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  Suzuki Mirror and Turn Signal Assembly (USED)

  $217.10 $45.00 Add to cart

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Thus, we began designing our permanent installation device.  The digital models have gone through several design revisions, which have led to our current design that has since been evaluated in mock-up.  The device will have a standard ODB-II output port to allow for connection to any OBD-II device.  The input port is currently intended to also be a standard OBD-II connection, although we may change the port to a more robust design in the future as we convert the initial prototype, for which we just finished ordering the necessary components, to a hard-wired connection.  The main function of the device will be a single three-way switch, which will allow the system to be set to Data Logging (enables OBD-II power when the ignition is on), Programming (enables OBD-II power regardless of ignition status), and Off (disables OBD-II power to the device).  Two LED’s will provide secondary confirmation regarding the current setting.  We are also considering adding an on/off switch to enable an audio buzzer whenever the device draws power when the car is off.  This would be optional, since some users would probably find the constant noise during computer programming rather annoying, but users that may otherwise accidentally leave the device on may appreciate the option.

So, with great excitement, we conclude describing the initial concept coming out of our new R&D group.  Time permitting, we hope to have the prototype completed and installed in the next several.  After completing any other design changes brought about by actual installation, we hope to make the plans available, as well as offer the device for purchase on request.  Since the necessary investment for a device like the Trinity and any additional accessories and gauge pod is rather high, our goal is to make our productive as inexpensive and easy a solution, as possible.

For more information or to request to be notified when the device is available for purchase, please fill out our contact form.

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Required Tools

• 10mm Wrench
• 10mm Socket Wrench with Extension

Parts List

• Vented, Top-Post, BCI 94R 12V Battery (ex. Duralast Gold 94R-DLG)
• Anti-Corrosion Fiber Washers
• Battery Terminal Protector

Battery Replacement Instructions

1. Open the trunk and lift the base to expose the spare tire and battery compartment.
2. Remove the spare tire to gain additional battery access for safety.
3. Take the opportunity with the spare tire remove to collect any tools and pens that have scurried away (this may just be a step for us).
4. Use the 10mm wrench to loosen the connector from the negative terminal.  Carefully remove the cable from the battery terminal and set it aside where it cannot reconnect with the battery.
5. Repeat step 4 with the connector on the positive terminal.
6. Remove the vent tube from the hole by the positive terminal.
7. Using the 10mm socket wrench with extension, remove the battery hold-down plate, followed by removal of the tie-strap.
8. Being careful to avoid connecting or otherwise grounding the battery terminals, as well as to avoid any leaked battery acid or other chemicals, remove the original battery from the vehicle and dispose of it according to your local regulations.
9. Use the plug provided with the battery (ours was attached to the positive-terminal cover) to close the vent port by the negative terminal, which should be farthest from the Challenger vent tube.  For safety, be sure to leave all terminal covers on the battery until ready to connect the terminals.
10. Carefully place the new batter in the Challenger battery compartment, being careful to slide the base under the lip on the battery stand.
11. Secure the battery using the hold-down plate and tie strap.
12. Connect the vent tube to the unplugged battery vent port.
13. Remove the positive terminal cover, install the positive anti-corrosion fiber washer (if desired), and connect the positive (should be red) battery cables, securing the connector with the 10mm wrench.
14. Remove the negative terminal cover, install the negative anti-corrosion fiber wash (if desired), and connect the negative (should be black) battery cable, securing the connector with the 10mm wrench.
15. If desired, spray battery terminal protector in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions – avoid inhalation and over-spray.
16. Replace the original red terminal cover over the positive terminal.  If this does not fit, an appropriate after-market cover is recommended for safety.
17. Close up the trunk floor and lid and enjoy having a car that starts without external booster.

In our photos, you will see that we also installed a disconnect on the negative terminal.  This was a test being performed for a different purpose and is not recommended, since trunk operation requires battery power or access through the rear seat to the emergency latch release.

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As shown back in our original purchase post, 1963 MGB Roadster, the previous owner was quite honest about the rocker panels and sills being fully rusted. In addition, he had provided photos of his repairs to the floor panels and, with no insult intended, we knew up front that those would need replacing. For those reasons, we’ve had a complete set of rocker panels, sills, and floor panels, from Moss Motors sitting in inventory almost since Project: MGB arrived at the shop. While replacing the brake and clutch systems and adding some modernization to the BMC B-series engine we love so much, a few other rust holes were found in places the previous owner may never have even gotten to. Of course, enjoying the roadster out on the road, we focused more on other matters (read: ignored the rust issue for on-road playtime). After a particularly aggressive drive on one of our amazing-weather days, however, a body check upon return to the garage showed just the faintest of warping in along the rocker-panel line. With winter upon us, playtime was over, and it was time to get down to business.

Our work began with removing the left-hand-driver’s-side front fender. About eight 1/2″ bolts were removed front the connection point right under the bonnet. The hood buffer was also removed with a bit of encouraging from the drill, as was the new gas support strut on that side. Another two bolts were removed on the vertical connection point right behind the front indicator light. Next came the four vertical bolts from the inside kick panel. After that and a few words inappropriate for these posts, the windscreen was also removed – we’ll cover that joy at a later date. The last step was a precise cut of the metal between the fender and rocker panel cover right along the door line. Checking the entire panel, we knew that every bolt and screw had been removed from the fender, so we gathered round for the unveiling of the interior and pulled. … and pulled… and jiggled… and cursed… and pulled… and gave up and consulted the manual.

According to the manual, there should have been a few small screws at the base of the fender – it even noted that these often corrode together and have to be cut. No problem – except that Project: MGB had a smooth curve along the base of the fender with no screws. Check from the underside, the curve continued along the bottom with no screws to cut up into… wait, a curve along the underside?? Knowing that something wasn’t right and that there would be repairs involved anyway, we started to sand off some paint to run a clean plasma cut right at the base. Rather than worrying about sparks, however, we just got a tone of dust kicked up – that wasn’t right. Knowing that the entire fender will end up being stripped, cleaned up, and repainted anyway, we ran several more test spots, only to find: no metal… or, to be more precise, a very thick layer of filler with metal way down below. At this point, we grabbed the cutter, took off the fender just above the rocker panel / sill line, and pulled off the fender.

All of this background was the lead in to provide provide context for this post’s title: What Lies Beneath (cue horror music). From the outside, the fenders on Project: MGB appeared to be one of the cleanest parts of the car (excluding the aforementioned rocker panels). Unfortunately, we found out the hard way that the lower half of at least the driver’s side fender had been rusted through and badly repaired. Flipped over, the original panel was seen, as was the original rust that had never been removed. A haphazard patch had been thrown in and a very thick layer of filler had been used to cover alignment issues. Now, it’s important to note that whoever used the filler was a master – the lines were almost perfect. Unfortunately, the problem of interior rust wasn’t fixed, the removal points were covered up, and the problem was just hidden away waiting to become a surprise at the worst possible moment.

At the end of the day, while somewhat surprised by this particular problem, rust was an issue we knew to be a major concern with our car. It’s fortunate that our restoration plans involve a complete overhaul, as this would have been a horrible find at the end of the restoration process. At the end of the day, this turned out to provide a few laughs around the garage and added one more “to do” on our list of repairs. Always remember, though, that if you’re not going into a restoration with the expectation of hidden problems (and a price to compensate for them), make sure to run the “magnet check” on the body and use your inspection camera to verify any interior wells that aren’t readily visible.

The post What Lies Beneath appeared first on Vanderbilt Automotive Group.

Installation was incredibly easy and only required a standard flat head screwdriver and a 10mm socket wrench. The only difficulty we had was related to the location of our oil catch can – the current location interferes with the location of the mass air flow sensor on the new CAI. Since we’ve been planning to move this to a more convenient location for awhile, this will simply be the excuse we need to actually implement the change.

We’ve posted our first YouTube video documenting installation; it is embedded after the photos. Be sure to provide some feedback on your thoughts for the video so we can make improvements to the next one!

Installation Steps (After Removal of Existing CAI and Cleaning of Throttle Body)

1. Pull lower filter housing from original air intake and clean (this thing gets pretty messy).
2. Place new filter in old base and then clip new C&L housing to the top. The zip-tie should be loosely routed through and connected, but not yet tightened.
3. Attach new inlet pipe to the filter, but do not tighten the retaining clamps.
4. Attach inlet pipe to throttle body, but do not tighten. Adjust filter assembly for level fit within housing.
5. Tighten zip tie on filter housing and clip off excess.
6. Bolt filter housing to body with 10mm ratchet. The bolt is from the original air intake and should be secure but not over-tightened.
7. Carefully insert MAF sensor into new inlet pipe. The MAF sensor is very delicate, so you don’t want to break it. Because of our clearance issues, we found it necessary to unclip the MAF sensor from its wiring, fit it in the inlet, and then re-clip the wires.
8. Perform final check of all fitting and then tighten down the two clamps at the throttle body and the clamp at the filter.
9. Connect final hose to inlet and tighten.
10. Start the car, check for leaks, and enjoy the new CAI!

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For the mounts, we utilized a drilled steel strip we had lying around from the hardware store. A word of caution on this – a lot of steel products from a regular hardware store are galvanized (i.e. zinc-coated) steel. Heating up the zinc can be incredibly dangerous, so make sure you’ve got the proper ventilation or take the time to get a proper, non-galvanized, product. And, when in doubt, err on the side of caution – assume that you’ve got galvanized steel. Anyway, we were able to cut four appropriately-sized strips, with the right-side mounts being just one hole larger than the left. Some grinding to round the ends and get rid of any sharp edges, a little paint, and we were ready to go. The fit was going to be pretty tight, but would work. This led to the next problem of how to connect the mounts to the body.

Utilization of the existing radiator-to-shroud bolts seemed absolutely perfect, but we needed to ensure that any new installation didn’t disrupt the existing design. In order to do this, the new bolts needed to be the same spec as the original (5/16″ – 24, or fine, thread). For the length, we needed about 4″. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find these at any local hardware store, so it required a trip online to McMaster-Carr. We ended up finding only one bolt that met all of our specifications. Since it turned out to be a very high class bolt, it was rather expensive, but worth it, since it allowed us to finish the installation. Here are the parts we ordered from McMaster-Carr:

• 92620A616 – Grade 8 Alloy Steel Hex Head Cap Screw, Zinc Yellow Plated, 5/16″-24 Thread, 4″ Long, Fully Threaded
• 94895A810 – Zinc & Yellow Plated Grade 8 Steel Hex Nut, 5/16″-24 Thread, 1/2″ Width, 17/64″ Height
• 93852A103 – 18-8 Stainless Steel Type A USS Flat Washer, 5/16″ Screw Size, 7/8″ OD, .06″-.11″ Thick

Using the new bolts, we replaced the top and bottom radiator-to-shroud bolts on either side of the radiator. The previously-replaced lock washers were reused, and, for the top bolts, we utilized the new washers and nuts to connect the radiator mounts. At this point, nothing was different than original installation except the bolts were a lot longer. To connect the new radiator mounts, we went ahead and added bolts to the ends (far-side hole for the tops, second hole in for the bottoms) for the later connection to the fan. To hold the mounts in place, we utilized the new McMaster-Carr nuts and washers on either side. Affixing the fan after reversing the blades for pusher-mode per the instructions was fairly easy once everything was lined up, so it was just a matter of bolting the connections to the fan and then aligning the new mounts to not be tweaked. All of this worked pretty well, although the gap between the fan and the radiator core is significantly larger than we would like. The next step will be to create a gasket that will work between the two in order to better focus air through the core – that will be left for another day.

With the difficult mounting complete, we were left with mounting the electrical controls. The controller mounted beautifully right behind the radiator shroud on the engine compartment wall. It was just a matter of disconnecting the existing wiring mount to gain access (unfortunately, this led to the rusted old bolt breaking – add a new fix to the list). We drilled out the holes, painted them to prevent rust, and connected the controller with some spare nuts & bolts that were lying around.

One complaint about the Variable-Speed Control Module was the size of the in-line fuse for the primary battery connection. This thing is huge! To keep it from being in the way and possibly being broken, we actually mounted it on the front of the radiator shroud just above the lines for the oil cooler. It turned out quite well, although it’s a little odd that the wires loop to the front from the control module, and then right back into the engine compartment for connection to the batter via the solenoid connection. It definitely works, though, and it’s not somewhere that is likely to suffer an accidental break.

Finally, it was on to the electrical connections. For this, we did differ from the Control Module package and only utilized fully insulated and water resistant connections – not that we are expecting a flood that would shut down our fan, but (a) we think they look a little nicer, and (b) better to be safe than sorry. A little extra expense here along with some extra 10 and 14 gauge wire to top off the electrical toolbox, and we were good to go. For our installation, we did front-mount the fan and are currently keeping the original, mechanical fan in place. This means that, as well as the blades being reversed, the positive and negative wires to the fan also had to be reversed. By matching the connections, it’s a quick matter of disconnecting/reconnecting if we ever change the fan orientation.

Here are the list of wiring connections – more detail is shown in the images:

• Controller Wire #1 (Black): Routed along existing wiring harness and into cabin for a good ground connection
• Controller Wire #2 (Purple): Connected via quick disconnects to Black Fan Wire (for puller installations, this would be red)
• Controller Wire #3 (Yellow): Connected via quick disconnects to Red Fan Wire (for puller installation, this would be black)
• Controller Wire #4 (Red): Routed to Fuse on front of radiator shroud and then back to the engine compartment for connection to battery cable at the solenoid
• Controller Jumpers #5 – #8: Not currently utilized, although we will eventually add a manual on/off switch when the dashboard is rewired
• Controller Jumper #9: Connected via short wire from jumper to open jumper on ignition side of fuse block
• Controller Jumper #10/11: Connected to the thermometer, which we routed under the radiator support seal and out to the radiator core just under the filler gauge. When setting this up, be sure to install the thermometer away from the existing fan blades if they’re not being removed.

That finished up our work for now, since we’ll be creating all custom wiring harnesses in the future and will tie the fan wires into the new loom at that point – for now, it’s a zip-tie job.

All-in-all, we are very pleased with this installation and expect this to drop that little bit of overheating we were having driving around town in the summer.

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Flex-a-Lite 31165 Variable Speed Control Kit

Project: MGB has needed a little bit more cooling power in stop-and-go traffic, so we recently ordered the Flex-a-lite 108 10″ Reversible Trimline Electric Fan. To decrease unnecessary electric load, we also ordered Flex-a-lite 31165 Variable Speed Control Kit. We’re working on prepping the electrical connections for installation tomorrow (after a quick stop to resupply our wiring connectors), but are very happy with this controller at first glance.

The controller terminal is appears quite sturdy and uses appropriately-gauged wire. Likewise, the fuse is certainly sufficiently rated for the fan. We do wish that these two items were integrated, as it is unnecessary to have a completely separate fuse block. Additionally, the use of a full-sized fuse is a bit contrary to the miniature fuses generally utilized in automobiles these days. Other than the use of a tap splice rather than creating appropriate solder connection, there are no other negatives. The 10 and 18 AWG high-temperature automotive wire is appropriate and decent length is provided. Even the instructions (external link), while basic, are definitely sufficient for installation by individuals with basic electrical skills.

All-in-all, these seems like a solid product that will be a great addition to Project: MGB for a long time to come… or at least until it no longer has some slight over-heating issues in stop-and-go traffic and after shut-off.

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Radiator Core Dimensions

• Height: 26.0 cm / 10.25″
• Width: 45.5 cm / 17.91″

Radiator Dimensions

• Height (Tallest): 37.0 cm / 14.57″
• Height (Shortest): 34.5 cm / 13.58″
• Width: 47.0 cm / 18.5″
• Depth: 6.0 cm / 2.36″

Radiator Internal Clearance

• Mechanical Fan (OEM) to Radiator Core: 3.5 cm / 1.38″
• Alternator Bolt (for 6v to 12v conversions) to Radiator Core: 7.0 cm / 2.76″
• Water Pump to Radiator Core: 9.0 cm / 3.54″

Images with Multiple Measurements

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