MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

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 MGA - Wear in SU choke levers

The SU brass levers have oversize holes for the clevis pins. I think the holes are circular when new but the holes in my levers have worn quite elliptical and I'm wondering if this matters since there's some slack built into the mechanism and does it matter if there's a bit more. Some of the slack can be taken out by adjustment of the choke cable. Has anyone tried making good back to circular with lead?
J H Cole

Lead is softer than brass, so any gain would be short lived.
Bill Haglan

I think you will find they are supposed to be elliptical, have a search on Barney and he will have all the information you need
dominic clancy

Drill the worn hole out oversize. Solder in a brass dowel. Drill the new hole. Done.
Chuck Schaefer

Dominic, they look circular from pictures on Barney's and the Burlin web site. Has anyone got a good arm that they can measure the internal dim, or it may be possible to take an unworn dim from my arm. I like Chuck's re-sleeving suggestion as it seems very simple.
J H Cole

Dominic is right. Some of the holes are deliberately elongated, not worn.

Art Pearse

There are originally no elongated holes. Only the one hole is oversize round (but I don't recall the diameter).
Barney Gaylord

The current ones certainly have round holes but I am sure I have seen oval holes as well, the spec may have changed over the years.

Either way it really does not matter, it does not affect the function of the levers.
Chris at Octarine Services

Chris is correct. Both my AKD1055 Service Parts List and Workshop manual clearly show obround holes. So at some time they must have been that way. But again, it makes no functional difference.
Chuck Schaefer

But are we talking about two different things, original slotted holes with the dimension on the major axis to a specified design size as opposed to later round holes to that same dimension that become worn to an oversize oval?
John DeWolf

I can't be 100% sure but I think my holes started off as circular which caused me to raise the issue. Car is a Mk2
J H Cole

I think the oversized hole gives enough play in the mechanism to (when properly adjusted), when pulling the choke cable it first operates the fast idle cam and then it pulls down the jet for enrichment.

If it was round or elongated, I don't now.
Willem van der Veer

I have attached a photo of an unused one that I purchased from Moss UK a couple of years ago.

I measured the hole and it is 5/16 or 8+mm. What I mean by 8+mm is that an 8mm drill bit is a loose fit through it.

As 40 year plus MGAer from memory they do wear oval and I am pretty sure that I have seen them worn completely through.

Should be out in the A today but it is just so wet here today (even by Scottish weather standards)

I hope this helps.

Paul

Paul Dean

Cole--I experienced the exact same observation when I rebuilt my SU's. So I ordered new parts from Moss. What I got was hardly any better than what I already had.

I think Chris is right.

--Jack
JM Morris

Here is a scan from the Service Parts List. It clearly shows the original design as obround.(elongated hole). I seem to recall something like this, but admittedly, it may have been on some other SU setup.

Chuck Schaefer

Chuck, accepting that early levers may have been elliptical if they changed to circular later on I doubt whether MG would have bothered to change the graphic.
J H Cole

I bought a pair of brass levers from Moss a few years ago and they were very poorly made. I returned them and ordered a pair from Burlen which were perfect. I always buy SU parts from Burlen now. Burlen/SU is one of the few(perhaps the only) parts companies for our cars that have their parts manufactured to the original SU drawings with their specified dimensions and tolerances...............Mike
m.j. moore

I too bought a pair from Moss and returned them. The PO had inserted brass collars to limit some of the movement of the clevis pin. The three holes on the fast idle cam provide adjustment to account for this wear I believe.
Richard Atkinson

This thread was discussed between 26/07/2013 and 30/07/2013

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG MGA BBS now