Great expectations
Mike expects the MGF’s pre-MoT checks to be routine. They aren’t…
I’m ashamed to say that the MGF was still snoozing in mid-July, some four months after I was expecting to have extracted it from its winter hidey-hole – pretty much unforgivable, given that I tucked it away in late October last year.
I have many excuses. For one thing, my good intentions of turning OHR’s engine over every couple of weeks to keep the battery charged during the winter months predictably came to nought; by the time I finally got around to doing it, the battery was already flat.
My next excuse slotted neatly into place just a month later, when my newlyacquired Triumph 2500 PI – which is for sale, by the way... down to you for £1000 – took its place in our sort-of barn, blocking the MG in.
By mid-July, I’d decided I’d had enough. I sank £75 into a new mains-powered booster pack – I don’t need one of those expensive rechargeable portable jobs – blithely thinking that I’d have it up and running in a jiffy, wipe it over with a damp cloth and toddle off to the nearest MoT station with a glint in my eye and a song in my heart.
My first inkling that not everything was at it should be came when I opened the front bonnet to give the various ancillaries the once-over and spotted a random electrical connection dangling in mid-air. Frowning, I looked closer and my blood ran cold when I realised that it was supposed to be connected to what looks (to my mechanically inept eye) like the brake master cylinder.
With that clipped back in place, I went to check the oil and my heart sank yet again when the whole dipstick assembly wobbled so freely that it felt like it was about to come away in my hand. Closer inspection revealed that it should be bolted to the engine block – only, the bolt was missing.
With that little job attended to (imagine trying to fit a small nut and bolt to something on the other side of your letterbox, and you’ll get the idea), I turned my attention to the battery. Which, to cut a long story short, turned out to be dead. [Sigh] I know when I’m beaten...