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MG MGF Technical - Ignition leads

Having bought an electrical service kit for my 96 Mpi I had to hand it over to my mechanic to fit. I had bad disc problems (human discs not brake discs) and he was replacing the cam belt anyway. Now he tells me at the plug end the leads are too long and he can't get the cover back on. He tried cutting a bit off but they still won't fit. According to the invoice they are Unipart no GHT 284 but I noticed at the time there was a second label on the box which read GHT 286. It seemed strange too that the lead to the distributor was missing but it was posted quickly. Have I been sold the wrong leads?
Bryant Hodkinson

Bump,
sounds like it :-(, unfortunatly if your mechanic has cut them up you will have little comeback - advice go for some magnacore(SP?) ones, they are gaurenteed for life

Will
Will Munns

Sounds like you have been sold the VVC leads. I had the same problem, but in my case I have a VVC and was sold the MPI leads (too short)

Roger.
Roger

>Now he tells me at the plug end the leads are too long and he can't get the cover back on

>Sounds like you have been sold the VVC leads. I had the same problem, but in my case I
>have a VVC and was sold the MPI leads (too short)

does this mean the plugs are deaper in the head in a VVC, or have I missunderstood the first post?
surely if the (end to end) length is wrong then the mechanic couldn't have shortend them without lots more work, also the "cant get the cover back on" indicates the length of the plug covers.
Personally I would be a little peeved with the garage as they have damaged something that is obviously wrong
Will Munns

I wanted Mike to fit magnecor Competition leads to my Trophy when he serviced the car on Friday.

He said that they could not be fitted to my car because the coils are moved on later cars. I think I have remembered correctly!

Could this be the same problem?
Chris

The VVC head assembly is taller than the 1.8i hence the plugs are further down the plug bore, the VVC leads have a longer cap for this and if used on the 1.8i then the cover won't fit,plus the lengths are different and the 1.8i has a coil to dis cap lead as well.The Trophy and later cars have the coils on the top of the engine with very short leads, to my knowledge replacement leads are not available for this type just yet;-)
Mike.
PS Chris hope you got back quicker;-)
mike

Mike,
can't you fit them and leave slack in the cable - or does this lead (no pun intended) to the plugs popping out?

Will
Will Munns

The rubber shaft is a different length (at the bottom). This means that the metal connector within the shaft cannot fit over the spark plug, (ie: it doesnt reach the top of the plug). Maybe by cutting a couple of cm's off the bottom of the shaft would do the trick, but thats not the point really.

Rog.
Roger

No sorry didn't make myself clear,
on a new VVC with old VVC leads- the head is the same, but the coils are closer
>The Trophy and later cars have the coils on the top of the engine with very short leads
so why is there a problem with just leaving a bit of slack in the cables?
Will Munns

Ah Ok, See your point now.

Is there not a problem with having longer cables than sepcified? I thought there was a max / min threshold?

Rog
Roger

<bit of slack in the cables?> Err yes there is just not enough space and the coil connections are different. The coil connecters on the VVC and 1.8i are significantly different and the two types are not interchangeable.HTH
Mike.
mike

This thread was discussed between 20/06/2002 and 25/06/2002

MG MGF Technical index

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