Journal: Peter Mittler's Journal

Mar. 01/07: March came in like a lion with a terrible storm. 10cm of snow followed by freezing rain and ice pellets with 60mph winds. We had trees down and 40 power outages in Toronto including our house for 9 hours. Which meant I could not sleep (no CPAP) and I ended up exhausted.

Mar. 02/07: Finished putting most of the split loom harness covers on the wires and labelling the harnesses. Re-tested functionality, seems OK.

Mar. 03/07: Sourced the Radio I want Kenwood (KVT-719DVD) with GPS. Not in Canada until March 15 so I have to wait for it. Bought a Viper 5000 alarm with proximity sensor from Oxford Auto Sound on Kennedy Road.
Posted the progress report here:
http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php1,519310

Mar. 04/07: Wasted 4 hours trying to get the key buzzer to work and finally gave up. Mounted the switches for Kill, Fans and Fuel. Further tidied up wiring harnesses under the hood. Wired up the parking brake light switch. Engineered and drew a sketch for the trap door to hold the Aux circuit. Read the installation manual for the alarm system. Noticed a problem with the front carb linkage where the throttle adjusting screw rides on the choke cam. Tried to fix it and broke the screw. Cannibalized an old carb for the part and fixed it. Re-installed the carbs and fuel lines.

Mar. 05/07: Was hoping to start the engine today. Filled the coolant with 3.5 litres of anti-freeze and then back filled the water through the heater hose. Put petrol in the tank - 5 gals and was pleased to see the fuel gauge respond. Powered the fuel pump and discovered a leak on the outbound banjo. Spent a couple of hours trying to fix it until I realized I had the fitting on 180 degrees about. Once I flipped it over it stopped leaking.... but the fuel pump does not stop ticking even though there were no more leaks. Installed the choke cable. Hope to start the lump tomorrow.

Mar. 06/07: She LIVES. Finally found why the fuel pump kept ticking.. the front fuel bowl gasket was seeping. Removed it, reset the float to 1/8" and put a new gasket on it. Now the pup shuts off. Cranked it over with the coil disconnected to prevent it from firing and checked the dipstick. The oil went down... good, the pump is filling the filter and the oil cooler. Topped it up again and cranked and got 50 pounds pressure on the gauge. So with Fuel, coolant and oil systems working I cranked her up for fire. Nada. Backfire through the exhaust. Only reason for that is timing. Checked the plug wires.... they were on the wrong plugs. Fixed that and she fired.... runs poorly at this point but that is carb and timing. Raymond is coming over in the morning to tune it up for me.

Started working on the housing for the alarm and auxiliary power circuit. Mounted the siren under the hood, located the best place for the proximity sensor and tilt sensors.

Mar. 07/07: Yesterday I got the engine to run, albeit very poorly and at the end of the cam burn she stopped, by herself, as if I turned off the key....
Today when my mechanic was here to tune the carbs ..NADA. Would not fire. Back to basics. Well when he came, it would not start. We went through all the diagnostics and he pulled off the cap and the points almost fell out into his hands! THERE was the problem. Since I had already purchased a Pertronix unit and was planning to put it in anyway, we did so and then … it came to life again. But rough. This was a new disty and you can clearly see where the weld broke under the points and there is actually corrosion or rust under there too.

The car is now purring like a kitten but I have to go back to my carb guy and get rid of these Grose jets… both of them are sticking! - one sticks open and the other sticks closed - how do I know? Front carb overflow spewing fuel and rear bowl was empty (which is why it sounded like it was running on only two cylinders -- it was! Took the bowl tops off my 75 to get this engine running! Talk about a combination of weird events. Back to the aux. wiring now.

Mar. 08/07: Continued working on the heated seat, aux wiring and alarm. Lots of connections to make and I am running out of bullets again. Ordered another 50. Called Ray Manerowski regarding getting it certified... we are that close!

Mar. 09/07: Replace the sticking Grose jets in both bowls, fired her back up, no gas leaks. Friend Dave Wallace noticed a leak from the temperature sensing unit so we tightened that down and now there is a tiny seepage from the centre plug of the thermostat housing so I ordered a brass plug and washer. Cinched down some more wires then completely masked and repainted the windscreen that got scratched during glass installation. Then MOUNTED the windscreen.... tough job alone but with the aid of clamps we "got 'er dun"!

Mar. 10/07: Spent the day on the alarm system and got it all set-up. Have not tested.

Mar. 11/07: Finished the Auxiliary circuit wiring, powered up and tested each circuit, tie wrapped all the wires, bundled and wrapped the harnesses under the dash, tested the alarm functions... all working. Worked on the front license plate bracket support.

Mar. 12/07: Got a used plate bracket from Raymond to drill the holes offset to the right because the bolts in the front bumper could not be centred owing to internal rubber ribs.... therefore need to offset the holes to compensate. Started putting in the carpets today. Test alarm - working fine.

Mar. 13-16: Interior work: carpets, rear trim rail, rear trim panel, tidying up wiring and harnesses.

Mar. 17-38/07 John Twist Seminar

Mar. 19/07: Installed the top.

Mar. 20/07: Installed the door panels and caps. Installed the left and right windscreen pillar rubber seals. Drilled and tapped the 'MG' Logo'd shift knob. Fixed the clasping mechanism on the console lid (4 hours for that one) by using a piece of Plexiglas, riv-nuts, screws glue and a dremel.

Mar. 21/07: Got the polished dash pots back from Jon Rosenthal... look fantastic. Installed Radio and GPS wires - took 6 hours - installation manual was not included in the box so I called Elijah from Oxford Sound a couple of times. Found a problem with the slate wire connections. Can't get the fuel pump warning buzzer (when there is no power to the pump) to buzz). Need to speak with Dan Masters on this.

Mar. 22/07: Spent all day buttoning up an routing the wires to the front deck and in the trunk, and after all the work to install it.. I then found the Installation manual. Fortunately I did it all correctly. The GPS even works in the garage! But the front of the radio comes out, then retracts back towards the dash too far and there is no more forward adjustment so I am going to have to move the radio towards the stick shift about 1.5".


Mar. 23/07: Maiden Voyage

Aborted first attempt!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dldh--WEemo

Maiden departure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFEhb4k8yNU

Maiden return to base and around the block
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohbU2ThhuSI

Mar. 24-25/07: That took some doing! Despite my careful measurements I come to find out that the Kenwood KVT-719DVD will not park at it's furthest extension. It comes out, flips up the screen, then parks back about two inches, promptly smashing into the dash just below the air vents. Oh, you can adjust the distance out alright... but even at the maximum it was still too tight. So I had to fabricate a faceplate to bring it out 3/8" beyond the radio detent area. I used some left over 1/4" Lexan from my windblocker plus a piece of 1/8" plastic that has the same patterned finish as the rest of the dash. Glued it up, drilled it, put a bevel on it then painted it to match the rest (one sentence but about 6-7 hours work).

Then I had the challenge of making a wiring harness to take all the electronics under that console. What you see now in there is:
1/ Two switches for the heated seats. (Tested the driver's side and it works!).
2/ The seatbelt warning light was replaced with with a green fan 'on' indicator light.
3/ A red light which also flashes with the turn signals (I didn't like the black dummy lamp holder there so I put this in to balance the console look).
4/ The blue alarm indicator light.
5/ The radio wiring.
6/ The GPS wiring.
7/ The USB feed to the radio (stick it in and it plays MP3s).
8/ The IPOD audio and Video feeds to the radio (Alyssa could not believe her IPOD worked as soon as we plugged it in.
9/ The cig lighter wiring.
10/ The heater controls (getting those in was a treat).
11/ The wiring for the courtesy lights on the heater controls.
12/ The alarm tilt sensor.
13/ The wiring for the two way communication for the alarm.
14/ The wiring for the GPS satellite receiver.


Now, where the heck am I going to put in the Satellite Radio connection?

Tomorrow I tackle the installation of the passenger seat, finish the top, modify the front license plate holder (it isn't centred because I could not weld the captured nuts inside the bumper where I wanted them so I will cheat the metal plate over about 1/2")

I have no idea how I made it all fit and work with no shorts. Every bullet connector soldered to the wire, not crimped, and is also tie wrapped so they won't vibrate apart although I must say with the Advanced Auto-Wire system everything is fused which is a good thing because I accidentally shorted the G12 purple to ground once and blew the fuse. Thanks Dan for protecting my system with that design.

We WILL be ready for the roll-out party on April 7.