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MG MG Y Type - Dick of the day!

Posting this from the side of the M40
as the YT has just run out of fuel! I normally carry a full spare gallon with me. However I have left it by the mower in the garage - what a plonker!
The lady at the RAC had not heard of a number plate with just three numbers and three letters let alone a 1950 MG YT!
At least the rain has stopped
Such a silly boy as Jo will remind me!
Hopefully the RAC man will arrive soon so I can continue my journey to Tappers in Birmingham to have a nee hood fitted and the sidescreens recovered!
Have fun
Jerry
Jerry Birkbeck

Hope you didn't get too wet Jerry and were soon on your way for your new hood.
Denise and I have just stopped chuckling, not at your expense, I must hasten to add.
Just two or three weeks ago we went on an MG club drive on the Sunday, hopefully pic attached below, halfway through the morning run I looked at gage and thought, wow, petrol is running down quickly, it was about 1/8th full only. We were way out in country! I was sure I had checked it last night as I checked Water, tyres etc etc.
I had read it as 3/4 full.
Yes, you are right, I had in my leaning into the car in the confines of my single garage read it upside down. (Either that or senility is flying in).
Checked next two villages/small towns (Middleton in Teasdale being one where I knew there was a petrol station) but of course it was closed on Sundays.
I had remembered the gallon in my boot for emergency.
My container of water had already been given to another member at the start as he had a leaking hose.

Pressed on to lunch halt just outside Alston where I knew there were two garages and I was hopeful one would be open.
Just 1 mile after lunch to the much needed petrol station.
Sure enough, 1/2 mile along road "JOY" sputtered to a halt.

Thank goodness for petrol engines and electric fuel pumps.
Can emptied into tank by side of road, hoping I could do it before any other members came along and photographed me.
We made it then to the garage and topped up tank, and can!

I hope my embarrassment brings back a few memories and smiles to other MG enthusiasts too.

Kind regards,
From a red faced Bob
(Whose wife had asked before we set off if we had petrol, to be assured by me that we had plenty.)

RA Barham-Hall

Early in my ownership I found out that when the gauge reads 1/4 full it is in fact empty. Fortunately the mower can was in the boot with just enough to get me to the nerest petrol station.

J Foster

Thanks for your thoughts and comments. The gauge on the YT is relatively accurate but when its nearly empty it often reverts to the full reading. I had completely forgotten when I last filled up with fuel pronably about four weeks ago and then in London so if that is the case then it had done quite well in terms of consumption - which on a good day and travelling about 3k revs or 45 -50 mph it way do around 28-30 mpg.

The pic shows the old girl patiently waiting for the RAC man - who was very helpful following me off the motorway to a filling station jst two miles when I ran out of gas!

Although I had my tail lights on - they are LED's I guess I really ought to fit hazards. I have a set for the MGA but still haven't fitted them. I do have a warning triangle and a yellow jacket which would be a must at night and also on a busy A road or even rural road for that matter!

Must remember that fuel can!

Jerry

Jerry Birkbeck

Frame that photo! Rare sight to see a Y Type on a motorway unless you have replacement engine, too slow in my view for standard spec Y Type on a motorway, unless outside main traffic times. I ended up on M20 heading to Dover in the dark and rain at gone 2230 hrs and never felt so unsafe with HGV's both from home and abroad heading to Dover. Love my Y'S too much to do that again.
R E Knight

Quote: "Posting this from the side of the M40
as the YT has just run out of fuel!"

Been there, done that. Gauge was reading just under half. Luckily I had the emergency gallon, which I thought I'd left in the shed with the mower.

Quote: "Rare sight to see a Y Type on a motorway."

You live in Hampshire. Keep an eye out for UMG 804 on the M27. I use it regularly. But you have to time it right. Peak times you can boil up, especially around the M3 junction. Quieter times can be seriously intimidating, with forty ton trucks roaring past.
R Taylor

Quite right motorways are busy and dangerous roads especially with HGVs. I prefer not to use them through ended up going down to Portsmouth for the Y Trip to the Loire via M40 and A34 though that was primarily because we were running very late. Also came back to London to see our daughter on the M27 though both those occasions were on Saturdays. The most exposed that I have felt was driving a TA that I had recently acquired back in 1999 and being boxed in along the M42 to the south of Birmingham by a number of HGVs admittedly only for about five miles that was quite scary! More so because I had no real appreciation of the cars reliability especially as TA's have no fuel gauges just a stick to poke into the tank! In 35k miles of travelling in UK and Europe we only had two breakdowns on motorways on the M2 (no fuel -again)and a duff petrol pump on the M3.Don't mind using the YT on the motorway but do chose my time, touch wood have not experienced boiling up on the motorway or other roads for that matter save for when the head gasket blew in heavy traffic near Halifax returning from the MG EEOTY in Scotland in 2013!
All good fun! Are you going to the MG European Event in Le Touquet next June Richard. I know Chris Callaghan us booked in as we are but I have no idea how many Ys are entered. In Scotland there were only two!
Have fun!
Jerry
Jerry Birkbeck

Hi Jerry, hope everything is now O.K.!

We chose to avoid the M4 on our recent trip to the Loire when we travelled from the bottom left hand corner of Wales. However, we were obliged to use the M27 and M273 into Portsmouth, that was quite hairy, keeping to 50 ish and massive HGV boxing us in and the HGV bow wave was pushing us around. We did however manage to pass a pair of Traction engines returning from the Great Dorset Steam Fair. Also, the inside lane of the motorway was very rough with potholes all over the place.

My petrol gauge has suddenly decided show half when in fact the tank is empty, this has caused me a few problems recently, the suspicion is that the pipe in the tank has broken off about half way up. Consequently, every 100 miles we fill up. This was a bit of an issue in France, as the petrol stations seem to be hidden and only the locals know where they are!

Looking forward to the Spring Run next year

Regards
Dave




D P Jones

Jerry,

I'm not booked up for the EEOTY France. Have my accomodation sorted for Spring Run.

Hope to get my Carbs off and engine out the YT soon, so this will be off road for a few months.

Funny my fuel gauge on the YT was stuck and eventually I tracked it down to the wire on the float was stuck on the inside of the tank. Re-bent the wire away from sides and it now works OK ish, but with a fair amount of movement in the gauge needle arm, when travelling mainly around bends, probably from the fuel slosh in the tank!
R E Knight

Thanks Richard
Who is rebuilding your carbs. I used Ed Biddle at EJB Engineering in Malvern who did an excellent job. If interested then I'll find his number but you should find it on the net. Really good guy
Jerry
Jerry Birkbeck

Burlen, in Salisbury. They are close to where I live.
R E Knight

Dave
We passed the Traction Engines as well on the A27. they had stopped to fill up their water tanks from road side Fire Hydrants and were causing somewhat of a traffic jam, as we passed them we had time for a chat, they told us they were on a 4 day trip home.
Peter
Peter Vielvoye

Traction engines were still not unusual on the roads in the early 50's when I ventured forth on my 1939 Triumph Tiger 70 [I wish 'o' wish I had it now] but everyone then was quite used to Bond Minicars, Isettas, AC petite and sundry bubble cars trundling along at 20 - 30 mph The new idea of traction engine rallies were usually driven to under steam, you know the eggs and bacon for breakfast fried in the fire box. Those were the good times. Am I getting old, since I often feel that I have dropped into a parallel universe! Bryan
B Mellem

This thread was discussed between 21/10/2015 and 24/10/2015

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