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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 - Taps and Dies

Would anyone happen to know a source of BSP taps and dies in the US?
G.E. Love

Geoff,
Have you looked at www.britishtool.com/index.htm ? I have bought tools from them in the past and they were of high quality.
Rob
Rob Silverman

You might want to try contacting Abingdon Spares at 1-800-225-0251 or www.abingdonspares.com they have been very helpful to me.
Tony
Tony Shoviak

I've had excellent luck with eBay and patience. I managed to collect a significant set of taps and dies, most of which I purchased from England. It took the better part of a year to track down all that I wanted, but the cost was about 25% of Moss prices.

Larry
Larry Shoer

British Tools & Fasteners at http://www.britishfasteners.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc
If neither British Tool or British Tools & Fasteners has what you need, you will be able to find it at the Tap & Die Co. in England at http://www.tapdie.com/ or Uni-Thread, also in England at http://www.uni-thread.com/
I have purchased tools and Recoils from both British tools & Fasteners and from Uni-Thread in England and got good service and products from both. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Many thanks to all for your helpful leads.

Geoff
G.E. Love

Go to UK Ebay and search for Myford. You will find lots of people selling taps and dies - you may need to look at "other items for sale by this seller". A Myford Super Seven is a 3 1/2" metal turning lathe much praised by UK model engineers ( I have one myself ) and you will find all types of engineering tools on the above site.


Jan T


Jan T
Jan Targosz

Antbody know the thread size on the lower tank strap stud. None of my BSA nuts fit nor do any metric nuts fit nor any SAE nuts so this NUT needs to find out which nuts to order from above sources. Thanks.
Greg & Grimm
G.J. Cenzer

I use Metric & multistandard components corp. www.metricmcc.com For all fasterers, taps, dies metric. whitworth, bs, bsp, etc. Len
Len Fanelli

Greg - my lower strap studs are 5/16 BSF.

Terry
Terry Jacobs

Greg,

Mine are 5/16 BSF also. Note again that the T Bodies are all British Standard Fine (BSF), and if a BSF bolt or nut doesn't fit then someone has put the wrong thread on it. You need to get some BSF Taps and dies to rethread many of the body bolts and nuts that the DPO messed up because he didn't know what they were and used the wrong threads everywhere..
Don Harmer

So I don't go broke bying too many taps and dies, could you rcommend what are the most common sizes. Seems to me that the three most common dia's. I have in the beatup old nut/bolt box are 1/4, 5/16, and 3/8.But no clue to the thread size, I guess I should get a BSF thread gage too.
Area that I'm working on is rear wings, tank, floor boards, running boards.
Greg & Grimm
G.J. Cenzer

Greg - the New England MG T Register's restoration handbook has a really good explanation of "Bolts and Nuts MG style". It's a repeat of the Octagon article from August 1973. Probably in the CD as well. It covers all the thread styles used (BSF, BSW, BA, UNF, etc). I found it very useful.

Also, if you (or anyone else on the board) is interested, I created an excel spreadsheet of all the nuts and bolts by section as I was tearing my TF down. It's not complete and I won't guarantee it's accuracy, but I can e-mail it to those interested. I made a simiar offer in January and got about a dozen replies.

To answer your last question, the 1/4 BSF is 26 threads per inch, 5/16 BSF is 22 TPI and 3/8 BSF is 20 TPI. These were the three most common on my car.

Terry
Terry Jacobs

Greg - You should also think about getting a 6 X 1mm, 8 X 1mm and a 10 X 1.5mm tap and die as these are the most common size in the XPAG/XPEG engines. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

To G.E.Love ---- I got my 3/8 BSP tap from MSC. (Manhatten Supply Co.) Not cheap but a good quality tap and available quickly.
Good Luck,
Bob
R. K. (Bob) Jeffers

David, I've got the metric taps that you mention. My left rear wing has no cage nuts left just holes for a nut/bolt/washer, however, my right rear wing has three cage nuts that checkout to be 8 X 1mm. I bought a bolt set from Moss that is supposed to be for attaching wings and running boards and floors and such but they were all just dumped in a plastic bag with no labeling so I'm trying to sort them out as to where I can use them. Greg & Grimm
G.J. Cenzer

Greg,
The rear cage nuts are 5/16 - 22 BSF, 0.3125 in dia;
8 x 1 mm are .3150 in dia and 25.4 TPI
You can cram the 8 mm bolt into a 5/16 nut since the threads are not as deep. Rethread with a BSF tap, and use the 5/16 BSF Bolts in the bag, the ones that are about 1 inch long as I remember.

Remember, the body fasteners are all 1/4-26, 5/16-22, 3/8-20, & 1/2-16 BSF Fasteners with 2BA (0.1850 x 31.4 TPI) for the small size. Because of the different thread shape it is easy to get the wrong thread size with a metric thread gauge.
Don Harmer

I purchased a set of whitworth, metric and UN thread gauges years ago, and you dont know how useful they have been in identifing threads. I also now have a corresponding set of thread files, very handy for cleaning rust or burrs off threads.
Henry

Henry - Does your set of thread files include one for BA threads? If so,where can they be purchased? Thanks - Dave
David DuBois

Never seen or read for sale a BA thread file. Not sure at the moment what the thread angle is for BA. This would be the governing factor, ie if it was possible to use one of the others. Of course BA is such a fine thread as well.
Just read the thread angle for BA is 47 1/2 deg, which makes it different to anything else. I did purchase very cheaply at an autojumble some loose BA dies, which would get through most situations.
Henry

David - Interested to know if you ever find a BA thread file. Some confusion does exist between BA and very small metric screws. Indeed I think some sizes are almost the same regarding number of threads per inch.
Henry

Henry - BA threads are actually a metric thread, but not related to any standard metric screws. And no, Ihave never found a thread file for BA threads, but I keep hoping for one. I do have a complete set of BA taps and dies, which is overkill since 2BA and 4BA are used in 99% of applications. Interestingly a 2BA thread is so close to a standard 10 - 32 American machine screw thread that they can be used interchangably. I have a spread sheet that I compiled from data supplied by Don Harmer many years ago that has all standard threads, American, British and Metric. It has been an invaluable aid to me when working on our cars. If anybody would like to have this spread sheet, e-mail me directly. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Dave
Thanks for the spread sheet. I made sure I saved it this time on the non crashing computer upstairs.
Greg & Grimm
G.J. Cenzer

OK, I'm 68 yrs old dumb, but what is a "thread file".
Now old dimbo here, in the midst of the computer age, goes and does a google search for "thread file" as I was doing it, my brain said to me you are about the biggest idiot in this room (I'm the only one here sept for Grimm), and I'm sure you all can guess what resulted. This refer's to Henry's post above.
Greg & Grimm
G.J. Cenzer

I'm assuming your "google" search resulted in all kinds of computer stuff...and forum messaging methods....
Is a thread file not a triangular file with the same angles as various thread sizes?
gordon lawson - TD 27667

Greg - A thread file is a square file with various threads cut into the sides at each end, thus you end up with 8 different thread pitches on one file. They are wonderful for straightening out minor damage to threads on a bolt. You just run the side with the proper thread on it over the bolt, working it around the entire circumference like trying to file it down and it straightens and/or cleans the threads. It can also be used to determine what the thread pitch is on a unknown bolt. I have them for SAE, metric and BSF threads. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Here you are Greg;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=35625&item=4550174063&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Cheers, Nick 52TD/63midget.
Nick

This thread was discussed between 04/05/2005 and 15/05/2005

MG TD TF 1500 index

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