Another service check was topping up the rear dampers.

Start of the driving season and time for a few service items.

My middle exhaust bracket had rusted through just above the bolt. Luckily replacements are pretty cheap and easy to fit.

Finally got around to starting the front suspension rebuild. This will be a big project, so I'm breaking it up into removal, clean-up and reassembly.

People say that Bs leak oil - 'marking their territory', 'if it doesn't leak, it's empty' or 'self lubricating' - but mine had gone from the odd drop under the sump to a decent patch under the manifold. A cast around served up the main suspect of the tappet chest covers.

When the car's hot and is running at low revs there's a grinding noise which runs in time to the oil pressure needle bounce. I reckon this is either the oil pump or the oil pressure relief valve.

As part of the pre-MOT checks I was doing, I was trying to track down the cause of a slow front near-side indicator. To help gain access to the wiring I thought I'd remove the fan guard, which just caused more problems.

With the cold weather just around the corner, I took a little time to make the B ready.

I'd just collected the car from the shop where I'd had the welding done when, while on the way home, I noticed that whenever I put the engine under load it would stumble and I had to change down just to keep it running.

After the failings of several condensers, I picked up a little AccuSpark unit at the Classic Car Show at the NEC. I finally got around to fitting it and it turned out to be pretty easy.

I wanted to see what effect a 74C stat would make, but as might be expected it only really keeps the engine cooler at the start, once the temperature rises after the stat is opened there is no difference to the 82C stat I had in place before.

Well, the B's been running a good while now, but it's never had anything like a tune-up, so we took a bit of time today to check a few settings.

With the engine-bay all coming together nicely, it seemed a shame to put the old heat-shield back on, so I decided to splash out a little and go for a new one.

While we've got all the engine block 'unplugged' we've got a really good opportunity to get access to the bodywork which is normally obscured.

With all the other work we've been doing in the engine bay, the engine block had started to look pretty tatty. First decision was what colour? The 'proper' colour for this production year is black, but I wanted to be able to see the shape of the block and so decided on the more traditional MGB block colour of maroon.

I finally got around to looking at the air filters. At quick glance they didn't look too bad inside the cans, but when we got them out they were pretty filthy as you can see.

I've always thought the B ran a little hot and it's always been on my mind, especially when stuck in heavy traffic. One of the things I've been wanting to do is give the radiator a flush out, just to settle my mind that it isn't at fault. I'd already purchased an infrared thermometer and tested all the 'hot' locations and they all came in under 90 degrees C, but I was hoping I could get them cooler.

The engine bay is rapidly approaching a finished state, so it's time for a before and after shot. On the left is the engine bay pretty much as we pulled it out of the garage (the funnel was our addition!), still with the green ignition leads. Over the past (nearly) two years we've done a lot of work in it, as well as elsewhere on the car, having replaced wires, pipes, coil, plugs, points, filter, cylinders and loads of other parts.

With the weather getting colder, the so-far neglected heater valve needs replacing to allow me some heat in the cabin. At the moment it is jammed on closed (probably a rusted return spring), preventing hot water from the engine block from circulating through the heater matrix.

It was probably something I should've checked when I took the car on, but in the end I came across it just in time. While checking the rear diff. was topped up I noticed the exhaust's rear saddle brackets had totally rusted through and the exhaust was being supported by about a centimetre of rusty metal.

Late models of the B have a strange issue with a diode in the handbrake warning light circuit. When this diode fails you have the baffling occurence of the engine starting on the key in the battery position. The first time this happened we hadn't realised until we tried turning the engine off and it kept on going with the key sat in my hand! A scramble for the battery terminals followed.

The engine bay had been saved - like much of the car - by a Waxoyl coating applied by a previous owner. Where the coating hadn't been applied the paint in the engine bay had rusted, I suspect largely due to the attention of the mice inhabitants. However now the car is getting constant attention I feel happy enough to remove the coating and reveal the pristine paintwork beneath. It will also make a huge difference to how the engine bay looks as the yellow paint really sets off the components well.

Finally tracked down the starting problem to a faulty/blown condenser. With the carbs ruled out, this was my last option.

While I've got the carbs. off, I thought I'd shine them up a bit and clear any gunk from around the linkages.

Part of the investigation into the starting problems has been the floats in the carbs. As these can become gummed-up it was a possibility that this is where the fuel starvation symptoms were originating, but it would also give us access to the jets.

The MG's been off the road for a couple of weeks after breaking down on an afternoon run around the block.Right now we're trying to work out what's wrong.

As the temp. gauge had been sitting just at the top of the blue even when the engine was too hot to touch, we guessed that the likelihood was that the sender wasn't working.

With the MOT passed and the road tax paid we took it out for a celebratory run and it's first visit to the pumps in a while.

Today the MG passed its MOT - it's first for about 20 years! The morning was not without incident however.

We'd noticed the radiator and coolant pipes were getting very hot even after just a minute or two of running. This was likely down to the thermostat being seized. As the thermostat acts as a valve to allow coolant to flow from the engine to the radiator, with it jammed closed the engine would just get hotter and hotter.

The new alternator arrived - turned out a new one was as cheap as getting the old one repaired or a reconditioned one. MGOC Spares even sent a new connector plug, but the old one fitted just fine.

Since I've had the car the alternator warning light has always been lit up to indicate the battery is not getting charged when the engine is running.

This is the first time we'd managed to get the MG fired up, so it was smiles all round. The accelerator cable hadn't been replaced at this point, so we're had to hook up a temporary wire to do the job.

Spent most of today cleaning out the area behind the pedal box. This looks like it's where the mice had their nest, bless 'em.

The accelerator cable has sheared right through. After a bit of investigation, it looks like the guide which took it through the bodywork had totally rusted away, allowing the cable to rub on the metal until it snapped.

This was the main nest with a Dyson full of dust and debris, mixed bones at least one mouse skull and a couple of handfuls of larger shredded black bags. The blue cable is the accelerator going through the bodywork into the cabin