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Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Grease and gun

Hi all,

Whatever is going to be the car, it is going to be a midget, so I need a gun (and grease) :)

I have checked Halford, and they have this one
https://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/garage-essentials/laser-grease-gun-500cc
But you need to add 6GBP for the flexible hose (is it needed ?)

Then, I checked internet and fund almost the same one, but with the flexible included
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Hilka-84800400-Manual-Grease-Gun-500-CC-Capacity/27010632958?iid=232123803099

Looking deeper, I fund the flexible, grease and even oil dispenser for slightly more money
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Professional-Mini-Grease-Gun-Kit-Lubricating-Greasing-Nozzle-New-Amtech-J2310/400943080189?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D023fc66d720149bdbe047558d1e37a6f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D152489676013%26itm%3D400943080189&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

What do you think ? Is the connector standard and all the same ? Which grease do you use ?

Thanks :)
CH Hamon

Wanner grease guns are often recommended on the BBS.

Made in Switzerland and probably better than most modern equivalents.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Wanner-Grease-Gun-Swiss-Made-Classic-Car-Tool-Kit-VW-Etc/202609076658
Dave O'Neill 2

There is only one grease gun worth having (IMHO) and that is a Wanner. I bought mine 50+ years ago, and it works as well today as it did when new.

Looking at eBay, there are a number of them listed, but make sure that it has 2 bleed screws - one at the side for bleeding after filling and one at the top (not often required) when greasing.

Also very, very useful is the cup ('Easy Filler') that goes over the end of the base when filling, and fits into the hole in the plastic cover plate in the tub of grease. Completely mess-free filling!

One of the 'Easy Fillers' on eBay at the moment:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wanner-315-Easy-Filler-For-Grease-Gun-N-O-S/132942415781?hash=item1ef3fc47a5:g:B8UAAOSwm5xcMO0A

I have never found a need for a flexible tube, but if I had had one I may well have found it very useful.

Richard
Richard Wale

Cedric,
be careful with cheap guns they will work but with the flexi or solid pipe, the end jaws-thingy often doesn't locate well on the grease nipples.

The one-handed guns can be useful so that the other hand can hold the cheap jaws fully on or just back to get the grease through the nipples rather than around them.

The full size guns with a cartridge can save mess and loss of grease when filling them although there is a certain satisfaction to getting the loose fill ones right with the combination pressing the gun and the suction from the pulling the rod out.

The small cartridge for the small guns are expensive and more difficult to find, even pots of grease are becoming harder to find but still freely available.

This would be the type I'd buy next (if I couldn't find a similar Wanner), I've no idea whether this Draper is good quality or not, though I doubt the couplers (jaw-thingys) are any better quality than most modern ones.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/draper-professional-heavy-duty-pistol-type-gre/

Nigel Atkins

I was feeling almost ashamed to ask about "grease gun", but when I see the technical answers for it, I feel less ashamed :p

Nigel, what size is small cartridge, and normal cartridge ?

What do you all think of this one ?
https://www.gumtree.com/p/other-hand-tools/wanner-high-pressure-grease-gun-model-30055.-top-quality-precision-swiss-made-hardly-used./1329780496
CH Hamon

Top find. I would have it if you don't mind collection. The flexi might not be original but it doesn't matter if the coupler on the rigid pipe is original.

That would be the size of small cartridges (120g?), standard are 400g, I think, so you might practice manual fill with it.

My hands are too small and tendons now too weak to properly use those one-handed.
Nigel Atkins

When you use one, especially with a cheap coupler you will understand one of mu Odd notes more.
Nigel Atkins

How about this, it must be better it has instructions with it! -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-WANNER-315-GREASE-GUN-MADE-IT-SWITZERLAND-HIGH-PRESSURE-SUIT-CLASSIC-CAR/183700415950?hash=item2ac565e5ce:g:7kkAAOSwCyVccape:rk:7:pf:0
Nigel Atkins

After years of mucky filling of an ordinary grease gun, I bought a cartridge gun. So much easier to use and much less messy.
Mike Howlett

Looks nice Nigel ! Some auctions are finishing at almost same time : I might get one of them :)

...expect if cartridge aficionados win the battle here, as Mike opened the Pandora box :)
CH Hamon

You can get 120g cartridges.

Do check the old guns don't have modern couplers/connectors as many/most(?) are poor or crap same with the (gun and car) flexi-hoses.
Nigel Atkins

I have found that many of the loose couplers that people complain about are actually adjustable. The outer collar can be rotated to tighten it onto the grease fitting. Check it out!
Stan Kowznofski

I have a Lumatic grease gun bought new in 1984 for the Sprite and still going strong, like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Lumatic-Pressure-Grease-Gun/143127788751 but with flexible hose. It's not a cartridge type but that has never seemed an issue. I think it is UK made but the label is now unreadable. A newer Lumatic bought last year seems to be much more poorly made and may be a cheap import badged Lumatic.
David Billington

Cedric

Thumbs up for a second-hand Wnner grease gun.

Please buy a Driver's Handbook and a Haynes Manual for your car (or the one you intend to buy?) as some of the grease nipples require oil (check grade) rather than grease (check grade). I would also buy a works parts manual.

Got some AF spanners and socket set yet?

Have you got rid of your car and got a refund?

Everyone has their favourite places for spare parts (and ones to avoid) as well as cautious tales of some poor quality reproduction spares. I find Leacey MG, Minispares (for engine bits), MGB Hive, Powertrack Brakes (brake bits). Automec (solid brake pipes) and Namrick (nuts, bots, set screws and washers) useful.

When looking on websites for bits, sometimes it is worth looking both under MG Midget and Austin Healey Sprite (note different model numbers), except for 1500 Midgets as no Austin Healy Sprite equivalent.

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

Stan,
you obviously have better quality then me I could move mine in a small vice.
Nigel Atkins

Cedric,
you could go all 50s and 60s and get a Tecalemit grease gun.

If my shed was tidier I would find the one I have and take a photo, but its not so I lifted the photo below from eBay.

From my poor memory they are about 9" (23cm) long.






Nigel Atkins

What are we talking about regarding loose couplers, I find my Lumatic will leak grease if the coupler is not fairly square on to the grease nipple but it won't pop off without cranking it to the side as intended to release it. I think there is a face seal or O ring internally that seals to the end of the nipple and won't tolerate a lot of misalignment.

Nigel,

I have a Tecalemit like that and it came with my surface grinder but it was dead and wouldn't pump anything without exceptional force like from a press, it got binned. I have read of others that have had them then same problem, used them for 30 years or so and then one day dead. I traced it to an internal valve assembly, as far as I could tell, in the connecting stem which got blocked or somehow failed. I changed the oil nipples for Zerk fittings/grease nipples and will use the same oil gun I use for the Bridgeport mill.
David Billington

Fair enough scrape the idea of the Tecalemit then.

Mine works, it was given to me by a mate because I couldn't get my gun on a UJ nipple.

It was the only was to grease the UJs some one kindly put on the prop and other idiots (you know of) transferred to the prop in the T9 kit despite one UJ being impossible to get at without drilling a hole in the transmission tunnel and having to remove a seat to get at it.

I'd forgotten they were on the prop and thought they'd gone with the old prop until the car was on a lift one day and I noticed the one you can see.

Both UJs were replaced last year as part of the work with the 4th clutch issue from said idiots.

Nigel Atkins

Nigel,

Maybe I was a bit harsh, they were good kit and last for a long time but aren't infallible. I have tried older ones and when working are good but modern replacements seem cheap in comparison and don't work as well IMO. Regarding UJs the last I changed on my Sprite did maybe 70k miles before the car came off the road and didn't have grease nipples and all seemed OK.
David Billington

David,
I've not used the Tecalemit very much at all, you do need two hands for it and its a mess to fill but some people seem to enjoy that sort of thing.

My car started without grease UJs, can't remember why but they went on, possibly ordered wrong or someone thought it was a good idea, never ever me. They also didn't have the extension on hence I couldn't reach them with my one-handed gun.

Someone also added greaseable TREs thinking it was a good idea, it wasn't they eat through boots and even the Rhino Rubber set, luckily they also went.

I can actually grease the front suspension now in fairly short order - until the grease runs out, or the nipple jams or there's an air lock. I use more grease testing the gun and wiping off the excess from gun and suspension than goes into the suspension. Then there's the grease and the dirty grease that goes everywhere, a roll of kitchen towel used up in cleaning - don't get the wrong idea, I don't enjoy the job. :)

I hope Cedric see this so he knows the other side of the story to the jolly enjoyment of the grease gun.
Nigel Atkins

David,
sorry I didn't mean this the way it looks, I wasn't snapping with -
>>Fair enough scrap[e] the idea of the Tecalemit then.<<

I meant -
That's fair enough, forget the suggestion.

Nigel Atkins

"...despite one UJ being impossible to get at without drilling a hole in the transmission tunnel and having to remove a seat to get at it. "

Or drilling a hole in the floor?
Dave O'Neill 2

Personally I just buy whatever gun I can find when I need a new one. So inevitably I have cheap-ish generic grease guns, as long as they have the hoses/nozzles/&c I'm looking for at the time. Last time I bought one was around August last year from the local tractor dealer. I have no idea what brand but it works fine and didn't cost a lot.
Grease guns seem to be one of the many things that get lost or "borrowed" before I have the chance to break them so I'm disinclined to have expensive ones.
Greybeard

Same as you Greybeard, only I am not as generous as you and have managed to hang on to mine! I bought it at a stall at the Cumbrian Steam Gathering, about 30 years ago. Unbranded basic, and it works.

Nigel, have you considered selling your Midget? All your ill fortune related to it over the years must be very stressful.
GuyW

Nigel, look for the type with a knurled pattern on the outside, that's to aid grip when turning it to tighten or loosen. The knurling doesn't help much since it's always a little greasy / slippery but it helps. The smooth ones I've seen don't adjust. The adjustable ones are only around $5 or $6 here in the states.
Stan Kowznofski

Nigel I hear you are considering selling your Midget?
I doubt it’s worth much really as it always seems to be faulty, but i’ll be happy to take it off you ;)
C MADGE

Another vote for a Wanner gun, I've had mine for over 40 years and another filled with oil for the lathe. These are high pressure guns and very good at forcing the grease through bushings etc.

The one Nigel linked to looks good.

Never seen the easyfill that Richard W mentioned - I find the problem is now that the tins do not have the internal plate with central hole so filling is more messy - progress !
richard b

Richard,

That may depend on the make of grease as I have bought some Morris Lubricants IIRC grease recently and the tin came with the usual plate with hole in the middle.
David Billington

DaveO.
it'd need a pretty big hole in the floor of the transmission tunnel to get the likes of the Tecalemit through as the standard gun connector/coupler wouldn't get on the nipple because it didn't have an extension.

I'm a bit of an idiot by I'm not the con-artist "specialist expert" that left the greaseable UJ on the replacement propshaft along with other bodges, gwad bless his cotton socks, 'is muffer luvs 'im.
Nigel Atkins

Guy,
that requires another thread to provide answers. :)

Chris see same.

Nigel Atkins

Hi Stan,
the flexi-hose I have is the cheap kind, but not as cheap as it the one it replaced. With the current connector/coupler there is a knurled pattern but I think its just for show as it also has a hex but with the use of a spanner and a small vice I couldn't get any movement either way when I checked when you previously posted.

The previous flexi-hose I had on the gun was advertised at x-hundreds/thousands of lbs/psi (I don't remember the details) but grease came out of the hose before the connector/coupler at tens or single digit lb/psi.

Over here the small shops or suppliers that usde to sell such things just don't seem to be around anymore. I'm sure if I was in the motor/engineering trade I might know of them but I don't and I live in the county where men in sheds are producing items for F1.

I can get my cheap grease gun and flexi-hose to usually work so I put up with it.

My previous full sized gun had Slick-50 (green?) grease cartridge in it,remember that.
Nigel Atkins

"it'd need a pretty big hole in the floor of the transmission tunnel..."

Nigel, doesn't your car have a Heritage shell and, therefore, a large opening in the floor to reach the front prop-shaft joint? Or doesn't the T9 line up with the opening?
Dave O'Neill 2

Dave,
to keep the answer short, no there's not an aperture that I know of on my shell that lines up with the T9 conversion propshaft, I'm not even sure there's an apeture - but I will look for you tomorrow if it's not raining.

I know I should have pulled the prop (another oil change) put the prop on my heavy-duty bench in my palatial garage, fitted the nipple extensions or for-life UJ in my workshop but I had the A, B, C, F, TF and Bentley in there at the time and my chest was already oiled. :)
Nigel Atkins

Screw fix sell a pretty good one fairly cheap. It comes with flexible and fixed pipes but no grease. The sell that really cheap too.
Paul Hollingworth

Something that I like on this BBS forum is that you can start a thread with a pretty basic question that nobody would care (understand ?) in the common world, and get so many feedbacks and stories from MG owners: that's absolutely great :)

- My grease gun should arrive Friday or Saturday according to Royal Mail :D
- Thanks for advices :)
- Picture when delivery occurred ;)
CH Hamon

Et voilà ! :)

12GBP with delivery costs ;)


CH Hamon

Nice purchase !
C MADGE

Richard B,

The 'Easy-Filler' came with my grease gun when I bought it in the 60's, and have managed to keep hold of it ever since - maybe something to do with it being tied on to the grease gun with a piece of wire!

The picture below shows one that was on eBay very recently - well worth getting if they come up again.

Richard


Richard Wale

Would Cedric need that filler though if he uses the 500g plastic 'tin' of grease as the have a plastic filler piece in the 'tin' already. Or would the easy-filler help even more with that?
Nigel Atkins

Cedric,
nice gun.

Is it the device that you use to put up posts that widens the forum so that I have to use the horizontal scroll bar on my monitor to view the posts on those threads, and if so can you set your device so that it keeps the usual width to view please (your into computers IIRC).
Nigel Atkins

Nigel

The width of the post is being affected by the very long eBay link in the first post.

I always trim my eBay links, as everything after the item number is superfluous. You can also remove everything between itm/ and the item number

Here’s the original link, suitably trimmed

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400943080189
Dave O'Neill 2

Thanks Dave.

That confirms Cedric is a computer guy then as they always mess with your screen (and icons, but not in this case).

It took me a while to find the item number in the original link. I will try to remember the shorter link method. Often I try to shorten links but it doesn't always work because I don't know what I'm doing just trial and error.
Nigel Atkins

Or use tinyURL
GuyW

The thing I don’t like about tinyurl is that you don’t know where the link is taking you.

I stopped using it many years ago, as I seemed to be suffering from an excess of pop-ups. It may have been unrelated, but I couldn’t be sure.
Dave O'Neill 2

Dave, there is a choice on tinyURL to select either the very short version, or a slightly longer version that still allows the recipient to see where the thing is linking to, before they click on it.
GuyW

Guy

Thanks. As I say, it’s been many years since I used it, so I imagine it has developed somewhat in that time.

I might give it another go.
Dave O'Neill 2

You teach me in classc cars and computers... I feel ashamed... Can my generation can teach something to yours....? Or the problem is only me ? :P
CH Hamon

Should make greasing more "enjoyable", for £5 :)


CH Hamon

Nothing can't make greasing more enjoyable - but good find.

What may let it down is if the flexi-hose and end jaws are new as they could be of the usual modern (lack of) standards but you'll find that out after not too many uses but that could take more than a year to discover even at 3 monthly use.
Nigel Atkins

Sorry Cedric, typing error, that should have read as -
Nothing can make greasing more enjoyable - but good find.

or more accurately
NOTHING can make greasing more enjoyable - but good find.

Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 01/03/2019 and 30/11/2019

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.