In the age of computer engine management, people seem to have trouble operating the manual choke on their SU carb-equipped Bugeye (or similarly equipped classic car). So we made a detailed video that breaks down the components so choke operation will be come easy to master for all, for generations! Watch below and give us a call for your Bugeye parts needs!
Nick’s Tech Tips: Don’t let broken brakes leave you hosed!
Hydraulics are the number one fault area on British cars, primarily because moisture gets in the fluid and causes problems. The most common repair issue in the hydraulic system is leaking or seized wheel cylinders, master cylinders, and slave cylinders… but there is one issue that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle during maintenance proceedings… rubber hydraulic hoses.
This week, we had a Bugeye up on one of our lifts for a complaint of sticking rear brakes. The car would stop, but the rear brakes would stay applied even after the brake pedal returned. After a few minutes, the rear brakes would release and the cycle would repeat itself. This is a tell-tale sign that your brake hoses need to be replaced. In the below photo, you can see why:
Brake hoses are made of rubber. As with any rubber part exposed to the elements, brake hoses deteriorate over time; standard hydraulic fluid, which absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, doesn’t help matters, either. The “fun” part about brake hoses is that they are double-layer hoses, two layers of rubber bonded together. The most common failure point on hoses is not an external rupture and susequent leak; what usually happens is the two layers of rubber separate, the inner layer collapses on itself, and your brake hose turns into a one-way check valve. This allows brake pressure to travel to the brakes and applying them, but not allowing the fluid to travel away from the wheels to allow those brakes to retract. It will feel like your parking brake is stuck on, but in reality, your brake hose is holding the fluid hostage!
[Read more…] about Nick’s Tech Tips: Don’t let broken brakes leave you hosed!Fresh Rubbers!
Before Spring driving season blooms, make sure to give your car a good visual inspection, with a particular focus on your rubber bits. (If you’re looking to get your car ready to drive this spring, and would rather have us run through it and tighten things up, give us a call and we will be happy to give your car the attention it needs… we pick up nationwide).
The examples below came to us from an armada of British cars here in our workshop for driving-season maintenance. For example, inner control arm bushings need to be fresh so that your suspension is good and tight. These were long past their expiration date. If you see cracked rubber flared out around your inner control arm mounts, it’s time to replace!
Here are some motor mounts we removed this week from a Morris Minor, also well past their useful life. Morris Minors and Bugeyes use the same engine mounts, so if yours look like this, make the change!
A lost language
My first car (a ’66 MGB) had two dead six-volt batteries for my entire ownership. I never shut it off or parked it unless I was on a hill, and I pop started my way through high school. Sometimes, I had to walk a bit after parking if my destination was, for example, deep into a very flat flood plain, but it in Southern New England, it never seemed to an issue, and all the pop starting and walking seemed to keep me in fine shape.
Nowadays, we expect a little more from our vehicles, and as the world has evolved, societal pop-starting skills have atrophied. So jump into the nearest vehicle with a clutch pedal, check out the video above, and go practice. You never know when The Prince of Darkness will pay you a visit!
Bugeyeguys new product showcase: “Leaf” spring box rust behind!
New product alert!
A common ailment regarding the rear suspensions on Bugeyes (and other 1/4-elliptic Spridgets) is the penetration of moisture, dirt, road grime, and road salt in the spring boxes, causing scenes like the one depicted above of incredibly rusty (and structurally compromised) leaf springs, and, in some cases, completely rusted out spring boxes. This is a vulnerability on all Bugeyes, whether restored, all original, or modified. Now, we finally have a solution available to help curb this problem.
We are pleased to be able to offer in our parts catalog our NEW Spring Box Dust Shields! These dust shields will cover the open backside of the spring boxes on your Bugeye (or any early Spridget with 1/4-elliptical leaf springs), keeping debris out of the area. This will prolong the life of suspension components like mounting plates, U-bolts, and the leaf springs themselves, as well as reduce the likelihood of cancerous corrosion taking hold in the floors around the spring box! Each plate is made from stainless steel to be corrosion resistant, so no worry about the covers rusting!
In the photos above, you can see the new plates in action. We have found that each spring box is in a slightly different position relative to bracketry surrounding the area, so you will have to trim one of the “ears” on the plate to fit into the opening properly. This can easily be done with a cutoff wheel or similar device; once the initial fitment is complete, installation is a breeze! Just remove the u-bolt securing your spring, slide this plate in until flush with the rear bulkhead of the car, re-install the u-bolt and tighten. That’s it!
Get your pair by clicking here or visit our parts catalog for all your Spridget suspension needs!
Nick’s Tech Tips: Rubbing your nose raw!
Follow your nose!
We recently had this green Bugeye brought into our shop for service, and on a test drive it exhibited a rattle coming from the front of the car. This is not uncommon among Bugeyes that come through our doors; 60-plus year old British cars sometimes make noises like that, and our job is to investigate where they come from and see if we can do anything to mitigate them. In this instance, upon lifting the bonnet we found a smoking gun that led us to the culprit.
When we opened the bonnet, we saw a rub mark on the aluminum radiator (circled in the below photo). There was a corresponding rub mark on the underside of the bonnet, in between the headlight buckets (circled in the above photo). Our aluminum radiators are designed to fit in exactly the correct location as the factory radiators; they aren’t any taller or wider than a stock brass radiator. So why did the bonnet and radiator make contact on this particular car?
Well, there are a couple of reasons this could be. The most common seems to be that almost every Bugeye that comes in here has been in some kind of fender-bender, accident, or has otherwise been the victim of some kind of damaging event that bends parts of the front end, such as the front frame horns, where the radiator mounts. These are sometimes bent upwards, creating a scenario where the radiator could realistically hit the nose. However, in this instance, the answer was much simpler.
There are six main components to the latching mechanism on a Bugeye’s bonnet. Potentially the most important ones are the bonnet locating pegs. These pegs are fitted to the underside of the bonnet and are designed to fit into two corresponding holes on each frame horn, which guide the nose into its moorings and help center it on the car. For some reason, on this Bugeye, these pegs were missing entirely! Not only would this create an issue with centering the nose, but it also made the nose sit about an inch lower than it would with the proper pieces in place, creating the rubbing issue we saw on this car.
The moral of this story is: check your clearances! When installing a radiator on your Bugeye, it’s worth taking the time to lay down a small piece of masking tape at the highest point on the tank, closing the bonnet fully, and then opening the bonnet again. If the tape has a mark on it or looks like it has been pinched between the bonnet and the radiator, then your part will rub and adjustments will need to be made, either to the height of the radiator or the height of the bonnet. And make sure your bonnet pegs are intact!
Should you be missing your bonnet pegs, or any other bonnet fastening part, check out our parts catalog or click on the photos below to get the parts you need today!
