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MGB new [to me] MGB

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S

srmorse

Jedi Hopeful
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Hello to all. I've been a member for while and frequenting the Triumph forum as I bought an 81 TR7 earlier this year. I'm enjoying the TR7, but have always wanted an MGB, and my wife likes them much better, so having one would make it much easier for her to swallow the nightly forays into the garage (which often results in me shedding blood and or a few choice words for the neighbors to enjoy).

This past weekend I picked up a 76 MGB that I won on eBay. I made the trip from Eastern NY to Erie, PA roundtrip in a day (850 miles), and now have two LBCs in the garage.

Just got back from the mechanic who has helped me quite a bit on the TR7 (and the guy I bought it from), and it looks like it's in pretty decent shape overall. It has previously had a lot of body work done, but good quality replacement panels were used and welded into place as they should be. I will need to replace one of the sidemembers, but overall the structure looks to be in decent shape. I have receipts going back the past 10 years, and it looks like it was given what it needed. The PO owned it for 5 years and only put 1200 miles on it. The paint is a respray (after new panels were put in), and is in pretty good shape. It drives well, stops well, and shifts smoothly with no synchro noise. Manual choke is not great, and there are a bunch of typical electrical gremlins (like there were on my TR7). But nothing too bad so far.

Love the sound and the feel, and look forward to participating in this forum as well!

BTW...the TR7 is for sale...
cheers.gif
 
Welcome! Smart move from "T" to MGB!
 
SRMorse,

Congrats on the new family member. As far as electrical gremlins go I recommend you start with the licence plate lamp in the back and work your way to headlights checking each and every wire and connection thouroughly.
Clean all connections, remake questionable ground connections and insulate any exposured wires. This will take you a full day or two but is very much worth it in the long run. You will be suprised at what you find in these old cars. Many POs made adhoc emergency fixes with best intentions to go back "do-it-right" later then forgetting to since it was not symptomatic.
Besides, this is a great way to familarize yourself with the cars nooks and crannys and possible fire sources.

T
 
Funny you should mention the license plate lights...the first thing I noticed was they weren't working. The first thing I do is check to be sure I'm getting power and have a good ground (I've gotten fairly good with a tester since having my TR7) and all looks good. So I remove the plastic for the lens and the problem becomes readily apparent...no bulbs (yes this really is true).

There are a lot of wire nuts on the car, but few t splices and blue crimp connectors. At least there was an effort to do it partially right (although only partially). I'm guessing a few hours with contact cleaner, steel wool, and a circuit tester will solve most of those gremlins. I spent a lot of time on my TR7 putting it back correctly, and it doesn't look nearly as bad on this car so far...although the gas gauge works in reverse...
 
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