Mostly, But Not All MG’s

Changing the clutch pedal shaft & bushings

Changing the clutch pedal shaft & bushings

The new owner knocked down this very attractive MG TD over the summer at the Owls Head Museum Auction.  He drove it a little and then asked us last fall to sort a few things out, which we’re starting to do now in earnest.  This car is nearly as nice underneath as it looks on the outside.  I wish I’d had the opportunity to see it before the repaint, the golden patina of use never sprays back on.

The clutch linkage was showing every bit of its 60 years, and on a TD or a TF when you can wave the brake pedal side to side an inch or two it’s time for some remediation.

new and old clutchshaft & pedals

New and old clutch shaft & pedals

It seems as if we did this job every other month last year.  The clutch shaft (new one in the foreground) pivots in a couple of bushings in the frame adjacent to the brake master cylinder.  The clutch pedal is (woodruff) keyed to the shaft and the brake pedal rides on the shaft in it’s own bushing.  You can see the difference in the I.D. between the new one on the left and the old one not yet pressed out of the pedal.

There’s a grease fitting on the shaft that can make these components last forever, but most people seem to ignore it.

replacing differential thrust washers

Replacing MGB differential thrust washers

Another routine fiddly task performed here this week was the replacement of the differential spider gear thrust washers in an MGB tube type axle.  These are the gears that allow the two rear wheels to turn at different speeds and they’re a high wear item in this axle for some inexplicable reason.  You can do ’em right in the car in a couple of hours if you’re reasonably careful, no exotic special tools required.

Just drain the axle and pop off the rear hubs and the brake backplates and tug the axle half shafts just out of engagement with the differential gears.  Then take off the diff. cover, knock the roll pin out of the cross pin for the spider gears and drive the cross pin out about half an inch, so it doesn’t get stuck in the nose of the diff. housing, rotate it 180 degrees and pull the pin out.  Now the spider gears will easily come away with whatever is left of the thrust washers.  Install your new thrust washers and reverse the procedure.

Friday last we went to move yet another MGB in from the barn for a lookover.  My stars, wern’t we confused, we couldn’t budge the car at all.  It was as if it was frozen in gear, which in fact it was.  This car was caught out in Hurricane Irene, apparently.  What follows is some extremely rare video courtesy of John with voice-over commentary by Butch.  Click and Enjoy !   IMG_0342

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