MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

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 MGA - Workshop manual - an original?

I have just bought a second hand MGA Workshop Manual (Part No. AKD600D) and am curious if it's an original or a facsimile (like a lot of the owner's manuals).

Is there any way of knowing?

The cover looks exactly like this one:

http://www.bentleypublishers.com/images/covers/cv_ymw2.jpg

... though the print colour on the cover is blue. Is this how they were originally published, or have these bound volume been put together from original loose leaf versions? No indication of publisher or ISBN, only the BMC address on the inside of the manual.

Any thoughts most welcome.

Richard.
Richard Ross

Richard
There is one on Ebay right now the same as yours for 21GBP. I have what I beleieve is the original manual which is yellow and green hardcover. On the inside it refers to your manual and I quote.
"Additional copies of this publication (Part No. AKD600D) can only be obtained from an M.G. distributor."
Kris
Kris Sorensen

Kris,

I have seen the ebay one ... in fact I'm partly responsible for pushing up the bidding - I paid half that price for mine via Amazon Marketplace - but assumed I was getting a reprint and thought I would try for the ebay one too ... until I got mine through the post today, and see they are more or less identical.

Mine has the same wording as you mention - mine is soft cover, though, not hard.

Richard.
Richard Ross

Have a look at the second page from the back. If it's a late reproduction the page will be headed: 'BRITISH MOTOR HERITAGE' 'OFFICIAL TECHINAL BOOKS' and published (currently) by Brooklands Technical Books.

Steve
Steve Gyles

I have what I think is an original MGA workshop manual - AKD.600. - printed in 1955. It looks nothing like the one in the ad. It has a soft blue/green cover (almost glacier blue when new) and is in loose leaf format, 8" x 11". There is no picture on the front. Some pages are marked with a 5 figure serial number and 'Issue 2' or 'Issue 3'. Original owner wrote his name and address and registration number on the front. It is oily and slightly tattered. Hope this helps.
Shane Rutter-Jerome

Shane

Very interesting. You have got me looking hard at my books now. The reproduction I referred to is as shown in the advertisement. I also have a photocopy of what I believe to be an original edition, circa 1954.

On the opening page of the original photocopy the wording reads: "The British Motor Corporation Limited MG Car Division Abingdon on Thames" and "Exported by The British Motor Corporation Limited Export Sales Division Longbridge, Birmingham, England". Underneath a box contains the words 'Printed in England'

The reproduction copy just says: "The British Motor Corporation Limited MG Car Division" and "Exported by The British Motor Corporation Limited, Export Sales Division" References to Abingdon and Longbridge are omitted, as is the 'Printed in England'.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Yours is in better shape than mine. Mine is lacking a cover entirely, but the loose signatures look like they were originally perfect bound.
David Breneman

Richard,
I don't know if this helps, but I remember buying an original MGA Workshop Manual in 1962 at an MG dealership. It was an official part, or at least sold by the parts department at the dealership. It was three-ring binder, yellow in color, and as I recall, contained the same material as my current hardbound yellow manual that I got from the PO of my restoration basket case. This includes those rather unattractive pictures of the car near the front.
HJ
Harley

THE ORIGINAL MGA WORKSHOP MANUALS WERE LOOSE PAGES IN YELLOW 3 RING BINDERS. ON THE FRONT IN GREEN PRINT " THE MG SERIES MGA WORKSHOP MANUAL", WITH MG ENCIRCLED WITH THE FAMILIAR OCTAGON. THE SPINE OF THE BINDER WAS TYPED MGA WORKSHOP MANUAL AKD 600 OR 600 B, OR 600C DEPENDING ON THE ISSUE. AKD 60O IS FOR THE EARLY MGA 1500. THE 600 B DESCRIBES THE MODEL 1500 AND THE CHANGES INCORPORATED INTO THE 1600 MGA. THE AKD 600C DESCRIBES THE MODEL 1500, 1600 AND THE MODEL 1600 MARK II. I HAVE 3 EXTRA ORIGINAL WORKSHOP MANUALS # AKD 600C, 1 ORIGINAL # AKD 600B, AND 1 ORIGINAL # AKD 600. IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED, THEY ARE FOR SALE.
cliff hughes

Very interesting. I have an MGA manual, ADK600D, hardbound, not loose leaf, yellow with black lettering.

On the cover:
Issued by
The M.G. Car Company Limited
Sole Exporters
Nuffield Exports, Limited

On the first page:

Issued by
The British Motor Corporation Limited
MG Car Division
Abingdon-On-Thames

Exported By
The British Motor Corporation Limited
Export Sales Division
Longbridge, Birmingham, England

Series MGA, MGA 1600, and MGA 1600 (MkII)

Was this possibly an export manual? Interestingly, the pics of the cars in the front of the manual are LHD.
Wray Lemke

Wray, You have the same one I have. Mine was purchased from Moss in 1982

Steve, I have no such reference to Brooklands at the back pages.



The original workshop manuals were as stated- looseleaf. As corrections were made, the individual pages were revised, distributed and the shop instructed to replace the original pages with the latest revision ones. This way the factory could update the manuals at a lower cost, preventing the ned to reprint the whole book. If you look at the fine print at the bottom of each page, you will see an "Issue number". This refers to the number of times that page has been updated by the factory. This is a common practice in distribution of technical manuals that need to be kept up to date.

The various issue letters (none, B, C etc) to the AKD600 number added new sections related to the newer models. The original page "issue letters" did not reset to "Issue 1".

I suspect, but do not know for sure, that at some time, the manual added the info on the "deluxe" model as referenced by Section MMM
"MGA 1600 fitted with Dunlop disk brakes" and other such triple leter Sections. I may be wrong on this point. Cliff, does your AKD600C include these sections?

I have seen some of these looseleaf manuals with entire sections removed. Further, when buying a looseleaf-style manual, how sure are you that the individual pages were kept up-to-date with the latest "Issue number"?

It is reasonable to assume that at some time M.G. Car Co. did no further updates to the manual. Either all known errors were corrected, or, more likely, they spent thier limited resources in the technical writing dept working on the MGB manuals.

As an accurate and authorized reprint of the original manual(s?), the later bound versions, either hard or soft bound, I am not surprised to see the references to copies only being"obtained from an M.G. Distributor.


Chuck
Chuck Schaefer

HELLO WRAY: IT APPEARS THAT WE BOTH LIKE THE SAME BRITISH CARS. SPOKE WITH YOU SEVERAL MONTHS AGO WHEN I BOUGHT A MAGNETTE. IVE OWNED 1600 MGA SINCE 1987. THE HARDBOUND OWNERS MANUALS ARE REPRINTS OF THE ORIGINAL LOOSE LEAF STYLE MANUALS THAT I DESCRIBED EARLIER. MOST HAVE A PHOTO OF MGA COUPE MODEL ON COVER. ALL OF THE MANUALS THAT I HAVE REFERENCE " ISSUED BY THE MG CAR COMPANY LIMITED, ABINGDON ON THAMES, EXPORTED BY NUFFIELD EXPORTS LIMITED, COWLEY, OXFORD ENGLAND. REFERENCES APPEAR ON PAGE 1, FOLLOWED BY INTRODUCTION ON PAGE 2, WITH CONTENTS ON PAGE 2, AND PHOTOS OF MGA ON PAGE 4 AND MGA1600 COUPE ON PAGE 5. PAGE 6 IS PICTURE OF 1600MK II. ABOVE APPEARS IN MANUAL # AKD 600C, WHICH COVERS ALL MODELS.
CLIFF HUGHES

CHUCK: TH AKD 600C MANUAL THAT I HAVE HAS SECTION MM WHICH DESCRIBES THE 1600 WITH DUNLOP BRAKES. IT ALSO HAS SECTION KKK, DESCRIBING THE FRONT SUSPENSION ON A 1600 FITTED WITH DUNLOP DISC BRAKES. CLIFF
CLIFF HUGHES

CHUCK: ERROR! ERROR! ABOVE THREAD SHOULD READ MMM, NOT MM AS I TYPED. CLIFF
CLIFF HUGHES

Thanks for all the comments ...

Just gathering together all the thoughts ... the upshot seems to be that if it's a facsimile, it will say somewhere near the back who actually published it (mine doesn't have this, Steve), and if it's a complete, contemporary, workshop original it will be loose-leaf.

What I have would seem to be published by BMC (with all the address details inside first page), possibly after 1962, but still a genuine 'part'.

Anyway ... I think I got a bargain!
Richard Ross

Just to throw a little gas on the fire, my soft cover MGA workshop manual is yellow and shows a RHD coupe on the cover. On the outside binder it shows the part number AKD800 although on the inside first page it says that it is issued by the British Motor Coporation and is for the Series MGA, MGA 1600 and MGA 1600serII. It also has a box with the notes "Additional Copies of this publication(part number AKD600) can only be obtained from an MG Distributor. Also is printed in England and has issue #5 40954 in small print. It appears to in order showing quite a few of the factory updates and upgrades for each section.
Ken

Cliff,

Hmmmm. If your AKD600C manual has the Dunlop disk brake sections, I wonder what the major change from 600C to 600D would have included?

Makes one wonder. But not too long or I might get lost.

Chuck
Chuck Schaefer

Just to slose the loop, mine says, on the lubricants page at the back (opposite the fold-out lubrication chart) "Printed in Great Britain by the Nuffield Press Limited, Cowley, Oxford, England" plus some serial numbers and dates: 8/55 and 12/55. The looseleaf format is not ring binder; it involves two swivel clips which lock onto vertical rods. Steve, I am coming up your way next month; are you anywhere near Blackpool?

Shane
Shane Rutter-Jerome

I believe that there are copies being sold on Ebay that are printed in Brazil. I think that these have a white cover with a blue car on the front.
mike parker

I have the same one as Wray & Chuck purchased in the early 80's from John Twist at UML.
gary starr

Strange, my workshop manual came to me from a gentleman who also gave me a set of sidecurtains for my car. It is a cross between hard bound and soft bound. Sort of like poster paper cover.
The outside is green and cream, has the MG logo at the mid-top, and big MGA letters below the logo. In the bottom, green section, it says Workshop Manual, a BMC service publication, with the BMC ribbon in the right corner.
The third page says it is part number AKD600D and can only be purchased from an M.G. Distribuor.
It also says it is printed in England by the Nuffield Press Limited, and covers the MGA, MGA 1600 and MGA 1600 Mk II. It has no car picture on the front, but it does have an example of all three MGAs in black and white photos. All three cars are left hand drive.
I always thought it was an original. Anyone else have one like this?
Also, I have a cream color manual for my TF which is made the same way and covers the midget (TD and TF)published by the same, M.G. Car Company Limited and printed by Nuffield Press.
Cleve

Shane

Kirkham. Junction 3 off the M55 I will email you my address.

Steve
Steve Gyles

I have owned my MGA COUPE for 35 yrs and I am the second owner. The first owner was a complete "crazy" about his MG and kept everything stock and only origional BMC parts. My parts manuel is VERY ORIGIONAL and is soft covered pale green(almost bristal board type) with beige pages . It is not like a loose leaf binder but has three metatl split pins that hold the pages. Much like a modern Duo-tang binder. The pages are removable and are very frequently doubles with a slight change to the wording (like they were upgraded pages).Near the end is a tri-page fold out lubrication diagram. I hope this adds to the discussion.
Gordon

I have one the same as Gordon except it only has two pins and in the back of the manual on the bottom of the key to recommended lubricants page it has, Printed in Great Britian by Nuffield press limited, Cowley, Oxford, England. 29/32 (92464) 8/55-7m Its followed by a fold out lube sheet in heavier paper. Its a 1500 only (no supplements)and has the original owners name and rego number still printed on the first page. The part number is AKD.600. I have had it since the early 60s. Hope this helps Denis
DENIS

I guess with all the known variations done in the factory during the manufacture of our cars, it shouldn't surprise anybody that there exists so many variations on the original "Workshop Manual".

Chuck
Chuck Schaefer

Hi all

Just to show others what we are talking about, I've put a picture of my Workshop Manual (and several other books) on my website.

http://rutgerbooy.nl/MGA_Accessories.htm

If you have other pictures, I'll be glad to include these also

Rutger
Rutger Booy

rutger; thank you so very much for all your efforts. I believe you have cleared up
all most questions on the subject.
this bbc is really a great source for just that, , , if we want to know the facts, bring it to the board.
thanks, garry irwin
gei irwin

A little more gas on the fire ~ The hardbound edition I still have, is a Brooklands printing, "printed in Hong Kong", AKD 600D. It appears to be a compilation of info from all the previous "official" shop manuals and pretty much just copies with no editing of content except as necessary to make sense and fit the pages. This one is dark "BRG" with silver lettering showing "The {MG Logo} Series MGA, Workshop Manual with a BMC Rosette at the bottom.

Altho that manual contains much more info, the cover graphics (minus the BMC Rosette) appears identical to that on the "factory" shop manual which came with my 57 MGA when I bought it. That, supposedly OE manual, was in a 3 ring format when I received it, but had a lighter green cover in a faux leather cover with black graphics. It covered only the very earliest MGAs with no coverage of disc brakes, 1600 engines, or any mention of the twin cam or other variations after 1956. It appeared to be an original factory offering, not a reprint or "by" any other publisher. And its "patina" of grime, grease, and dogeared pages impressed one that it probably really had been in use that long. FWIW
Bob Muenchausen

This thread was discussed between 28/02/2005 and 09/03/2005

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.