So my wife and I have been discussing names for our "B". Definitely female. Definitely needed to honour British heritage. Definitely a race car driver. After mulling over several worthy potentials, I dug back about as far as I could go and landed on a website about Dorothy Levitt. Please google her and put a grin on your face!

I won't reiterate, just to say that we both agreed that it was perfect for her. I'd love to know that this little post might help to inspire others to honour other women of the past that made their mark....

[Can't wait for Dorothy to take us to Kansas!]

Idiot light came on. Brighter after a bit of driving. Quite bright when the lights came on. I figured the alternator. Pulled it out and took it partway apart. Indeed the wire that connects from the brace to the contact (through the spring) had broken. Considering that replacement brush kits are $4, this was a no-brainer. However apparently there are fewer and fewer places even carrying these kits since service centres typically just replace the whole alternator. Well the gents at Sports Car Parts can get them in from Moss so I've got my fix pending.

Longer term concern is the contact plate - I did a spin check in my hand... nice and smooooth but the contact plate has a wobble. I'm guessing that it was rebuilt at some point and not done quite level. See the attached picture. Has anyone had experience rebuilding this part? I want to keep as many original components as possible, but not sure of the value vs swapping in a replacement. Possible? Rewarding? Waste of time?

Upgrades - In Place

Heritage body kit, roll bar, gas strut lift kits
1800cc block ("18V 672-Z", over-bored to ?...
Ford T-9 5-speed gearbox, aluminum flywheel
Lucas Sport coil, Pertronix Ignitor, master battery kill switch
aluminum performance head, roller rockers, Crane performance road cam
HS6 1 3/4" twin SU carbs, K&N filters, inertia fuel kill
Pace Setter high-flow manifold, Monza exhaust
Adjustable fast road coil-overs (front), Anti-tramp bars (rear)
MiniLite rims, X-drilled and slotted rotors w/ oversize pads

Upgrades - To Be

Servo for brakes

Downgrades?...(back to stock)

Having brought the MGB to Alberta, I needed to get broken/leaking parts fixed. In retrospect, I should have asked for the replaced parts back instead of letting them go... they might have had some value vs what's been swapped in as their replacement parts. I thought I'd note a few items here for my own reference and a reminder that I might have[want] to replace them again with 'original' equipment. Originals would all(?) have been sourced from Moss Motors.

Rad: Heavy duty (seams leaking) replaced with ? by A-1 Rad, Calgary
Windshield: Triplex (cracked) replaced with tinted Viracon by AutoMann
Valve cover gasket: Poly ("prone to pop out" replaced with cork by AutoMann
Pushrods: Uprated tubular set (one broken) all replaced with stock by AutoMann
Tappets: Uprated set ("worn & sticking on pushrods" replaced with stock by AutoMann
Wiper blade: Bosch (worn out) replaced with Trico Exact Fit by me
Horn: Fiamm compressor & twin horns (failing) replaced with electric horn by me - temporary

If anyone has comments on whether they feel there's real value in going back to upgraded parts, please throw me your two cents!

A lot to go through...
3 very large piles of magazines
over a dozen books/manuals
300 slides of the original parts
>1,000 pages of instructions, brochures, and mag tear-outs of how-to

As my uncle's passing was rather sudden, he didn't have everything organized. We haven't yet located a log book or parts list that he maintained.

To help shed a little light on what he'd done over the years, and what might be still in the car, I'd asked Moss Motors to provide a list of parts and dates that he'd purchased from them. Big thanks to them! They replied with a list of approximately 350 parts purchased over 9 years! I spent the winter working through categorizing them and figuring out what's still in the MGB. The cool part is that I can see where he's ordered parts for something that was later replaced (e.g. 5-speed gearbox).

The other thing to tackle is to find out where he took the engine for the rebuilds. Aunt Linda is sure he had it rebuilt twice. I'm planning on taking off the cylinder head at some point since I really need to get a better idea of what the engine's bored out to, etc.

I contacted Precision Autobody in Ontario to confirm the paint code, but they'd switched computer systems a few years ago and weren't able to dig up such a record (as kind as they were!). Aunt Linda's pretty sure that it's Toyota Dark Forest Green Metallic, but I understand that the paint chemicals have all changed (to be more enviro friendly) so I'll likely just have to get a body shop to colour-match.

Now it's a matter of sorting.

A few entertaining notes on getting the MGB home last summer...

Checked the car out briefly. Took her for a short spin. Brakes worked, but scary how ineffective they seemed. No servo, but they still weren't as effective as I'd expected. None the less, I'd just allow the extra distance and hope nothing large jumped out in front of us. Other than that, looked great, sounded great, and I had a credit card to deal with any emergencies! Selectively packed the trunk with service parts, lubes, mags and books. Ready to go.

Delayed leaving aunt Linda's due to flooding engine. I'd had experience with using throttle chokes on outboard motors, but apparently carb'd cars work a little different. Heh. Thanks to a fine, British neighbour for enlightening me!

Drive to cottage was great! Once there, checking the car out further, I found an extra large, black screwdriver in the engine bay behind some cables - glad that didn't drop out and spear the gas tank. Also noticed that uncle John had installed a T-connector and extra oil gauge in engine bay, so that he could monitor pressure while working on the engine. It was sitting free, tucked in beside the carbon canister so I left it there for the time being.

Speaking of gas, this car likes 94 octane. 94 can be found in southern Ontario, and Calgary. Nowhere in between. A couple days of indiscriminate 91 had her "running on", so I stuck to using Shell V-Power and Octane Booster which seemed to work pretty well.

Next stop: Sudbury. Highway shimmy was a little excessive so I had a mechanic check the wheel balances and he rotated the tires. He also pointed out that the extra oil pressure gauge in the engine bay was slightly leaking. To ensure it didn't blow out, I pulled the gauge and plugged it at the T-connector.

Weather pretty good. No leaks during the bit of rain we hit - never needed the duct tape aunt Linda provided for the windshield / soft-top seam. Also made sure to fill the tank at each major town so we never needed to use the spare gas tank either(*).

Next mechanic stop was in Thunder Bay. Had the wheels checked again for balance (still shaking more than I liked) and oil changed (I packed a bunch of Classic 20W50). They also noticed while underneath the car that "a lot of bolts were looser than they should be".... Not sure what bolts or how loose, but it was also evident that there'd been some kind of oil blow-out previously: the undercarriage was largely covered in a dirty oil slick. Whatever! Oil out, oil in... rock and roll! Goodbye Ontario.

While in Winnipeg, I dropped by British Motors Garage for their 2-cents on the horsepower and braking performance. Heh. The gent was a straight-shooter. He'd never seen anti-Tramp bars on an MGB, and having taken it for a 3 minute spin, didn't like all the mods. In his opinion, it was a classic case of the car being tweaked right out of performance, or the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Temporarily, I had to agree. But that's where tuning would hopefully reverse that equation.

Couldn't get the car to go faster than "60 mph". Having done a couple of odometer checks, the speedo was likely shy a few km i.e. instead of 60 mph = 100 kph, it was likely closer to 120 kph. Although I was a little surprised that it just didn't have more guts, we consistently drove 50-55 (approx 100-110) for most of the trip.

Made it home fine.

Next bit of sage insight was from a friend's father who races an MGA. It was my first time meeting Richard Childs but his time and feedback were immensely appreciated. Richard races a MGA that has been completely rebuilt for racing - in fact using similar components to what John installed in the MGB (1800 engine overbored, roller rockers, etc). However his MGA is cranking out 115(?)HP at the wheels on a lighter chassis ...really rips! A little test run comparison really highlighted that the horsepower and brakes needed some attention.

OK. Off to my mechanic ("Klaus" to tackle some of the basics (leaks, brakes, and power). Blown/leaky stuff: axle seal replaced, heater valve replaced, radiator replaced, and fuel pump hoses tightened. He discovered that the pistons in the brake calipers were not assembled correctly - they were rotated out 90 degrees so the guide was catching and pressing the piston on an angle, so brake pistons adjusted & rotors ground. He also noticed that the ignition timing was way off (-5deg) so he set ignition timing to 15deg. Shimmy was addressed with front wheel bearings adjusted.

Now for the MG specialist mechanic ("Auto-Mann": cracked windshield replaced, broken/bent valved push-rods replaced with stock, broken lightened tappets replaced with stock, dash bulbs replaced for high beam - fuel - oil pressure, washers cleared, new pedal pads added, and carbs given a quick tweak to increase richness.

What do you know... a couple of grand spent at the mechanics and it's shimmy is [mostly] gone, has [more] power, and braking is "better"!

I tackled the last couple of items (brake failure switch and horns) in order to pass the Out Of Province inspection ("Certigard" Centre St). She's now registered - license plate "M-074" - and ready for the long haul of attention over the next year to get her cleaned, tuned, and hopefully repair the bodywork damage. See my other pages for my adventures in piecing together her history and getting her performance and value up to where it should be. I'd like to think that I can make my uncle John proud of looking after her!

One of my uncle John's great joys was a 1974 MGB Roadster.

He worked on it for 15 years, taking it completely apart, right down to the frame. It was 9 years before he was able to get it on the road, but it was definitely worth the wait! Any part that could not be restored to original condition was replaced with new parts that were as good, or better than, original. From Mini-Lite rims to the Heritage body, he put a lot of time, money and love into his car! Aside from having the engine rebuilt twice over the years, he did all of the work himself in the garage in their home in Sunderland Ontario. In 2008, he and aunt Linda drove "the B" out west (to Vancouver, I believe) and back. That's when I first saw it - as they came through Calgary, Megan and I had dinner with them. I'd never really paid much attention to MGBs prior to this, but this one made an impression on me!

A year later (last fall), my uncle John passed away rather suddenly. He was my closest uncle... we all miss him.

I talked to aunt Linda last spring and told her that I'd like to buy it from her to keep it in the family. Not knowing what he was working on last, nor having a list of what he'd done to it over the years, we decided to fly out and drive it across the country again to it's new home in Calgary.

These pages will be the story of the "John Henry edition, '74 B"....