The gearstick has developed a bit of a rattle which is really annoying when your driving for any length of time - like 5 minutes! It turns out to be a really easy fix, which I wish I'd done earlier.

With the car moving, it's time for a gearbox oil change. Hopefully this will make the gears a little easier too.

The MG is moving under its own steam for the first time in around 17 years! Turns out the clutch wasn't as stuck as we had feared, which was a major relief. The new cylinders and lines, along with the torque of the engine, seem to have helped it break loose.

It's been pretty cold recently so work on the car has slowed a little, but we've finished off the clutch assembly by fitting the master cylinder. On the original cylinder the outlet pointed upwards, but the new one's thread meant that the outlet would be angled to one side. To fix this we added an additional washer to the end of the cylinder.

The new slave cylinder, hose and line are all in place. This is a pretty fiddly operation as the join of the line and hose is above a bracket which is obstructed by the starter motor.

The master clutch cylinder is bolted to the pedal box at 6 and 12 o'clock above and below the piston arm, making it difficult to access the bottom bolt. The confines of the pedal box with the pedal arm and piston effectively block direct access on that side and the cylinder itself makes it impossible from the other.

Finally got the old cylinder out. I've not had a proper look at it yet, but it looks like the spring has seized in the piston. Rather than try a repair kit, I've got hold of a full replacement.

We'd decided that the master and slave clutch cylinders could do with replacing as the seals were very likely gone on both. The slave cylinder was first to come off.

The clutch is the main problem with the car at the moment, so the first order of business was to have a look at the piston going into the master cylinder. A little bit easier than said as the pedal box cover was totally rusted up and the screw heads just failed, so we had to revert to drilling out the screws to release it.

Late-model MGBs had overdrive rather than a fifth gear. You can put the car into overdrive in 3rd or 4th and the engine produces less torque, but hopefully saves you petrol and reduces engine wear and noise.