My '85 MGM, "Maisa"

[87gtVIC]

yank it.


from the 87 shop manual.

[gadget73]

Does your intake have the heat crossover under the carb? Do the intake gaskets have the openings for it?

[Arquemann]

Surprisingly I can't find a singe casette tape in our house, even though we have a bunch of other outdated media formats. I was going to pop in a tape in the tape deck to see if its my cassette adapter squeaking or the tape deck itself.

yank it.

Roger that.

Does your intake have the heat crossover under the carb? Do the intake gaskets have the openings for it?

Nope, the Weiand intake has no provisions for heat crossover or egr. The intake gaskets do have the holes, not that it matters.
The cold weather grumpiness is probably a combination of no intake heat crossover and having the phenolic carb spacer. Takes forever for the intake and carb to warm up, except when the engine is off and the intake air charge isn't constantly cooling things down.

[gadget73]

Only thing I can suggest to speed up the warmup in cold weather without the heat crossover is to re-introduce the heat collector around one of the manifolds that it would have had stock, and have it suck hot air off the exhaust to help warm things up. Needs the stock air filter with the thermal valve and a vacuum supply to it.

[Arquemann]

Only thing I can suggest to speed up the warmup in cold weather without the heat crossover is to re-introduce the heat collector around one of the manifolds that it would have had stock, and have it suck hot air off the exhaust to help warm things up. Needs the stock air filter with the thermal valve and a vacuum supply to it.

Not a bad idea, too bad that the manifold heat shield/collector/funnel thing was broken so I threw it away and the air cleaner air diverter valve is broken.

She's going into winter storage pretty soon, I'm not really worried about cold weather functionality, now or in the future. The carb has been tuned spot on, for/in summer weather and for good mileage, so no surprise its a bit cranky in cold weather with a cold engine. Also the electric choke is adjusted for minimal function, because I can't stand the engine racing on warm-ish starts. Though I should put a larger accelerator pump jet in it anyways, that would definitely help in cold weather too.



Somewhat recently I've noticed that the front right parking light is alot dimmer than the left. Cleaned up the contacts and so on, put a fresh bulb in it a cleaned up the reflector surface with a piece of rag. Without looking at the other reflector, I'm just guessing the dimness is due to the very oxidised and dull reflector surface.

[friskyfrankie]

Not a bad idea, too bad that the manifold heat shield/collector/funnel thing was broken so I threw it away and the air cleaner air diverter valve is broken.

She's going into winter storage pretty soon, I'm not really worried about cold weather functionality, now or in the future. The carb has been tuned spot on, for/in summer weather and for good mileage, so no surprise its a bit cranky in cold weather with a cold engine. Also the electric choke is adjusted for minimal function, because I can't stand the engine racing on warm-ish starts. Though I should put a larger accelerator pump jet in it anyways, that would definitely help in cold weather too.



Somewhat recently I've noticed that the front right parking light is alot dimmer than the left. Cleaned up the contacts and so on, put a fresh bulb in it a cleaned up the reflector surface with a piece of rag. Without looking at the other reflector, I'm just guessing the dimness is due to the very oxidised and dull reflector surface.

Dullness could be due to an "iffy" ground.

[Arquemann]

Dullness could be due to an "iffy" ground.

I was going to say the left & right parking lights probably share a ground, but I looked it up in the diagrams and no they don't.
Ought to check that ground then.

[DerekTheGreat]

About the cold weather funkiness, does it have a choke and is it electronic and adjustable? Might want to adjust it so it stays engaged a bit longer for the cold season. Mark the hockey puck thing for summer and winter.

[Arquemann]

Grounds for the front lights are fine. I'll chalk up the dim park/indicator to the dulled reflector. Looking at older pics, the right side looks dimmer in every pic that's in daylight.
Also swapped the accelerator pump nozzle from a 28 to a 31.

About the cold weather funkiness, does it have a choke and is it electronic and adjustable? Might want to adjust it so it stays engaged a bit longer for the cold season. Mark the hockey puck thing for summer and winter.

Yes, yes and yes, its a basic Holley electric choke. And no I can't be arsed to do anything to it, because my issues aren't related to the choke, and because I barely tolerate the choke operation as is. Or maybe I could adjust the choke a bit and disable it entirely for summer use. There's no winter use, only a spot in a warm, ventilated and dry storage building. +5°C is the coldest she'll see.

[Arquemann]

Hmph, the headliner started making a super annoying scratching noise, just right of the dome light. For atleast 3 years it has started making that same incredibly annoying noise deep into the fall. I guess it has something to do with the cold and moisture slowly accumulating inside. But I've always taken the car to winter storage around the same time, so I've never done anything about it.

Today I took off the dome light, without it the scritching noise isn't as loud and doesn't happen as constantly. Also as before, putting even the slightest pressure on the headliner right of the dome light shuts it up immediately, also pressing on or firmly holding onto the dome light works. Seems like something is rubbing on something solid up in there. Also looks like there's some sort of black fibrous cardboard-y stuff flopping above the headliner itself. Dunno if the headliner is somehow chafing against the black stuff or if the black stuff is chafing against something sharp above in the metal roof structure. I think I'll try slipping a piece of thin cardboard or paper between the headliner and black stuff to see if it shuts up. The black stuff is above the dome light structure, so I can't slip anything between it and the roof skin.

Does anyone happen to have pics of an MGM roof with the headliner off? Or know a fix for the headliner noise?

[Mainemantom]

I have had the headliners out on many panther models. The black stuff is insulation which can be glued back in place. The only things I can think of that might make noise in that area is either the wire going to the dome light or a screw that is either too long or loose. Another possibility might be the metal attaching point for the dome light/wire has come loose which would cause a metal to metal noise. If you had a sunroof, there could be many things making noise. Be thankful that you don't have a sunroof.

[Arquemann]

There's a few things with this car I really, really, really do not want to do and dropping the headliner is probably the thing on top of the list. The headliner is in 100% perfect condition, and being a florida car the cardboard backing is incredibly brittle. So the chance of the headliner getting damaged upon removal / reinstall is pretty high.
Anyways, I slipped a bit of cardboard between the headliner and droopy insulation right around where it's making the noise. Maybe it'll shut up, maybe it won't.

Somewhat unplanned, I'm taking the car to winter storage next wednesday already. Schedules were a bit wonky so I figured that another week of sitting outside with freezing nights won't be o much use, considering the cruising season is pretty much over. The car slowly gathers moisture inside through the end of summer and the wet and cold fall. I always leave the windows cracked over winter so the interior dries out thoroughly.

As it happens, yesterday was the last cruise night with the MGM. a half dozen friends, a beer and a couple hours of chitchat at a nearby gas station. Most of us just trying to eke out a bit more driving before evenings dip below zero.

[Arquemann]

She's in storage again. Spending the winter more comfortably than me...
Already got some sort of to-do list for next season, a bit of maintenance and ooh, maybe even some modification! Considering that in 5 years, the only thing that's not stock is the engine and door speakers...
I left the extra pair of factory valve covers for a little something to do over the winter, other stuff went in the trunk to not use space in the garage. I have the turbines in a shed too, if I really run out of things to do.

[kishy]

Road vibrations in my wagon will make a noise in the headliner, just to the right and to the rear of the dome light similar to what you described. I can make the noise go away if I push the headliner up in that area with my hand, but this is obviously not sustainable while driving.

I would describe it almost like the sound of something with mostly-dried-out-but-still-tacky adhesive repeatedly being stuck and unstuck. I'm curious to see what you find if you end up digging into it further. My wagon is heading in the direction of needing a new headliner anyway but it's far from a priority.

I don't know that I was a fan of those wheel covers on that car initially, but they do look pretty good to me now. Car's looking good all-around.

[Arquemann]

Road vibrations in my wagon will make a noise in the headliner, just to the right and to the rear of the dome light similar to what you described. I can make the noise go away if I push the headliner up in that area with my hand, but this is obviously not sustainable while driving.

I would describe it almost like the sound of something with mostly-dried-out-but-still-tacky adhesive repeatedly being stuck and unstuck. I'm curious to see what you find if you end up digging into it further. My wagon is heading in the direction of needing a new headliner anyway but it's far from a priority.

I don't know that I was a fan of those wheel covers on that car initially, but they do look pretty good to me now. Car's looking good all-around.

You got that description of the noise unbelievably spot on. So it ain't just my car doing that... Same spot too. I'm not the best with descriptive words anyways and all my friends think I'm nuts, "rambling" about all the noises I hear even though my car is very quiet inside. Quiet means you can hear all the noises!

It might be the glued roof insulation that droops (on mine atleast), because it might be laying on the headliner in some spots, but close enough to the roof to be still "sticking-and-unsticking" constantly.

I slipped a piece of cereal box cut to the width of the dome light hole, up in between the roof insulation and the headliner. Didn't make the noise on the 25 min drive to the winter storage spot, but I'd hardly consider that conclusive. The noise only appears in my car in late fall.

If it indeed is what I think it might be, the cardboard I squeezed inbetween just might keep the insulation pressed agaist the roof and stopping the noise.