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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Oil gauge connection

I had a four-foot steel braided line made to go from the connection on the original MGB V8 oil pump base to the connector at the firewall (bulkhead). Although the fittings seem to match, they leak where the British and American threads join.

I thought of getting a new ten-inch hose, another connector and two of the lines that run from the connector to the gauge. The plan would be to cut the gauge fittings off the two new pipes and join them with generic barrel fitting. Connect one end of the modified line to the existing connector at the firewall and route the pipe to the new connector mounted to the body near the oil pump base. The ten-inch hose would bridge the gap to the engine mounted oil pump base.

Anyone else care to say how you got a leak free connection to the mechanical oil pressure gauge?
George Champion

George, I had this problem ... if you can just have the threads re-tapped (I think I had mine made both American) it won't leak. Cost equals <1 6-pack.

You bring up an interesting side issue: is there easy any way to rig up an electric OP sender? I have that silly tube too and I'd kinda like to get rid of it. Works alright, though.
Harry

The answer is to get a 5 foot stainless braided line that goes from the oil pump base all the way to the oil guage.

Several suppliers stock them but try the MGB Hive in the UK.
Chris Betson

Get an AN braze on fitting and solder it to the end of the copper tube coming out of the gauge. Then you can hook up your stainless line without leaks. By the way, it seems that the threads on AN fittings are the same pitch as the British threads. An AN male union will thread into outlets such as master cylinders, slave cylinders, etc. and enable you to use stainless lines easily in these places.
Bill Young

George,
I'm not quite sure from your description what you have in mind but I also had the goal of achieving a high quality braided steel hose connection to the oil pump base when I did my conversion and I achieved it like this:

I used Earl's dash 3 hose and fittings for the whole length of pipe from the pump to the gauge.The way to use aircraft type plumbing is always to use the correct adaptor(male to male etc) to convert the threads to AN spec. You can purchase BSP to AN adaptors locally made over here so that we can get use that nice Earl's stuff...
I seem to remember that I used a UK made BSP right angle swivel fitting onto the std BSP adaptor on the pump base-I then brought this up adjacent to the oil filter and along over the top of the fuse boxes where I used swivel fittings and a male to male dash 3 adaptor to create an inline joint should I need to just take the gauge out. This then passes through the rubber bung, behind the master cylinders and goes onto the back of the gauge, with a UK made BSP swivel fitting ,which is specially modified with a flat mating face to match that on the threaded brass stub on the back of the gauge. You bolt his lot up in conjunction with a fibre washer,(fitted over the small register in the centre of the brass gauge stub), or a really thin small Dowty seal if you can find one. I can get hold of these fittings if you want some-they are sold for use with other LBCS eg Minis TRs etc. These fittings are meant be be fully compatible with the Earls Dash 3 hose.
You also MUST heat shrink sleeve the braided hose any where near wiring as it will chafe through any wires resting against it and short through the braiding! I also use those nice rubber lined P clips to firmly grip the lines to prevent them moving about in the first place. My combination fitted up without any leaks first time or any time since.

Hope this helps

Regards

John Bourke
John Bourke

Harr, I installed an electronic oil pressure gauge from VDO in my car . No nessy oil lines just a wire to connct. Cheap and very good readings at night.Look in the Summit catalog.
rner
Werner Van Clapdurp

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Sometimes simple solutions like rethreading the BSP connectors or soldering the connections just never occur to me. The brass connector is partly rethreaded from the hose anyway. I’m not sure if the steel connector at the oil pump base can be rethreaded, the aluminum oil pump base could, but I cringe at the thought of messing up that part!

The BSP and AN fittings do look alike and feel right when attached, yet leak so they must be different. BTW I’m guessing BSP stands for British Standard Pipe and AN stands for American Notbritishstandardpipe. I could be wrong on that second one.

The five foot hose from B-Hive sounds like an easy solution, like the hose I had made up, but with the correct fittings.

Another expensive and ugly idea I had was to cut a standard ten inch hose and put AN fittings on it to work as adaptors to the existing piece I had made.

Nobody described the MG solution, which changed during production. The first cars had a rigid lines from the oil filter base back to the gauge. Looking at a dealer parts catalogue, there is a short piece of hose connecting two rigid lines along the side just behind the fuse box. Later cars had the oil pressure take off on the oil pump base and a short rigid line connected to this. This line again apparently had a hose clamped to it, but I haven’t figured out how long it was nor where it connected.

Before I saw the illustrations, I figured a standard ten-inch hose was connected to the oil pump base with the other end attached to a connector like the one on the bulkhead/firewall. A rigid line would link the two brass connectors. That’s how I thought it worked and that’s how I was thinking about doing it, but replacing the single line (I thought was used) with two scrounged from Left Hand Drive cars where the pipe from the connector to the gauge is four or five feet long. I was planning on using two lines because I wasn’t sure one would be long enough and the end next to the gauge is incompatible. I planned to connect the two cut ends with a compression fitting. Everyone else had much less complicated suggestions.

Someone local suggested removing the ends from an old hose and clamping them into a new piece of high-pressure hose. If the factory used hose clamps, then I guess converters can also. This would even be a good idea for a spare.
George Champion

AN stands for "army-navy"--you're right, though, BSP stands for British Standard Pipe.

Wayne
Wayne Pearson

This thread was discussed between 28/01/2001 and 05/02/2001

MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical index

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