It's Alive!!!

Well it was a full day with the MGA.   With boxes of parts arriving like the week before Christmas is was time to see what I was made of.   As parts were coming via UPS last week I was running out the the MGA each night and seeing if I had all that I needed.  The fuel pump what the first necessity and I decided, for now, to just run a replacement wire for the power to the pump so I could see if I had the brains to even get it started…

The fuel line from the tank was bent around the wrong way to put the new pump back into its original position.  So I decided to replace that while I was at it.   I ordered the fuel line and expected to get a replacement with all its bends and curves in it.  Instead what I got was a length or tubing coiled up in a circle for shipping…  Hu…  Ok, no drama, I need a tube bender thingy…  Off to HD to find what I needed.  Luckily they make just such a thing for bending metal tubing.  Most of the online posts say that it difficult to do without kinking a few tubes getting the hang of it.   Great, since I only had one piece of tubing with the ends already connected to it I had one shot.   This could have been a  quick morning.

But somehow I was able to get the new fuel line installed and the new pump into its original location.

New Fuel Line

New Fuel Pump

So with the new fuel pump in and wired up I installed my new battery and was thinking, woh….  I will have here up an running before 10am!   Silly boy, tricks are for kids.

I jump in and turned the key to fire up the pump.  It made the much anticipated ticking noise and all that was left was the pull on the starter switch to hear the sweet, sweet hum of the engine.  Here we go   3, 2, 1…  and nothing, nada, zip.  I felt like the poor guy on the Viagra commercial before he gets his little blue pills in the mail.

So, I just decided to play of forward.  After the fuel pump is the starter switch.  The MGA isn’t like your normal car where it starts when you turn the key.  In the MGA you turn the key and then pull this starter knob to turn it over.  The starter knob connects to a switch and that fires up the starter motor and that gives the engine a good kick to get her started.   This is all new to me post 10 am Saturday.  With my volt meter in hand I figured out that the switch was working and that, when pulled, 12V was indeed getting to the starter motor.   The motor just didn't seem to want to do anything…   Stupid motor.

A few Google searches later I determined that I could hook up another battery directly to the starter motor and see if it would budge.   At this point I know Gail was anxiously wondering why her Subaru was suddenly next to the MGA with its hood up.   The direct battery test didn't produce any better results so I decided to poke around in the boxes of parts that I was given with the MGA.  Low and behold there were two starter motors in one of the boxes.  One was clearly the original and another was older looking but other than some dust not in bad shape.  I took it out of the basement and connected it directly to the Subaru and it sprang to life.   Literally sprang to life as the motor was just sitting on the driveway and wasn't bolted to anything.   After a quick hop step around the gyrating motor I decided to try to install that one

 

I was able to unbolt the old motor but I couldn't for the life of me get it out of the engine.  There was just too much stuff in the way.

 

A few more Google searches lead me to find out that I needed to remove the oil filter to get the starter motor out. 

So where is the oil filter?   Oh..  that thing?   Let me tell you, it didn't look like an oil filter to me, nor did it look like it was coming out easily.

However a few twists of the wrench and I was covered with oil.  Nice!

New / old motor was in and I just need to put back the oil filter.  Now you would think that since this was a serviceable part that it would be easy to get back on.  No way.  I must have futzed with that for about and hour.  Finally the gods of stripped nuts and smashed knuckles smiled on me and somehow magically the bolt grabbed and the oil filter was back in place. Just one wire to connect and I was in business.  Connected back up that battery pulled the starter and then!  absolutely nothing….  Now, I had just seen this motor jumping around on the driveway so why wasn't it making my MG go!  

I was pulling on the starter like a man possessed and I noticed that it made an ever so slight movement.  Hope!

Now when I was reading my search findings on the starter motor I had come across some stuff about engines being seized up after sitting for a while.   There were some tips about pushing the car backwards in fourth gear to get everything moving just a bit.   I tried that without luck.  In a last ditch effort my plan was to push her to the top of the driveway and try a rolling, pop the clutch start.   If that didn't work then it would just keep on rolling into Gail’s garden and become a nice planter for the azaleas.

The only trick to this is that you first need to go UP the driveway fist.  So pushing with all my worth I was able to get her about two feet forward off the grass.   There was a slight bump at the edge of the driveway so I was having a tough time going forward.  I would get just to the top of the hump and then roll back two feet.  It was during this back and forth I realize that I had some good momentum to try the fourth gear thing again.  So I have her one last push, reached in and jammed her into gear.   I literally felt the cam shaft make one hard felt revolution.  Maybe that got “stuff” unstuck.  I reach in and pulled on the starter switch and….

You couldn't kick the smile off my face…  Then I got greedy and wondered if it will actually move?  Not sure what the neighbors were thinking at this point…

With the low earth orbit test completed I decided to pick up Gail and her iPhone and shoot for the moon!

With all excitement there was one last upgrade for the day…

So in total I probably went 15 miles today. Felt like a million.   I was very excited to see all the gages like oil pressure and temperature working.  Until I saw the temperature go off the dial and into the oil pressure area…   Quickly back to the house and shut her down for the day.  Next job, cooling system check….