The Essential Safety Inspection: Uncovering Hidden Dangers in My MGB

The Safety Inspection

When I bought the MGB, I was told it would have no issues passing a safety inspection. This statement is probably true, depending on who performs the inspection and what one’s expectations are. Many people want a safety inspection solely to satisfy the Motor Bureau’s requirements before issuing a license. I am certain that many garages view the inspection this way, ensuring the basics are in order and issuing the certificate for licensing purposes.

However, I was more interested in a safety inspection that would actually let me know if I am safe driving this MGB. Of course, I also needed it for the licensing bureau to license the MGB for the road. That is why I took the MGB to a garage specializing in British classic cars for the inspection. After reading this post, I think you will agree that it was well worth it and that there were many extremely concerning issues that most likely would not have been reported by your average garage that knows very little about MGBs. Some of these, you may want to inspect on your MGB.

Fuel Line

The fuel line hose and vacuum hose were resting on top of the header. One hose was half burnt through. If one were to take the car on a long drive in the hot summer, it would only be a matter of time before the hose melted through entirely, pumping gasoline onto the headers and igniting a fire, which would be continually fed by gasoline from the fuel pump. At speed, the fire would certainly enter the cockpit. I'm not confident that most garages would even pick up on this. The mechanic replaced the burnt hoses and re-routed them safely, away from heat sources.

Wiring

The mechanic noticed a loose fuse in the main fuse box. He cleaned the contacts and put the fuse in. When he did that, the car stayed on even when the key was removed from the ignition. Further investigation revealed that the input wiring on the main fuse box in the engine compartment was all wrong. The wires were mixed up on the input, and there should have been a green wire coming out. The green wire is the power wire. Someone had spliced in a joiner to add a white wire to the green power wire, giving live power to ALL the green wires instead of going through the fuse. Therefore, ALL the green circuits—wipers, fans, dash, and more—were being fed by the added white wire, bypassing the fuse. This was a severe fire hazard. It was corrected, and the white wire was removed.

Castle Nut and Main Swivel Axle

On one side of the suspension, it appears that the previous owner broke or lost the original castle nut when installing the lower control arm and used an incorrect replacement. The replacement nut was not the correct size, so they were unable to get the proper size cotter pin through it. Therefore, they used a tiny wire, which is not sufficient to hold the suspension on. Through hard turns or high-speed driving, that side of the suspension could break loose, causing an accident.

Prop Rod on the Hood

The hood must have been removed during engine work. When re-installing it, the prop rod (the bar that supports the hood) was incorrectly installed. It was installed behind instead of in front of the bracket, causing the prop rod to hit the fuse box every time the hood was closed. This would result in knocking the fuse box cover off, and if closed as I did in my garage, it would result in breaking the fuse. This is a safety issue, and it was repaired.

Steering Rack

The steering rack had way too much play, which I noticed when driving it home. You could turn the wheel left and right without any steering effect until you reached almost twenty degrees. They had to reduce the shims in the steering rack.

Brakes

The brakes were inspected thoroughly and found to be new.

Lights, Horn and Body

All the lights and body parts were in order.

Tires

The tires are marked “1509,” meaning they were manufactured in the 15th week of 2009. That makes these tires 15 years old. Although safety inspections only measure tire condition and tread depth, all tire manufacturers recommend changing tires after six years due to rubber degradation over time, which could be dangerous at highway speeds or during hard cornering. I could live with good condition tires that are 7-10 years old, but 15 years is too much. I have ordered new tires and expect them this week. See my post on tires for more details. You can see the many and severe cracks in the picture below. 

Rebound Strap

The rebound strap on the passenger side was broken in two. A new one was needed.

Battery Hold Down

There was no battery hold-down strap or block to stop the battery from jumping up and down over bumps. This could cause the positive terminal to hit the metal of the car and therefore hit negative, causing a huge short and potential fire. There is no bigger short than one at the battery itself. This small issue was a major safety concern and was addressed.

Overdrive Switch and Huge Hole in the Body

This is one item I am certain no regular garage would have found, and it led to an astounding discovery. When testing the overdrive, the mechanic could hear the click when it engaged. He went through the gears, clicking on the overdrive, and heard it click in all gears, including reverse. Therefore, if you turned on the overdrive on the stick shift, it would stay on in ALL gears, instead of just fourth gear. If one were to forget to turn off the overdrive (which I have been known to do on past MGs) and then put the car into reverse, the overdrive clutch would explode and destroy the overdrive system completely. You may want to check your overdrive to ensure that the switch is working properly. Furthermore, when they attempted to reach the switch, which is far up on the top side of the transmission, they discovered a huge

hole had been carved out from the inside of the car in the metal of the transmission tunnel and then taped up under the carpet. The hole was not round or square, just hacked-out metal. This was covered with black tape. When examining the switch, it was clearly broken and missing the spring assembly. The mechanic  put in a new switch, made a proper round hole, and a proper cover lid for the hole.

Conclusion

Obviously, there are all types of mechanics, customers, and budgets. Passing a safety check does not always mean the car is safe to drive, especially when talking classic cars. My next job is to check and probably re-torque all the suspension and brakes to ensure that these bolts meet their required torque values.

My advice: if you own an MGB and rely on local garages to do the work, or you do the work yourself but are not totally confident in your skill level, why not find an experienced MG mechanic and have your car inspected for safety—not just for a safety certificate but a real, thorough safety inspection and re-torque? These are old cars with much history, and many sins of the past could be lurking in your MGB.