Author: Facebook Posts

It’s been a busy couple of days in the workshop…

Barry drove down from Redcar yesterday to leave his year 2000 MGF with us for some work. Post to follow…

David came over from Holton-le-Clay in his fab TF 135 (CEV Firefrost Red pearlescent) for replacement of wheel bearing and MOT. Couple of advisories on the MOT, which will be sorted later in the year. Good to see him again and have a chat between jobs about walks, although he didn’t go on such a big hike this time.

Kevin came over from Selby with his very well loved TF 135 (in British Racing Green) for replacement of the heater-control-valve wire, as the outer plastic section of the cable had perished and was slipping within the cable-holder. Kevin wanted a coolant flush carrying out and on running up to temperature after this was done it was found that the the thermostat was stuck open. So a new PRT (pressure release thermostat) was duly fitted, which resolved this problem. Car back up and running again at normal temperature with fans coming on and off again as they should.

Good to see Kevin again, and a date booked in for later in the year for underfloor treatment and fog-light fitting.

Work continued on Barry’s MGF, which will all be finished off tomorrow.

Bit tired now, but we did it and made enjoyable by good company, nice weather thrown in and some really great cars. ☺️ – https://ift.tt/Bus4iar

Another good day at the workshop today…

It was really good to meet Steve and his Dad, Bob who drove down from Sunderland this morning.

Steve has owned this lovely TF 135 from new, and up until recently the car has been cared for by a local chap who moved on to work in a Jag garage. Following a conversation with Susan Farley at the Northumbria MG club she pointed him in our direction. Thank you, Susan!

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner, plugs and all filters plus alternator belt all replaced this morning. The car is absolutely mint and has been very well cared for by Steve.

Really great to meet them both, and look forward to seeing them again soon in the north east, when we will be remapping the car and give it a few subtle ‘pops and bangs’.

Work all finished off on Mark’s TF 135. Couple of niggles sorted out for him and all good to go for him ready to collect.

Home in daylight, but with a stack of admin to catch up on today. Good job it’s a ready meal night! 😄 – https://ift.tt/fSrhgq7

Well that was a better day today, following a really nice weekend too…

Back at the workshop early on Saturday morning to carry on with Kevin’s Trophy, walked in to where we had left off on Friday to our abandoned tools. The rear hydragas hose duly fitted with the replacement one we had and the car is now sat absolutely spot on and looking good.

Keith came over with his friend Pete to collect his TF 160. Really great to see Keith’s reaction to the difference in sound of the engine, he was pleased it no longer sounded like a Perkins tractor. Cuppa and chat and off they went, though Keith did say he would disappoint us by not having the top down!

Jim and Karen came over to collect their TF 160. Great to have a cuppa and a chat with them before they took the car home, 4 years since the car had been driven, so it was good to see them pulling away to enjoy once more.

A lovely bright sunny morning on Sunday to greet Kevin and Amanda who drove down from Broomhill in Northumberland to collect the Trophy. Great to see them both as always, good chat and a cuppa before they headed back north.

Mark dropped off his TF 135 and Derek dropped off his TF 135.

So this morning we got cracking and replaced the head gasket on Mark’s TF and carried out the first stages on the underfloor treatment on Derek’s TF. A very productive day was had.

Can we just say here, Thank You for everyone’s lovely messages to us and comments about our grotty day on Friday, it’s really appreciated, with offers of moving bookings etc. Thankfully, we have a full week in the workshop this week to see what can be done with the camper. But, we are fortunate to have the van (trusty steed) to use in the meantime. So we will keep on keeping on 😀 – https://ift.tt/fSrhgq7

Well that was a deeply joyous day…not!

Set off nice and early this morning ready for our last call of the week in Cuddington to see Steve for cambelt service and a few other things on his Trophy. But…disaster! Our lovely camper to get us sorted after Covid and get us out working again and has been amazing and just had a new engine fitted 10k miles ago went BANG on the M62 on top of the Pennines! 😧

Call put in to the RAC and 4.5 (not bad) hours later they came and recovered us. That was one cold and noisy grass verge to wait! At least we are always prepared for the cold and wet, but still totally grim. 🥶

Absolutely top man picked us up and took us over to the workshop, where we had a chat with the company that fitted the engine, watch this space…

Have to give a mention to the couple of chaps from the Highway’s agency who came to see if we were alright, really great men doing a very hard job, big thanks to them for being kind, meant a lot.

Next problem sorted, our other form of transportation, the trusty steed had been resting due to ‘Covid contingency van’ being used, but it had ran over the MOT due date, call made and huge thanks to our local MOT station for getting us sorted last minute, which meant we could get home at least.

While we were waiting for that to be done we were still not convinced with the rear spheres on Kevin’s Trophy, and so decided to take one of them off and have a look. Sure enough, our suspicions were proved right, they had also been fitted with standard front spheres and then packed out with spacers and washers. (We will do a separate feature of this issue as it’s mentioned in our previous post on this car and may be of interest to some). So, we refitted it with a Trophy rear sphere, and pumped back up and sitting correctly.

When we came to do the same on the nearside rear, found that this one wouldn’t pump up. This was found to be due to a blockage in the hydragas pipe. With it getting very late we decided to call it a day and will return to refit a replacement pipe in the morning.

Just got home now and thawing out. Feeling very dispirited. A nice welcoming meow from the cat though who was wondering where her tea was! 🐈‍⬛

Diary scoured for a day to get back over to Steve. 🧙‍♀️ – https://ift.tt/AxXWHnP

A long, but really good day, just got home, after starting off the day in Linby for some things on this fab looking TF 135 (in British Racing Green) …

New CAT and new Lambda sensor fitted as the car had just failed the MOT on emissions. The front brake lines were found to be showing signs of corrosion, so these were replaced. Rear calipers cleaned up and freed off. The re-test was due this afternoon.

Great to meet Ian, he has owned the car from new, that he bought to impress his then girlfriend and who has been his wife ever since! It’s always so good to have a nice story and history with these cars.

Some really interesting chats about what he does for a living, plus his interest in cars. One of which, we took a couple of pics of, an Opel Manta GTE in absolutely mint condition, complete with original seats. Date to be arranged to return to sort a couple of other things.

From there we trundled up the motorway to Rotherham, as Jo had got in touch about her fab TF 135, that is currently in her sister Maria’s care and who had unfortunately found that that the exhaust flexi section decided to give way, as Maria is relying on the car for her work as a carer we were glad to be able to get over and sort it for them. Lovely to see Jo, after such a long time and meet her family. Date to be arranged to return for a couple of other things.

A visit to the workshop on the way back, for a few bit and pieces, food shop and now home, tea in the oven and admin time ensues! – https://ift.tt/rexBEpa

Keith dropped off his TF 160 (in HFN) to us as arranged, when we last saw him back in September, for assessment of the issues he had been experiencing with noisy VVC mechs.

The car had reached its 100k+ milestone and due to Keith’s attention to detail the car looks in such great condition he wanted to get the insides in as good a condition to keep her on the road to enjoy for some time to come.

Cylinder head removed this morning, which showed that it had definitely done it’s time. There was evidence of a degree of heat damage, as the oil had started to congeal and thicken throughout the head, this was most likely down to the oil pump not running at full capacity, so a new oil pump was duly fitted.

Whilst the head was off, it was easier to preempt the oil cooler issues that 160’s tend to have and fit it with a bypass.

Refurbished 160 cylinder head replaced, with all ancillaries cleaned up and refitted. Cambelts replaced along with water pump, tensioner and alternator belt.

Car back up and running nicely this afternoon and sounding a lot quieter!

Managed to get her out for a couple of photos despite the dismal weather, now all tucked up ready for collection and to be reunited with Keith at the weekend. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better by then for a topless drive home. 💚 – https://ift.tt/9FLX4np

Hundleby just outside of Spilsby today for work on Denis’s very nice looking and well cared for Steptronic.

Having done work previously such as the CVT oil and strainer service and fitting of a soft ride kit it was now time for the cambelt service.

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner, plugs, all filters and oil changed. New lambda sensor fitted as the existing lambda sensor was putting the orange light on on the dash and showing multiple error on code reading. Denis had also been experiencing a sticking accelerator when initially setting off, and thought the cable may need replacing, but we found it to be the accelerator pedal itself that the bushes had become worn on, so we fitted a replacement pedal and it now feels a lot easier. We went armed with new discs and pads, but found that the ones on it were like new so we saved him a bit of unnecessary expenditure there. Denis did feel that the braking wasn’t quite as responsive as his other cars, but this is due to the standard kit that was originally fitted to this model of 240 mm discs all round. We’ve advised that maybe next time he could move up to the kit that Will Naylor produces, which doesn’t require a bigger wheel upgrade.

We then popped over road to see David’s equally always fab looking TF 135. David had asked if we could swap out a couple of sensors for him when we were there as he’d noticed he also had Lambda sensor issues and a cam sensor issue on his code reader.

Lambda sensor replaced and the cam sensor was also replaced. All error codes cleared.

Great to see them both again briefly between walking and shopping trips, together with some favourable weather and a good couple of cuppas.

Busy day at the workshop yesterday, with the welding done on Jim and Karen’s TF and it’s mashed in sill, all ready for collection at the weekend.

Kevin’s Trophy needed a bit more work on the spheres as the car was looking as if it was permanently taking off! The car had previously been fitted with replacement spheres, which we found to be standard ones rather than Trophy ones when we measured them. Now that’s sorted the car looks a lot more balanced. MOT done and all ready for collection at the weekend. – https://ift.tt/jrwWXIJ

A welcome contrast with the weather where we found ourselves this morning in Redcar.

Bob’s TF 135 Spark in Sonic Blue (JHG) was due its cambelt service. Good looking car, that Bob has owned for 12 years and admits that it is very well pampered!

Cambelt, water pump, tensioner, platinum spark plugs, air filter cleaned up, oil and oil filter change, fuel filter change all done.

Lovely to see Bob and have a quick chat between his business calls. Thanks for the tea and cake!

We then went over to Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees as Gary had been in touch saying that ‘Madam’ his TF 135 that he bought from us 2 years ago was losing a bit of coolant intermittently and could we have a look when next in the area.

On pressure testing the system it was found that a couple of hose connections with spring clips had started weeping, therefore replaced these with jubilee clips. After refitting, pressure tested the system again to find all good and no further weeps. Shame not to see Gary as he was working, but hopefully will see him at an event later in the year.

We had hoped to pop over to see Terry and ‘The Chairman’, but he was still at work. Will get to see him on our next trip up and see what’s occurring with his fab MGF.

Good run back home in the daylight and sunshine ☀️ Have a great weekend everyone. – https://ift.tt/4i1ot5B