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MG TD TF 1500 - Lessons I learned today

Lessons I learned today:

Never drive an untested MG further then you care to walk (two miles)

Always carry a cell phone (Didn't)

The part that has not been worked or replaced will fail. (fuel pump)

Always keep your towing insurance current (AAA).




Ray Cullen

Ray,
Thanks for sharing! We all need those reminders, because we've all been there before.
BTW..... She's a pretty one!
Gene
Gene Burgess

Well it is a TF. Cheap shot and I'm sorry for it. I drove six miles out to our local airport using airport transfers tunbridge wells earlier this week and a stranger mentioned that the MG really ran well. I thanked him. I also thought that I have a 55 year old vehicle which can and probably will jump up to bit me at any time. I guess that why we have them, isn't it?

Dick Thomas
TD13583
Dick Thomas

Ray
Sage advice. Got AAA after the TD had a $300 ride home after a broken crank. Most of us have been there done that learned from it.

Safety Fast

Tom
T. L. Manion Thomas

So, what you are saying is that I should not have bought a one-way ticket to Reno in February intending to drive 3200 miles home in a 1960 Bugeye? I sure would have missed a fun trip!
David "at least I did have a spare distributor and fuel pump with me..." Lieb
David Lieb

I've done the same thing Ray only I limit my test rins to a few hundred yards, then Maybe a half mile sveral times until I'm convinced I won't be walking home. More than once I've pulled an LBC back down the road to the house with an beat up electric golf cart or an ATV when we used to have a couple. Sucks but beats a long tow with a chain or the truck job.

LaVerne
LED DOWNEY

Perhaps I've led a charmed life, but I've truly been lucky in this regard with my TD, which has never left me stranded in 30+ years. She's had her share of little problems along the way (fuel pump, ignition, generator, brakes, etc.), but never anything that prevented me limping home or that couldn't be temporarily repaired along the roadside. My wife, however, still always reminds me to take my cell whenever I hit the road. Of course, I tend to stay within about a 50 mile radius of home, and haven't tempted the fates with a long road trip in years.

Scott
Scott McCoy

Got the TD running for the 1st time in 26 years on August 8th, 2004... on Sept. 11th, I left for Watkins Glen following a TC (thought the 'old' TC would travel at my speed....turned out it had a high performance 1500 cc engine and I ran at 4500 all the way down)....this was about 150 miles each way... Looking back, it was probably silly, but lots of fun.
(So was the 850 miles to Gatlinburg)

gblawson(gordon)

Ray,
Just courious,,, what failed on the fuel pump?? Diaphram? Points? Did lightly tap it to see if it would pump?

SPW
Steve Wincze

The flat spring that holds the outer point was not flat against the front plate... think my electrical cleaner spray must have dislodged/cleared it. I pushed it back against the plate and it sort of 'snapped' back tight...then started clicking again?
I clean the upper points every month or so...lot of carbon builds up... had never noticed the actual position of the spring before (so didn't realize it should be flat against the plate)... One of those...'something isn't right, but I don't know what it is, so i will just clean/push/scrape/play with until something good happens or I call a mechanic'!!!!
gblawson(gordon)

My pump was one of the little cube, make a lot of noise, run all the time pumps. Mounts over the rear axel in the TF. Ran OK the next morning, so I took it out and bench tested it. Failed in about 10 minutes. Just quite making noise. Poked it, wacked it, shook it, nothing.

Took it apart. Everything packed in "foam in place" foam. Had to destroy the pump to inspect it. Just a coil of wire with a tube in the center of the coil. Inside the tube is a slug of metal that vibrates as the polarity of the coil changes. A spring loaded valve at the outlet side of the tube controls the direction of the flow and pressure of the pump. A small circuit board apparently changed D/C current to A/C to change the polarity for the coil.

All the mechanical stuff in the pump looked good. My guess is that something failed on the circuit board because of heat or vibration. About as simple a pump as you can get. No points, minimal number of moving parts, non repairable. Run it until it quits.....then buy another one. I have no idea how many running hours the pump had on it before it failed. I am guessing it was at least 15 years old.

Things are cheap enough (about $40) that I may set up my car with two with a switch so if I ever experience a failure in the future, I can bring the fresh one on line without having to crawl under the car.
Ray

This thread was discussed between 21/06/2008 and 23/06/2008

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