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MG TD TF 1500 - Pollyanna

My wife calls me a Pollyanna so I guess that explains it. I thought I was immuned to the dreaded Tachometer Shorts Out the Ignition Syndrome. I went out to take a drive in the TD this afternoon (75 degrees F and sunny). Turned the key, pyulled out the choke and tugged on the starter knob. She fired up right away but ran rough – she always runs rough when cold. Figured it would smooth out once the engine began to get warm. Didn’t happen. I didn’t have enough power to get down the driveway and and I was just barely able to nurse it back into the garage. Redneck that I am, I popped the bonnet, stared at the engine and scratched my head. Then a rare epiphany happened. It looked to me that the tacho drive unit was real close to the wire to the distributor. I always carry a spool of green garden twist-tie stuff in the tool box and after just a few minutes I fired it up again. Smooth as silk. I never would have spotted this if I hadn’t been a regular reader of this forum. Thanks guys for getting me on the road again with a simple solution. Jud (’53 TD)

J. K. Chapin

Jud,
I know you are not supposed to need it when everything is assembled correctly but I chose the extra insurance. I just cut a thin strip of sheet metal and drilled, bent and assembled as shown.
Mort

Mort 50 TD

I have both in my car, but wire ties are wire, therefore shorts can occur. I use zip ties to hold it back.
TRM Maine

JK - Tighten the shaft retaining collar - the screw for it is in your picture directly to the left of and below the grease nipple for the tach drive.

It's close enough to with you and everyone here a happy new year, too!

BobbyG
Bobby Galvez

Mort, I'll probably make and install the retainer bar as in you photo but the real problem is that the generator is a repro and the threads on the tach nose are, to put it mildly, crappy. I have a legacy generator that recently returned from R&R at Jerry Felper of BRITISH AUTO ELECTRIC. With that generator (soon to be reinstalled) the cap screws down very snuggly and I get no rotation on the tach transmission. BobbyG, the retaining collar is tight. The rotation is due to the cap not being able to tighten up sufficiently on the nose of the generator.

Happy New Year to all. Jud
J. K. Chapin

I have heard some put a rubber o-ring into the knurled cap to sink it tighter or at least with more friction.
Christopher Couper

I eliminated this problem with my TD when I installed my distributor as shown in the Workshop Manual in Section C, Page C.8, Figure C.14. I shows the flat side of the distributor cap facing closest to the generator. This positions the coil wire terminal well away from the tachometer gear box. I haven't had a problem since then.
Jim Merz

Jud, Try and rotate the dizzy ccw, and move the wires cw one post. You would have to remove the dizzy and reset timing. It would move the contact for the points to the 6 o'clock position and move it further from the tach drive.
Just a suggestion... CR
C.R. Tyrell

This thread was discussed between 29/12/2015 and 01/01/2016

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