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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - OT: What's this clip called?

I've just had the RAC out to my Alfa 33 as I lost all the gears. It turned out to be the clip holding on the pin that links the gear lever to linkage. He's bodged a repair but I need to pick up a new clip. I've fired off a query to the (not so) local Alfa dealer but I fully expect to have to source one else where so I need to know what to ask for.

The RAC man called it a circlip but it's certainly not a conventional one. It's a square of double thickness thin sheet metal about 15mm square with a hole about 8mm diameter in the middle except one half of one side has broken away so I can't be quite sure of the exact details. The fold that forms the two halves is not sharp but leaves a 'tunnel' about 2mm in diameter, presumable to give the whole thing some springiness. I don't know if the bit that has broken away was another full hole or just a pair of fingers.

I bet Bill's seen one before.
Jeremy Cogman

Don't hold your breath, it is after all an Alfa!
Mine seems to have lots of parts that no-one has ever heard of before and strangely enough these are the bits that always fail.
Safest bet is to jump on a plane to Milan, have a good shot of espresso, find a back street mechanic, explain the problem in a crude mixture of Inglese, Francais, Italiano and hand and shoulder gestures. Shrug a lot, make some strange noses, keep the garagista fed with fags and the odds are he'll rummage round in his box of bits and come out with exactly what you need. He'll take no money so give him the rest of your pack of fags, have a quick look round the cathedral, enjoy a lazy glass/ bottle of vino rosso in a local cafe, watch the bella-bella legs walk by and jump on the plane back home.
Far more pleasurable and intelligible than a trip to Halfords and probably not much more expensive!

Never be without an Alfa!
Matt 1275 Bucks

It sounds like an SL safety clip, can you get me a picture? I will probably have one if it is

Neil
Neil Williams

It's a long shot Coggers, but give these guys a call
http://www.cars.robertsaerospace.com/index.htm

Your side of Fareham

Steve
Steve Clark

If I understand your description, this thing has a hole that goes over the pin, the pin has a groove cut in it, and the hole in the clip is a round hole with a slot behind the hole. Then you put the hole of the clip over the pin, and slide it so that the slot in the clip goes into the groove of the pin. Then, the spring-loaded outer part of the clip closes over the end of the pin to prevent it from sliding back off.

If that is what you have, I think I have seen them on the throttle linkage of American built carbureted cars like old Fords and Chevrolets.

I think I might have also seen them on the shift linkage of automatic trans Volvo 740. It would be under the Volvo, not in the center consol.

If it is what I think it is, it is possible that you could replace it with a circlip, though it would be harder to install and remove.

Charley
C R Huff

Jeremy,

have you tried Mangolesi in Knutsford? They're an Alfa dealer who apparently carry spares for suds and 33s?

Jeremy
Jeremy 3

JC does it look a bit like this?

If so I'd just call it a retainer, if it was on a Ford that's what I'd expect a Ford storeman to call it

I've seen loads of variations too

some have a treble fold and there are two holes in line and a single sprung fork clip these turn up on lots of old time Euro Motors including Alfas Fiats and yes, Volvos




As for a name

why not Norman

or Ted?


Bill sdgpm

Scrapyard? I think that the cables on a 156 gearbox linkage are retained by something similar.

Guy
Guy Weller

Neil / Bill, spot on, that's it exactly.

I'ce contacted my local Alfa dealaer and it's NLA (although the associated bush and washers are still available) go figure!

If you did have one or two then I'd happily exchange for beer tokens Neil, internal diameter of the hole appears to be 8mm parallel to the fold, 7.5mm at right angles to the fold. Pin diameter is 8mm but I can't get my callipes in to measure the slot diameter but visually I'd say it's at least 1mm deep so I'm guessing somewhere between 5mm diameter to the slotted area.

Thanks for your input everyone, I particularly like Matt's idea.
Jeremy Cogman

Mine popped out on my Volvo, holds the cables on the top of the gearbox, thought I'd mullered the gearbox at the time, it all just popped back, been meaning to run a cable tie around it, it is known as a weak spot on the V70 T5's
MarkDJ

Jeremy,
send me your address to midgebuster (at) btinternet.com and I'll get you a selection sent over

Neil
Neil Williams

Isn't there one of those on the end of the midget 1500 throttle linkage?

Carl
C Bintcliffe

This thread was discussed between 08/06/2009 and 09/06/2009

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