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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - oil pressure guage..flexible pipe

Chaps...I have traced the source of my midget's calling card to a leak from the flexible pipe joining the metal oil pressure pipe to the nipple on the engine block. Any wise heads out there who could tell me the internal diameter of the flexible pipe? many thanks...Dave
David Cox

Hi David. I had a ''spectacular" failure of my plastic pipe. The car was in my garage, with the bonnet raised, and engine running. The pipe fractured (51years old), and discharged engine oil over a large area. Fortunately, I was able to turn off the ignition quickly.
I have replaced the pipe with a braided (48") flexible unit from MiniSpares. £20 well spent! John.
J M Hutton

Thanks, John. That's an option but I'm keen to replace what was there in 1966 with something as close to oe as possible....
David Cox

I have heard of failures on MGBs and possibly MGAs with modern replacements from the usual suspects.

Are you planning to source your replacement from a hose supplier rather than a marque 'specialist'?

It might be easier to just measure the metal pipe and try somewhere like Pirtek. They supply all sorts of high pressure hydraulic hoses, so I'm sure they could come up with something.
Dave O'Neill 2

hi Dave..I'm going to see Richard Jenkins of C&V Instruments in the morning. He's just round the corner from me and did a sterling job on my tachometer..he may well have something suitable. Only need 2 inches {where have l heard THAT before!]...
David Cox

I've got neurotic about total oil loss since a failure of the hose to the oil cooler emptied the sump quicker than I can type this!
On the car in question I have now fitted a t-piece in the feed to the pressure gauge with an old-style oil pressure switch connected to a loud buzzer.
To prevent it sounding before the engine starts I introduced a timer (bought on ebay) which give an initial power on delay (adjustable but set to 45 secs). Once the timer has run down power remains on until I turn the ignition off so loss of oil pressure is picked up immediately and the buzzer sounds.
From talking to people it is not that uncommon to loose all the oil through one mishap or another.
Graeme Williams

A friend had a similar failure on his Sprite where an oil cooler hose failed but it was a standard oil cooler hose , he picked it up quickly before any damage was done. When I did my oil cooler installation I knew a guy that worked at a hydraulic company and I could get hoses made at a good price and so they were 1 layer wire braid reinforced IIRC, good for something like 1500 psi so no likely chance of failure. They were a bit stiffer than the common ones but with the routing with sweeping bends it wasn't a problem, I used a later crossflow rad and cowl on the frogeye at the time and made rigid steel pipes from the oil cooler from below the water rad to outside the cowl on the off side of the cowl and the flexible pipes connected to those which made removal of the whole water rad/ oil cooler assembly easier.
David Billington

Moss sell the correct rubber pipe CHA600 for £3.84.
Bernie Higginson

Okay, but will it be the correct rubber or is it what ever some Chinese fabricated that looks like rubber...

I had new rubber hoses go kaput on me so im very suspisios nowadays.
Arie

What Arie says.
Dave O'Neill 2

The cooler hose failed by pulling out of the swaged end.
Graeme Williams

I had the same as arie on my rubber fuel line last spring

it was supposed to handle modern fuel but the inside collapsed after a year of use...

made in china had the correct specs written on the new hose ... but in reality not so accurate on the specs

prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

This thread was discussed between 06/11/2016 and 07/11/2016

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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