Scooterfrog's 76 MIdget 1500

Okay as people always say this thread is useless without pics. First weekend I really got to work on the car 

Got the oil changed. Got the diff changed. Got the trans fluid changed. Going to go get inspected but the handbrake would not hold. My daughter's car failed for the same reason 

Took off the passenger side rear wheel recent shoes. Good looking pads. Didn't see any leaks appears to be put together properly. I had never taken the wheel off so I was really pleased. I adjusted the shoes so they're just dragging. I'm going to do the driver side and then the handbrake cable.

Comment above. I'm going to try and fill with sheet metal that I have from an old shelving unit. It's pretty thin. I think it'll be okay. If not, I'll try plastic maybe even something as thin as a laundry detergent bottle which has nice big pieces

A few pics

 A painted wheel,  A wheel in the process of being cleaned 

The interior partially refurbished partially in a box

 in this picture you can see my sewing handiwork better than a patch cheaper than new seat covers

The car's natural state currently

berkeleying driver side brake adjuster

until now i have been very happy to have not broken a bolt  i did not want to and not struggled terribly.

Busy weekend. Got a new  a map gas torch 

I was able to squeak the drum off the brake with the stuck adjuster 

Took the shoes off heated the hell out of the backing plate  till was able to get the adjuster out. 

I needed to grind new flats on the adjuster. lots of anntisiezee on it put it back in I put anti-seize on the adjuster on the other side adjusted both rear brakes.

Cracked loose bleeders on both sides separately and could get no fluid out of the rear brakes at all. Even with the bleeders all the way out. I did clean the bleeders up so I could blow through them put them back in with anti-seize. Master cylinder? or a blockage in the line

Flushed the front brakes both sides nice and clear fluid anti-seize on the bleeders front. brakes drag a little bit. Is there some adjustment I'm missing pads looked okay there's no slider pin on these because they're dual piston

Took off front wheels to get them prepped for paint put the rear wheels on the front which I painted this week. 

Put my grill trim and grill on the front. This was a nice way to en the weekend

Slight drag on a disc brakes is normal, now if the piston is stuck, that's different.  When braking, the pads clamp the disc, then the piston should slightly back off, if not the brake will drag, wearing the pad and creating heat.

The rear brakes, something could be clogged, have you replaced the flex hose yet, those can clog up.  Can you loosen the connector to the flex hose and get any fluid flow going to the flex hose.

Good practice using anti-sieze, will make future work much easier.

If you keep doing this, you will keep finding new tools that you want/need, thats' part of the fun.

Do you have flare wrench's for the brake hose fittings, those are very handy.

In reply to TED_fiestaHP :

i replaced no flex hoses  on order.  the fonts may be "one waying"  but maybe not there is not a lot of drag

rears,  I will jest wait for the new hose. what i may do is try to flush it before i connect the new hose. 

the wheel cylinders looks great and dry... but if they have not seen fluid for years that my be a bad assesment.

the stuff in the master cylinders looked like coca-cola.  a frioend said it might be be rust and i should worry about the hard lines.  they look ok from the outside.  :)

no flare wrenches.  but i suppose i could buy just the one or 2 i need.

on the antisieze... i am trying to make things easier for future me,  or at least not be THAT GUY /Dumb Prior Owner.

  You will want the flare wrench, for the line fitting connected to the flex hose.  The line fitting is soft, and it will be stuck, a normal wrench will only contact 2 flats, and the two flats will round off fairly easily.  

  Sometimes those fittings can be really stuck.   Also watch to see if you are twisting the brake line while turning the line fitting, twist it to much and you will then need a flare tool to repair.  If the fitting won't turn on the line, rotate the flex hose to get it off.  Once the flex hose is off can soak the fitting in oil, until it moves freely on the brake line.  Of course the longer those parts have been together, the more stuck they can be.  Work slow, and can prevent additional work.  It is less fun, when you have to give up and just cut the line at the fitting and make a new flare, doing this on the car can be frustrating. 

    The best penetrating oil is Kroil.

got my first roc auto magnet.  and i bought flare wrenches

weekend update

some success and some failure

replace the flex line  to the rear axle.

replaced bleed screws on drums with speed bleeders

start to bleed one side it kind of works then the pedal goes to the floor.

turns out there should have been a copper washer  where the flex line joins the t on the axle.

lots of dot 4 on the floor. so i need to redo it,  and bleed again.

then maybe i can adjust the had brake..

old hose did not have a washer but was so collapsed no fluid got to the T.

put non skid tape on the pedals. cheaper than pads.  later on i will do aluminum diamond plate sheet bolted the pedals.  but this looks better than i hoped,  and i can see the pedals with yellow safety stripe.

Grill and chrome bumper.  the top piece IS installed on the hood.

why does the image properties not stick.

i wanted these to be 500 high,  not so huge

went away for the weekend.

I continue to have huge respect for anyone doing more than "a revival"  especially those breaking new ground (swaps etc).  The support of GRM and MGEXP  has meant there has always been an answer to a question.  picking a car that was built from 67-80  was also a good move

last night my nephew 18 year old came over we did wires, cap, rotor. (-1 plug  blocked by the alt)  ( he knows just a bit about cars)  that's a wheel, that's an engine :)  he was super proud.  I will do that tonight  or Thursday

then we  and my 22 year old daughter muscled the crappy crappy top on,  we could not get it to latch on the windshield,  some light heating with a propane torch (blue gas)  made getting all the fasteners  fit..  but I will wait for a hot day to get it all the way on.

we did put the toneua  ( top down cover) on, it fit well (after a bit of heating)  and makes the car look more complete.  

my daughter asked me not to do brakes with him,  because she wants to do that.

removed the smog (air) pump.  I had to cut the brackets and grind off the nuts and bolt heads.  some bracket remnants remain.

daughter and i re did the rear flex hose with a copper washer this time.  THAT WAS NOT THE PROBLEM.  With my daughter watching we could see it was not what we touched but he output side of the T  to the driver rear wheel cylinder that was leaking like crazy..

I need to see if i can buy pre-made lines with british (girling) fittings.  i do not want try and flare myself.  I also don't want to buy a whole premade kit yet.

The threads are the common 3/8-24, nothing special about them. You can buy lines already made up from the autoparts store unless it has the female nuts on one end, such as where one end of a flex hose attaches. I've never found those pre-made without buying a spec kit.

In reply to MiniDave :

everything i read is that the tube nuts are NOT  SAE even if the threads are 3/8- 24.  they are Girling or British.  not threaded all the way. Just special enough

time to learn a new skill and level up.  (see my thread on novice brake flaring)

flare tool (amazon), nicop(summit) and fittings (fed hill)  on the way.

8/24

very slow weekend  no progress on brakes tools parts on the way.

removed smog pump, and associated brackets

replaced the #1 spark plug blocked by the alternator

replaced alternator belt

tidied up engine bay wiring.  (done except for headlight relays, an an electric fan  / relay if needed  oh and heavy wire for an amplifier i got on another forum) see my cooper with 1800 watt stereo 

Eventually the car will have

• a single 12 in sub, 
• 6.5 
• wideband (2 in, 3.5 in) drivers and /or tweeters.
•  

 I will need a 4 channel amp,  but i have the sub, 2 different pair of midbasses and 2 different pair ot tweeters.  Car audio is where i started

In reply to scooterfrog :

Another slow weekend

finally got the top up.  its trash  but with enough tape i could part it outside now.

installed parts of interior.  Passenger door card looks good,  but the hard backing is not holding up well.

removed read axle brake lines,  practiced flaring on a 10 inch piece of tubing with my new flare tool.  I will post results in my flaring novice tread.  but they looked good to me.  still waiting on my 25 foot roll

lots of work  done this weekend.  but not much forward progress.

bent up rear (axle) brake lines.

installed same

almost freed up the hand brake cable.  i know i can replace it now because its free except for one nut.  it just wont adjust.  I will probably replace

installed front driver side brake hose.  broke the hard line(pipe).  but now i know how to make hard lines/ pipes  so i did i that as well.

it wont bleed.  i think the MC  was too dry and got lots of air in it.  other tread.

Messed around with the top.  goes up and down i can clip it now.  its still trash  but confidence is up.  the toneau  is in good condition and wit the the top down "fills it out nicely"

started to make a "center console".  i have the original,  but since i won't install a radio i can go with something narrower.  it will need to house the hazard a ram mounts ball a cigarette lighter or 2, hazard  and a pocket a blue tooth controller / volume knob. and a pocket or guage or MG badge.

This will unlock the sheet metal bending skill, idealy it will be one piece  it may only be flat  with bent down edges to reinforce.  curved bottom to hug the trans tunnel

Knob

)

In reply to scooterfrog :

satisfying night.

adjusted hand brake.  prior owner installed handbrake backwards.  what i thought was frozen was actually one piece.  the adjuster nut was at the other end.  still too loose,  but i think i can make and add a few c shaped washers between the un-adjustbale end and its bracket  a bit more and take up the slack so it hold the car at 3 clicks not all the clicks. like this

"gravity bled"  the master and got the brakes all bled  rock hard.  speed bleeders are nice.

Inspection this weekend???

There's nothing quite like getting the brakes to finally work properly and take a good bleed...

Hooray for progress!!!

I was hoping I could get it inspected on Monday but I went for a ride today and the handbrake still won't hold and I know it won't pass inspection

. It runs good strong up to 5,000 doesn't seem to have any misses it's a 1500 I was told don't bother revving it to 6500 so I didn't

first gear is kind of noisy second gear is a little crunchy I don't know if there's a synchro on second third and fourth when I double clutched second it was perfect

there's some loud squeaking I don't know maybe there's a transmission mount or engine mount that's loose or something big that's loose

brakes work good stops hard clutch grabs hard not too low not too high

signals and everything worked like they would need to for inspection

feels fast at 40 which I guess is what people told me

I fit really well but a smaller wheel would probably be nice

gas gauge doesn't work speedometers kind of jittery

suspension and steerng don't really inspire confidence it's a little while but I expected that every bushing is shot I assume the shocks are shot and I didn't have a lot of pressure in the air tires

Temperature stayed low or to the n for nominal oil pressure stayed high

overall I'm really pleased with how it turned out I was about for out for about an hour what I really liked was it was not too windy with the top down at 40 50 miles an hour I kind of didn't expect that

Great progress! I bet you already know but, keep an eye on the end play of that Triumph engine. Just flick it into neutral at traffic lights and such, too.

In reply to Snert :

Yeah thrust washers, but can it be fixed with the engine in the car.

In reply to scooterfrog :

If they're just out of spec and not ruined and you can get the oil pan off- yes.

still fighting with hand brake  12(?) hours on it.  needed to pass inspection in ma.

• removed lever. 

parts were rust frozen  (clevis pin to lever) handle was hard to move ,

• fixed both
• used new grease gun  (locknlube from ebay )  on compensator  and cable
• turned cable the right way round.  It was backwards.

smooth as silk  now  but... 

still no luck.  perhaps worse  because the unfrozen clevis pin now  handle pulls the pulls cable a bit less.

Small successes

• removed sound deadening on trans tunnel
• lubricated driver side seatbelt

ordered new cable, rods, clevis pins 

given all the work you did on the handbrake handle end, is is possible the cable was pulled a bit the last time you adjusted the shoes and putting it right left them need another adjustment?

good question its possible but not likely everytime 

im wondering if the rods are the wrong ones installed.  they are different for wirewheel cars like mine and non wired (longer)  if they are  the longer ones they need to start with the pivot turned most of the way  and no amount of pulling will give em enough throw at the levers in the drums.  if i manually push the levers at the brake they lock the brakes.

aftermarket like i ordered are adjustable