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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Another moan about bad parts... Sorry!

Sorry. I am spending a lot of time moaning about crap reproduction or refurbished parts right now!

I have a really low clutch biting point because I have a load of slop in the pedal linkage. A bit of this is due to a worn clevis pin, which is fine because they are 10p and easy to change.

But what I am really peeved about is the state of this M/C rod. This is just 12 months and ~3000 ish miles old and it is knackered!

It's a repro' M/C with the plastic fluid pot. I am pretty sure they were AP branded, if they are, AP are a reputable company that really should be doing better. Especially at £50 a pop for these M/C.

Anyone know how to get the rod out of these M/C so I can sort this out? It doesn't seem to want to just pull out. But it's dark and I can't really see what is going on.

Thanks all.
Malcolm



Malcolm Le Chevalier

Malcolm, according to the factory manual, the push rod is retained by a circlip.

You probably can't do this without removing the cylinder from the car. This applies to the 75-79 models but yours is probably similar.

So here we go....

Remove the clutch master cylinder from the car.

Remove cap, drain fluid.

Detach rubber boot from the body and slide the boot along the push rod.

Release the circlip retaining the push rod and complete with circlip, withdraw the push rod complete with the circlip, dished washer and rubber boot.

The rest of the things involve a complete tear down but as you are this far along....

Remove the piston with its secondary cup seal.

Remove the piston washer, main cup seal spring retainer and spring.

remove the secondary cup seal from the piston by carefully stretching it over the end of the piston.

Reassembly is basically the reverse but they say to smear the sealing areas of the rubber boot with Lockheed disc brake lubricant or Girling rubber grease.

Clare
C Ravenwood

Thanks for the detailed reply. Circlip, Ok, yeah, makes things a bit tricky. Will have a crack in the morning.
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Did you lubricate the clevis pin?
Dave O'Neill 2

Malc

Have a peek at the locating hole on the LH side of the pedal box for the pivot bolt which passes through the clutch and brake pedals. The section is very thin and very often the hole is worn and enlarged and leads to slop in the clutch action due to the pivot bolt waggling about. I packed mine by carefully hammering in some appropriately sized thin walled tubing between bolt and hole. Works very well, much slop removed.
Oggers

Good point Dave
A dob of grease on/around the pin makes them last forever

willy
William Revit

You can buy just a fork section (which is thicker in the fork part), cut off the old worn fork and thread the straight section, which also makes the rod adjustable.

A bit to early to say there are books with this stuff in, but give it another month.
Daniel Stapleton

If a bit of grease is all it needs then I will happily stand corrected. But it still seems like a crazy amount of wear in the time period grease or no grease.

But oh well, it is repaired now. In a daring do or die raid I managed to get the M/C off and the fork out, holding the piston in with some tape and a small G-clamp. I welded up and re-drilled the hole and reassembled with much grease! Only took 45 mins.

Topped up the dribble of lost fluid and bite point is back off the floor again.

Happy days. I am off out into the Cotswolds! :-) Thanks all.

Malc.
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Daniel, are you taking orders? Is there a special discount code for BBS members?

Rob
MG Moneypit

Malcolm. One thing I found when using one of the plastic master cylinders was that the master pushrod was about a millimetre or so shorter than the original Lockheed master pushrod so it didn't exercise the slave enough to throw properly anyway.
graeme jackson

Well done malc

Iwas in your shoes once and it just got old and stupid expensive just constantly buying and rebuilding mater cyl for rhe brakes ... and i barly knew what i wss dojng and i dont think the local shops had a clue ither

I dite the bullet and did the titlon 3 master swap with the peddles included and ive never regretted it the work or the price tag its still my fav mod and always works.

Id never own another spridget without a modern day 3 master cly and peddle set up

The only thing i dont like are the peddles are slick when wet cuz rhey dont make rubber covers for the tilton set up and the peddles are a bit to close togather for casual driving if your not doing heel toe racing, .. but i consider those 2 issues minor in comparison to the positive pluses

Sometimes sh*t just wears out and no amount of massage, cash, and love can save the day to be orginal

Prop
Prop and the

This thread was discussed between 18/02/2017 and 20/02/2017

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