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We do love our travels, we went to Quebec this morning!

So lovely to meet Frank and Linda, they had bought their TF 135 from a nearby garage about 4 years ago, on which we had done the head gasket and cambelt service, with the previous owner, in Leicester. Nice to see the car again, it’s still looking really good and being very well cared for by Frank.

Cambelt, water pump and tensioner replaced this morning. Thank you, both, for making us so welcome, with bacon butties and lots of tea. It was good to have cuddles with their woofers, Cher and pup Cocoa too!

We then trundled down to South Cleatlam to collect ‘Jugs’!

This is Caroline and Tony’s addition to their fleet. A fab looking MGF 75th Anniversary in Mulberry, that they came across a few months ago and wanted to save, quite rightly, from a potential early end to its life.

After a bit of a wait for some workshop space, we have brought her back today for some TLC.

Great to see them and Joe, as always, and have a catch-up over tea and cake.

Lovely locations with beautiful weather again, plus I got to meet Pugsley properly who was happy to pose for his photo! – https://ift.tt/iZOQDqy

On our way home following a long, but very productive and enjoyable day in the north east of the country…

Blyth was our first call, as it was minor service time for Steve’s TF 135, and trace of quite a bad oil leak. This was found to be coming from 3 out of the 4 cam seals. These were all replaced and all residue oil cleaned up.

We had a further chat about the intermittent heater issue, the only thing left to replace is the heater matrix itself, so a date to be arranged to swap this out.

Lovely to see Steve and Anne again, who made the most of the fab weather and went out for a run out after we’d gone.

Our next call was to see Roger just outside of Durham, as it was minor service time on his 1995 MGF 1.8 mpi, alternator belt adjusted as it was having the odd squeal first thing in the morning, hydragas topped up. They’ve been enjoying some good runs out in the car, since we replaced the head gasket a year ago.

We then headed to Darlington to see Terry and Craig and ‘The Chairman’. Terry had got in touch a couple of weeks as he had been experiencing a misfire, then on cleaning the car, ahead of our visit, yesterday found that the car wouldn’t turn over. A quick nip into the workshop on the way this morning to pick up a few relevant bits, one of which was a coil pack, of which the one on the car was found to be the culprit and had evidently done it’s time. The misfire was down to one of the HT leads being loose. Have a lovely weekend you two in Wooler and thanks for the muffins. 🧁

For our last visit of day we went over to Billingham, as Gary’s TF 135 had decided to spring a leak when they were out in her last. Culprit traced and duly sorted. Good to have a quick catch-up with Gary and his family. Let’s hope ‘Madam’ behaves herself, she’s certainly looking very good.

Really great people, absolutely fab cars, and sunny weather too made for a long, but good day.

Now on the A1 on our way home, hopefully without the hold ups of last night and not getting in until 10:30 pm. 🥱

Amazing sunset tonight. Have a great weekend everyone, looks like the weather will be good again to enjoy getting out and about. ☀️ – https://ift.tt/86CphAU

Another of Rob & Jane’s fab fleet to work on today, in Sutton Coldfield…

This MGF 1.8 mpi (named Penelope Sac in Aramanth KMN) was 52nd off the production line and was registered new to the MG Rover Group. ‘SAC’ registered cars were all registered to MG Rover. They rescued her from Sheffield as a none-runner and in need of some love back in 2012.

We had her booked in for head gasket replacement and cambelt service, in the meantime Rob had bought a new cylinder head. To this, we fitted a new set of hydraulic lifters, swapped over the cams and distributer cap, plus all other ancillaries.

Back up and running and sounding extremely quiet!

Great to see Rob as always and have a good old natter. Shame not to see Jane as she was at work.

Thanks, Rob for the cream cakes and fruit and a cracking brew! Hope you have a good run out and meeting on Saturday.

From there, we headed over to Bromsgrove armed with a replacement fuel pump for Chris’s MGF 75th Anniversary 143 VVC.

We had called in a couple of weeks ago to diagnose an issue that had recently occurred, which was lack of power and stalling, and gradually getting worse. Fuel pump replaced, which solved most of the issues. Although the diagnostics wouldn’t pull back any error codes, it seemed to be running 90% better, so we hunted around for other causes as to its rough running. Spark plugs replaced as they were beyond their best. There is also a weak spark from the coil pack on 1 and 3. It was noticed that there is a voltage coming back from the lambda sensor, which also controls the fueling . Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to pull back any codes from the ECU to determine if the Lambda sensor could be causing the fault or if it could just be down to the coil pack. Chris will give it a test run tomorrow and see how it goes.

Great to see Chris again and have chat and a cuppa whilst we were there.

Now on our way back home, currently on the M1, time for me to reply to the messages from today. A lovely day with great company, fab cars and lots of sunshine thrown in too! ☀️ – https://ift.tt/86CphAU

That’s everything completed now on Graham’s TF 135, that he brought up to us from Hampton Magna, near Warwick. We’ve seen the car a few times over the past couple of years at its location, and Graham wanted us to have it in at the workshop for a few more things…

Full underfloor treatment carried out, both front wheel bearings replaced, new discs and pads all round, rear screen replaced, with a new one from the company we use in Ireland, minor service and then MOT done.

Plus lots of other things that we won’t bore you with a list of! But, it’s all things that have been on Grahams ‘to do’ list and also things we’ve spotted as we’ve gone along and put right. Grahams next job on the list is for a full respray. All done now and ready for collection.

Bob popped over yesterday for inspection of his MGF 1.8 mpi. Date booked in for some work over the winter months.

Unfortunately, Jim was booked in to bring his TF over on Sunday, for work to be carried out yesterday and today, but sadly he had tested positive for Covid. We’ll have to find another date for him in our totally nuts diary! We do wish him a speedy recovery.

A no-show today, which is strange but these things happen! But, it meant that we could get over to see Paul’s Abingdon, just a few miles up the road. It had a none starting issue and turns out to have been a bad earth. The car looks absolutely fantastic since we last saw it, having had its respray!

What fab weather the last couple of days too ☀️ – https://ift.tt/yM3FSt5

Well we finally made it over to see Steve in Cuddington, after our camper catastrophe a couple of weeks ago!

His very nice looking and really well cared for MGF Trophy was due it’s cambelt service again, how the time does fly. Cambelt, water pump and tensioner replaced.

Steve had noticed a minor oil leak, and as suspected it was found to be the exhaust cam shaft oil seals, so these were duly replaced.

Drivers door window was ‘clunking’ quite a bit when in the fully closed position. We went armed with window mechs, but all it needed was a bit of adjustment and now happily clunk free.

General check over and a chat about some work over the winter months.

Nice to see Steve again, finally, after a bit of a purge on the workshop stuff we were able to free up the day, following our unavoidably postponed last visit! Passed the spot today, looked less bleak in the sun ☀️ 😬 – https://ift.tt/XbvEBkY

What a really fab Friday, to round off the week…

This morning we were back in Gosberton, where it was lovely to see Rodge and Dave again.

Cambelt service carried out on Rodge’s LE 500 (393 of 500) in 110. Mike Satur bell crank fitted too.

Resister pack fitted to his Trophy (in CMU).

Dave’s TF 135 (in HFN) had recently suffered a blown hose and when it came to replacing it, he noticed that the coolant pipes were very corroded, so had sourced some replacement ones and asked us to fit. Couple of awkward bolts, but everything bled through nicely and all sorted for him ready for a top down drive home in the sun.

Good natter throughout the day and we were very spoilt with cakes, scones, chocolates and a many cuppas. Baking hot weather thrown in too ☀️

Yesterday, Thursday, found us back in Halifax, as Jade was convinced the head gasket had gone again on her TF 115 (in JGY) that we had fitted in May of last year. The expansion tank cap found to be faulty and not holding any pressure at all, but as it was still under warranty we replaced the head gasket again anyway, just to be 100% sure. All found to be sound in that respect. There are a couple of further issues with the car that do need sorted for preventative maintenance, that we have highlighted. Shame not to see Jade this time as she was at work.

Wednesday was spent working on Don’s MGF at the workshop. We picked the car back up on Sunday as planned. We had the car in with us for quite a bit of work, in January, and avid readers of our blog will remember that we weren’t too happy about the head that Don had supplied, as it had been sat for quite some time, but the decision was made to go with it. But, unfortunately, long story short, as we had suspected the stem seals had evidently perished, which is common when a head has been stored for too long.

We did remove all the pistons again to check that there were no issues with the new rings etc, but all were found to be good.

So we refitted with one of our heads, swapping over the cams and all ancillaries. All back up and running lovely again. Having a bit of time on our side, we delivered the car back to Don in Trowell.

Don will continue with the restoration of what will be a really fab car, once he’s finished with it. We look forward to the progress reports and the final result.

Tuesday was spent carrying on with the work on Grahams TF 135, the list is now almost complete. MOT carried out, and now we’re just waiting for the rear window to come back from Ireland. Post to follow when all done and ready for collection.

Busy and really productive week, with so many interesting projects going on, with the people and their enthusiasm to keep these cars on the road, not just as a necessity, but a passion too.

Have a great weekend everyone. Weather forecast is looking good so hope you can get out and about and have some fun in the sun 🌞 – https://ift.tt/sYrEaAC

Phil dropped his TF 135 at the workshop on Sunday, with a list that had grown quite a bit since we last saw him, as is the way!

A lovely sunny Monday morning saw us up bright and breezy to get cracking…

Phil had thought that the clutch itself had gone, but on investigation this morning was found to be the clutch line front to back that had split, the slave cylinder had also done its time, so these were both replaced. Clutch release arm freed off too.

Braided brake hoses fitted all round, plus the rear side to side brake lines replaced.

Resister pack replaced as the blowers weren’t working on 1 & 2. One of the coolant hoses refitted.

MOT done and she’s all good-to-go, ready for collection later in the week.

More things ticked off the list of things to do on Grahams TF.

A very productive day to start off what is a bit of a jam packed week 😃✊ – https://ift.tt/LYpAzwH

Another busy one at the workshop to round off a busy and productive week…

Barry came over from Redcar to collect his MGF 1.8 mpi (GUF). Great looking car that he bought for his wife a couple of years ago and that we last saw for hydragas pump up.

Full underfloor treatment done, and minor service and check over with advisories on further work that is to be done.

Graham drove over from Warwick to drop off his TF 135 this morning and we got cracking with the list of things to do on this one this afternoon and got through quite a bit with a late finish.

Derek came over from Scunthorpe to collect his TF 135.

Weather a bit disappointing so no topless drives for anyone. 🌧

Time now for admin and looking forward to a rare day off tomorrow. Have a lovely weekend everyone, whatever you may be doing. Of course our thoughts are with the awful situation for the people of Ukraine 🇺🇦 – https://ift.tt/Bus4iar