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MG TD TF 1500 - Driving without generator

On our tour to Paris, one of the TDs had a bearing damage in the generator. It rattled and became hot. So no way of having it running and further.
Scratching our heads on the half way to Paris - is there a way to have a belt just around the water pump and the crankshaft and how do we tighten it - someone generated the idea to use ladies tights as in the old days when the fan belt broke. Then: how long can you drive just from the battery ?

Well, both things worked unexpectedly well. The tights (ok, more than one) brought the car 200 km to Paris, 100km through Paris stop & go, 600 km back home. Amazing stuff, these tights !

The battery was charged every night when the car was parked, and driving for 6 hrs and even 3-4 engine starts were no problem, the battery was still showing good voltage in the evening.

I´d call that a positive field test ;-)

Rgds, Mike
Mike Fritsch

And you could have probably gotten even more than 6 hours by using the starting handle and not the electric starter. Now the question, will air flow through the radiator be enough to spin the fan and water pump without a belt?
John Quilter (TD8986)

When the tights got worn and did not turn the fan sufficiently, the car got hot. So the external flow alone is definitely not enough.

Rgds, Mike
Mike Fritsch

Mike - are there any towns that you will be passing through, where there is an auto electric shops what can put a new bearing (on both ends) so that you can continue with basically, a new generator?
Cheers,
DW DuBois

Harry Pellow (The Maistro) and a friend were driving a lengthy distance in their Porsche 356's, when his friend's generator stopped charging. Since Pellow's still worked the friend drove until his battery died, then with both cars still running, he and Pellow swapped batteries. The good generator then charged up the low battery in one car, and the bad generator car drained down the battery in that car, until they switched again, back and forth.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Dave, we are back safely without interruption except a few cooling breaks when the "belt" probably slipped a bit and the water pump did not rotate 100%. We had a recommendation for a shop in Paris, but that was closed when we arrived friday evening (no surprise), so we decided to go on as described above.
The owner of the car had the generator apart yesterday and basically all the innards were in pieces, the culprit being the defective roller bearing.

Tom, exactly that swap was our fallback plan should we have stopped on the road, but fortunately was not needed. How did you keep the car with the defective generator running while swapping the battery, though? Jumper cables ?

OT Btw as a side note: I had the "opportunity" to test one of these car battery boosters to start a car with a drained battery (radio not turned off). It is basically an 8Ah lithium battery with some circuit to limit the current when boosting the drained car battery. Worked like a charm. Not sure it will crank up a Diesel in Winter, but I was positively surprised. Much better than getting out the jumper cables and finding a second car. Size of a cigar box, includes usb ports, a LED torch and cost around 30€.

Rgds Mike
Mike Fritsch

I don't run a generator on my race TC, so I run a short belt from the crank to water pump. (I charge the battery each night between race days.) A B28 belt (B750 metric?) fits perfectly between the crank pulley and pump on a standard TC. Just buy a B28 belt and put it on by pushing the car, in top gear, (or turning the crank handle) while feeding the belt on. Mind your fingers!

Although I have since modified the system to use an A-section belt and strengthen the s/c drive on my race car, the strategy above is still in use on my niece's (normally aspirated) sister (race TC) car.

Perhaps a B28 belt should be a "spare" alongside the original B36 or B37 in the battery box of all T-Types? I am going to put the one I originally used on the race car in the battery box of my road car tomorrow in case I ever have a similar problem. Combining that with Tom's suggestion might save grief in future!

Bob
R L Schapel

Shortly after buying my TC, I did a 600 mile mountainous tour, swapping batteries each night with another fellow. The car easily ran all day without a working generator.
Steve Simmons

Bob, that was exactly my thinking - get the right size belt and put it into the spare box. Probably the safest way to avoid a failure...
Rgds Mike
Mike Fritsch

And here's the "belt" after more than 600 kms.

Rgds Mike

Mike Fritsch

Its a bit late now, but from a similar past experience, I always carry a spare genny.

Steve
SPW Wincze

That's the way to do it - things where you have a spare with you never break ;-)
Rgds Mike
Mike Fritsch

You really shouldn't need to carry a whole generator. I carry a pair of brushes and bearings. Cheap and very small. There's really nothing else to go wrong with it unless you melt the armature in which case you're going to melt the replacement too.
Steve Simmons

For many years I carried a spare generator.It was stored under the passenger footrest on my MG/TF. Many times I loaned it out to fellow MG owners to get them home but I never needed it my self. A spare waterpumps was also stuffed in there.
Sandy
Sanders

This thread was discussed between 26/07/2018 and 05/08/2018

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