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MG MGA - engine squeak?

I'm, getting a slight squeak out of my engine from 1500-200 rpm on up. I thought it was the generator, or water pump, or the crankshaft pulley, so I disconnected the fan belt and ran the engine to attempt to localize the noise to either of these parts. Much to my surprise, the noise persists. The engine is a 1500 with an MBG timing chain cover. I wonder if it still has the MGA oil thrower in it, which Barney Gaylord says on his site, will rub the MGB timing chain cover. Any other ideas? The engine runs fine, and did not make this noise last season, when the engine saw its firts 500 miles since rebuild.
brucep

I have in the past had a constant chirping noise, I found that if I put just a tad bit of bearing grease on the lobes of the distributor it went away. The shaft that the points rode up against was dry.

Mark
Mwhitt

good sugesstion, but it had no effect on the noise.
brucep

Bruce, I have the original 1500 oil slinger with aq B cover with no problems. According to the Moss catalog they are the same.
Check your tach cable.
John H

Heat shield vibration / stress cracking?
D Sjostrom

where is the squeek, front or rear, top or bottom,
mog

Squeak or tinkle? Could be a worn/sticking starter motor bendix. I also found a mouse nest in the gearbox tunneling when I bought the car. Maybe the mice are getting a bit too warm!

Steve

Steve Gyles

It appears to come from the lower front of the engine. I ruled out the tach cable by disconnecting it without improvement. Here is a like to Bsarney Gaylord's piece on the problem with using MGB timing covers covers and MGA oil slingers:

http://www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/engine/cs201.htm
brucep

Check the radiator mounts and surround. If one of the spot welds have let go on the shroud it may be the culprit.
j
JohnB

Brucep

I have a B cover on my redundant 1500 engine. Just had a close look at it on the garage floor and noticed that the timing marks on mine are just about touching the pulley.

Steve
Steve Gyles

timing marks don't touch. Radiator is new with fresh rubber between it and the mounts. The sound is sort of a "ringing shreak". Not too loud, but load enough to hear when reving in the garage, and when driving.
brucep

Brucep

I go back to my original comment about the starter bendix - quite common. It used to start about 2000rpm and all the way up from there. At the time I searched all over the front of the engine as I was convinced it must be from an external moving part. I eventually located it when I inadvertantly pulled the starter knob with the engine already idling and heard the tell tale sound as the bendix disengaged.

The bendix was only just disengaging and then spinning/rattling/tinkling/ringing etc in the disturbed airflow as the flywheel rpm increased.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve G.

Your problem symptom sounds similar to mine. How do I detemine if the the starter drive is the problem?
brucep

A stethescope ( 15 bucks from Princess Auto ) or even a 30 inch piece of wooden dowel can be used to track down the area in question, or at least eliminate some of the other ones........................
Mitch Smith

New rad? How about the fan hitting the seam on the top tank?
JohnB

Fan/radiator contact is not an issue since I have the fan belt off and the fan not turning. I put a 30 inch length of 1/2 inch pipe between the starter and my ear, while the noise was being made. Then I did the same thing to the timing chain cover. The noise was louder from the timing chain cover, definitely.
brucep

Sorry for a late response. I must have been away for at least a week. The Moss catalog is absolutely wrong about a common part nember for the oil thrower. Many years ago when they didn't have and MGA part to sell they sold the MGB part for use with the MGA, which is a totally useless and non-functional combination. To confuse things moere, they used the MGA part menber for both applications. So now if you order teh part for the MGA using the correct number ytou get the MGB part which is useless for the MGA. If you order the part for the MGB you get the right part for the MGB, but they use the old MGA part number.

Enough confusion. Just remember that Moss does not have a correct part for the MGA oil thrower. The MGB oil thrower will not cause any harm in the MGA, but it won't do much good with when used with teh MGA timing cover.

Using the original MGA oil thrower with a MGB timing cover definitely will cause harm. It will in short order cut a circular slot through the face of the timing cover. BTDT, never again please. It never made any noise that I could hear while it was running, just started dumping oil on the floor after a few days of use.

Ny guess is your noise is something else. I was thinking possibly the generator fan rubbing the front plate on the generator, but not if the noise persists with the belt removed. Time for a brief session with the stethescope.
Barney Gaylord

The starter drive on my MK-II "jingles" as the engine rev's up. It doesn't touch anything, but the engine vibration causes it to rattle with a tinny sound. It drove me nuts until I tracked down the source of the noise. You can lightly tap the starter drive from under the car, with the engine off, and if it "jingles", this may be what you are hearing.
Ed Bell

This thread was discussed between 02/05/2006 and 10/05/2006

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