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We, by the way, bought our second MG a month ago. It is an MGB GT - 1974 chrome bumper, colour BRG (I would preferred Primrose Yellow) unfortunately it has American specs. We would have preferred an English Dashboard, which is much nicer. Her name is by the way "Mrs. Merdle".
Although we think that MG is quite reliable in the end, we think you should take some "marriage vows" before you decide to buy one. Especially the " In sickness and in health" part, with emphasis on the "SICKNESS".
We will write her story as well when we find the time.
She is in a good condition, but has a few minor technical problems. In September Claus wanted to put an overdrive in it, although he had a horror of getting the engine out, because it will be the first time.
There were some strange similarities with the purchase of the B.
First, when we wanted our first drive in the B - no fuel - just like Geoff.
After the purchase we drove home, Claus in the B and I in our dreaded Ford
Escort. Suddenly Claus stopped on the hard shoulder (we don't
know the right expression). I stopped also and said cheerfully : well did
the motor broke down? It hadn't. The front wheel bearings of the right wheel
were blown up (just turned from roller bearings into ball bearings). Claus
was not to sure his diagnosis and guess who had to come: one of these nice
little yellow vans! (we got those too you know).
Anyway he could drive home slowly.
After that he had to go back right away to the seller, who fortunately worked in a MG Garage and the whole afternoon was spent with rebuilding. My poor husband had an exhausting purchase day.
Of course this was just the first "little" problem, more hardship followed. Mrs. Merdle didn't run to well, but Claus thought it was just a matter of tuning. After a few weeks she not only began to drink more oil than usual she was really getting an oiloholic. We were also planning to go to Beaulieu and we decided to take Geoff because we didn't have much confidence in Mrs. Merdle's reliability. And we were right of course (sadly).
We came back and Mrs. Merdle was inhaling more and more oil. On Wednesday the 17th September Claus called me and I knew something was really wrong. Well it wasn't the engine... that was the good part. The bad part was that the transmission had definitely died. She had to be brought home on a truck. We put her in the garage. The next day we had to get her out of the garage again. I was quite amused than. In Holland they have a saying that who loves his car, pushes his car. And Mrs. Merdle is not exactly a "light weight"!
Well she had to be repaired quickly because we need her for daily use. My brother was prepared to help. He lives on a Houseboat and has a garage! on the boat with a hole in the floor which makes it more easy to get the engine out. Next day my brother and Claus drove to Den Hague to get an overhauled transmission with overdrive and an overhauled engine. We figured that the engine would not outlive the trans- mission for very long and had decided to exchange that too. On Friday Mrs. Merdle hat to be towed to my brothers boat. We had to take her on the highway and Claus had agoning moments with that speed! But everything went well, so far.
On Saturday we went together to my brother and I helped with the removal of the engine. My brother and Claus got the engine out. Quite nerve-racking I thought it was! Putting the transmission wasn't easy. They had problems with the gearbox mounting. That was on Sunday. I stayed home to do some work on the house. Also the engine was installed again. (Okay, here comes some technical stuff soon)
Claus was going to Germany for one week and the work would go on the next weekend. Of course I had hoped that she would be working again that weekend. Forget it! We found out that the DPO had not overhauled the carburettors as he said, but just painted them and more parts were failing.
On Saturday they both drove to Den Hague again to get new carbuttors and other essential parts which were "kaputt". By that time I almost had so much pain in the stomach from all the strain and bills who were coming in and Miss Merdle still not working, I didn't know how much more I could handle. Claus was exhausted and he really loves the mechanical part, but this was just to much. We both needed a car for work you see. On Monday night at about 22.00 hours my brother called and came with a wonderful message. The engine was running and Claus was now on his way home with her. I had the feeling as if a few bricks were falling out of my stomach. Thank god I thought. Our pockets were empty by that time but Mrs. Merdle was working.
Shortly after the refitting Claus had to go the Belgium for this work. He took a colleague with him. It was quite experience for the poor guy!! The car was not tuned to perfection yet and the fuel pipe run to closely to the brake switch and that part of the electricity was constantly failing and they had to stop again and again. Claus was frustrated very badly. The first evening he was at the car repairing again in garage of the hotel when everybody was going out for the dinner. He solved the problem but she was still running very badly.
In November he finally managed to get her run smoothly and no gaps in the exhilaration. We had now more confidence in her and especially me and it was fun to drive her. A colleague of mine said one evening to me; will you drive carefully!!?? Not because of me of course. Anyway, we drove to Germany for Christmas (600 km) and she drove beautifully. Claus had even managed to get the heater going again. Before that the heater made a hell of a noise (it sounded as if a fly was trapped there and was buzzing furiously) but no warmth at all. We were quite spoiled because the heater in Geoff is really marvellous.
We spent a week in Germany and it was raining all week. Mrs. Merdle wasn't being used that time and a day before we would leave I got the creeps and was worried that she wouldn't start. The next morning I said to my husband, please start the car, I don't like the idea that so won't run when we need to go home. After a bit of grumbling he said all right and everything was fine.... A few hours later we packed everything, kissed goodbye and started the car... Nothing. Just plain nothing. As dead as a doornail. All right I said, when Claus couldn't locate the problem right away. Were not going to leave for a few hours and I went in again. My father in law said; isn't it about time you two bought a real car??? I returned immediately, this is a car as real as it can be and hell of a lot more fun than you get out of a Peugeot (although nothing against Peugeot). In 15 minutes she was brought to life again. It was, how could it be else, a Lucas problem. Some contact failure somewhere between the ignition lock and the starter relays and that was that.
On our way back at every fuel stop Claus had to open the bonnet and start the car with a wire (just feeding the 12 volt to the starter relays). You maybe can imagine that all the other fullers looked suspiciously at us, they probably thought we nicked the car. We had quite a laugh about it. When we drove away from a "break" place a few man looked at Mrs. Merdle with their mouths open as if they had never seen a car like that before. We waved and had lots of fun.
The ignition problem is not solved yet but you get used to the wire. Last week I had to take Mrs. Merdle alone for an evening to the theatre and Claus thought it would be best if I had a "wiring" lesson. I was quite proud when Claus said I had done it very well, I felt very "technical". It was in a way disappointing that the problem did not occur that evening, I was very keen on trying out my learned lesson.