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MG MGA - Master Cylinder Cap
| master cylinder Caps have been going for £50 or more recently. I could be selfish and try to pick this up cheaply. However I already have one. May be worth a bid. Not my advert!! Ebay item: 180413252107 Steve |
| Steve Gyles |
| Like many of us on here I'm sure, also saw this (and noted the silly prices) but "GOOD USEABLE CONDITION"? - looks pretty mangled to me. |
| Neil McGurk |
| This is the second cap from the same seller. I'm after one of these and bid £21 on the first one which went for £22 a week or two ago. The seller gave me a second chance offer for £21 on this one but it didn't look as good as the first one. It seems to have an indented structure along the 'slot' which although it looked a bit symmetrical and possibly designed in I'm sure I've seen pictures of other caps with just a plain looking 'slot' so I declined the offer. Also as well as the central hole, which is probably meant to be there and for venting, it had one or two small holes around the edge which were suspicious; see the picture he sent me of this current cap which is a bit better than the one on Ebay now. Maybe the shaped indents around the slot were caused by someone using a sort of 'screwdriver' to get the cap off the cylinder. Mike  |
| m.j. moore |
You are correct Mike, it should be a perfect slot. There should just be one tiny hole in the side. It is possible to repair and paint if the serrated edge is ok, see attached.
 |
| Neil McGurk |
| Seems like this part is crying out for a reproduction. |
| Del Rawlins |
| Neil Most interesting detail on this minor part. The hole in my cap is on the inside of the slot. Steve  |
| Steve Gyles |
| I have one like that too! |
| Neil McGurk |
| I spotted the ebay listing too and watched to see what it went for. My cap is slightly bent but I plated it a couple of years ago so it looks OK. I have heard of people purloining small parts like these at shows ( also dip sticks and brass carb damper tops ) so I tend to keep my bonnet closed unless I am actually next to the car. |
| Cam Cunningham |
| Why not a new plastic cup replacement from Moss or SF for $ 5 dollars? |
| R Garcia |
| RG The plastic caps are 10 a penny. I have 5 kicking around in my spares box. But that is not the point. Most of us like to have or keep items of original equipment for the car. Even those of us who modify the cars with MGB engines and Ford gearboxes usually keep the original equipment under the bench. This particular thread is an example of the price that can be paid by some enthusiasts for hard to come by bits. The potential purchasers will almost certainly already have the plastic cap. Steve |
| Steve Gyles |
| Because I want it how it was when Dad was driving it. |
| Del Rawlins |
| Steve, I see your point and agree about originality, but mentioning a major change as a Ford transmission does not change all the initial statement? Any way, I will take a look in my spare parts, if I have a metalic cap I will offer it to you. Regards. |
| R Garcia |
| Interesting... In 2004 I bought a used original MC cap, in nice but not perfect shape,from Scarborough Faire for $4.00 (US). Hmmmmnn..... GTF |
| G T Foster |
| Yeah, Scarborough Faire still has them, but the price is up to $5. |
| Steve Trovato |
| Thanks for that Steve I've just e-mailed SF to see if they can send me one. Mike |
| m.j. moore |
| Have just had this interesting reply from Scarborough Faire:- "We have been offering these secondhand but are now down to the 'bottom of the barrel', and we have been in contact with a UK brake hydraulic company that will be manufacturing these new later this year. The few that we have left are in fair to poor shape and we are not offering these at present" Well worth waiting. Hope someone in the US will keep us posted here when they become available as the SF website is not too informative. Mike |
| m.j. moore |
| I bought one from Scarboroug Faire a year or so ago but it was shoter than the original and not such a good fit on the thread. I picked a NOS one from a Mini (cooper?) master cylinder on ebay recently. John John |
| John Francis |
| Mike/Steve, That 2nd cap from the same ebayer came up and I put in a max bid of £2.55 and got it - it is a bit ( in fact a lot)battered but will do as a spare - good job you didn't accept the 2nd bid offer of £21 - cheers Cam |
| Cam Cunningham |
| Not sure if everyone knows that the underside of the cap should have a cone. I presume this is a sort of damper to stop accidental overspills? Steve  |
| Steve Gyles |
| When you think about it the design of the cap appears to be over complicated because it is in two pieces whereas one might have thought that a one piece cap would have been suitable and cheaper. They must have gone for a two piece design because each time the brake or clutch pedal is released there will be a vertical spurt of brake fluid hitting the cap and it would eventually find its way out of the vent hole in a single piece cap. With the two piece design some of the spurt would find its way through the hole at the cone bottom but with an off centre vent hole (as in Neil's photo) none should find its way to the outside. Perhaps the caps with a central vent hole (as in Steve's photo) allowed a little bit of fluid to escape and so it was redesigned with a side vent hole. This is only idle speculation. I was talking to a guy recently who used to service vehicles using this old cap and he said that there were frequently problems unscrewing it because with it being in two parts if the cap were stiff then occasionally the outer part would rotate without the inner part turning and then it was impossible to get off in one piece. Mike |
| m.j. moore |
| I have an original cap with the cone and the hole to the inside of the slot...car is '55 or '56. Mine has a small split pin in the hole of the cone, with the tabs bent out on the bottom (visible) side. What was that for? JIM in NH |
| AJ Mail |
| Caps missing the cone let sloshing fluid out all over things. The loose split pin is just like the one in the bell housing bottom, it makes a big hole small and indirect, while ensuring that it never gets blocked. FRM |
| FR Millmore |
| As a novice (and not that I'm any sort of an expert now) when I first purchased my 1960 MGA 1600 as a decent driver my excitement sent me on a mission to get everything "shiny and new". One of the many things I did to futher that mission was to replace that silly looking "bottle cap" on top of the master cylinder with one of those nice opaque plastic ones. The "bottle cap" is now buried in the bottom layers of our local landfill site. Don't even ask me about turn signal switches !!!!! Mike 1960 MGA |
| Michael Hosier |
This thread was discussed between 02/10/2009 and 16/10/2009
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