brake calipers

My front calipers were ugly.  :(

I tried removing the pistons with compressed air and one moved.  Always the one on
the hose connection side.  This popped out that side leaving other one still stuck.
I finally found that the slot between the pistons wasn't for the rotor, it was so a wrench and brake pad could hold back the moving piston, and force the non mover out a little.
  The other side was oiled around the seal and pushed back into its bore.
This was repeated numerous times on one side.

The wrench method. I just got the bleeding pistons out- I'm not putting them back for a photo shoot.

 

Here is a close up of the chromed piston problems- The chroming becomes pitted, then the pits start eating up the seals and work rust into the caliper bores. Note the rust stain on the piston also..



Used pistons for sale...

Here is another problem with the brakes- lack of maintenance. In the caliper bore at the bottom Gunk from rust, contaminated fluid, deteriorating hoses, etc gather and can wedge between the piston to make it not move.  
  If you're rebuilding, there is a inner square rubber gasket and a metal collared rubber gasket towards the disk area that need to be removed, clean the mating surfaces and replaced.

Thankfully the bores are in great shape after a quick cleaning with a green scritchy pad. 

TIPS:  The bleeder valve goes directly to the non hose side bore to clean that out and apply air to that piston.   The 3/8" bolt goes directly to the hose side bore.

Letting my axle hang out.

The axle has been hanging out in the truck bed for months.  Time to start it on its journey...

There's numbers under the grime and paint! 
Note the 11  43, that's the gear ratio- 11 is the pinion teeth, 43 is the ring gear teeth. 
43/11=3.9090 "crown and pinion" ratio.
The higher numerically the ratio is, the lower the gearing.
A lower ratio can be beneficial at getting the car moving quickly, but without extra transmission
gears- the car will top out at a lower speed.

Well, the axle was half full of gear oil. Better than nothing.  At least it was clean with no shavings.
 Everything turns easy, I think its going to get 140wt oil to keep wear and the dreaded "clunk" at bay. 
The rear shoes are in very good shape so those will be used for a 1000 miles to get it broken in.

1.5 hours of cleaning, I'm going to put in a new pinion seal, 2 wheel cylinders, parking brake boots, and gear oil, and a fresh coat of paint.
All told = <$75

my mgb just gained 173 lbs!

I completely redid the front end, paint, poly bushings, cleaned everything.  I even had the pleasure of changing shock oil.  Everyone says 20W or lower, I've heard mineral oil even.   Most posts said to use hydraulic jack oil.   So that's what I went with.  It does have anti foaming properties.
  The fronts were pretty good colorwise, one of the rears looked as if it had been topped off with regular oil.  It took a quart with some flushing to do 4. It's interesting to see how the little aluminum b**tards work.
 Total cost: $3.79.

Although the concept of just bolting it up there is nice, the front 2 crossmember bolts wouldn't just slide into the hole.
I had to push them up through the crossmember hole underneath.
The rears were a lot easier.
Ain't that a purty front end?

I did manage to get the steering arms on backwards.  You'll find out when the bottom caliper bolts cant go into the hole.  😩
Going to get the rear cleaned and bolt it back on so it'll be a roller again!

on to the suspension v2

The lower control arm bushings were visbly cracking before taking the parts apart.  Spray everything with PB blaster before starting this.  Loosen all nuts before taking individual parts off.

The lcas were wallered out.  The lower trunnion pivot bushings welded themselves to the bolt, wrecking the lcas.  Out comes the sawzall.

Removing the shock was an experience.
The gurus in the mg experience said to remove the upper shock bolts and there is "very little left in the coil spring.'
Well, I put a strap around the lca and the frame, removed the bolts, and when loosening the strap the arm kicked down about 4".  Coils have a lot of power in them...

There are LCAs with a negative caster that supposedly help handling. But also reduce normal driving precision on the street....I'll try stock first.
The kingpins were in good shape , still has some grease on them, the bearings we're smooth but are getting replaced anyway.  All parts got degreaser, cleaned, and electrolytic de rusting.  Just waiting on parts..



When dismantling parts, try to keep the bolts that go with that part together. Screw the nut and locknut back onto that part to keep from losing it.
 Note that the sway bar connections are
left and right handed and cannot be interchanged along with their LCArms.....

 



The kingpin isn't as complicated as it seems. Just a lot of cleaning old grease.
 
 I already forgot to add the bearing spacer (part 34) to the hub I re did, so I had to re-pull the inner bearing seal to
 install this.
According to Mr Twist, It makes the spindle act like its thicker than it is..

The only thing that will probably change on the hub is the bearing shims. (part 35) 
When reassembling the hub with new bearings, the shims keep proper tension between the bearings
http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,1965803

http://www.chicagolandmgclub.com/driveline00/0402/jasw.html 

My kingpin and trunnion bronze bushings were in very good shape- still were round, and still had the "leaf" pattern for distributing grease across the surface.  When reassembling, I pregreased all bushings and anti seized the lower trunnion bolt and all threaded parts.
All suspension is getting poly bushings

undercoating.

I finally got around to putting undercoating on the B. It will protect it from the elements and quiet it down considerably.
  Raptor liner takes a couple shots, and air pressure tweaking , and mixing consistantly, and keeping the schutz gun a constant distance to get the product on right.
It recommends 40 to 60 psi.
If you shoot it at the lower 40
(all other things being equal) you get bigger spackling effect.
At 25 psi it looks like a flicked booger.  I found this out when my compressor blew a gasket an couldn't keep up!  
  If you change the hardener ratio it goes on too wet, also if you get too close or pause you will have puddling. 
  By the second or third can you're a pro!
 

this was the starting point after getting the floorboards in.
The body seams were sealed , the
Panels sanded, cleaned with xylol, primered with acid etch and rough sanded again to give some grip..

I chose to shoot some upol (raptor liner) on it. I used herculiner on past projects, but didn't need the super grippy texture. 

You can see some of the welds in the floor through the liner, but it looks sooooooo ( enough o's?) much better.
It also got rid of the tinny metal sound.

While I was at it... I shot the trunk area too.  It kinda had the textured trunk paint appearance except in black.