General Tips for MGB Members
Rustproofing an MGB/GT
An article in the June 2020 edition of Safety Fast! Roger Cooper wrote a detailed way to keep the rust at bay. Read the online version here
Classic Tyres for the MGB
Video about the availability of classic tyres for the MGB through Longstone Classic Tyres.
Moss Tech Tyre Guide
Article About the MGB Boot
An article in the August 2014 edition of Safety Fast! about the MGB boot created a lot of interest and discussion. The article plus some of the comments and the original photo (the one in the Safety Fast! article was slightly cropped) can be downloaded HERE.
YouTube Videos
There are many videos on YouTube produced by John Twist in the USA.
If you want wiring looms the best is Auto wire. ChicagolandMGclub has a good selection of technical articles and MGStuff is also very useful.
What’s in your boot?
A comprehensive list of what you will need in case of a breakdown on the road.
Download PDF here (37 kb)
Buyers Guide
“Intro” to the MGB including “Development”, “Buying”, “Maintenance”, “Production Development Changes” and “Touring”.
Download the Buyers Guide (1.5 mb)
Cold Starting
When starting your engine from cold on cars with manual transmission you should have your foot ‘OFF’ the clutch pedal and the transmission in neutral. Why? When you depress the clutch pedal you place a very direct force on the crankshaft thrust washers and with no oil pressure in the cold engine more wear will take place than needed of the thrust washers.
The wear will not be so great on an engine that has recently been operating and has all the parts well coated with oil. However its always a good idea to get into the habit of starting the engine with the gear lever in neutral and your left foot off the clutch.
Wire Wheels and Towing
Except for very short distances DO NOT tow your wire wheel equipped car backwards. Due to the design of the knock on hubs nuts towing the car backwards will loosen the nuts. The nuts will fall off and so will the wire wheels which might ruin your day!
Speedo Cables
If a little grease is good, more grease is better- right? Well it ain’t necessarily so!
The owner of a MGB decided to lubricate his new speedo cable, something which isn’t really necessary but after a period of time he noticed that the speedo needle would slowly move to the proper speed but would not return to zero when the car stopped.
Finally the speedo was removed from the car where on examination it could be seen that the rotation of the cable had forced the grease through the drive gears and into the magnetic cup. This completely fouled the unit.
It took quite a bit of cleaning with a spirit degreaser to remove all the grease plus removing the inner drive cable to try to remove the excessive grease, after which the speedo was soon returned to normal working.
A new speedo cable should not require any additional grease however if you do decide to add grease a little bit will not hurt – but please not to much! Also remember that a cable driven speedo rarely fails and if the needle is wavering to any degree it is almost always that you will find the inner cable dry, the cable possibly kinked, the outer casing has been crushed somewhere or it is making too tight a curve.
Jacking Points
As you rarely use the jacking points on your MGB, you are likely to have difficulty in an emergency in getting the jack into the jacking point sleeve due to it being filled with mud and rust. To overcome this thoroughly clean the sleeve, give the surface a good coating of grease.
Buy from a DIY or Sports shop four walking stick rubber ferrules to seal either end of the jacking point sleeves. Hopefully next time you need to use the jack it will be easily located.
Windscreen Washers
When your washers are reduced to a trickle, look in the reservoir at the filter on the bottom of the tube. It pops apart and is invariably blocked with green algae, MGB’s with soft bags suffer worst with algae.
Fed up with pumping water onto your screen?
You are nearly an originality freak?
You do this…
Carefully prise open the pump body and insert a plunger type electric switch so the original plunger operates the switch. Wire the unit to a windscreen washer pump and hey presto you have an electric pump system which still looks original from the cockpit.