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MG TD TF 1500 - First Post, New member

Hello to all.
This is my first post here.
I bought my TD around November of 1966, when I lived in Newton, MA.

Car # GA/12789 EX/NA
Engine # XPAG TD2/LHX13135

BODY TYPE 22381
BODY # 12161/81888

Actual engine XPAG TD2 16052

the clock has 44409 miles on it.

I drove it to work in Waltham every day for about 4 months. That Christmas my wife bought me a Nardi steering wheel for the car. In the spring we moved to Florida.
I drove it there for a year or two. It appears that this car was once raced. The engine is not original and there is evidence that something blue up and went through the firewall and toolbox. The radiator has been replaced with a German made one with a deep core.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/eeengineer1/just-car-w.jpg
I will have to use links since I do not seem to be able to include a picture.
It got pretty ratty so I decided to restore it. I removed the body and steam cleaned it.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/eeengineer1/MG_Jim_Steam-Cleaner-1.jpg

No other work was done. We moved back to MA around 1970 and and nothing happened. The new (to us) house needed a lot of work and the kids were always needing to go somewhere. Around 1976 we moved to PA The MG, as always came with us in boxes, Nothing much was done. In 1981 we moved to WI. By then the kids had grown and were in college. The chassis wa finally stripped and I started to put it back together. All the suspension rubbers were replaced. The shocks were, however not rebuilt. The engine was re-bored, new pistons, rings. The crank was reground the cam was sent out and built up and reground. The head had bronze guides installed and the valve seat inserts installed. I did not like that job.
I sandblasted the wheels and repainted them.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/eeengineer1/Frame-suspension-engine-whe.jpg

In 1988 we moved, here to NJ. I have been here 23 years now and I am finally getting back to the very long restoration.
Last year the head was pulled, again, and the valve seats were redone again. The head was milled a bit. The fenders were painted.
This year the rest of the body is out for painting, in sections. The gas tank sides are being chromed.
I am working on cleaning and restoring the dash.
I have two south Bend Lathes and a small Burke Milling machine to help in this project. I also have MIG TIG OA and Stick welding capability.
I made a proper spanner for removing the pin jacks on the instrument cluster panel

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/eeengineer1/Fits-well.jpg

While disassembling the instrument cluster panel, the black insulator for the negative pin jack broke in half. Both were cracked. I have fabricated new ones.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/eeengineer1/red-and-black.jpg

I have enough material to make about a dozen more if needed.

I hope to post more progress as I move on.

I do have two questions at this point.

1) The shaft that resets the trip gauge on the speedometer, seems to be broken. This seems rough and rusty. It appears to have once had a screwdriver slot. I have no idea what a real one looks like. I would guess it had a brass knob with some type of knurl. Can sombody give me a description with (ideally) some dimensions.
It seems the shocks are rebuild-able. Are there kits available? Where?

Thanks for listening

Jim B.
JAB Benjamin

Hi Jim and welcome. This is the place to ask questions and also input stuff. Sounds like you are already fairly familiar with your TD.

I will leave the reset to others. As for the shocks. While some have rebuilt their own, most of us use World Wide Auto Parts 2517 Seiferth Rd. Madison. They can provide the parts or do the whole job. Very reasonable for rebuilding yours or if you don't want to wait, they will send you a rebuilt set and you send them your old ones.

The guarantee the shocks will not leak or they will fix them. No one better that I have dealt with for British shocks.
Bruce Cunha

Does this help?

EBay 310330000347

IanB
Ian Bowers

Welcome...how great to have a restoration of something you have owned for so long.....
I removed that shaft by grinding off a cheap pair of long needle nosed pliers and working the cotter pin out (and back in) through the opening for the dash bulb....bit finniky but worked.... It does have a knurled brass (?) knob on the end......


gblawson(gordon- TD27667)

(I removed the whole shaft to be able to pull the case without touching the needle....)
gblawson(gordon- TD27667)

Jim,
Welcome. I acquired my second TD this past September. Without this bulletin board it would have taken me five years to reach this point in my restoration. There must be a thousand years of experience here and all willing to help.
I agree with Bruce and many others about World Wide for shocks. I just got my front shocks done by Peter and found him to be knowledgable, friendly, prompt, reasonably priced and a pleasure to deal with.
Where are you in NJ?
I am in Monroe Twp. off exit 8A on the Tpke.
Mort
Mort TD 1851

hanks to all who answered.
Yes Ian that helped a lot. I have downloaded the picture and I can scale the dimensions knowing the shaft diameter. The length will be a bit of a mystery but I will sort that one out. I will need to get fine straight knurl.

Yes I do have the shaft out. As noted by severl I pulled the cotter pin with a pair of long nose pliers, working through the light socket.
Putting it back may become a problem. It appears I need a spring compressor/keeper

Mort I am in north Jersey, The town of Verona.
I will contact World Wide about the shocks next week but that leads to another question.
I do not have a pair of matched front shocks. One is the older type with the large round access cap, the other is the later more squarish type. Both rear shocks are of the squarish type.

I assume that I would want to find a squarish one for the front but is there a reason to mair up the older type?

Thanks again for your assistance.


Jim B.
JAB Benjamin

Jim,
Others on this board will give you better answers on pairing the two sides.
Talk to Peter Caldwell at World Wide about all your issues pertaining to shocks. He is a great resource and sometimes participates on this board.
Mort
Mort TD 1851

I would think you should have a matched pair of shocks. The early TD uses Girling shocks (with the big hex cap), later Armstrong. For many years, Armstrongs were supplied as replacements. They frequently pop up on ebay, etc. I second World wide and Peter for shock rebuilding. Great picuture Gordon provided for the trip set. George
George Butz

Using Gordon's picture I scaled it in AutoSketch.
I measured the shaft at 0.119" and used that as the basis for the dimensions.

Here is what I come up with.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f334/eeengineer1/Trip-Set-Knob.jpg

I believe my shaft to be broken and about 1-1/8" short.
I plan on making a coupling and extending the knob that much.

Jim B.
JAB Benjamin

Hello to all,

I am new in this forum as well and I have purchased my first classic car recently. It is a LHD TF 1500 of 1955 in birch grey and red interior with only about 44,000 miles so far. I am the second owner only!

Chassis No. TF9265
Engine No. XPEG/3143

I bought it from California and imported it to Germany where I live. After I cleaned the carburettors and have new throttle shafts built in the engine started immediately. It is a wonderful car and I did some drives already.

So far I mainly performed the following jobs:
- overhaul of carburettors and replacement of flexible fuel lines
- installation of a fuel filter
- replacement of all liquids
- replacement of head lamps for German TUV
- installation of a hazard flasher for German TUV
- replacement of speedometer and tachometer cables
- derusting of the inside of the tank and recoating
- installation of an original steering wheel
- adjustment of the doors
- installation of a heatshield for carburettors
- replacement of some smaller chrome parts
- some smaller work on the electrics

If somebody is interested in more details of one of the above jobs I am happy to provide more information.

The next jobs are mainly as follows:
- the cooling water instrument shows already about 70°C when cold and well above 110°C when hot. I assume that only the needle of the temp gauge needs to be put on a lower scale.
- refurbishing of the painting and chrome parts
- repair of a jack pin on the instrument cluster panel

Jim, your input was very valuable to me regarding your spanner for removing the pin jacks on the instrument cluster panel. I need to replace one or repair it (see photo). From your photo it looks that the pin with the thread is screwed in the round bottom plate. Correct? How is this plate fixed to the panel?

Thank you.

Christian M.


CM Mayer

Good evening Christian M.
Remember mine is a TD so there may be differences.
I am attaching a picture showing the assembly.
The red jack is at ground potential so it has one less plastic washer. the castilated nut bares against a cylinder. Next is a "shake proof" lockwasher with external teeth, that clamps a brass washer to the back of the panel. The red plastic washer fits tightly in the hole. on the other side of the plate, but does not extend through. This grounds the red terminal. It also explains the corrosion on the back of the plate since brass is not nice there.
On the black terminal it must be insulated from the plate. There is another plastic washer between the plte and the brass washer. I did mke my black front insulator a bit longer to be sure the jack did not short.

Hope this helps

Jim B.



JA Benjamin

My TF had an identical broken stud on the instrument panel just like the picture. I filed it flat, drilled down in to the metal then screwed a screw in using locktite. Then I cut the head of the screw off. New stud.
D. Sander

Thank you both for your great and quick help!

Christian
CM Mayer

Jim B and Christian M,
Welcome to the forum ! We are just over in Ct.
There is a wealth of information here!!
SPW
STEVE WINCZE

Jim and Christian,

Welcome, it's great to have new contributors! Check out the archives for previous posts as well.

warmly,
Dave
Dave Braun

This thread was discussed between 09/07/2011 and 19/07/2011

MG TD TF 1500 index

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