[Sticky] The Beck TD Story Starts Here!

If you have found your way to this blog via the Internet or the article in Classic Motorsports magazine about the Beck's Brewery MG TD, welcome to the Grant Street Garage! I was thrilled to have a full-page article printed in the November, 2017 issue of Classic Motorsports about my MG project. If you would like to read the whole story so far, start at this link, which will lead you through multiple blog posts:

http://emz3cp.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-beck-brewery-mg-td-part-1.html

[Sticky] Beck TD Index of Interesting Posts

 Over the past eight years, I've done a TON of work on Beck TD, with over 90 separate blog posts to prove it. It has long been clear that it's hard to find specific information in the blog. Here's a partial index to help you find what you need. And you can always send me a message with specific questions if needed.

Beck TD, Part 89 - Missing!

Beck TD has been running poorly lately. Quite a disappointment, because it had been running beautifully, and my recent work installing a new radiator has also worked out beautifully, with cool running no matter what the weather. The problem was a consistent "miss" that marred the driving experience in both normal traffic and when urging it along. Previously, the engine was willing to run all the way to the 6000 RPM redline, and now it was giving up the ghost at around 3500! Here's a video - listen to the exhaust note for the consistent miss.

Beck TD, Part 88 - Curing The Death Wobble

 It's so common, it even has a name: the "Death Wobble." It's that vibration that sets in at a certain speed in old cars. I was even told that, "All MG TDs do that at 50 mph." But I knew that wasn't so, because I know two TD owners, Charlie and Jake, who can drive 75 or even more without a wobble or vibration. Significantly, both of them are running wire wheels that were purchased brand new during their cars' renovations. Could I do something for Beck and still use the 72-year-old steel wheels? 

Beck TD, Part 87 - The Fan Temp Sensor

A couple of months ago, Part 85 of this blog told the long and convoluted story of installing a new, custom radiator in Beck TD from a manufacturer in China. I'm happy to say that I'm really pleased with the performance of that new radiator! Even on recent hot afternoons (temps around 88 F), on the road the car ran at 160 degrees, which is the temperature at which the thermostat opens. Basically, it runs as cool as possible, even in hot weather.

But, as always, there was one more thing to figure out - the best location for the sensor that controls the cooling fan for that radiator. I've just completed the third try, and I think it's the one that will remain. Here's the story of the wandering home for that sensor...

Beck TD, Part 86 - Stupid Wooden British Cars!

 After the recent radiator work (Part 85), I asked Troy Nace to help me get Beck's body panels aligned. I had already figured out that it was going to be a fussy and time-consuming task! But we had to take a little side trip, due to the way some British cars were still made in 1952. The bodywork has a substantial wooden frame, and wood has a nasty habit of rotting...

Beck TD, Part 85 - A New Radiator!

 One of the consistent threads of Beck TD's 7-year story in my shop has been "messing with the cooling system." In the early days, just getting the radiator and hoses sorted took effort, and since then, the cooling system has been barely adequate on hot days. In Part 82, I went to significant expense to make some changes to the radiator, and while it improved the fitment and look, it still ran hot on 90+ degree days in city traffic. That 70-year-old radiator just wasn't up to snuff!

Members of the Volvo Engined MG group had identified a replacement radiator for sale on eBay from Winner Racing that looked promising, and one member had contacted them to request a custom version for our Volvo application. Their response was, "Sure - just tell us what you need!" I contacted them, and across several emails we worked out a custom version that I bought. In the photo below, their stock TD replacement is on the left, and my custom design is on the right. You'll notice several changes, including a flat tank, relocated inlet and outlet, a custom filler with pressure cap, and more. 

Beck TD, Part 84 - Converting to PCV

 Converting to... what? PCV is a very old acronym for one of the earliest attempts at controlling the emissions from auto engines. It stands for "Positive Crankcase Ventilation" and was developed in the 1950's. As is typical in our country, it was regulated into law in California first, since they have the perfect storm of population and geography to have a real smog problem in Los Angeles. Basically, the stinky byproducts of gasoline combustion were recycled and burned again to try to reduce their effect on the atmosphere, and not at all coincidentally, also make our garages not stink so badly of unburned hydrocarbons.

Beck TD, Part 83 - New Air Filters

 This is another one of those crazy projects where I spent a lot of time and effort making something I could easily buy. What can I say? I just like making stuff! In this case, I modified some inexpensive air filters to precisely fit the SU carbs on Beck TD. These filters came from AutoZone, and were suggested by Larry, who's a member of the Volvo Powered MGs online group. He said that he had used them very successfully on other projects, and the price was right at around $23 per filter, including the lower housing and pretty chrome cover.

A Substantial Threading Die Holder

 If you aren't the sort to regularly make your own screw threads, you might not be aware that the cutting tool used to do that is called a "die." And of course, if you are using the die to cut threads, you need a "die holder" to work with. The die holders that come with sets of threading dies are small, cheap, and prone to break at the worst possible time. So... I just finished making this substantial replacement:

Beck TD, Part 82: Remediating the Radiator

 I've wanted to do something about my top radiator hose for years, ever since Beck TD came to the Grant Street Garage. The mechanic that converted Beck to Volvo power years ago apparently made several decisions based on what materials were at hand. For the top hose, he chose a brass plumbing fixture to convert the 2" hole in the TD radiator to the 1-1/4" needed for the Volvo engine. He chose a flex hose with dubious routing to get it all to work. In this photo, the valve cover is removed, giving a better photo of the whole routing:

Beck TD, Part 81: Testing the Temperature

 This was an interesting bit of garage science today. About a year ago, I replaced the water temperature gauge in Beck TD's dashboard because the existing one had failed. I was suspicious of the new gauge right away, because it seemed to read about 10 degrees hotter than the old one, and also would read 10 degrees hotter than the temperature indicated on my laser non-contact thermometer, checking right at the gauge sender.

I had read of a test for those capillary-style gauges using boiling water, but I had never tried it. Until today, that is! Read on for the interesting results.

Beck TD, Part 80: Moving the Alternator

 MG TDs didn't come from the factory with an alternator to recharge the battery. In 1952, an old generator was good enough. In fact, it was probably still good enough in 2019, but in that year, Jake Roulstone and I collaborated on a blog post on how to convert to a modern alternator, which became Part 45 of the Beck TD saga. The installation documented there has worked perfectly ever since, so of course this winter I decided to redo it. What good is a project car if you don't have projects!

Audi A3 Sun Visor Repair

 It has been rather quiet around the Grant Street Garage for several months. My last blog post was in April, 2022. In May, I had very successful open heart surgery, leading to a summer of rehab, and then in August, I happened upon a home in a retirement community that we loved so much that we moved! We managed (with help from Beyond the Fork in the Road, a marvelous moving company) to pack, downsize, sell our old house and move in just 3 months. But that didn't leave much time for shop fun! Here's a photo of the new place, with Beck TD in the driveway. We kept the Grant Street Garage, so Beck still has a place to live.

Beck TD, Part 79: Radiator Tales

 In the last two posts, I detailed special tools I made to help with a big project on Beck TD: replacing the head and cam. That's all done and Beck is running very well, and someday I'll do a final report on that project. But for now, let me tell some "Tales" about my radiator. There's a new technique here that really helps minimize the mess of radiator work!

Beck TD, Part 78: Two More Custom Tools

 In my last post, I described how I duplicated a special Volvo puller for removing a cam gear. As the disassembly and refresh of Beck's engine continued, I needed a couple of other special tools. Here's how I made them:

Beck TD, Part 77: A Very Specific Puller

 Beck TD has been a real joy this summer and fall, as evidenced by the lack of blog posts. Mary Ellen and I put nearly 1000 miles on Beck, cruising around the beautiful Lancaster County countryside. But finally it got too cold, and since Beck was running very well... I tore the engine apart! Idle hands are the Devil's workshop, or something like that.

Well, more on how that state of affairs came about in a subsequent blog post, but for now, let's talk about a fun fabrication I did to help. My friend Jake, who is definitely a co-conspirator in this madness, acquainted me with a special puller that would make life easier. 

Beck TD, Part 76: Honking My Horn

 When you've been driving 50 years and more, you develop a certain set of reflexes, covering all aspects of vehicle operations. For me, one of those reflexes is that one sounds the horn by pressing the center of the steering wheel. If you're driving a 1952 MG TD, that's a problem! MG thought it was just fine to put the button (which is apparently called the "Horn Push" in all cars, not just MGs) on the center dash. Here's a web photo showing that horn push:

Rescuing an Old Friend

 Many of my readers are involved in my "real" life and know that just last Wednesday, I retired from Lancaster Church of the Brethren after 17 years as their Director of Music. For all of that time, and for some years before taking that job, I used my folding microphone stand to record various concerts and events, and it saw weekly duty during the pandemic while I recorded video and audio for our online services.

As I was cleaning out my office, I was folding up my old stand one last time to take it home, and the aluminum base that holds the folding legs shattered, dropping several pieces at my feet. It was almost as if it said, "If you're done, then I'm done too!"

Beck TD, Part 75: Remediating the Handbrake

 Here in the US we've always called it the "emergency brake" or "parking brake," but in 1950's Great Britain it was just the "handbrake." Just another brake, with a ratcheting lock that you had to explicitly engage if you wanted to use it as a parking brake. On Beck TD, it was the only part of the braking system that I hadn't renewed, and it was time.

Beck TD, Part 74: More on the New Steering Wheel

 I have continued to mess with the new steering wheel introduced in Part 73, to good effect. The T-series MGs were unusual for the day in that the steering wheel was adjustable in and out, and the chrome hardware for that mechanism on Beck TD was rusted and jammed shut. It wasn't expensive, so I ordered new parts from Moss Motors and installed it just like the old ones. Imagine my surprise when the new cover jammed shut also!

Beck TD, Part 73: A New Steering Wheel

 Ever since I bought Beck, I've wanted to replace the steering wheel, because the original wheel was in bad shape. The spokes were loose, and the wheel was covered with a lace-on cover to hide the poor condition of the rim. But that's an expensive proposition, so it took until now for me to finally buy the wheel. Ain't it pretty!

Beck TD, Part 72: Shortening a Driveshaft

 It is an absolute mystery why I had to create this blog post! I have recruited experts from coast to coast, and they are as befuddled as I am. In Part 70, I told of installing an MGA rear end because I wanted to experiment with a different gear ratio. That is a common swap, but when I went to install the driveshaft later, it wouldn't fit - it wouldn't even drop in place!

Beck TD, Part 71: Another Speedometer Sensor

Back in Part 68, I detailed some work that allowed me to use a digital speedometer with a speed sensor, allowing me to experiment with different rear gear ratios and transmissions, and still have an accurate speedometer. It worked great on the M40 4-speed transmission currently in Beck, so I confidently set out to install it on the M41 overdrive trans I had rebuilt previously. That's when the problems started...

Beck TD, Part 70: The 4.3 Rear End

 Back in 2018, Part 34 reported how Cor Engelen and Troy Nace helped me convert Beck from the stock 5.125 rear gear to a much more highway-friendly 3.9 ratio. That dropped the RPM at 60 miles per hour nearly 1000 RPM, from about 4100 to about 3100. Here's a photo of Cor as he was doing some of the detailed work in that conversion:

Beck TD, Part 69: The MGA Master Cylinder

 When Beck TD came to live at the Grant Street Garage, the brake and clutch plumbing worked, but was definitely in need of some attention. The brakes used the stock MG TD master cylinder, and the clutch used a Volvo part, mounted on a bolt-on bracket:

Beck TD, Part 68: A New Speedometer and Tachometer

 Beck TD has had an interesting variety of instruments in the dash since it came to live at the Grant Street Garage in July, 2017. When Beck arrived, it had the original MG TD instruments, consisting of speedometer, tachometer, a dual water temp/oil pressure gauge and an ammeter. The small gauges worked, kind of, but the speedo and tach did not. But they had that gorgeous old look - in 1952, MG was still using the domed glass:

Beck TD, Part 67: Wood Repair

 Part of the charm of these old British cars is that there is wood involved. The popular imagination has decided that they have wooden frames, but that's not right - the frame, as you'll see in the first photo below, is a hefty steel structure. The wood is used as a framework for the body, with the metal of the body literally bent around the wooden frame. Very evocative of the period, until the wood rots!

What's Going on at the Grant Street Garage?

 I just checked, and my last blog post was over 3 months ago! Blame Covid-19... November and December are always busy for a church musician, but add in the necessity to prepare everything to be online instead of in-person, and the time demands quadrupled. But there's one bit of that that I'm really proud of, and I invite you to check out our Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols service at this link:

Twelve Volts, Cheap

When I was working on the Volvo M41 overdrive transmission as documented in the Beck TD blog posts (Parts 51 through 57), I had need of a power supply that supplied a LOT of current - 20 to 25 amps at a nominal 12 volts - to actuate the solenoid that made the overdrive engage. To get there, I just used the battery from the car, which worked great but is an obvious inconvenience to remove and carry over to the workbench. I resolved to find a better solution...

Mounting a Drill Press Vise

 Work has been kind of crazy-making lately (blame Covid-19), so I wanted to make best use of a rare full day in the shop today, plus a couple of hours yesterday. I set these parameters for a quick project:

1. Make something that would be useful in the shop.
2. Finish in about a day or less.
3. Make something that, if I messed it up, would be absolutely inconsequential - I was trying to decrease stress, not increase it!

Beck TD, Part 66: Wind Wings, cheap!

 Well, this is yet another complex and time-consuming fabrication project to save a few bucks. My lovely wife enjoys an occasional cruise in Beck TD, but she says she doesn't like to be "buffeted." There's just so much you can do in a very open car with a flat windscreen, but I did notice that both Charlie and Cor run "wind wings" on their windshields. Here's a close-up from an old photo I took of Cor, with the wind wing annotated:

Say Hello to "Evie"

My maternal grandmother's name was Evie, pronounced "EH-vee." The latest addition to our automotive stable is named Evie also, but we are pronouncing it "EEE-vee." You see, this 2012 Mitsubishi i-Miev really is an EV - a totally electric vehicle.

Beck TD, Part 65: No More Jingle!

At the end of Part 64, after fixing a bad rattle in the muffler, I noted there was one more annoying noise - a "jingle" when moving. It was driving me nuts, because I couldn't find it. But now I have!

Beck TD, Part 64: An Ugly Weld Is Still Strong

This is a rarity, a blog post without photos. It's because I am not willing to show you my welding, especially on sheet metal! But I did have a nice success with the outcome.

I've had a nasty rattle in Beck's exhaust system, and as it worsened, I finally had to admit to myself that it was inside the nearly-new AutoZone muffler. Since the fix would be a new muffler anyway, there was no downside to exploratory surgery. I removed the exhaust and used an angle grinder to cut a window the size of most of the top. Sure enough, one of the plates that hold the silencer assemblies was loose.

Beck TD, Part 63: Cylinder Head Musings

The readership of this blog contains both serious mechanic-types, and "casual" readers - friends who just want to see what I'm up to. If you're in the latter group, move along... you have my permission to skip this very detailed post for the Volvo engine geeks! For the rest of you, let's take a look at the various options for cylinder heads for our B18/B20 engines.

Beck TD, Part 62: Two chokes, choking

Beck TD has a pair of SU carburetors, and like all carburetors, each one has a choke mechanism to help the car start when cold. For the first couple of years, Beck's worn engine required the carbs to be set with such a rich mixture that the choke was never needed, but since I added a new, sound engine, it really wants the choke. And that was a problem, because there was no choke linkage...

Beck TD, Part 61: A Great eBay Find!

Part 60 was all about replacing the wooden rail to which Beck TD's convertible top attaches, and once that was successfully completed, I wanted to complete the effect with an addition called a "tonneau cover." I'll start with the end of the story, photographically. It's installed here - the black canvas cover behind the seat, covering the open "trunk" of the car.

Beck TD, Part 60: Replacing the Rear Top Rail

Honestly, when I'm doing something geeky for Beck TD, sometimes the hardest part is deciding the blog post's title. I finally settled on "just the facts, Ma'am" - yes, I replaced the rear top rail. Now to tell you what that is!

At the end of Part 58, after rebuilding the driver's door hinges, I included this picture and noted that it was the first time I had ever driven Beck TD with the top up. But there's something I didn't tell you...

Beck TD, Part 59: An M41 Shifter

I'm writing this on April 14th, 2020 - almost exactly a month into the COVID-19 quarantine. It was Friday, March 13 when we decided to cancel our Sunday worship services at Lancaster Church of the Brethren, where I work. By the next week, we were doing online church, and the building was basically closed. What a change! All those changes have kept me away from the Grant St. Garage, because I was the person with the tech skills to get us online. It has been a wild four weeks!

But... as I came to understand some things about video production, audio editing and live streaming, the pressure has eased a bit and I made it back to the shop this afternoon. The project of the day: the shifter for the M41 overdrive transmission I laboriously rebuilt beginning in Part 51, extending for multiple posts. When I got that rusty, seized transmission, it came with a coveted remote shifter, but it was totally broken - something heavy had fallen on it and destroyed it. The upper photo is of the remote shifter currently installed in Beck TD, and the lower is of the broken shift extension from the one I rebuild. In addition to that irreparable break, the entire top plate of the shifter had warped and cracked. I needed a new shifter!

Too Many Indicators!

There is a thing called Segal's Law which states, "A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure." It's about the limits of certainty when measuring, and also a caution about trusting an instrument without verification. That Wikipedia link has some really daunting math to back it up.

Well, while quarantined by COVID-19, what better time to check various test indicators to see what I have? And I actually had a good reason: my Sherline lathe is not giving a great finish to the cuts, and I wanted to test it out. I gathered up four different indicators to get a consensus measurement.

Beck TD, Part 58: Those Suicidal Doors

Way back in December of 2017, Part 14 of this saga told of my efforts to repair several problems with Beck's "suicide" doors - so-called because they open swinging from the rear. If they open when  you're driving, they are ALL the way open in a heartbeat, and if you aren't belted in, out you go! That actually happened to my cousin Joyce when we were little kids. We were all riding in the back seat of her Mom's car, and Joyce leaned against the door handle and opened the door as we were going around a slow right-angle in a parking lot. She tumbled out, but fortunately wasn't even skinned up much.

In Part 14, I thought I had adjusted the door latches so that both the primary and secondary latches would catch, but I made a tactical error: I did the adjustment while the car was on the lift. When I put it on the ground, everything shifted and both doors would only engage the primary latch. I tempted fate and drove it that way for a couple of summers, but I needed to fix it.

A Beginner's Welding Table

Fair warning... if you are looking for expert advice on how a beginner can create a welding table, move along - nothing for you here. This is the chronicle of how a beginner created his first homemade welding table. That's a long tradition. Woodworkers make their own tool boxes and workbenches in the course of learning their craft, and welders weld up their own welding tables and welder carts as part of the initial practice.

Beck TD, Part 57: Overdrive Success!

After my recent post about my attempt to understand how my M41 overdrive does its work, I was ready to reassemble. I used a lot of new parts, including all three bearings in the overdrive unit, and all the parts still available via Moss Motors - mainly o-rings, a spring or two, various seals and washers. I won't bore you with pictures of the assembly, because it is extremely well-documented in this pair of videos by John 'The Box' Roseby on The Sunbeam Alpine Channel on YouTube:

Disassembly: https://youtu.be/Ht6eb7w4gto

Assembly: https://youtu.be/WvAjwhIaSzw

Once it was done, I installed the overdrive unit on the transmission, and set it on my crude but effective test stand:

Beck TD, Part 56: Understanding my M41 Overdrive (Laycock D-Type)

At the end of Part 2 of this overdrive saga, when I had just gotten the transmission working (minus the overdrive unit), I promised I would try to actually understand how the overdrive works. I've made some good strides toward that goal, so I'm going to try to tell you what I've learned. Nothing like trying to teach something to tell you what you don't understand...

Here's the problem: most of the multitudes of books and web pages I reviewed assume you know certain things. For instance, what all the parts inside of the overdrive are called, and maybe how they go together. So, if it refers to the "annulus" you have to have some sense of what that is. In addition, there are cryptic, color-coded cut-away diagrams that are difficult to read if you've never held the parts in your hands. Not ideal for beginners.

I'm going to try it a different way, leading you through discovering certain points based on pictures of the individual components. Let's start with this one:

Beck TD, Part 55: Tom Bryant's SU Carb Tuning Procedure

When I rebuilt the SU HS6 carbs in Beck, I followed the online procedure published by Tom Bryant, who has rebuilt hundreds of sets. It worked great, although I couldn't know it right away because the engine in Beck was in such poor shape. After installing a used engine I procured from Joe Lazenby, I installed my rebuilt carbs and proved that I had done it right.

When I first set them up, I purposely left them "fat" at Cor Engelen's advice - he noted that it would do no harm to be a bit rich, but you could burn a valve if they were too lean. It ran fine, but blackened the plugs after a few hundred miles. I decided today, when PA weather was gloriously warm and sunny, was a great day to tune them better.

Beck TD, Part 54: M41 Overdrive, Part 2

In Part 1 of this saga, I unveiled a "what if" project - a Volvo M41 overdrive transmission that was locked up, with a broken shifter from something heavy falling on it. Upon opening the case, I found this rusty mess:

Part 1 detailed the disassembly of the main transmission. From there, I continued to start to disassemble the overdrive unit. It's a Laycock D-type overdrive that was used in various cars, and I wanted to understand how it works! Of course, since the trans and overdrive share the same oil supply, it was a rusty mess too:

Beck TD, Part 53: A Special Transmission Tool

I've been enjoying this project to rebuild an antique Volvo M41 transmission - it has been quite the learning experience. The M41 is an overdrive transmission, and that is a very different beast from the M40 trans that I recently rebuilt. One of the interesting aspects is that the overdrive shift action is done with hydraulics at very high pressure (over 500 PSI), using an oil pump built into the overdrive unit.

Of course, when you're rebuilding, you want to inspect and repair that high-pressure pump, and it turns out it has a part that requires a special tool to remove. It's called the "non-return body" and it's down in the bottom of a hole. This photo is a bit hard to read, but you can see the non-return body at the bottom of the hole, and the part itself is shown in the inset at the top right. It's not a normal hex head. Instead, it is sort of an oval with flat sides:

More on the "Very Specific Jack"

In my last post (link) I detailed the creation of a "very specific jack" to use with my new ER32 Spin Indexer (link). Its mission in life is to support the far end of stock mounted in the indexer, far above the milling machine's table. Here's a photo:

A Very Specific Jack

I recently posted about an addition to the machine shop equipment at the Grant Street Garage: an ER32 Spin Indexer (link). In response to that post, my friend Jake pointed out that I should have something at the far end of the work in the indexer to keep it from flexing, lest I get inaccurate or inconsistent results. Even a large rod can flex a few thousandths of an inch with just fingertip pressure. This photo makes the issue clear:

Beck TD, Part 52: Saving a Switch

Here's the second post in a row about extraordinary efforts to try to save a part that is basically junk! The photo below shows two switches removed from the broken shifter in the M41 transmission I'm trying to resurrect (see Part 51 for more details):

The ER32 Spin Indexer

Wow, if you even made it past the title of this geeky machinist post, you must be pretty interested in machine work! A spin indexer is a useful tool that lets you precisely locate round stock in a milling machine, and rotate it very accurately in one degree increments.  This photo shows the indexing wheel that has holes every 10 degrees, and the 10 offset holes that bring it down to one-degree increments. There's a pin, not shown, that locks the rotation at the desired setting.

Waste Not, Want Not

In Part 51 of the Beck TD saga, I told about the start of a big experiment: rebuilding a locked-up, rusty M41 overdrive transmission. That is progressing pretty well, but I took an interesting side trip the past couple of days. In the last post, I didn't mention that in addition to the rust and bad bearings, the M41 transmission had taken a hard hit at some point - so hard that the "remote shifter" had broken in two! In the photo below, the top part shows the remote shifter currently in Beck TD, and the lower part the pieces of the broken shifter tail from the M41. The hit was so hard that the heavy shaft inside was bent as well, and the top of the shifter plate was bowed.

A Mildly Embarrassing Repair

It was back in 2016 when I received a used Sherline lathe for Christmas. Click here for the post announcing that addition to the shop. Here's a photo from that post:

Beck TD, Part 51: An Overdrive Experiment, Part 1

In Part 48 and Part 49, I detailed the successful rebuild of the Volvo M40 transmission in Beck TD. It was so interesting, I decided I wanted to do another! This time, an M41 overdrive trans. Charlie Baldwin has one in his Volvo/TD, and loves it. I asked Joe Lazenby if he had a cheap one I could rebuild, and he said, "I have one that's locked up that might work for you." Feeling brave, I bought it.

Getting that trans apart was a long, hard trial, because it was a rusty mess inside. Here was my first view:

Beck TD, Part 50: New Shoes, and Two Shows

At the end of Part 49, in which I successfully completed a transmission rebuild, I mentioned that I could only test-drive Beck's new trans on the lift, because the wheels had no tires. That was because I had decided to replace all five tires, and there's no better time to strip and paint the wheels than when the tires are not in the way.

Beck's wheels sported probably a dozen coats of paint in various colors, and worse yet, the wheels had not been prepped properly, so the finish was rough, uneven and flaky. I had the old tires removed and properly recycled, and got to work in the sandblast cabinet. After blasting the first wheel and priming it, things were looking pretty good:

Beck TD, Part 49: Transmission Rebuild

"I'll always remember my first transmission rebuild..." said no romantic songwriter ever. But I suspect it's true, for the same reason you remember your first true love. The joys, the sorrows, and most of all the memory of your boneheaded mistakes stay with you.

But my first is done, and it works well! The story is one of perseverance over setbacks, which makes the eventual success even more sweet. After all the study detailed in Part 48, I was very confident that I could reassemble the trans in a couple of hours. So much so, I asked Troy Nace to help by removing Beck's interior while I was finishing the rebuild. He did so, and then he and I removed the problematic trans in the car. I was just sure that we'd be driving around by the end of the afternoon.

Beck TD, Part 48 - Understanding My Transmission

I've undertaken a big project, one that has intimidated me forever: rebuilding a transmission. When I installed the new-to-me Volvo B18 engine in Beck TD, I installed a used trans at the same time. My existing transmission had what I considered unacceptable wear at the front bearing. As it turns out, the replacement trans also has a problem. I decided it was time to get over my fear...

Gloriously Inconsequential

Rob Siegel is an automotive writer that goes by the self-chosen appellation "The Hack Mechanic," and he is a funny guy as well as a good mechanic. In a recent column in Roundel, the magazine of the BMW Car Club of America, Siegel got philosophical for a bit, and explored the reasons that car people, as well as other hobbyists, get so passionate and consumed with their hobbies. One reason is that the decisions involved can be "gloriously inconsequential" - they can consume a lot of time and energy (all of it fun in some way) but the decisions have no real bearing on real life.

Today I got a rare full day in the shop at Grant Street, and did some work on something that certainly qualifies as inconsequential, glorious or not. In addition to the shop full of tools at Grant Street, I maintain something I've started calling The Corner Machine Shop, because it occupies a corner in our garage at home:

Beck TD, Part 47: Back on the Road!

Great news! After nearly four months of serious effort for a total engine replacement, Beck TD is back on the road. The easy way to do that process is to buy a known-good engine, hose off the worst of the dirt, and stick it in. That takes about a weekend. I did it the hard, satisfying way: clean and paint all parts, repair and upgrade the parts that make sense, and put it back together with a lot of care. Check out the before picture (taken with the engine in the back of Joe Lazenby's pickup) with the after - quite a difference!

Beck TD, Part 46: The Grand Re-wiring!

O Lord, the MG faithful are going to throw me out over this one! Oh, wait... they already did, because Beck TD is Volvo-powered. At the end of Part 45, which was a detailed, involved exploration of  converting from generator to alternator power, I posted this photo:

Beck TD, Part 45: Alternator Conversions

I'd like to introduce you to Jake Roulstone, my co-author for this post! Jake is a deeply knowledgeable guy I met via the Volvo Engined MG group. He also has a Volvo-powered TD, and his day job as a maintenance supervisor for an asphalt paving company has given him a deep respect and concern for reliability. Just imagine a broken truck, with the full load of asphalt hardening in the truck, and you'll get the idea...

Jake and I agreed to jointly write a procedure to convert from the ancient generator technology to a modern alternator, specific to the world of MG cars with Volvo engines. This is one of those collaborations that has only become possible with the Internet, because Jake lives in sight of the Pacific Ocean, and I live a couple of hours from the Atlantic! There's a lot to consider, and much of it is pretty technical. So.... my first caution is, don't start until you understand every step and implication of the process! Here's a photo collage of both conversions, Jake's to the left, and mine to the right:

While they look similar, they are actually rather different in ways that will be explored below. Let's start with all the decisions you need to make:

Beck TD, Part 44: Trimming the Ram's Horns

The Ram's Horn is an engine part in early Volvos - it vents oil fumes to the atmosphere, in those pre-emissions-controls times. I don't feel guilty for running one - it makes Beck TD look more "vintage," and I've only driven the car about 200 miles in almost two years. As the accountants say, that mileage is "not material" in terms of cleaning up the air. I think the official name of the part is "Road Tube" but Ram's Horn is a common name among enthusiasts due to its shape.

Beck TD, Part 43: Joe's Amazing Tool

Everyone who has anything to do with old Volvos knows who Joe Lazenby is. He owns Susquehanna Spares, and he has a big collection of vintage Volvo parts and complete cars. It was from Joe that I recently bought a replacement B18 engine and M40 transmission for Beck TD. In the course of three recent visits, Joe asked me to create a special tool for him. It's a special sleeve that aligns the rear main seal housing perfectly concentric to the rear of the crankshaft. He sent this picture of one owned by a friend:

Being kind of dumb and optimistic about my abilities, I said, "Sure, I can make that." Of course, I didn't consider that my hobby-grade machine tools were not even capable of doing the job, nor were my skills up to snuff. Fortunately, I know Phil Oles...

Beck TD, Part 42: A Flat Flywheel

As part of the ongoing engine swap for Beck TD, I decided to include a new clutch. I had originally planned to reuse the better clutch of the two I had, but neither was that good, and when Joe Lazenby told me the reasonable price of a new clutch, I decided it was well worth it.

Any time you add a new clutch, you should have the flywheel resurfaced to give a clean, flat surface. After researching a few local options, I decided to try Reardon Machine Shop, just a few blocks from my house in the city of Lancaster. The result looks great!

Pat Reardon is a third-generation machinist. His grandfather started an automotive machine shop in Lancaster in 1916, just down the street from my house. He now has a single-man operation on North Concord Street in Lancaster.

Beck TD, Part 41 - Bearing Woes

When you work on a really old car, especially a highly modified one like Beck TD, you are constantly dealing with decisions and work practices of "prior meatheads." I say that with full awareness that I'm the "current meathead" because I can do dumb stuff too! But this one was unexpected and unwelcome!

John's Power Steering Pump

John Zimmerman, along with his son Bob, is in the home stretch of a long restoration of his Buick Riviera, which he has owned since the mid-60's. A couple of weeks ago, it finally returned to Bob's shop with a show-quality paint job by Horsepower Enterprises in Lancaster.

Beck TD, Part 40 - Blocking the Heater

Now that I got my throttle linkage sorted in Part 39, I am continuing to work on tasks I want to accomplish before and during an engine swap. Yesterday, I visited Joe Lazenby to check out the Volvo B18 engine I'm buying to "temporarily" replace my current one, which recent posts proved needs major work. As we stood evaluating the running engine, I asked about the plumbing for the heater.

Beck TD, Part 39 - Full Throttle

At the end of Part 38, I concluded with this photo, showing how Troy Nace and I had removed Beck's head to see why the engine had low compression and heavy oil consumption. What we found wasn't pretty - severe damage to the cylinder walls. The engine will have to come out for rebuilding.

However, there was another problem I uncovered while rebuilding the carbs, and I wanted to get straightened out before removing the engine. I had discovered that my throttle was only opening around a quarter of the way! I sent these two photos with captions to the Volvo Engined MG internet group to ask for opinions:

Beck TD, Part 38 - Carburetor Rebuild

The past few weeks have brought a rather intense project to the fore, and one that has not had the resolution I hoped! For as long as I have had Beck running, the engine has run extremely rich, with stinky, eye-watering exhaust and various running problems. Even with the carburetors adjusted to their most lean setting, the rich mixture and bad running continued.

I was aware that Beck has internal engine problems also, with very low compression and high oil consumption, but I was hoping to get one more driving season out of the engine before rebuilding. I decided to rebuild the carbs to see if the rich mixture could be cured. And that has had a nice side benefit - a new friend from far away!

EDC Silliness

This blog hasn't been very active lately, but not because I haven't been! We are almost finished with a pretty big remodel of our office area at home, which involved work by me and Troy Nace, and also by the local firm Nice Work Lancaster. Our very un-square space caused them a lot of headaches as they laid the Pergo flooring. Eventually there will be built-in drawers and cabinets under the worktop on the left.

Make717: Milling a Square or Hex on Round Stock

Fair warning: this post is to document a specific procedure for members of Make717. Regular subscribers don't need to feel guilty for skipping it!

MAKERS: the machine shop at Make717 has all you need to easily mill square or hexagonal shapes on round stock. This before-and-after photo shows what I mean:

Z-Axis Digital Readout - A Story in Pictures

See if you can create the narrative just by looking at the pictures!

Beck TD, Part 37 - A Temporary Speedometer

Back in Part 32, I told the tale of how I installed a "temporary" Auto Meter tachometer to replace Beck's non-working unit. Now Beck has a matching "temporary" speedometer!

A Square Hole

I needed this: a square hole in the end of a brass rod.

It's for a project on Beck TD which will be described in another post. The hole needed to be rather precisely 0.120 inches square, and the way you usually accomplish that is with a broach. That's a square tool that is pressed into a round hole to make it square.

Beck TD, Part 36 - Pointless!

You got the pun in the title, didn't you? Pointless? Beck TD no longer has ignition points!

Cor Engelen, on a recent visit, told me of his choice for an electronic replacement for the troublesome ignition points. Instead of the expensive Pertronix solution, he found a "small shop" solution at www.hot-spark.com. It was much less expensive, with perhaps some additional knowledge needed to make it work.

The tipping point for me came on this beautiful morning, when I captured this early-morning image of Beck TD. It seems bathed in light, doesn't it?

Beck TD, Part 35 - Fixing an Oil Leak

After a couple of very involved projects with correspondingly involved blog posts, it's a relief to do something easy for a change! In fact, so easy I almost didn't post it, but I wanted to document the part needed to fix an annoying leak, in case some of my other Volvo/MG buddies are having a similar problem.

After driving Beck TD for any distance, I always got a sizable oil drip under the car upon returning. For the longest time, I thought it was coming from the dipstick tube, caused by too much crankcase pressure due to bad piston ring sealing. But on a recent visit to the Grant St. Garage, Cor Engelen looked at it and said, "You know, there's a seal behind that vent tube, and it has gone bad. That's your leak!"

Beck TD, Part 34 - 3.9 Rear Gear

If I'm at Part 34 of Beck's saga, I've reported a lot of work, but today's work was perhaps the most obscure work I've tried to describe. It involved removing the rear end from Beck, totally disassembling it, and replacing the gears and axles. A lot of work, and the reason was discussed way back in Part 4. In a nutshell, the rear gear ratio in Beck limited the reasonable top speed to about 55 MPH at around 3700 RPM. Running that much engine speed for any length of time in a 60-year-old engine is so noisy that it's the opposite of relaxing. I'm always imagining the internal engine parts coming adrift and creating new, unintended holes in the engine block.

Beck TD, Part 33 - Disc Brakes!

Big news - after a year of discussion, planning, gathering parts, rebuilding parts, fabricating parts and installation, Beck TD has front disc brakes!

Beck TD, Part 32 - A Temporary Tachometer

For such a basic sports car, in 1952 the MG TD came with a very elegant set of gauges in front of the driver. The speedometer and tachometer had a complex shaped face, with domed glass instead of the more common flat glass. The tachometer even had an electric clock, and there are very few of those clocks working these days! Even though Beck's instruments have the patina of time, they still reflect that former glory:

Beck TD, Part 31 - Indicators

In 1952, the MG TD left the factory with exactly two indicator lamps on the dashboard, one green (for gas level) and one red (a charging indicator for the electrical system). Back in Part 22, I detailed how I made a green indicator for the fuel level using some fancy LED indicators from Oznium. They look like this:

Beck TD, Part 30 - Unbending Beck

I am so grateful to my friends at Lancaster Mitsubishi for putting up with my crusty old MG. Even though they are obviously a new car dealer, they also have a large used car lot, and have factory trained techs on the German cars that were my projects for so long. Somehow, they are also willing to work on Beck, even though it barely fits on their equipment!

So far, Beck TD has been on both the alignment rack, and now, the frame machine. The results were stunning! The photo on the left is from Part 26 when I got a front end alignment, and it shows the severe hit that the front cross member had sustained some time in the distant past. That resulted in a serious caster misalignment that I suspected was the cause of the steering having poor self-centering performance. Sorry about the dangling wire - that is now attached to the new driving lights.

The photo on the right is the result after Dave in the body shop put the muscle on Beck with the frame machine. That is waaaay better, and the first drive, even without a realignment, tells me we're on the right track for the tracking, so to speak.

St. John's Pulpit

My good friend, Father Glenn Miller, is currently serving at St. John's Episcopal Church in Lancaster. He came to me recently with an interesting problem concerning the church's historic pulpit:

While a stunning example of the woodworker's art, the desk of the pulpit was stuck in a previous century - it was too small to hold an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of paper:

Beck TD, Part 29 - Hold My Bonnet, Please

Yes, of course, everyone reading this blog knows I'm not talking about a hat when I say, "bonnet." That's the British term for what we Yanks call the "hood," the part over the engine. At least in the old days, in Britain the "hood" was the convertible top. That makes sense, with its analogy to a hood on a jacket.

When I bought Beck, it was only running the top of the bonnet, with the sides open. To keep things from flying away, there was a leather strap - a traditional British way of doing:

Beck TD, Part 28 - Random Fabrications

It occurs to me that the title might sound like I'm wandering around telling lies, but it's not that type of fabrication! Just about my favorite workshop activity is fabricating small parts that make Beck TD better. Since this blog is also my work log, here are four recent such fabrications.

Beck TD, Part 27: The Driving Season

Beck TD and I have had our first year anniversary! It was just a year ago that I first met the members of the LANCO MG Club, at the Rotary Club Wheels and Wings show at the Lancaster (PA) airport. That's when I first met Charlie Baldwin and Cor Engelen, saw their Volvo-powered TDs, and started the process that has led to a year of steady work, not a little expense, and a good bit of fun!

Beck has progressed to the point where it is driveable and safe, and I have celebrated by participating in a few car shows, beginning with the one-year-later version of the Wheels and Wings show at the airport. I even volunteered to be the point person in the club to recruit drivers and cars for the event. Ten cars signed up, but when the day came, there was a forecast for heavy rain.

Even though Beck doesn't have a top fitted (the roll bar is in the way), I stubbornly persisted and was at the meeting place at the appointed time:

An Amazing Coincidence (Zuckermann Harpsichord Visit)

Way back in 1995, I spent a weekend at Zuckermann Harpsichords in Stonington, Connecticut, at a seminar on building their harpsichord kits. I had already ordered their "French Single" kit, and wanted some expert instruction. It must have worked, because three years later I completed this:

It turned out to be a marvelous instrument, with a deep, rich bass and good tuning stability. Mary Ellen played it for several years in the Allegro Chamber Orchestra.

Beck TD, Part 26: Beck Gets an Alignment

From the very first day that I saw Beck, I knew there was an "elephant in the room." Even though Beck TD is astonishingly rust-free for a 66 year old car, and had solid woodwork and other fitments, there was one place where Beck had seen a hit. It was dead center in the front crossmember, and it was quite a hit: