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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 - Roller throw-out bearing

I know that the general opinion is that roller TOB's do not work on T-series cars, and that the excellent John Twist even made a YouTube video on why.

But there's an ad on eBay for a guy in OZ, who takes original housings and installs different roller bearings for MGA, Spridget and T-series. He reports that he has sold 450 of them with not a single failure. On eBay he prices tham at $125 plus shipping.

Any thoughts or experiences?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/clutch-roller-release-bearing-Austin-Healey-Sprite-MG-midget-MGA-MG-TC-TD-TF-ZA/183472542773?hash=item2ab7d0d435:g:qK0AAOSwu-hbT9vR

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

I haven’t got a clue in answer to your question. However, I am curious about what the average longevity of the standard throw out bearing would be, given limited city stop and go driving and shifting into neutral faithfully at all stop signs.
Kirk Trigg

Tom, I have been using a roller type TO bearing in the race car for at least 15 years with no issues. It was made by Greene and currently obsolete but recently found one on eBay and bought it as backup. Manley Ford also supplies one that is made from a standard carbon face bearing. He recently was looking for original borg n beck cores to make more. I don’t see why there would be any problems in a street TD.

Frank
F Filangeri

Since Frank mentioned Manley. What’s going on with his website? When I try to pull it up the home page it comes up invalid. I don’t seem to have his contact info anymore. I don’t use Facebook to go that route. I wanted to look at his spider wheels, clutch and roller bearing set ups and order some velocity stacks with screens from him.

If someone can tell me how to access his website and give me his contact info at the attached email address above it would be greatly appreciated

Bill Chasser
TD-4834
W A Chasser

I don't see how putting a roller bearing in an original housing is any different than a non-original one. The engagement is still at an angle.

I have something around 25,000 miles on my TC's carbon throwout bearing and it has tons of life left. My MGB currently has 45,000 on the carbon bearing and is still fine also, even with the extra heavy springs. For 95% of classic car owners this is a lifetime of driving. Maybe even two lifetimes for some. So to me, all the effort over the past 25 years trying to get these roller bearings reliable seems like a solution looking for a problem. Just my opinion of course.
Steve Simmons

I have never seen a carbon bearing wear out, including on 24 Peugeot's ( 1957-1967) that had up to 200,000 miles on one of them.
By the way the 403 Peugeot had an oiler cup to lube the carbon bearing with a few drops perhaps once a year!
Len
Len Fanelli

Thanks to Laverne I now have contact info for Manley.
W A Chasser

It's apples and oranges. As I recall, John Twist makes the point that a roller bearing engages the standard pressure plate off-axis, leading to failure of the bearing.

Manley's set-up (and others: https://www.ukmgparts.com/catalogue/td-midcat-1-subtd37-clutch-and-flywheel ) is meant for a lightened flywheel with a diaphragm clutch. One has to be careful to use a round-face bearing if the clutch fingers are flat. Curved fingers use a flat-face bearing.

As and aside to Len, 403 and 404 owners are a shrinking demographic. I spent many hours in and under both vehicles in my formative years.

Jim



J Barry

Is the potential wear as a result of driving "method" i.e "riding a clutch"?
JK Mazgaj

This thread was discussed on 21/12/2020

MG TD TF 1500 index

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