You can set camber by loosening the nut on the ball joint and turning the eccentric with a channel lock. You also need to set camber first, then toe. Changing the camber will change the toe-in, but changing the toe will not affect camber.

Oh! All this only after ride height is set. The ride height affects camber and toe!

Crash’s advice is spot-on. I run about .5 degrees negative camber on my car (spec is 0) and it’s good. I also have one set of caster shims in place, so the caster is about 3-4 degrees. Stock Bugs came with less than that, to keep low speed steering easy, and it gets worse: typically, any VW whose front end is lower then the rear will lose enough…[Read more]

It’s really fun to drive, Dale. You should come up and I’ll let you take a spin.

Very nice Ed – love to drive it – can’t believe you are going to sell?

Hopefully you change your mind before that happens.

Been sorting the Spyder for a few months now. It’s running strong and tracking straight, stopping short and sounding delightfully loud. On Tuesday I revved the engine to 6000 rpm on a highway entrance ramp, and it seemed to like that. The dyno slips with these engines (I have one for a sister build, not this engine per-se) indicate they made peak…[Read more]

Given the way they’re made—with the divot for the grub screw on the edge of the large leaves only—the small ones should slide out. But they probably won’t until you loosen the center grub screw. I just rebuilt the beam on my Spyder and it was a real adventure sorting out how the height adjusters worked on this one: the grub screw was buried ins…[Read more]

If it hasn’t been run in a while, maybe pull the coil wire and turn the engine over with the starter for 10-20 seconds to get the oil flowing first before trying to fire it.

I completely overlooked the FiberFab emblem. Good eye!

I agree, looks like a Fiberfab. The logo on the front gives it away. Also I agree that the headlight brackets are non standard. That said, most parts are easily available via MG Magic. However, as these were mostly self assembled you never know what the original owner did (or didn’t) do.

It looks like a Fiberfab. The headlight brackets are custom made.

Red flags are the same as any with a 30+-year-old homebuilt car: look at the floors and frame head. Check all the rubber bits (tires especially) for dry rot. Assume the gas tank is full of rust and scale. Examine body and engine carefully. Assess your own true willingness to work…[Read more]

You probably know that the period correct outlet looks like two RCA style speaker plugs as found on the back of a stereo amplifier. As in

But since these work well with only my period correct brass “trouble light”

and Happy Jack’s hilarious portable tea kettle (which is hands-down the absolute best TDr accessory I have ever, or will ever, run…[Read more]

Hi John

Once you have logged in. go to the forums, general discussion. BEFORE you select a posted message, there should be a txt box open at the bottom of the page (only appears if you are logged in). Here you can post your message with your own title.

hope this helps

dan

Hi John

Not quiet the right place to post but to answer your question, Moss motors do a MG handle and MG Magic do a handle without the logo.

Welcome aboard

dan

My blinkers don’t work about every other year. It’s my reminder to go clean and re-do the ground connections.

Have you removed the cover and checked the solenoids? Make sure they’re clean. With the cover off you should see if the solenoids are working or not.

Tons of info if you google “Lucas 33117” including replacing with newer style relays.

Thanks for the offer Bill. I’m going to try Erics suggestion first and see how that goes.

You should be able to line everything up by loosening the steering box mounting bolts and clocking it slightly. As I recall, there is a “stop” of some sort on the beam or mounting frame that should have (probably had to be!) been cut off during the kit’s assembly, allowing the steering box to spin more fully on the top tube. That’s what makes it…[Read more]

A word on “clips” being on your clutch cable:

Nearly all these cars all use a shortened clutch cable, owing to the pedal set having been moved rearward a foot or 14 inches. On my car, the PO made a loop in the cable over the transaxle and then clamped that with a U-shaped cable clamp. It worked perfectly well like that for probably 25…[Read more]

Here’s a link to a thread on TheSamba with lots of good info. The one thing people forget to mention is the clutch mechanism has slack in it, but the clutch cable arm is pre-loaded with a spring. Take up the slack when measuring by using pliers to turn the clutch cable arm CCW until you encounter stiff resistance.