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MG MGF Technical - several Wep pages added with techy pictures

Hi,
sorry for this little advertising.
I hosted several new pictures to a kind of bi-lingual pages in the techy web.
See if you like
for two pictures of a crunched MGF which I recently try to purchase as base for several spareparts (i.e. engine with 300km on the clock)
http://home.t-online.de/home/mgfcar/kaputt/index.htm

Short gearknob
http://members.tripod.de/MGF/gearstick/index.htm

My unlucky try to change the lower balljoint at the front wishbone
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/7983/ball_joint/index.htm

The other pages will be sorted soon in the same kind of style, because I've now a Webaccount at my Bad Hersfeld location :))

Cheers
Dieter
http://mgf.tech.here.de
Dieter

Cool pictures Dieter - I've been thinking about shortening my gear stick, and now I know how.

The crunched MGF is a bit of a grim reminder not to go too mad on the roads.

Stefan
Stefan Gibney

Dieter, I am not sure that you would be too popular for parking that hulk on your drive way ;o) LOL

Good idea though- loads of bits there that could be used and experimented upon... might you sell some bits to fellow F'ers?

Good pages!

Rob
Rob Bell

great pictures Dieter, the modified gear stick looks very short :-) there must be a considerable increase of effort required to change gear.
paul

>Good idea though- loads of bits there that could be used and experimented upon... might you sell some bits to fellow F'ers?

Rob, both ... of course. :-)
mine are the leather seats, door pods, the side mirror, carpets, T-bar, rims, the mpi engine gearbox and 4 pcs HYDRAGAS-UNITS ;-). the rest.. lets see.
Do you need something ? :o)

Also the rest of the car will be not parked in the road anywhere but at the mashine workshop of Matthias in Cologne.

I just discussed this afternoon with our friend Matthias about some research on the hydragas substitution by springs. Carl waits still for the measures and dimensions. Now in this recent lucky case we have two complete subframes (front side is broken) for this explorations.
A lot of things possible, ehhy ?

But the best will be the price for this nice hulk. :)))))
I better keep silent on the price, cause the final purchase isn't perfect recently, but hopefully tomorrow.

Cheers
Dieter
Ps. some broken links on the webpages will be fixed soon :)
Dieter

Hi Paul,

I also had my gearstick shortened, and I would recommend it to everyone! The gear-change is done with a bit more effort, but it feels a lot better! And the good looks is a reason on its own! My dealer is currently experimenting with a shortened AND slightly bent backwards stick!! Well, they are finally waking up!!

Cheers
Markus
Markus

Hi Dieter & Markus,

Do you know if it's possible to shorten the gearstick and re-fit the Momo MG gearknob ? (threaded inside)
I thought it wasn't possible, but I see Carl's standard gearknob on a shortened stick...

Thanks,

Fabrice
Fabrice

You can shorten the gear stick and retain the threaded knob, just leave about 3/6" of thread on the stick. I thought about re-threading the shorter stick but it meant removal of the mechanism which is alot of bother. I cut mine right down, (put a cloth around the stick to stop swarf getting into the mechanism) three attempts so as I didn't go too short, and it does make a difference in asthetics and for a slicker change with just a little more effort required.
Go and do it.
John.
Ps. Just fitted some anodised allu locking pins on the doors. £3 from local parts shop. Look good.
JFK

I am sure it is possibel to refit a Momo threaded gear knob Fabrice, but it may require you to remove the lever assemby from the car and access to a lathe and some thread cutting dyes (?sp)

Dieter, well, yes, now you come to mention it, there may be couple of thngs I might acquire off you! I may need the fascia heater vents for starters, plus the rear fog switch and... okay okay, I'll put a list together! Are you meeting up with the Treffen again this year?

Rob
Rob Bell

Dieter wrote "I just discussed this afternoon with our friend Matthias about some research on the hydragas substitution by springs. "

Techspeed had a car on their stand at Silverstone that had had it done. Don't know the details of how/what they did, but I'm sure someone will :-)

Who knows what the insurance companies in the UK would make of that kind on "modification"....

Neil.
NNW49
Neil

Fabrice: I got my Momo removed, stick shortened and Momo refitted without probs.

To Dieter: you mean that MGF wreck only drove 300kms ???????????? Oops... Seems like a real dumbo must have driven it then.
Dirk Vael

or did it "fall off the back of a lorry" :-)

Neil.
Neil

Dirk

I think you might be a little hard on the driver as it seems to have been rear and front ended.

This happened to me many years ago:- car in front stops, I stop, car following doesn't even slow down and only stops when he rear ends me, the force shoves me forward and I rear end the poor sod in front.

Result:- very much like the photo of the *F* only in my case it was an Austin A30 that I was driving and I was only carrying third party insurance so I had to sue the guy for repairs, luckily loads of witnesses.

Ted
Ted Newman

Thanks JFK,
it's the answer I was waiting for ...
By " 3/6" thread left ", do you mean half an inch ? So, about 1 cm left will be OK ?
BTW, do you have the original gearknob or the Momo one ?

thx,

Fabrice

Hacksaw next WE !
Fabrice

Doesn't look like a rear-ending to me - if it had been pushed forward hard enough to do that much damage to the front then the middle of the rear would be stoved in. Looks more it's had a spin and knocked the corners, or even a light roll.

Mike
Mike Bees

Ted, thought about that too, but like Mike I think the rear has not sustained enough damage to make the front get so crippled, so I guess he hit something left front first and spun anticlockwise a 180° to hit with left rear something else. Not a light roll I think, rear mirror and softtop would be crushed.
BTW, both MG badges removed aswell as rear screen and it looks even aerial got nicked ... Dieter's first vulture-alike mission? ;)
Dirk Vael

Unfortunately I was 'speaking' from experience and whilst 99% of the time I would not argue with Mike Bees prognosis or ??% of the time with Dirk:-) my A30 looked like that.

I had stopped, released foot brake but not applied hand brake, the other guy hit me and catapulted me forward without too much damage to the rear of my car (or even the front of his car) but the chap in front had applied his hand brake so was more of a block and as a consequence the rear of his car and the front of my car took the brunt.

BUT as I said 'it looked like'

Only the guy or gal driving can tell us exactly what happened.

Ted
Ted Newman

Welcome back Dieter :)
Dot

Hi,

so much to answer. ...

Rob
>I'll put a list together..
Got it. :) lets see. The vents where already in my plans of customising them with 'wood paint', also the dash and instrument frame. But there will be enough left at last from my own car.

> Are you meeting up with the Treffen again this year?
Jep, I think so. If I get no holidays I quit that new job (just kidding)

Change of hydragas to spring.
>Who knows what the insurance companies in the UK would make of that kind on "modification"....

The same here with our TUEV. It will get very interesting to get it released. Surely not this year.
BTW.. where is Paul ? for a Techspeed report ? :))

The wreck.
> Seems like a real dumbo must have driven it then.

It happend in late January. On an icy or wet road. A left spin only for about 180 deg.++ as Dirk supposed. A clear hit at the front (cooler crunched) and then only small hits at the right and rear. RH side door looks a bit flat but I guess the LH Door is OK... including the mirror.
The Softtop is OK. The car had a hardtop assembled that time and the pre-owner took it off for his own after the insurance company wrote the car off in March as a wreck. I guess the official repairworks can be app 18 to 20k DM. So I've to pay 'not so much' for the wreck. Obviously the new engine doesn't count much in the insurance calculation. So its worth to get it in for me just if I only would take the engine and the seats.

I saw the front wheels, inner side much worn ... may be that was one of the reasons for his spin.

>Only the guy or gal driving can tell us exactly what happened.
Hope to meet or call him (her?) and I'll ask special for the engine change reason.

BTW its VIN is (was) ;-))
+++++++++
+ 29593 +
+++++++++
(born January 98, buried 2000)

Anyway, be sure, you'll see each interesting detail of the car on picture websides asap ;-))

Dot, thanks, it got a bit stressy at weekends only on the net.

Have fun
Dieter
PS. need a very large hacksaw :)
Dieter

Fabrice,
I actually cut off all the tread because I got a knob that is retained by three grub screws on the stick, I think its a Momo, Otherwise just leave about 15mm of thread so the new knob has something to screw onto and perhaps use Loctite to stop it spinning round.
John.
JFK

>>I saw the front wheels, inner side much worn ... may be that was one of the reasons for his spin.<<
>>born January 98, buried 2000)<<

So they must have been messing around with the mileage-meter, because 300 km seems extremely low for such an age and tyre-wear.

Cheers,
Luc
Luc

Luc,
the engine milage isn't the cars milage, cause its a new replaced one. I'm also sure that the front tyres are not the first (no standard Goodyear, but tyres with that 'V'-form profile, uni-directional tyres). You may know which brand that is.
No idea recently how much miles the rest of the car has. Hope to know more this weekend when the deal takes place.

d.k
Dieter

Hi,
a sad story for the former owner has got a lucky one for me :-))

I got the wreck !! and disassembled together with my son most of the interior on saturday.
A great surprise for me was a look at the heavy bended front cooler area and then a quick view under the dashboard.. *g*. An aircon is also installed in the wreck. The front cooler is broken, but the other parts seam OK.

All disassembled parts are stored in my garage now. The chassis with the surely more difficult to remove engine, gearbox, brakes, subframe etc. will be moved to a friends mashine workshop next weekend. The works will go on then. The only non-hurt metalwork is the LH door.

May be of interest for all. I was told by my dealer that the car had a 'flew off' from a motorway at topspeed (200km per hour). At first it crashed against the right sides motorway 'Leitplanke' (german motorways metal boarder) and then back on the motorway against the left 'Leitplanke', it was pushed back to the right side again and then over the 'Leitplanke' to the outer area of the motorway. We found a lot of small wood pieces (6cm diameter) special in the front bonnet, right door and in the right hand air intake.
The right side door is IMO a very interestiong object, cause its bended around the inner frame pipe of this door. I have some doubts on the stated speed, but if its true then I get a lot of new trust in our MGF passiv impact systems and stability of the security cabin !!
I think Garreth found it also in his last years accident.
A first check indicated that the belts are OK. (explosion SRS things not blown).

VIN SARRDWBGMWD029593
-born* October 1979
-got a new engine on 2nd December 99 at a milage of 52.276km :-))))))))
-buried+ December 28th, 1999 after 52.550 km lucky riding

New pictures are added to the far above stated webside.

Funny is the insurance report of the accident car. They state about 980 hours for the cars repair. So non repairable. The report states also on 6 pages all required parts including the parts numbers and prices and also the required worksteps (times). :-))
The wheelhouse cover LH CLF101330 for 17 GBP i.e... +VAT

A lot input of data and material. I beleave I'll get never rid of this MGF feaver now ... LOL

Follow up on next weekend.
Let me know if special parts pictures should be taken.

Cheers
Dieter
Dieter

Dieter,

>>May be of interest for all. I was told by my dealer that the car had a 'flew off' from a motorway at topspeed (200km per hour).<<

Did you find some blood ?

Oops, sorry folks for this politically incorrect question, but I just wondered whether the driver walked away from the crash. Crashing at 200 km/h is normally noyt quite healthy. This car is still one piece (mostly) and didn't flip over and the driver survived the blast! Quite an achievement at such speed.

Cheers,
Luc
Luc

Luc,

no 'stains' :) but speed things get clearer a bit. There should exist a police calculation of the speeds from brake and sharping traces).
The first hit on the right accoured at 160km per our flat to the motorways metal boarder. So he had decreased speed by braking or what.
Recently nothing more known. Unfortunately the drivers address isn't valid any longer (could not find him in a phone book) .. no guesses please, Ooops ..

Just an idea on the VIN marked chassis without any part that can be screwed off.
Is any honest MG enthusiast out there who collects registration papers and the according rest metalwork for a small price ??
The car surely can be rebuild in several years and sold then for hundreds of pounds :))

Cheers
Dieter
Dieter

>>There should exist a police calculation of the speeds from brake and sharping traces). <<

That's my engineering thesis at the university ...
Often long calculations for very poor results !
Fabrice

Dieter
I have just seen your pics regarding the lower suspention ball joint, is it not possible to remove the rivets by grinding the heads off and then drive them out with a punch.
paul

Hi Paul,

good idea, may be. I didn't try it, but will have a look.
If possible then only from under the car.
I had a lot of 'respect' from the rivets, cause the heads looked a bit large. Their diameter is about 13 mm.
The true diameter of the rivets is only 8mm (I saw that later when I got the spare part.)

If the rivets heads can be grindet off then three other little risks can occur.
At first the punching can fail if the rivets are set in 'hot'. (means that their outer diameter got a kind of weldet to the hole.
The second is that the lower triangle part of the ball joint needs to be moved sidewards out of the lower wishbone. This can work or may be not work .
And at last the bolt which clamps the ball joint does still have this sh*t interference with the opposite sitting one of the tension bars assembly.

You see I'm to much in fear to make failures (in German = 'Feigling').
If I fail, oh oh, then the car needs to be carried to a dealer.
And that would bring my good old friends there to ROFLs that I would never forget :-)))

I'm sorry, IMO this works require a large scissor jack which can carry the whole car and which allows to release the complete front subframe.

Anyway, I'll have look, though. :)

Regards
Dieter

Dieter

This thread was discussed between 02/07/2000 and 15/07/2000

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