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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Type 9 numbers

Has anybody got a link or reference to de-code the type 9 gearbox tag numbers?
GuyW

Guy,
is this helpful?

Flip
Flip Brühl

Thanks Flip. I have that article, but had forgotten about it! It may help, though I was hoping that the tag code would give me a quick answer.

The story is that 20 years or so ago I acquired 7 or 8 of these gearboxes when they were plentiful in local scrapyards. Over the years I have used or sold most on and now cannot remember which car this box comes from. Time for a sort out!
GuyW

I wish I’d acquired 7 or 8 of them when you could pick them up for £50!

The last one I bought (for £50) in 2007 I sold for what I thought was a good price in 2013 for £160. It was a good one so would probably have been worth 2 or even 3 times that now.
John Payne

I asked bgh geartech about those tags Guy, and the brains there, the old boy, told me the tag wasn't much for telling you anything. Which made me wonder what it was for if not to id either the contents or which car it fitted.
anamnesis

Time to 'open the box'
and start counting some gear teeth.
GuyW

If you just want to know which cars those PDFs help and various links.

https://www.type9gearbox.co.uk/type-9-variations.html

I know you have a copy of attached (just to remind you too) and perhaps others that don't already might want it.
Nigel Atkins

Thanks Nigel
GuyW

No problem. Unfortunately even measuring the length of the sticky-out rod bit (to 16ths of an inch of course) doesn't help you will have to unscrew covers and get dirty counting teeth which I know you'd normally do your best to avoid.

Wear armoured gloves and other protective wear as there could be rank liquids and smells and very sharp slices of metal, or blunt fingertip trap, hazards. Perhaps you have or can put together a counting device for the teeth rather than a hand held pointy stick that could foul the mechanisms and risk personal injury.

Some sort of input /output rotational count might be safer, take care.

Nigel Atkins

Thanks Nigel. Heeding your advice I built a miniaturised drone which I inserted via the filler plug and controlled via my smartphone to navigate through the labyrinthine internals of the type 9 inspecting and counting gear teeth and syncromesh rings. Investigation all done now.

I still wonder what the code numbers on the tag all mean.
GuyW

Nice to see you back in action Nigel, you've been a tiddle quiet of late
hope all's well
willy
William Revit

Willy,
don't tell me you've also forgotten my recent internment excellent posts here and on Bs. Not being able to reference the good books does limit my participation.

Actually, thinking about it I've not seen (noticed?) Dave O'Neill post recently.
Nigel Atkins

Guy,
I'll take it that you have the training and licence to operate a drone, ahemmm.
Nigel Atkins

Nigel, I hold to the inalienable basic freedom of the right of an individual to do what he likes within the privacy of his own gearbox.
GuyW

I tried to find information on the numbers cast on the boxes but got nowhere slowly, what little I did find, if I did, I've totally forgotten.

I do know you only need to top up the oil as the box is lubricated for life.
Nigel Atkins

Oil filing is very confusing (and I'm still confused) because the oil filler plug can be found at differing heights up the side, on different gearboxes. Different sources say different things about the correct oil level but they rarely say what version of gearbox. e.g. some say put in 1.25 litres, some say put in till it's level with the filler plug, some even say fill to 15mm below the filler plug!! No idea how you would do that!!!
Rob
MG Moneypit

Early boxes said to fill to 12mm below the orifice. You were supposed to measure this with a bit of bent wire. Later gearboxes then lowered the filler plug level by 6mm, but maybe different gear sets also occupied (and displaced) different volumes of oil. Anyway, unless you had leaky seals you shouldn't need to know anything about such technical issues as it was "factory filled and forget".
GuyW

Rob,
it was 1.9 litres for 2WD and 1.25 litres for 4WD - yet the PDF I attached previously has that the filler plug is 4mm(?) lower to reduce the oil to 1.6 litre.

And Haynes (and whenever have they been wrong) have it as up to 1987 1.9l and from 1987 1.25l, with boxes up to April 1985 20-25mm below filler hole and boxes from April 1985 0-5mm below filler hole.

Lots of confusing info.

Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 09/01/2022 and 11/01/2022

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