Baby Ruby

[taxirod]

Ive been working my way through a long term list of jobs for the Ruby, I dont have the cylinder head back yet, also no news on any progress on the new tank, in Diana Ross's words, "I'm still waiting".

The work on the rear suspension was always going to be quite a lot, but its all done now.






Above - pic of shame, the mounts had been changed, changed, and changed again, strong but, well, just look at them.






Ah, that's a bit better.

The repair to the inner wing was quite straightforward





While the axle was off and the brakes needed bleeding anyway, I fitted a residual pressure valve to the rear, since they are drum brakes and the master cyl is lower than the slaves, then also fitted another for the front discs.

Sorted a problem on the OSF wing causing occasional tyre rub.

Good to get these jobs done, but now eager to get it back on the road to try it all out, and to resume work on the Morris.
(which is also stuck waiting for a new manifold)

[BadAC]

Now that looks tidier. Nice one.

G

[taxirod]

After what seems like ages with the Ruby off the road, the engineering shop phoned me today. After replacing valves, guides, all valve seats, they then discovered a crack between cyls 3 and 4.







I reckon this has been here for a long while, and with all the work that's been done on the head, im probably just going to try it now. Maybe with some K seal to help.

I do have a spare head, I think I'll get that pressure tested, then, if I know it's a good un, I can keep that to fall back on, if needed in future.




Just to clarify, once this crack was discovered, the pressure test did show minute bubbles appearing.




I'm bunging it all back together and hoping for the best.

I collected the head on Wednesday afternoon, Ive got it mostly back together now.
When I tried to put the pushrods back in, something felt completely wrong. Then I noticed the tappet covers on the side of the block, whipped them off and put all the cam followers back in! Ive never worked on MGB engines before, when I built the Ruby I just fitted it and drove it!









These are normally concealed by the manifolds etc.
I cleaned off all the oily mess, now waiting for new gaskets to arrive.

[taxirod]

The Ruby engine is all back together now, I fired it up today with a temporary fuel supply.
I've chased the tank people, it should be here in about 1 week, just in time for the salt on the roads that I usually avoid!!

[taxirod]

Well it was Oct 7th when I pulled the head off the Ruby, nearly 3 months off the road.
Finally my new ally tank arrived





I got all excited and ripped off the packaging.
However, they had fitted a 6 volt fuel sender!
To resolve this I ordered a 6 volt gauge and a thingy that steps the voltage down from 12v to 6v.
Despite my impatience to bung it all back together and go drive it again, I've managed to restrain myself, I want to check the gauge is going to work properly before fitting the tank in the car.

[taxirod]

Both the 6v gauge and the 12v to 6v gadget had arrived in the post today, So I set it all up for a test, no joy, it seems the ancient gauge is not working.
I did try it with a 12v gauge, as I had one with an attached thing which allows you to turn a knob, presumably altering the resistance. I could adjust it to make the gauge read correctly when full, or empty, but not both at the same time.
Not surprised but worth a go.
Now I've ordered a 12v sender, but the 24th December is not the best time to order something when you're in a hurry.

[taxirod]

In the foreground i⁵s the 6v sender they supplied with the tank, in the background you can see the new 12v sender which arrived today. I redrilled the tank for the new sender and got it fitted in.
I did a trial attempt using the old gauge, but it reads full when MT, and vice versa!
I've ordered a gauge from the same company to match the sender, so now im waiting for that to arrive so I can check it works before fitting the tank.
I did a trial fit of the tank today, trimmed up brackets, drilled holes etc, so it's all ready to go in now.

[taxirod]

Today, after nearly 3 months with the Ruby off the road, I fired her up and drove her again.
After fitting the new fuel tank i couldn't start it, so I charged the battery and tried again the next day, even tried easy start and it didn't fire up. Strange, cos it fired up ok on a temporary fuel supply when I refitted the head etc.
Wifey came out to the garage to assist today, I was ready to give up and charge the battery again, but then wifey says "why dont you try one more time?"
So I did, and it coughed into life! A bit rough at first but it soon settled into a nice tickover, if a bit tappety.
With only a gallon in the new tank, I drove off to the petrol station and filled it up to the brim. This confirmed that the tank is just under 9 gallons, and that the fuel gauge now works - yippee! Oh, and that petrol was dripping down from the new tank on the station forecourt...
Turns out that the problem was the replacement sender. One of the original, now unused screw holes was not fully covered by the gasket. So I cut a ring from 3mm ally and a 2nd gasket to go under the rim of the sender. I got this in the the car but run out of time, so tomorrow I'll go back to the petrol station and top the tank right up again to test whether my fix has worked.
It felt so good to drive it again. Brakes felt worse than before, should be better now with the residual pressure valves, I'll give it another bleed session.
My suspension feels better, although in fairness I probably need to drive it more to really tell.







After the excitement of driving it again yesterday, I went out again today. It was a little reluctant to start, but it is very cold. I filled up again and i seem to have cured the fuel leak.
I topped up the dashpots in the carbs and thats made an improvement.
I left it running for half an hour after it was fully warmed up to simulate being stuck in a jam (very unlikely here in East London, ahem) and it was just fine, heres hoping that despite the crack in the head its going to be ok.
it was snowing when i drove it today although it doesnt show in the pics.






Got the air filters and bonnet back on now.

[jsf55]

Massive boost getting it running again Ian

Sent from my SM-A556B using NSRA mobile app

[taxirod]

Thanks John


Well, it looks like ive FINALLY got to the bottom of something that has been driving me mad.

For 5 years I had absolute confidence in this little car, happy to go anywhere, but last September it had trouble starting sometimes. I did all the things you would normally do, and check, and try. After all the work with the head, the new fuel tank, and the suspension, I was excited to get it driving again, but still this persistent issue, where it would run 100% fine once started, but often wouldn't start from cold. This destroyed my faith in the car, I wasn't confident to even drive it locally unless i could drive home without it going cold.
Adding to the frustration was the knowledge that this is as simple as you can get - no ECU, electrics etc. All you need is one wire to coil, and fuel, and off you go. Except you don't most times! Thanks Neil for listening to me ranting this week!

Here's what I now understand. When I first had the car, I put 3 in 1 oil in the dashpots, now this is too thin, and so the pistons in the carbs open too quickly, letting in lots of air, meaning that to start from cold you need full choke. Once driving, the engine would bog until fully warm, I developed the habit of pulling out the choke for better acceleration whilst still warming up.
Then someone explained to me that i should try thicker oil - so in went 20/50. This made the car run much better, even when cold I could accelerate without choke yanking! (Thanks Robert)
However, as the summer temperatures were replaced with cooler air, the 20/50 got thicker (I had used Duckhams) and so, when cold, the pistons were stuck, and with the choke pulled right out, the plugs got wet and thus wouldn't fire.
My brain had been trained these 5 years to ALWAYS pull the choke out fully when starting from cold.
Now Ive thinned the oil a bit, and adjusted my starting procedure.
Thats all it was!!!!!!
easy once you know how.
I was even waking up some nights with this going round and round in my head - eventually on one of these thought sessions I sussed it out.

It feels so nice to be able to drive it anywhere once again.

[mygasser]

phew

[brading]

Glad to hear you got it sorted.

[jsf55]

I always thought it was 3 in 1 oil, but then that was standard Rootes stuff with Strombergs

[taxirod]

With my confidence in the little car renewed, I drove out in it today.
Yesterday i had bled the brakes, pedal felt firm, great!
But today as i drove over canning Town flyover, I noticed the brake pedal would go right to the floorboards if you held your foot there. The brakes worked if you take ya foot off and back on again, thankfully. I was only going local so drove carefully back home, but on the way suddenly there was noise, vibration and a misfire, sounded like only firing on 3.
I made it home safely, and after ordering a new master cylinder, i investigated the misfire.
Pull off leads 3 or 4, engine ran worse, pull off 1 or 2, no change.
This indicated a problem with front carb.
With the carbs stripped on the bench I could see the needle valve on the front carb was sticking, causing fuel starvation.
I ordered a pair of new needle valves, the new ones have neoprene tips and are supposed to be better.
Then I set to removing the old master cylinder. I remember when building the Ruby that one of the biggest challenges was fitting 3 pedals in a tiny space, further complicated by the chassis rail running right through the middle of that space.
It looked almost impossible to remove (had I build the rest of the car round it?) but it came off ok after a bit of a struggle.

This afternoon Wifey was severely delayed coming home from Hackney, an electric car had broken down and caused absolute gridlock chaos, with the Police on the scene and unable to move it.
Now, my 1934 car may have had a couple of issues, but it did drive home, and will likely be driving again very soon!

On a positive note, it must be better for me to get these things resolved in the winter, I look forward to having fun again in the summer!

[taxirod]

More bad news.
The MGB bits arrived in the post, I got the carbs fitted with the new needle valves, got it all back on the car, which reluctantly started, and ran badly, exactly same as before. So it wasn't a carb issue after all. Next I did a compression check, zero on no2 cylinder. Whipped the rocker cover off to reveal this:





Ive started by draining down the coolant (rocker shaft bolts secured by head bolts)
but dont have much garage time in the next few days.

I fitted the new master cylinder, I went round all 4 corners bleeding it, but then noticed what looks like brake fluid on one rear tyre.

All will be sorted soon no doubt.

I have been thinking about getting a Mazda MX5 engine and box, more modern, more reliable, more power, and cheap to buy. It seems slightly smaller than the B series lump, so I should be able to squeeze it into Baby Ruby without too much grief.

[mygasser]

is the pushrod bent ian?
neil.

[taxirod]

is the pushrod bent ian?
neil.

No, perfectly straight.
A bit of damage on the cup, I've got a replacement on its way, I'll bung that in and see what happens.

[Happydaze]

So what happened there then? There's not that much to go wrong ( famous last words!) is there? Kinda difficult to mess up the adjustment when setting up to my mind, and if the rod isn't bent ( possibly indicating a stuck valve) then what's happened? Enquiring minds and all that! 15 thou on inlet and 30 on exhaust if memory serves me!

Chris

Sent from my SM-T515 using NSRA mobile app

[taxirod]

This week I had a couple of days in the Yorkshire Dales, helping a mate work on his new house. Shame the Ruby wasnt fixed, I had to go in the Taxi. We found this 1967 newspaper under the floorboard:

Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content

Thats hilarious! It wont show a pencilled drawing of a woman in a C&A ad wearing an old fashioned suit!!!











Any Imp owners can let me know if they want it, I can post it off.

Once back home I took delivery of a replacement pushrod, fitted it, engine all running fine now.
The brakes were a nightmare, and eventually it was reading back through my own build thread that helped.
Both the M/c and the servo are mounted so that they are pointing down, not up, (there was so little space to put the pedals in this car that they ended up this way) hence you can bleed the brakes as many times as you like, but air is still trapped. I altered the angles by loosening both and wedging up, combined with jacking one end of the car. It felt like a big relief when yesterday i got a decent brake pedal.

The bracket for the brake switch has to be redone now, its previous mounting point altered by modifying the pedal box to accept the new M/C.

Looks like it will be back driving in a day or 2.

[mygasser]

glad the ruby's sorted mate
now get on with the morris you slacker
neil.