Valve adjustment follow up

The other day I asked about adjusting the valves in this thread... http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?1,1541941

I printed out a few responses... sat down and watched the John Twist video again... made myself a little diagram and headed out to the garage. Armed with all that information (oh, and my Haynes manual too) I found it to be a very easy job.

I removed the spark plugs as advised by a couple of posters and found that I could advance the valves just by turning the fan by hand. Discovered that all my valves were pretty close to .015 already with the exception of only two that were slightly loose. I'd guess the whole thing only took about 15 minutes or less.

One problem I discovered is that the bushings on top of the valve cover (where the cap nuts go through) are splitting and one is even coming apart. That can't be good so I'll order new ones asap.

Thank you for the direction.

Kevin

Congradulations!

Good job Kev!

Ordering new rubber washers will cost more in shipping than the parts. Use some silicone on the washers -let dry and reassemble - until you have a bigger order. There's no reason to make UPS rich. Basil

Adjusting valves is another one of those jobs that appears to be difficult until you try it and learn a couple of the tricks to make it easy. Then it;s no big deal. The same goes for SU carbs, adjusting brakes and bleeding hydraulics.
It's important for us to remember that our cars were built in an age and a country where owners carried out much of the maintenance on their vehicles themselves....unlike modern cars!::o
MGs are built with easy maintenance in mind!

Cheers,
Rich
(currently getting an ulcer while replacing the timing belt on my Daughter's 95 Ford Contour!)

Glad for your efforts and sucess .

I taught my kids to adjust valves when they were pre-teens just like my dad taught me.

Basil,

The rubbers are split and one is coming apart... found a chunk lying next to the #7 valve spring! I don't think any amount of silicone is going to help them. But I was going to wait until I have a bigger order though and lately it seems I always have a bigger order coming up sooner than later.

Thanks,
Kevin