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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 - Progress Report on 51 MG

As I've been posting stuff on a variety of issues, I thought I'd put it all together and let anyone interested know what progress I've made since getting the MG down to Tucson.

Brake lines and hoses replaced, cylinder kits fitted, rotors turned, brake system bled... 95% functional, needing some road testing

Dash panel sub frame rebuilt, glued, varnished - as strong as before it was cut and chopped by POs

Bracket added to strenghthen dash in the center

LH side drivers floor wood panel cut, varnished and fitted

Handbrake rebuilt

Dash routed to allow for instrument lighting (don't know why it wasn't done before, the work was carried out by a professional shop in Colorado)

Dash wiring replaced where needed (the instrument light wiring was horrifying). LEDs fitted to ig warning and petrol tank warning lamps.

All dash instruments disassembled, cleaned, reassembled. Oil gauge housing sanded primed and painted, ditto instrument light brackets and instrument brackets.

Clock wired

Intake manifold cleaned filed sanded and polished and helicoils used to fix stripped screws

air filter wire brushed and repainted

Carbs 90% rebuilt

She's running too rich but running evenly, all electrics except turn signals and heater working 100%.

I've also done a LOT of cleaning. I'm thinking I can fix her up nicely and run around for about 5 years before knuckling down to a frame-up restoration... and in the meantime I'll be slowly and systematically fixing up the rubber and chrome to 100%... as well as rebuilding the weather top.

That's all for now, folks (hope this is of interest to others, tell me if it's not appropriate!)
Washer motor undergoing repair
G M Baker

Geoff-
"LEDs fitted to ig warning" Not sure this is a good idea. The flow of juice through the resistive load of the filament gives changes in the lamp brightness as things happen, not sure you would still be able to use it for diagnostics with a LED. Certainly for guys using alternators (other cars maybe) this would not be a good thing at all, since it is that current that excites the alt.

PS - Your emails never showed up. I scurried around and figured out how to find the spam can - it's through Gmail - and they are not in there either. Other people have emailed me recently from my posted e-address, so that must be good. So you may be loosing emails you send, or I am being persecuted!

FRM
FR Millmore

The petrol warning lamp is just on/off, but the ignition lamp isn't...
I find LEDs just don't look right...too bright/blue/something...
You must be negative ground?
gblawson(gordon)

Geof,

>>Brake lines and hoses replaced, cylinder kits fitted, rotors turned, brake system bled... 95% functional, needing some road testing<< Has this car been converted to disk brakes ?????

SPW

Steve Wincze

I don't even like LED christmas lights. LOL. Honestly, I'm been using the same bulbs in those locations in my car for over 25 years, so I'm not sure that LED would pose much of an advantage over the original system.

Over Thanksgiving I'm hoping to write a paper on carb tuning with step by step instructions. Probably post it on my website.

You have a washer motor???

warmly,
dave
Dave Braun

Dave that carb tuning instruction e-book would be great.

OK,

Wiper motor, not washer :)

I meant turning the wheel, or whatchamacallit, not the rotors. I don't have disk brakes - now there is an interesting mod!

I got involved with LEDs on my biodiesel motorbike, because I was powering an entire bike system including a 3200 lumen HID headlamp - about 3 times brighter than standard - off of a tiny alternator from a diesel generator engine. I like them because they use as little as 1/70 the draw of a normal incandescent. On older cars, every little bit of juice you DON'T have to use is a good thing, as systems age and resistance increases and performance decreases. So I'm a convert. I used non-polarized bulbs in the ig warning and petrol warning lamp so they work with a positive ground (and I'm thinking of converting the rest of them to polarized hi-output strip LEDs which would put more light into the instruments where you want them... but to run with polarized, I'll have to do some rewiring there.)

FRM, I'll look into the issue of LED in the ig lamp - but I'm pretty certain that changes in voltage affect most LEDs brightness as well - in many cases across a much broader range of intensity. So I think it will work.

Re your email FRM ... send me an email at geoffreybaker at cox dot net and I will respond, maybe it would work that way? But I've emailed to your listed address twice now without luck. Could be that your ISP has a spam filter before stuff even gets to your machine... and sometimes those spam filters work on pretty innocuous stuff, like the word "free" can set them off...

G M Baker

Gordon,
The sending unit in my TF fuel tank may not be the correct one, but the “low fuel” light definitely increases in brightness as the fuel level starts to drop below 2 gal.
David werblow

the Fuel sender is def just an on off, at least on my TD. I just hope it works once I get this all back together.
l rutt

Since I just redid the seals and checked the sender operation on my TD, here's a photo of the on/off mechanism for the dash warning light.

Dave


D Runnings

Nice photo Dave. Can I add it to my website? Of course, I'll credit you as the photographer. In fact, if you have a larger sized photo, that would be great.

I knew from experience that my sender was fine... so I never removed it nor dissassembled it. Boy would I have been suprised if the darn thing had packed it in over the years I restored Tommy.

warmly,
dave
Dave Braun

The better LED in the fuel light.. Some LEDs change color at the diff. volts.. not just on or off.. could be very distracting..
MGrogan

David W. I think that the dimming/brightness is caused by the pucker factor. It squeezes the eyeballs .
Those senders for the TC/TD/TF are simply off and on.
Sandy
SANDY SANDERS

Dave,

No problems with the photo. I'll send you the higher res ones off-line.

Dave
D Runnings

This thread was discussed between 23/11/2009 and 24/11/2009

MG TD TF 1500 index

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