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MG MGB Technical - More rubbish parts

Within the last 3 weeks I will have fitted 3 water pumps to my car, first one was from Moss, (made in China), with this one the lug the alternator bolts on to was to wide which made the alternator sit to far forward so the belt did not run in line, the second one was a First line (from the internet) which started leaking a few days after fitting it, when I was trying to locate another pump, I rang several suppliers, and when I asked the make, I was told either, sorry they come in a plain box, so we don't know, or the ones we sell are £20-00 and made in India, I am just waiting for the postman to deliver my next one which I hope is going to be better quality, this one is made in the UK by a firm called Quinten Hazell, I like many others on here would be more than happy to pay more for these parts, rather than the cheap stuff that is being sold by most of the parts suppliers.
Andy Tilney

A recurring theme. And occasionally (there was a thread on this site about 3 months? ago) a supplier expresses interest ....and then goes very quiet. I would guess the only way is for us to commit to buying (and hence paying for) a range of items that would be made specially. So the stockholding is ours not the supplier! Or maybe an advance payment of £X and call off items to that value as needed. ie the financial risk is ours-not the supplier's, who we would have to trust....
Michael Beswick

Hi,

I know only too well, its not best to go for the cheaper stuff. I look for new old stock for nearly everything. However, you can get caught out with this approach too. I've heard of auto-jumblers apparently repackaging cheapo reproduction stuff in the old boxes. A pair of my supposed 'original supplier' rubber exhaust mount/supports cracked almost through in three months of being put on. They were supposed new old stock; looking at them after, I thought ....... was that story true?

At least some people do try to maintain standards, such as the Distributor Doctor.
IA Jones

The only problem with some N.O.S. items is that some parts have a shelf life, rubber in particular, sometimes you are no better off with these,
Andy Tilney

Hi,

Yep, I agree Andy, would not normally buy NOS rubber. I had cracks appearing very quickly in rubber items I've had on the shelf for a while.

However, I should have had alarm bells ringing in my head as they looked ever so shiny. Even unused metal tarnishes, but hey, they were cheap. I was very much staring into the mouth of the gift horse.

I then bought some cheapo replacement items .... guess what ..... had to them in about 4 months. I still have them, might upload a photo.
IA Jones

With NOS, at least we are not alone. Was watching Fantom Works the other night, they were restoring a 1970 Opel Kaddett. They ordered a carb rebuild kit that was listed as NOS> When they opened the package, the gaskets were in pieces. Too many years sitting on a shelf

At least we do have folks making parts. Some not so good.
Bruce Cunha

New water pump has arrived and is now fitted, on first inspection it looked well made, cast impeller (not pressed steel) the bearing felt much smoother (not notched like the other,and the Gasket was a good fit, unlike the others which looked like they had been cut out with a pair of scissors at a play group,it was a good fit, and the belt ran inline, on road test I noticed that the car ran cooler than with the other pumps,so all in all I am quite pleased with it, up until now this is the best quality pump I have found, I am off to Austria in it next week, so I will have to wait and see
Andy Tilney

Hi Andy

Who was the supplier of the QH pump?

Cheers

Tony
Tony Brough

Tony I bought this off the internet, I just put in MGB water pump, and it came up with

Parts in Motion
Suite 5 Hampton House
23 Longbrook Street
Exeter
EX4 6AB.
It came the next day complete with gasket and cost £32-00, hope this helps A.T
Andy Tilney

All this,frequently aired subject,begs the constant question viz just why should we have to put up with the importation of junk? Whatever happened to British Standards,Kite Marks and all the other useful British quality controls? Yes,I know that cost is always an issue but it would save so much aggro if parts were made here.Surely, even with our totally wrong economic model and the serious decline of British manufacturing the huge classic car market for one could be served by quality British firms.If Hitchcocks ( Main suppliers for Royal Enfield motorbikes bits) can get quality parts made in Britain-which they make a big point of promoting ) surely contracts could be made for quality car parts.Or do we just carry on getting rubbish?

Once we are out of the EU will we ditch CE and revert to BSI.Hopefully,yes.
M R Blencowe

Thanks Andy, engine rebuild about to commence so almost certainly need one soon.
Tony Brough

Andy. You should be OK with the QH pump. They have been supplying good quality parts for many years.
I have a QH electronic fuel pump on my Sprite and it's done about 18,000 miles of spirited motoring and never missed a beat.

Bernie.
b higginson

It seems that QH are now owned by Tetrosyl, since the previous owners, Klarius, got into difficulties about four years ago.
Dave O'Neill 2

Some times I despair when ordering parts for my B, just wondering what rubbish is going to turn up, I have made a list of the best quality parts I have so far found, but its not very long, it is as follows,
for ignition points etc, Land Rover genuine parts,
Fan belts Gates (the people who make the cam belts)
Filters oil air fuel, Mann
Brake hoses and wheel cylinders Delphi.
Brake discs and pads,Brembo
Water pumps Q/H.
Gaskets, Payne.
Hoses Samco.
If any one else can add to this list, perhaps between us we may be able to extend it, and at least have a few better quality parts on our cars.
Andy Tilney

rear brake cylinders & shoes - Payen (Eurocarparts)
ashley hinton (supplies various bits via ebay)
britebitz (brightwork) ebay
G
Graham Moore

One beef I've got is with the finish of bits, particularly suspension bits etc. Within weeks of replacing rear suspension U-bolts, plinths, shackles, bolts etc everything has gone really rusty. My car's a rain and shine daily driver. What does everybody else do - paint these with POR15 or similar?
Peter Allen

Apocryphal tale - I am good friends with a major UK supplier of classic car parts - he was also concerned about quality of some parts and has invested a lot of money in having some popular parts remade in the UK.

He supplies people like Moss, Brown & Gammons, MGOC, etc.

One line he had remade cost about 10p a unit more than cheap foreign units - Moss & co refused to buy them......

I used to have head bolts made by hot rolling because the ones I could buy had stress raisers where the machined thread ended and I was selling sets for £50 including the improved nuts.

I had to buy 50 sets at a time and they sold so slowly I had £100s tied up in them. Multiply that by 1000's and you see why people are reluctant to invest in better quality.

In years gone by Quinton Hazel were makers of cheap repro parts - thin cast alloy pump housings with pressed steel impellors - if they are the best these days it says not a lot for the rest!
Chris at Octarine Services

In years gone by Quinton Hazel were makers of cheap repro parts, This is very true, and in years gone by I would not have touched anything made by them with a barge pole ,as you say it was cheap rubbish, but they must have got there act together as compared to the stuff made in China and India, it is better quality, I am now 1000 miles into my trip to Austria and so far it hasn't leaked or fell apart, so that's one up on the Chinese and Indian pumps, A.T
Andy Tilney

Bruce Cunha. I have some collectibles that you will like.
please contact me off line
Sandy Sanders
esane@msn.com
Sanders

Andy,
My big issue with MG parts are rubber items. Engine mount, door and glass seals, screen rubbers, roadster pillar mounts, exhaust mounts, wiper blades etc.. The latter I have solved by getting "universal" blades from my local motor factors, and cutting them down to fit.
This "imported" rubber is a cheap excuse for rubber. Probably more what they don't use to make it as well as what they do.
Allan Reeling

Alan
I can not agree more with you on that issue, they are the worst of the lot, the last roadster screen I fitted I reused the old pillar mounts as they were in better condition than the new ones,
Andy Tilney

I would agree that there's going to be price sensitivity with MGB parts as there's a lot of people out there supplying the stuff. However, interestingly there's the same issue with bits I buy for my Riley and in that case you have to buy most stuff via the Club as there isn't a big enough market to sustain a lot of competition. It all comes down to quality control. It's an economic fact of life that this stuff is going to be farmed out to China or India at this end of the market, but the quid pro quo is that a QA rep needs to be out there sampling stuff from the line to ensure standards are maintained.

I can only presume those restoring a pre-war Bugatti or Bentley don't have the same issues with parts, as those bits are probably still made in Europe where a degree of control can be readily applied commensurate with the price being charged.
Peter Allen

About 4 weeks ago I put on a post about poor quality parts, water pumps in particular, in this post I said that I had purchased a Quinton Hazel pump which on initial inspection looked to be better quality than any of the other pumps I had bought, I have just returned from 3,000 trip to Austria, and this pump has been fine, no leaks, noises, or any other problems with it, unlike the Chinese and Indian available
Andy Tilney

This thread was discussed between 15/08/2017 and 11/09/2017

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