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 Midget and Sprite Technical - Clutch slave cylinder changeout

Chaps

I read with interest the recent post regarding the hydraulic system which engages/disengages the clutch. I too have similar woes, in so far as every few months or so the hydraulics seem to admit air somewhere and I need to bleed the system for the clutch to disengage cleanly without any grinding gears.

My initial thoughts are that the slave cylinder thus requires replacing, but any other ideas as to where to look for the source of the problem gratefully received...

Any recommended vendor for a replacement slave would also be most welcome.

Oggers

Check there's no fluid on or around the clutch pedal as the master may be leaking and air taking its place - unless of course, you've done this already :)

Jeremy MkIII

it seems we have all encountered issues at one point or another, so perhaps its time for one of us to design a cable operated system. . . how hard can it be ??
In reply to the you Oggers, I got my slave and M/C from Moss or MG owners club, cant remember, and every now and again I need to top up the fluid, but its never quite a big enough problem for me to get to the bottom of directly. . .
famous last words :)
P Bentley

Good question PB, and one I asked a motorsport engineer in conversation recently.
He said: cable systems are notoriously difficult to engineer. Tricky to make them self-adjusting as the plate wears. Tricky to make them unaffected by engine movement under acceleration / deceleration. Require far stronger bulkhead where the pedalbox mounts. Susceptible to cable stretch when a stronger clutch is used e.g. for engine upgrades or competition use.
Not as simple as it first seems.
David Smith

I have to say that from my perspective providing you use decent quality parts, the system is pretty reliable. I have only renewed the slave 4 times in the 40 odd years of ownership and one of those was an upgrade when I fitted a 1275 engine. I have renewed the master twice. Bleeding the clutch can be of course a real pain but that is another matter. I usually get my parts from Powertrack.
Bob Beaumont

Perhaps whilst I am at the drawing board I will figure out the answers to world peace, the oil crisis and climate change too.
:)
P Bentley

Personally I have always preferred hydraulic over cable and of course some manufactuers have reverted to hydraulic after years of cable so maybe they think its better too.

Trev
T Mason

Trev,

If you mean Ford then I mentioned Ford switching from cable to hydraulic to a mate and he said having worked for Ford it wouldn't have been because it was superior, it would have been a cost decision. He once sent me a joke which he said was very apt, if you want a laugh search for "ford baked potato"

David,

I don't know that they seem difficult to engineer, I found fitting a cable to my Sprite to be quite straightforward. The pedal and pedal box were easy to modify and it was manually adjusted and didn't need doing very often, every few years or so. I was using a Ford gearbox so that end was already set-up for cable.
David Billington

I had one car with a cable operated clutch - a Renault 5 GT Turbo. The wretched thing snapped repeatedly at about 5000 mile intervals, usually hundreds of miles from home. It didn't like being driven as a crash box either.

In 60k miles in two years it ate two gearboxes, two engines, three turbos, had the windscreen replaced because the sealing from the factory wasn't, had the hood resprayed because when the replaced the screen they dropped it all over the hood, and it was delivered and immediately rejected again because when I went to fill the fuel tank (having not yet driven it off the sales premises) the fuel just poured out of the bottom of the tank. Needless to say I didn't pay for that 1/4 tank of fuel either! A set of front tyres lasted about 6000 miles. The foglight light relays were of such poor quality that they would spontaneously switch themselves on. Usually in the middle of the night leaving the battery flat the next morning. The cause of the flat battery problem was eventually diagnosed by the tyre fitter being suddenly blinded by the foglight at point blank range as he was positioning the jack under the front of the car.

Great fun to drive, but I was really glad I didn't pay the bills.
Dominic Clancy

This thread was discussed between 11/05/2017 and 12/05/2017

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS now