Bill:
Your comments about the fit of parts on the MGA had some good
points, yet also some bad points. First, I do admire your perserverance
and spirit. In many cases the factory did do a lot of hand fitting of
parts, true. But many problems today are due to tolerance drift and
just plain shoddiness and lack of care. Ok, that said. What can the
LBC owners of the world do. Don't get angry, don't label a part "a
piece of s***". Write down, in detail the problem you are having. Then
send by either e-mail or snail the information to the vendor.
There are many reasons for parts not fitting. In the case of
this u-joint, I know of at least 3 different brands. The differences
are really small. But they make all the difference in fitting.
Nominally all the joints are the same size. To keep prices competitive,
the purchaser tends to buy the cheapest part that will fit. Emphasis on
those last 3 words. Without feedback, the purchaser will continue to
buy defective parts blissfully ignorant of the curses ringing out from
owner's garages. Trying to keep parts available for our little friends
is a difficult, frustrating job. Just when you find a source, someone
junks the tooling. Just when you get a design right, the "soft" tooling
starts to wear out. How many of us have found the perfect machine shop,
that gets everything just so? Then you go back a month later and the
place is deluged with orders and quality went out the window. Imagine
that kind of problem on an international scale dealing with small batch
manufacturing plants. Anyways, the point is if you have a problem, let
the vender know, preferably in writing. Many times the problem is known
and they can offer a solution.
In other news. Regarding MGB radiator hoses.
Moss motors has access to the original Dunlop GRH305 upper/lower
radiator hoses for the earli'ish car. Unipart cranked the price into
the stupid range, but for those who want the real thing (money where
mouth is :) ask for a GRH305 to be transferred in. The repro hose Moss
sells does look ok, I'm putting one on my BGT for a long term test.
More news. BHA5292 ignition electrical switch for MGB/Midget
73-80. The little black one, is now being repro'd and on the shelf. I
tried the pre-production sample and it worked well. I'm keeping my
fingers crossed that it stays that way in production. Moss #263-690
Kelvin.
William Eastman wrote:
>
> Well, I failed to get the MGA together last night. The steering u-joint
> from Moss was about .010 inch to wide to fit into the yokes. The caps were
> a little loose in the yokes but not bad enough to shim.
> with u-joints that work. This person was a highly skilled u-joint
> assembler and could probably tell by feel whether a cross was too wide for
> the yoke at hand. The result was a beautifully functioning u-joint with no
> chance for ever being rebuilt from mass produced parts.
>
> I have read that the whole MGA was built that way and that is why it can be
> such a challenge to restore. MGA are high quality because of the effort
> from the final assemblers, not the precision of the parts used to build
> them. Today we use the same approach on artificial heart valves. The
> machines get them close then highly skilled artisans hand select and finish
> mating parts so that they work perfectly.
>
>
> Then there is always the chance that Moss just sells a part that doesn't
> fit. The morale of the story? If I had the time, I may have tried buying
> a u-joint from someone else to see if it fit better. Otherwise just always
> be prepared for some hand fitting when replacing MG parts.
>
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