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MG TD TF 1500 - original horns

Greetings - a fellow in our club has a pair of horns for sale that he sez are TD/F. I remember my old horns as having a thin steel plate that allowed it to flex and then broke after time. These horns are trumpet style but have a fixed steel bracket that attaches to the horn body perminately. Could they be late TF or MGA possibly ? Thx Russ
RAH Russ

Late TF's also had the thin spring-steel mounts.
Lucas horns were of course used on a wide variety of British makes.

Matthew.

M Magilton

Russ,

The TF1250 horns(high and low tone) had a flexi bracket
different from the later 1500s.Also the shape of the horn outlet was slightly different as well.The earlier 1250 had a pear shaped,slender outlet,whereas the later one was more a triangular shape more commonly found on the TF1500.However,I do not know when the changeover to the later shape really occurred.

Set up correctly,there is nothing like the magnificent sound of the Lucas TF paired horns.A huge improvement on the TCs Altette horn.

Cheers
Rob Grantham
TF3719("Aramis"),TF9177("Athos").
R GRANTHAM

The TD early TF horn is the WT 614 and the later TF through the MGA is WT 618. AFAIK, the only place the part number appears is on a paper label on the inside of the horn, which may or may not still exist.

Rob well describes the different bell shapes, which is probably the only way to truly distinguish them absent a label. I have both types on different cars and I think the spring and solid mounts are interchangeable, though I think only the WT 614 came with them originally.

You'll notice a "H" and a "L" inside the bell that further distinguishes the high and low horns.

Both spring mounts on my car had several broken leaves and others had been brazed together. Fortunately new ones are available.
David Littlefield

Thanks gents for your replies. I think I now do have a much better understanding of what they are, and that is TF1500's not TD's. Did they carry these over to the MGA 1500 and 1600's as well? My thinking is now I don't need them but probably should buy them and restore them, they might have some good value to them. Thanks also to Matthew for the photo, that is exactly the mounting they have and I'll look for the H & L. Russ
RAH Russ

Yes, the WT 618 carried over to the MGA.

I don't know how valuable they are, though. A pair of plug-and-play reproductions are available for less than $100. The WT 614 are NLA, although someone could use the reproduction WT 618 on a TD with most people none the wiser.

I chose to restore my WT 614's largely because I'm trying to avoid reproduction parts as much as possible. Not necessarily from a purist standpoint, but because I too often find the repro stuff is of varaible quality and fit. Plus I really enjoy restoring the old stuff, rather than just bolting on new parts.

They were pretty easy to restore. Just bead blasting, plating the fasteners, and painting. Neither horn worked, but a good cleaning of the moving parts got them operational. I think about the only thing that would make them difficult to fix would be a break in the windings.

There is also a special tool necessary to adjust the horns, should they need it, details on which you can find on the web. Unless you find someone has jacked with them, they really shouldn't need adjustment. If you decide to restore them try to salvage the big paper gasket inside. They are not available, and might be a challenge to make in the right thickness.

Below is a pic of one of my horns before I restored it with other one after I restored it. If you look closely, you can see the "H" for High Tone in the bell on the one on the right.

David Littlefield

David,
Nice work. Great to see restoration of the good original gear,compared to the often suspect repro junk.

Cheers
Rob Grantham
R GRANTHAM

The paper gaskets are .020" thick. Use any other thickness and it will be near impossible to get the horn to sound properly.
Lew3

***David Littlefield - I saw in your note, that you said "new ones are available"! Were you referring to the entire mount or the four spring steel 'leaves' that make up the mount ? I did see ASL has the horn mount, who might have the 'leaves' if I am reading this correctly ? Many thanks. Curt
CCV Curt

I was referring to what I think you mean is the entire mount. Part #160-200 from Moss. I actually bought mine from Holden in the UK, which is their part #690617. Holden has a good picture of the mount, while Moss' illustration "leaves" a lot to be desired. :)

www.holden.co.uk
David Littlefield

David - Thanks much, you were correct it's the whole horn mount, spring steel leaves included. I'll order some from Holden and also ask if the leaves are available as well ! Cheers Curt
CCV Curt

This thread was discussed between 17/08/2015 and 20/08/2015

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