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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 - Odometer characters

About three years ago I rebuilt my Gauges but had to keep the discoloured odometer number bands, as new ones were not available. Today I finally found a supplier on Ebay. So another winter job will be pulling the gauge apart again to replace them. If you are interested mail me and I will forward the link. john dot scragg at wanadoo dot fr

John


J Scragg

John, how close to the original is the typeface? Is it identical? If so I'd be interested in getting the name of the supplier. I assume these are a thin decal that just adheres over the top of the existing metal strips? I'm emailing you now. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Here's a photo of the ones that my colleague makes. The same chap who makes the dials.
Regards
Declan


Declan Burns

Hi Declan. They don't appear to be quite as sharp as the ones John has purchased or is that just the photography? Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter,
Here is a photo taken with my camera. They look sharp enough to me. Maybe it is my colleague who is selling them on eBay. Who knows.
Regards
Declan


Declan Burns

They look great Declan. No issues with clarity there. Can you email me his address as I'd like to inquire about price and availability.I think the ones on E Bay may have come from Italy? Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter,
I sent you an email this morning. I remember seeing the one's that John has sourced and I think you are right that they come from Italy which does not matter as long as they are available. I am not sure if my colleague sells them or not as he gave them to me as a present in return for a favour.
Regards
Declan
Declan Burns

Thanks Declan. I've contacted your friend and gave him your regards. I was lucky enough to be given 6 NOS white metallic strips but need another two to complete the speedo. I also have another two flat faced instruments that I'm keeping just in case and I'd like to use the decals on them. All three are chronometric. I hope I can mix and match if they are available. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I've decided to go with the set from Italy on EBay. I've compared them with my originals and they are spot on. At $12.50 AU for one instrument (there are enough to do four) it has to be a good buy. Thanks for the heads up John. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

I am reactivating this thread to update my initial idea for the discoloured odometer numbers. I have abandoned the adhesive strips and decided to look for complete speedometers from other cars, strip down the unit, recover the number wheels and replace my discoloured wheels. This method is called cannibalisation. The search turned out to be easier than I expected, I found a NOS Jaeger speedometer for a Riley, for not much more than I paid for the adhesive strips. An unexpected extra was a pair of 59 tooth gears The swap took some time and a lot of patience but the result was good. the picture shows the new wheels in place and also some of the old discoloured parts.

John




J Scragg

John they look good. Surprising for a set of used wheels. The set from Italy never arrived and I was reimbursed by E Bay. The restoration of the remaining two instruments is on hold at present. The Riley 59 tooth ratchet gear will be pretty close for a TD/TF with a 4.8 rear end on radials. The maths for this is in a thread in the archive somewhere. I have done the preliminary work on the white strips and they're a perfect match for the originals. The only issues remaining are to ascertain the EXACT length of the adhesive strip prior to coming up with the CAD drawings, (which isn't exactly the same length as the original metal backed strip), to find a supplier here in Sydney willing to take the project on, because the precise length is absolutely critical if the join spacing is to match; and finally to get the colour of the 1/10ths wheel correct. But I'm in no rush as I have a functional instrument and other things to do on the car. If anyone does have some original NOS metal strips, I'm a buyer if the price is right. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

John, your speedometer is terrific.

FYI - here is a good article about restoring the speedometer and odometer on a vintage Chevy truck. I used it when I restored the speedo on my '54 Chevy pickup. I was afraid to tackle the odometer. I also used it when I cleaned the inside of my TF speedo.
https://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/gauges/speedometer/index.html

This article may have additional info applicable to T-cars.
https://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/odometer/index.html

Lonnie
TF7211
LM Cook

I missed the NOS bit John. That explains why they look so good! Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Lonnie,

Thanks for the article, it makes good reading, I used the one in the following link, it is specific to Smiths and Jaeger units. It was a great help in identifying the donor which I needed to find.

https://www.szott.com/lotusinfo/Smith-jaeger_speedo_repair.pdf


Peter,

You have mail

John






J Scragg

Thanks John. I did read that piece when I was researching the speedo. Really well written and comprehensive. The work that I penned was specific to the T Type and was based on the hands on restoration of both my chronometric speedo, odometer and tripmeter and the necessary conversion to read correctly with a 4.3 diff; and the issues that I encountered working on three of these instruments. I also devised a method of calibrating the chronometric speedo once the correct odometer and tripmeter ratchet gears had been ascertained, sourced and installed. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

Peter, here is a picture of the number strips I had made. They look like individual numbers but are uncut and actually still of a sheet of decal material. When installing them on the wheels I start at "5" and line it up precisely with the original "5" on the wheel then wrap it around and cut it to length after first having left a long "tail" on the strip to get a hold of the strip while doing the manipulation.
For your information: here is some information about calibration of the chronometric speed. As you know this is done by changing the frequency of the balance wheel which is done by adding circular weights to the flywheel. From my measurements a speedo with 1600tpm has a flywheel/hairspring/shaft weight of about 3.56 gm and with 1300 tpm is about 4.19 gm. The latter is for the 4.3 differential gearing and the former is for stock (TD) gearing. I think these weights should be taken with a grain of salt since the period of oscillation will also depend on the strength of the hair spring which probably is not precisely uniform from one gauge to another.
Hugh Pite




H.D. Pite

Thanks for this thread and it’s contributors. Very interesting reading. I’ve learned a great deal and will have to carefully re-study this

Bill Chasser
TD-4834
W A Chasser

They are pretty impressive Hugh! I knew that you had a stash of original wheels but I wasn't aware that you'd had these made. I had planned on crowding my sheet so that I could have four or five times as many printed on the one A 4 page, thus significantly reducing the unit cost. As you've no doubt seen from the attempts by others, the precise length is critical and is NOT the same as an original metal strip. Sure the difference is marginal but it is quite noticeable in the versions that I've seen, particularly so at the junction of the 5 and 6; as is the creeping error caused by the inaccurate spacing between the numbers, which means that they can't be used in conjunction with an original wheel. The other issue is in reproducing the original font. I began by scanning one of my original NOS strips and cleaning up the scanning imperfections using PAINT on my computer. There are no doubt better programs. My plan was to reproduce the decals and stick them over the existing faded metal strips, so that they were good enough to be used in conjunction with wheels sporting NOS metal strips and not be able to pick the difference. Not that anyone would do that as the wheels would almost certainly be restored as a job lot, but it is and remains to my mind, a worthwhile goal. This is still a work in progress and will sit on the backburner until next year when it will become a TTORC project. The decal sets will then be made available to our members at cost. Cheers
Peter TD 5801
P Hehir

This thread was discussed between 23/01/2020 and 09/05/2020

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.