 2-Step

Holley Mity Mite

The pump that arrived was not as pictured. Lovely. This one was equipped with a 3/8" barb on one end and a 3/8" NPT female on the other. Into the 3/8" NPT, the consumer was expected to thread in the included mini-filter that has a 3/8" barb on the end. While I am sure a filter is needed, that one they included is tiny and virtually irreplaceable. Perhaps these pumps don't last past a fuel filter change. Since the pictures and the spec's I could see did not match, I was not going to go forward with it; I already have more than enough mysteries with the fuel system. I returned it unopened and got a Holley 12-434 Mighty Mite Electric Fuel Pump. These top-out at 4psi, push 28gph and actually ship with 5/16" hose barbs. Between the delays from CoViD and possible delays from that cargo ship that was blocking the Suez Canal for a week, the arrival of the fuel pump was not exactly immediate. Still, through the power of split-posts, it arrived in time to keep this blog active.

 

Fuel Pump Swap

The pump arrived mid-week, so I started my Saturday planning for the fuel pump swap. Over breakfast, I prepped the wires and assembled the pump and pre-filter. While the Spectra above also delivered with a filter like this, I know that Holley supports replacement pre-filters (I verified on their website). Either way, I figure I have one of those in-line clear filters just upstream of the pump, so I don't expect it to require service too terribly often. For the wire prep, I attached a male wire disconnect to the ground (black) wire and a male disconnect to the positive (red) wire.

ready for install

So, with the pump in one piece, and wire disconnects attached to the wires, I slid under the rear end of Oliver, bringing a collection of tools, a drain pan and a flashlight with me. I closed off the fuel supply from the tank with a small pair of vice-grips. I then moved from that hose forward through the fuel pump, disconnecting hoses and draining the contents into the pan. I only got as far as the pump before I didn't need to drain anymore. Clearly that old pump was not working anymore.

The MityMite is actually larger and heavier than the universal pump I had removed. So, I needed to adjust some fuel line lengths, but otherwise things just fit together. I reused the bolt hole which was holding the old pump to the front edge of the trunk, for example.Once all together, I wired the black wire to the grounding wire that was previously attached to the ground tab on the universal pump. Into the female disconnect coming from the pump, I put one blade from a 3Amp fuse. I put the other blade into the female disconnect which is ultimately wired to the inertia switch. I worked the disconnects with a pair of pliers to get the fuse to stay firmly in place. I wrapped the disconnects and the fuse with electrical tape. Last, I spooled up the extra wire and zip-tied it to the pump pre-filter so the connections would not shake loose.

Pump Test Fire

With everything as I thought it should be, I removed the vice grips and my tools from underneath. I turned the key to "RUN" and the pump fired right up. I left the key in "RUN" and checked the fuel lines for leaks. None appeared, so I concluded the pump was fine. Hoping for the best, I returned to the driver seat and tried to start the engine. Oliver would not start, but the engine would turn. That's a start. I removed a spark plug and I could smell gas on the tip, so We now have fuel and electricity. Next, we need to get electricity to the plug... at the right time.

Recall from my last post that my initial effort to find TDC were wrong, and that I needed to pull the valve cover to figure out true TDC? Well, I did that here. Still, even with true TDC found, Oliver would not start. I did figure it out, but that's my next post.

Thanks, as always, for following along--