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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 TD TF 1500 - Alternative Anti-Theft Device

I have been servicing the TF ready for the superb summer that is around the corner (sorry to our members from Oz). Whist adjusting the carbs I tightened the jet nuts up fully but didn't slacken them off enough when fine tuning. There was a huge miss fire and a loud bang and the engine stopped dead. No way would it restart and I was fearful something had bent! After half an hour of tinkering I noticed that one of the core plugs in the inlet manifold balancer pipe had blown out. We all know that a short length of wire between the battery and coil will hotwire a T Series and a determined thief would probably have a spare rotor arm in his pocket (if it was made in China the car would conk out within a mile though!). I thus thought that an alternative theft deterrent could be to drill a hole in one of the inlet core plugs, solder a nut on the inside and plug this with a bolt. A short length of studding soldered into a wing nut with a fibre washer would be even better. If a felon could find out why the engine fails to start in under half an hour they are a better mechanic than me!

Cheers to all

Jan T
J Targosz

That would work, but we already have the best anti theft device know to man on all of the T series cars - it is called a fly off hand brake. When I was in my senior year of high school and my parents gave me their TD to drive that year, with the admonition that I not allow any of my buddies drive it. Of course everyone wanted to drive it and instead of just saying no - I would tell them that if they could release the hand brake, the cold drive the car around the block - none of them ever drove the car around the block. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

Or put a hidden switch in the line to the petrol pump.
Dave H
Dave Hill

I've had good luck with one of these. Makes a racket when you get close to the Car. Easily defeated though....with anything edible.

Mike
TF-8257


M Brand

That's one ferocious looking critter Mike.. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Jan, I'm not too sure about why you are sorry for us in Oz for your upcoming 'superb' summer.
We have an upcoming 'superb' winter....and our temperatures will probably be exactly the same!
Regards, Don TF 4887 "Figaro"
Don Walker

Or you could just take the fuses out and put them into the vertical holders. :-)
Christopher Couper

With the battery being so close to the fuel pump (TD and early TF) and to the coil any hidden switch or removed fuse can easily be bypassed. A more vovel approach is needed

Jan T
J Targosz

Jan, have you ever tried to start/drive a Tcar where the plug wires are not connected to the proper spark plug. It takes but a moment and goes unnoticed. Just be sure to remember how you switched them. Bud
Bud Krueger

I take the rotor out and hide it. I forgot to tell my wife about this trick when I was out of town, once. I got a pretty spicy phone call in the wee hours of the night. I said "I'm sorry" and put the phone under my pillow and went back to sleep.
It's unlikely that a thief(or wife) would be carrying a TD rotor in his/her pocket.

Chuck
cj schmit

I have a better anti theft device. I take one of my four with me. Nobody has ever put their hands in or on my cars.



JWP Policastro

JWP - My wife used the same theft deterrent, only hers was a German Shepard. She was on the board for Campfire Girls many years ago and would go to board meetings at the Campfire Girls office downtown in the TD. The car was parked outside the office and our German Shepard would be sitting in the driver's sheet when the meeting was over at around 9pm - never had anybody bother the car. Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

In the latest issue of TOTALLY T TYPE (just recieved this morning) http://ttypes.org/ttt2/
there is an article about a 12 V fuel shut off valve with a manual over ride,,

Steve
Steve Wincze

We take our two Cavalier King Charles Spanials with us and they would lick a thief to death should they touch the car.
John...Sydney
John Walton

Unfortunately, any thief might be more likely to nick the spaniels!
Dave H
Dave Hill

In our area classic car thieves don't mess with hotwiring cars or driving them away.

They roll up in flatbed tow trucks, wench the car up on the truck, and drive off, all in under three minutes.

That's why I don't take my MG on runs to the grocery store, the pharmacy, or any place where I will be out of sight of the car.

Erick Blackwelder
MG TDC 11267
BMW 328i Last of the inline 6 cylinder engines.
EB Blackwelder

TF / rear fuel pump. Hidden cut off switch for the pump.
I have been doing this to LBC's since the late 60's. Had an Austin stolen once...car was abandon about a block from where it was taken. IMHO: The theory of leave it easy to take, but dies in short order worked for me. As stated ...if they are pro's, and they want it, they will get it is true, but this will stop the novice in their tracks.

OBTW: The morons that took the Austin ran straight to the nearest bar and were arrested in short order.

The "upgrade" for this year was to remove the passenger seat...Charlie didn't fit with it in there!


David Sheward 55 TF1500 # 7427

I chain mine through the bumper in my carport; the chain connects to a steel bar which passes through the brick wall. I also keep plywood sheets propped up in front so that passerbys cannot see the car. But a battery powered grinder could bypass that in sixty seconds...
I also have a hidden RFID device that won't allow the car to start without waving a fob next to it. Agreed, that won't stop it being hotwired easily, but it's another deterrent. It's under the dash and invisible, and needs a totally unique fob to activate.
I'm working on another idea, just for fun, which is easily doable: using a "tartopper" I plan some day on making a large fake battery. Inside I will put a smaller battery, a 300A switch I found on ebay, and a remote control switch. In effect, when you engage the remote, the battery will appear completely dead and pass no power to any part of the system. A thief would have to have a spare battery to start the car.
You can of course purchase trembler alarm systems which can alert you to the car being moved, and hidden gps systems which will track the car's movements.
Here in the car theft capital of the USA, and no lockable garage. I worry about it more than most of you folk have to.
Geoffrey M Baker

I've fitted mine with an invisibility cloak. They were available for a short while, spares from one of the Harry Potter films.

You can't steal it if you can't see it.

...
MAndrus

I had a fuel pump switch on mine for a long time. Fits nicely in the sidescreen box, but the screens do turn it off from time to time when cornering. However, seriously, how many thieves would bother with a T type? Hard to get away un-noticed, difficult to sell, easily recognisable by police and other club members, not specially quick for joy riding, and so on.

I did have mine nicked once, I must admit. The kid who did it didn't try to start it, just ran it down the hill from our house and left it parked at the bottom. How do I know he was a kid? He needed one of his Mum's cushions behind him to reach the pedals, and left it in the car after his great adventure. Wonder if he has one of his own now?

David
DavePro

Dave considering the cost & scarcity of genuine parts, coupled with the poor quality of much of the after market junk, T Types are a very attractive proposition. Particularly so if a thief takes his time & flogs off the car bit by bit. The only difficult part to unload would be the block because of the serial number. Not hard to rack up $100K. That's a nice earn for three minutes "work". Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

A few years ago we had a couple of people put a solenoid valve on the output of the brake master cylinder with a key switch. With the key not turned on step on the brakes once and the brakes lock.

Butch
R Taras

Personally, I like the idea of a hidden switch to turn off the fuel pump. In my case, the switch shuts off the SU and the back-up facet pump. Anyone that takes the car can only go so far before it quits, as my sister can attest to. Such a switch can easily be hidden where it would be very difficult, if not darn near impossible to find. Most of the time I have a hard time getting to the switch and I am the one that installed it. On overnight stops I use the switch plus a battery cut-off switch. I think I might try the suggestion of swapping a couple of the ignition wires also. I can't imagine a thief spending much time on trying start a car with such devices, unless of course they figure out how to get the handbrake off and push that car onto a flatbed trailer.

Larry
LD Kanaster

My concern is that if any car is stolen, and unless the thief is very organized, there will be problems selling it because of title papers etc. Steal a T Series and you could make a £1000 the next day by putting the engine on ebay. Someone who knew the value of T Series parts would probably also know all the anti theft measures and could be carrying the rotor arm from the last car he stole, in his pocket! A length of wire from the battery to the pump would circumvent any hidden switch (agreed a little more difficult on a late TF but still easy to do).

Jan T
J Targosz

I just removed this from my recently acquired MGA Mk II because I thought it was ugly and it cluttered up the engine compartment. The PO told me that it's a motion sensing burglar alarm. I figger you wire it to a loud noise maker that is activated when movement jostles the weight on the end of the long springy arm causing the contact point to open (or close or both) which activates the noise maker. It will go on my wall of curiosities. I'm much more worried about vandalism than about actual theft but then my wife tells me that I'm always a Pollyanna. Jud

ps: See MGA site for a couple of pictures of my MGA. The set is now complete - last year of the TD, last year of the MGA and last (or almost) year of the chrome bumper MGB. I'm blessed with abundance. JKC


J. K. Chapin

JK, that looks like the tilt contacts they used to have in the old pinball machines...

Rgds, Mike
Mike Fritsch

Jan engine numbers are recorded here as part of the registration process. If a thief tried to sell a stolen block here, the new owner wouldn't be able to register his car with that engine as it would be recorded as belonging to the legal owner. Engine numbers are checked very thoroughly here before a "blue slip" is issued in NSW. Of course he could easily sell everything else. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I think the block and frame are about impossible to sell if they are stolen. Still, you could probably clear forty grand in a few weeks selling all the other parts, with nobody able to stop you. A friend of a friend left her 60s VW in a parking lot to buy groceries and when she came out it was gone. They found the remains a few weeks later in the desert, stripped of every sellable part.
That's why I have gone to the lengths I have to install actual security devices on my car.
As these cars get older and rarer, it will only get worse.
Geoffrey M Baker

This thread was discussed between 13/03/2016 and 24/03/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

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