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MG MGF Technical - MG TF 135 cambelt

hi all, so far I actively participated in the classical TD group but now my TF135 needs some attention. Because i do the restoration of the classical one myself, I expect that changing the cambelt can be done as a DIY job. In the archives I found some encouraging information but maybe I miss some good instructions. F.i. like prepare for the start: how to open up the engine bay to get sufficient access?
Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Huib,
I hope this isn't frowned upon by the moderator but there is a great how-to on dot org :-
http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=304560
Charless

There aren't moderators on this board Charles :o)

Another good instruction on how to change the cam belt can be found on you tube, or down loaded from here: http://mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/engines/video/cambelt.wmv

It is perfectly DIY-able, just a little more tricky due to the confines of the engine bay.
Rob Bell

Thanks you Charless and Rob for the interesting info. It certainly encouraged me to go on with it and I will buy the parts now. Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Good luck with it Huib - and do let us know how you get on :o)
Rob Bell

Back in the 70'th I owned a Mini850. And by doing the maintenance myself, I already gained experience in handling invisible nuts in impossible places with too big fingers. Now I found that that kind of tight packaging design capabilities has been kept and even further developed by those cardesigners that recently created the TF. This BBS already had given me warnings but reality exceeded this. The pulleybolt was peanuts (fifth gear and handbrake trick worked well for me so I could leave the starter alone)compared to loosening the enginemountbracketbolts. Djzee, those guys (M12) really demanded high power to get them out. Even an airtool had to work hard to hammer them loose.
But it is all prepared now: covers are off, pulley is off, engine mount off, coolant out, alternator belt off. Tomorrow I'll go for the new parts (timing belt, tensioner, waterpump, alternator belt)as well as the camshaftlockingtool.
Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Have fun! :o)
Rob Bell

Job finished and engine runs fine. Scratches on my hands are healing again!
Somewhere on this BBS or else I had found a suggestion to use "under door wedges" as a help to keep the belt on the wheels since one has to move from above engine to underneath engine. So, I started on the top right wheel, fixed it with a wedge (picture), went underneath pulled the belt around the pulley, fixed it with another wedge and than continued from the left top wheel and went down to pump and spanner. In the end all marks where at the right place. Thanks for the support and accumulated knowledge in the archives, greetings, Huib

Huib Bruijstens

Nice job - and great picture! :o)
Rob Bell

Huib, those M12 bolts were often over-torqued in the factory, to such a degree that they have been known to snap. It sounds as if yours were particularly bad, so some consolation for the scratched hands is that you may have prevented a future disaster ;o)
bandit

As far as I could see it are steel bolts that go into aluminium. Together with warm/cold changes, this is always good for very sticky connections though the alu corrosion. And yes, M12 is a pretty tough guy especially in such un-accessible geometry. Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Please allow me to ask on this thread:

- how often do the people on here change their cam-belt (years/miles)?

- has anyone ever had a failure (again at what year/miles?)?

Thx vm

Anthnony
Anthony Cutler

Not too many failures Anthony - often and where it has, there have usually been other factors that will have contributed to the failure, for example, debris finding its way into cam cover...

60k/5years is my change point. At the moment age is more of a determinant than mileage for my car - now on it's forth cam belt despite just 101k miles.
Rob Bell

Anthony,

As Rob says the Mk I MGF has service intervals of 12K miles and the cambelt gets changed every 60K miles or 5 years whichever comes round first. The Mk II MGF and the TF have service intervals of 15K miles and the cambelt is due to be changed at 60K miles or 4 years whichever comes first. Never could understand why the same belt only lasted 4 instead of 5 years on the later cars or could it just have been a way for MGR to con us out of some more money? Something to remember is that it's always worthwhile to change the tensioner and the water pump at the same time as the belt while you're in there anyway.
David Clelland

OK; mines been in there 9 years but only 20K. And it's in a front-engined rwd in-line, so probably subject to less temp extremes than in the MGF.

However, I will get round to replacing it / tensioner / water-pump as soon as the weather is warmer...

Thx for all info.

(Would still like to hear of any fails... you never know, might speed me up!)

Thx again

A
Anthony Cutler

This thread was discussed between 21/02/2010 and 11/03/2010

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