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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 - Workshop Manual in .pdf form?

I'm looking for a factory Workshop for the TD in .pdf that I can put on my iPad to use in the garage.

I've got several copies of the WSM, both reprints and original, and I can cut one apart (a reprint, I mean :)) to scan it, but would rather not go through the bother if there is one already out there.

Some of the workshop manuals are available from official sources on CD (I've got a Jaguar and a midget one), but I haven't seen one for the TD. I'm not sure if the files would be transferable to iPad in any case.

There is a guy that sells a CD on eBay, and there are various places that charge for a download of the manual, but I'm a little wary of them as at least some don't seem legitimate.

Anyone have a good source for a .pdf form?

David Littlefield

http://www.lbcarco.com/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=lbcarco&o=&a=&mode=booksect&booksect=Manuals+on+DVD

Scroll down. I have one at home, looks like still available. It does say works on Macs running Windows only however, but in .pdf form? I got an ipad for Christmas and frankly wish I had a netbook, as so many things won't run on it! George
George Butz

Thanks, George. I hadn't seen that one before.

Any idea if it would allow me to transfer a file to another computer (iPad in this instance) or whether you have to have the disc in the machine to read the file?
David Littlefield

George,

Try the "Goodreader" app for reading documents on an iPad.

Jim
JE Carroll

I'll try to remember to dig out my disk tonight and see if they seem to be separate .pdf files or exactly what. Likely copywrited, but good to know before you bought one. Thanks for the reading tip Jim. George
George Butz

I have a DVD that I purchased off of Ebay titled "The Original MG TD Companion". It has copies of the worksop manual and other manuals in pdf format.
david kirkpatrick

Got mine here on CD for $ 14.99 (no affiliation):

http://www.greatworkshopmanuals.com/mg-td-and-tf-workshop-manuals.html

It includes other material such as a SU carb manual, production data, history of the TD among others. All in PDF format.

BobbyG
Bobby Galvez

Bobby,
Thanks for that tip. It looks like a good CD and I just ordered one.
Mort
Mort (50 TD "Mobius")

Yes, Mort, I'm happy to have it - on screen the text and drawings are quite clear, the photos are very dark so it isn't as perfect as print. An upside is that you can print the pages you need, and take them to the shop and get them dirty - it's not like messing up an actual manual.

BobbyG
Bobby Galvez

Bobby,

I think that is the one that is for sale on eBay, as well.

Can you identify a .pdf file on the disc and then copy it to another drive/computer? Even if it is a series of files (by chapter, for example)?

I'm looking for something that I can download onto my iPad and take it out to my garage. If it has to work off a CD then I can't do that.

Also, anyone ordering that CD should note that it says it is compatible through Windows XP and says nothing of Vista and Windows 7!!

George has an older MGTD CD with the same problem-- you have to find a machine running XP to use it. I've got a Jaguar one, as well. I do have one machine with XP, though.
David Littlefield

David,

The DVD I have runs on windows 7 without any problem. Also I can open up the individual pdf files without any problem.
david kirkpatrick

The CDs were regular PDFs but they had a DRM (Digital Rights Management -- i.e. anti-copy) "wrapper" around them. The wrapper is what requires XP. I think there is an update from the company that made the wrapper to allow it to work on newer versions Windows. The PDFs are in plain view in the file system of the CD, but you need the DRM wrapper to unlock them for use. The wrapper requires the physical CD to be in the drive -- copying everything to the HD doesn't work.

The bad news is that if you're a Mac person (as I am) or want to put the PDFs on a non-Windows platform, you're screwed. I seem to recall there was a rather involved work-around to extract the PDFs but I don't recall what it was. So my MGC and TD CDs didn't do me much good. :-(

Maybe the DVDs are less restrictive, but I've never seen one so can't say.
Rob Edwards

David Littlefield,

I am using a Windows 7 computer. I copied the files to an external hard drive. They open the same as any PDF does. Go into the file manager, open the directory, find the file, double click and there it is.

It also opens just fine right off of the CD.

Each item on the CD is a single file - for example, the entire TD manual is one file, not a series of files - it isn't broken up into individual files per chapter.

BobbyG
Bobby Galvez

Ok -- you've got something different than what I've got. Mine are the official Heritage CDs. On those, the manuals are broken down by chapter.
Rob Edwards

Rob, thanks for the explanation. It seems that is the type of CD that George and I have (for Midget and Jag).

David K, can you save the information to a different medium, or can you only view the manual with the DVD? Sounds like you have the latest version as found in the LBCarco link George gave initially?

Bobby, thanks for the information. Sounds like that may be my best bet.
David Littlefield

Ok, I think I have the TD shop manual in a loose leaf binder. I can scan that in a few minutes at work.

Question is are there any copyright issues in copying the original manual?

If not, I can do this on a high resolution scanner and make it available in pdf.
Bruce Cunha

Bobby,
Thanks for that ...ordered one this morning for the TF ...and another for one of those "off brands" they had.
David
David Sheward

Bruce,

Good question. I've looked up the US and UK copyright rules and from what I've seen I think this information is now in the public domain. However, I'm far from expert on the matter.

Frankly, I wonder whether there was ever a copyright on this material. I've never seen a notice in the original manuals or reprints, and even contemporary aftermarket manuals brazenly copied illustrations and verbage from the factory information.

The CD that Bobby linked to doesn't look "official," given that there is an official Heritage DVD available. That fellow publishes a lot of manuals on CD at a low price, so I doubt he is paying any royalties. He also says he has been doing this for 10 years, so it seems that he would have been shut down by now if he were violating copyrights. I would expect Ferrari and Nissan would have gone after him, at least.

Barney Gaylord has published the entire MGA Workshop Manual on his website, so I've sent him an email to ask him if he has some assurance or done research that confirms there are no current copyrights on that manual. Surely if the MGA manual is in the public domain, then the MGTD manual would be, as well.

I'll let y'all know what he says...
David Littlefield

If you are not planning to resell, there is no issue anyway.
Dallas Congleton

I've heard from Barney. He believes this information is all public domain at this point, although he points out he is not an expert, either. :)

He says he is not aware of any efforts of anyone to protect a copyright, if it exists. He has had no one contact him about the fact that he has published the MGA manual on his website. Considering there have been no notices and no effort to protect this literature, the likelihood that it has entered the public domain is even greater.

YMMV.

David Littlefield

If I understand this summary of US copyright law correctly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_States#Duration_of_copyright

...a TD manual published in 1951 would either have entered the public domain in 1979 or would be copyright until 2046, depending on whether or not the copyright was renewed after the first 28 year term (1979). My guess as to whether it was renewed would be "probably not". The MGA manual almost certainly not because MG was gone by the renewal date and I'd think what was left of BL by that point was too busy dealing with worker strikes to worry about a bunch of old service manuals for a marque they'd killed off.

That said, even if it was renewed, I doubt seriously SAIC or (maybe BMHT?) gives a rodent's posterior. Of course IANAL....

As an aside, do be aware that copying copyrighted material -- *even if not for resale* -- is a violation of copyright and is potentially prosecutable. Do with that knowledge whatever you'd like. ;-)

I think I'll order that disc Bobby linked to!
Rob Edwards

Rob,
At the risk of sounding like an idiot (something I excell at) ...what would "copyright law of the United States" have to do with something made in the UK?
David Sheward

To protect it in the US, they'd have to register it under US copyright. Similarly, a US work would need to be registered under UK copyright law to be legally protected in the UK. It's the country of the intended market rather than the country of origin that matters.
Rob Edwards

Bruce,

If you get that scanned I'd love to have a copy. I find myself copying pages to scribble on and it would be easier to just print a pdf or, make notes on a Goodreader document.

Jim
fultonarms at aim dot com
JE Carroll

Rob,
Ok ...I get it, must be different with print than with music...that get's covered under an "international copyright lisence" then regulated by each country where sold.
Got a check once in Rubles and Yen...Yen was way more impressive looking than it really was!
David Sheward

Doe anyone know of this "workaround" that get you past the DRM on the original Heritage DVD's.

I have a set ( MGB, TD, etc and can't read them on my machines.

Would appreciate a clue.

Don H.
Don Harmer

The CD that I have can be purchased for $7.83 plus shipping and have the following technical handbooks.

MG TD - the official workshop manual 241 pages

Tuning the XPAG - 4 page supplement

MG TD Special Tuning - Offical publication - 21 pages

Official MG TD parts list - 118 pages

Moss Parts Catalogue - 85 pages

Tuning SU Carburettors - 48 pages, covers routine maintainence, strip down & overhaul, needle sizes, tuning (single & multi carb)

Lucas Maintainence manual 25+ page manual on maintaining Lucas electrics (Lucas publication)

Lucas Fault diagnosis manual - 48 pages

Lucas Testing Manual - 28 pages

Champion Spark Plugs Technical Booklet

Prince of Darkness - find out what makes Lucas products work.
1930 Highway Code - just for your amusement.

The link is http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Original-MG-TD-Companion-/360473207941?pt=UK_CarParts_Vehicles_Manuals_Litterature_ET&hash=item53ede0a485
david kirkpatrick

David L. Yes you can save the pdf file to another medium
david kirkpatrick

Maintainence 25 pages...
Testing 28 pages...
Fault diagnosis 48 pages.

I don't care who you are, that's damned funny!
David Sheward

Here you go Dave. We try for years to get rid of the perception that British Cars need a lot of fixing and you have to go and find that.
Bruce Cunha

It may not be that British cars "need a lot of fixing" but that British cars owners "needed a lot of explaining" ;^)

Dallas Congleton

I too just bought a copy from Great Manuals.

Over the years, I've accumulated a whole lot of data, tips, sketches, e-mails, personal notes, etc that ideally, I'd like to add to the scanned or copied WSM and the parts manual, too; ending up with a "Master" WSM. Right now, they're all stuck between the pages of my WSM and its as fat as a family bible!

I just bought a full copy of Adobe CS6 which includes Acrobat X Pro, and I'm hoping through all of these gyrations, that eventually, I can incorporate all my collected data into my own format pdf.

A couple of years ago, I started to build a database (Paradox) of all parts for just the TD and the TF, with listings for OEM, Moss, and Abingdon Spares part nbrs, plus aftermarket stuff, and cross references to parts for other models (like the front suspension of the MGB fits TD/TF chassis, as an example). I started by scanning a few pages of the factory parts manual, then performing an OCR on the results, then parsing into cells. I worked on a single macro for 2 nights! This turned out to be a nightmare; and was a significantly bigger job than I had imagined, and I abandoned the project. Despite starting this in 2009, had I persisted, I'd probably still be at it!

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A Clark

Googling "combine pdf files" turns up lots of hits. You should be able to scan to PDF and combine them, though as you say they won't be searchable because you haven't run OCR on them. Still better than nothing though.

Google seems to do a good job of it with Google books, but then with Google's budget you'd expect them to do a good job!
Rob Edwards

I wonder whether what Gord is interested in doing is best accomplished with a wiki-like strategy. This would let a number of contributors (perhaps the registered members of this bulletin board) add and edit comments to the original MG factory manual. It would be refined and updated as needed and reflect the accumulated knowledge of the entire community.

While I understand this technology at a macroscopic level, I don't know how to do it at present. Does anyone have expertise in this area and can comment?

Larry
Larry Shoer

"Paradox" - haven't heard that word in many years! Brings back fond memories Gordon!

Wiki sounds like a good idea to me but all that info is scattered around the world (Ttalk, etc.) How to combine it into a wiki - wow?!
efh Haskell

The closest thing I've seen to that idea has involved one very dedicated individual gathering information and keeping it on the web for everyone to access. Examples are mgaguru.com, and, for the Jag XJS, http://www.nettally.com/palmk/jaguar.html.

The wiki idea is great, but execution falls short unless you can get a wide range of people to contribute consistently (difficult, if not impossible) or have a select few dedicated folks cull information and upload it. This BBS is very wiki-like, if you think about, but the missing link is good organization/indexing.

You would think that some of the car clubs would do this, but most clubs seem to consider their technical information proprietary and/or a source of fundraising/memberships. Hence the "lone wolf" types that take it upon themselves to accumulate this info and share it without cost.
David Littlefield

I graduated from Foxpro to Paradox because I preferred the GUI and still do; and for the same reason, I prefer QuatroPro. Most macros are interchangable. And as for that tradegy WORD, well, don't get me started on that! I'm a blueblood WordPerfect user and have been since 1983.

I have dreamed for some time of a single, combined 'Master' WSM and parts manual, together with the Lucas manual (VERY hard to find) and a few other useful documents - all on a CD, but it was obvious that this would be an enormous job.

I'm almost 80 and can't see spending my few remaining years producing such a tome. I might be a hero in the T community, but within a few years, everything would be forgotten.

Ideally, it would encompass all the good stuff in the archives, and these go back to 1995 - that's 17 years.

Nope. For me, I am scanning all data that I want to keep with Photshop, so I can add and re-arrange my entries, and that's as far as I plan to go. I'll leave the final product in my will, to this forum!

I'm facing a similar task with my PA, as documentation is less easily avaiable

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A Clark

Gordon, George Merson, keeper of the TD list, is in the same WordPerfect camp. I've finally developed a technique for 'easily' converting George's wpd file into html for my Ttalk website. If you have some wpd files that you'd like to share on Ttalk, just drop me a line. Bud
Bud Krueger

I contacted the Heritage Trust museum and here is their response regarding the wonderful CD-ROM: "Due to on-going technical issues with CD-ROMs, which our supplier was unable to remedy, we withdrew them from sale at the Heritage Motor Centre in June 2010. We have done our utmost to also inform all other distributors of the situation with the CD-ROMs.

The Heritage Motor Centre licenses its copyright archive material for inclusion into the CD-ROMs but has no knowledge of, or responsibility for, the production of the software.

We do apologise for this inconvenience which, regrettably is beyond our control."
Too bad, just looking at the pre-war stuff is fascinating. Have to drag out the dusty XP machine I guess! They did give me a link to the disk producer, and I'll try to contact them. George
George Butz

Anybody still use WordStar? I still miss the "diamond"!! (Couldn't resist, sorry.)
efh Haskell

FWIW: I have found several things that work better on my old XP than newer systems.
Vista has got to be the worst operating system I have ever seen.
My old Amiga was more robust....and crashed less.

The constant "automatic upgrades" do a great job of rendering programs that "did work" prior to upgrade completly useless.

I get word documents all the time that will not open with Vista (unless I spend $400 on "new version").
I can open them on my XP, save as older version, then "send" them over to Vista machine where they then will work.

If you have an old XP ...maybe the same would work for some of the pdf's ?
David Sheward

My wife and I have XP, my daughter has Vista, and my son has 7.

Vista has to be, without a doubt, the worst system since Windows 95! I hear my daughter screaming "Blue screen of death again" from her room.

When working on a project she saves everything every few minutes. I'd like her laptop to make it through high school but it's not looking good.

One of the members sent me a PDF WS manual. I let an OCR chug away at it for a while and made it searchable. It became a monster file but the search function works well. I have it on my iPad and it's handy.
J E Carroll

The email I sent to the disk producer bounced back, and I was unable to find the company. Likely they are out of business. Maybe someone's teenager could find a work-around for us? George
George Butz

I think they're still around, if the company I found is the right one. Try this:
http://hexalock.co.il/support/faq/?PHPSESSID=93cc64b75ebf66ffa094f2bdfecc0587#What%20is%20the%20compatibility%20of%20HexaLock%20protected%20EXE%20files%20on%20CD%E2%80%99s%20in%20the%20Vista%20Operating%20System?
Rob Edwards

Nothing was worse than Windows ME. I still hold a personal grudge against Mr. Gates because I actually paid for that heap of dung. There are occasionally product updates that you simply need to skip altogether. From Microsoft, Win.ME was one and Vista is another. Fortunately Win7 is all that we hoped it would be and more. Fast and stable, what Vista should have been. The verdict is still out on Win8 but I suspect I will again be skipping a release.
Steve Simmons

Gordon (and everyone),

You speak of a master archive of technical documentation. That's exactly what we are trying to achieve with the ttypes.org Publications archive. Since last year we have collected around 25 documents relevant to MG T-Series cars and made them available to members of our site (membership is totally free). Currently we have:

- 10 MG Car Company Service Information Sheets (with more to add)
- Three period parts lists/catalogues and one modern
- Lockheed Hydraulic Brakes manuals for TABC and TD/TF
- Lucas Maintenance Manual
- MG TA Instruction Manual
- Tuning and Servicing SU Carburetters (Nuffield Press)
- The Horizontal and Downdraught Controllable Jet S.U. Carburetters (SU)
- Spare Parts List for the MG TA/TB
- TF Schedule of Repair and Adjustment Charges
- TA Wiring Diagram
- MPJG Engine Bolts, Studs and Pipe Fittings
- Original Manufacturers' Parts Numbers for MG TA

Obviously we are mindful of copyright; we take a practical stance in that anything which is still readily available in print is not featured in the archive. This includes several BMC publications which we understand a book company acquired the rights to reproduce.

You can download what we have currently gathered at http://ttypes.org/publications/ - you need to login to your ttypes.org account to access the archive. If you don't have one you can register for free on that page; if you've forgotten your details, you can reset your password on that page too.

If anyone has any non-copyrighted MG T-Series technical documents which they think would be good to share with others in the Publications Archive, then that would be great - please get in touch via http://ttypes.org/ttt2/contact
Steve James

Why would anyone go through all that aggravation when you can simply use the original hardcopy service manual? I purchased my manual a month ago, and I'm happy to say it is already covered with oil stains and greasy fingerprints. The hardcopy manual is readable, easy to search, indestructible and very convenient to use. If you need a clean service manual just buy a second copy for you bookshelf!
Corey Pedersen

"The hardcopy manual is indestructible"?

Certainly not the case with the hardcopy for my ridding mower!

Hint: Do not leave the manual on the floor when adjusting deck blade tension! Looked like a newyears eve party in the garage. LOL

I use a pdf version now.
David Sheward

The pdf copy doesn't get dirty (print off a page or two if you need to), the pdf copy fits in your pocket (on your phone, ipad, etc), and you can have _all your manuals_ with you _all the time_ if you want.
Rob Edwards

This thread was discussed between 06/08/2012 and 06/09/2012

MG TD TF 1500 index

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