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MG MGB Technical - Cancelling the indicators

Thought I'd have look to see why my indicators on my '71 GT don't cancel. The stalk has the two 'trip' levers and the column has the clip with a hump in the middle. The clip lifts the lever when turning, but when straightening up again the hump slips back under the lever, rather than pushing the stalk back to the centre position. This is the second stalk I've fitted (the last one melted!) but it's never worked, nor the one before it.
It looks to me as if the clip should be taller, or the levers closer to the column. Were there different clips depening on column fitted? The stalk should be the correct one for the year with just left, right, high beam & flash functions.
Any ideas?
Dave Smith GT

I seem to recall trying a rubber band around the levers to pull them closer together.

The only problem with that is that the band probably won't last long.

You could try extending the height of the hump, or possibly bending the levers inwards with a bit of localised heat...at your own risk!
Dave O'Neill 2

Personally I remove the clips to prevent cancellation. There are so many roundabouts I find it more convenient, and as first 5 years of motoring were without the supposed luxury of self cancelling (A35), I don't have a problem.
Allan Reeling

I built up the hump on my cancelling cam with solder as I didn't fancy trying to bend the fingers. It's worked like that for many years.
Paul Hunt

Allan - ditto, except for me it was a Morris Minor! It hadn't bothered me until I put the new steering wheel on which is a little further away, so I can't quite use my index finger as a cancelling device!
Thanks for the ideas. I thought about building up the clip, but I think I'll give the rubber band idea a go first. I just wondered if they had changed over the years, hence the apparent mismatch.
Dave Smith GT

I meant to add to my post, that self cancelling for many isn't an issue as they don't user the indicators at all!!
Allan Reeling

Self-cancelling? My A35 had semaphores - if they didn't cancel (manually) you put your hand out of the window and pushed them down :)
John Bilham

Semaphores - I can remember my father muttering imprecations under his breath when he had to bang on the side of the car before they would come out.
Paul Hunt

They did change slightly over the years, but what happens is the 'wrong one' ends up being bigger, not smaller and then you're always canceling the indicators on both the sweep past and the return stroke, rather than just the return.
The change was with the V8/rubber bumper columns. The earlier ones having a similar but smaller peice, the very early ones having a screwed in peg and the very late ones containing an internal device that operates from pegs on the reverse of the wheel hub itself.
This just sounds like a case of weak spring arms on the stalk assembly itself, the rubber bands should be ideal.
Roadwarrior

Interesting, there were in fact three of that type of striker, the first one was different between roadster and GT!
Paul Hunt

Correction - both cars had the same, but it changed in June 1973 as well as for rubber bumpers in September 74.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 17/05/2015 and 20/05/2015

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