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MG MGB Technical - Parts quality or lack of

Went to fit a new camshaft and oil pump to a friend's 1800 engined MGA the other day, so engine out, pan off ,rockers off etc , swapped the cam over and timed him in then went to fit the pump--
Brand new complete with bottom housing, in a plastic bag with oil floating about in there-
Normally you would think it was ready to go packaged like that, but being my pedantic little self, i check everything myself, so poked the drive shaft in to see how it felt and it was graunchy to say the least, dismantled it to find some alloy casting flakes running loose in the gears-
Bit of a wash up and inspection, the main housing and gears were excellent but the pickup tube which normally would be drilled through had the gallery cast into it and up the oil pump end the hole was completely blocked off with casting flashing except for the little piece that had dislodged and got into the gears--If this had been fitted straight out of the bag it wouldn't have been able to suck up oil and the gears would have got damaged as well

SO -- Check check check -- don't trust anybody

and no, i won't name the source of the pump but it was a supplier who should change their name to miss

willy
William Revit

Have you got a picture Willy?
Colin Parkinson

Sorry Colin no, it's all back together and in the car now. The sad bit is it only took a few mins. to make it good, noone seems to take pride in what they make anymore-
William Revit

Nothing surprising there!

I always remove the roll pin in the oil pump rotor, tap and fit a 5mm grub screw and peen over.

I have had roll pins work out and jam the pump and also rotors fitted to the shaft by knurling the shaft itself - these work loose and stop pumping...
Chris at Octarine Services

Had a hunt around and found a pic of one similar
Down in the hole where that ledge is, it was flashed over there and only had a hole about 1/4 that size size, the piece that did escape was in the pump

William Revit

Had a bleed nipple on a new wheel cylinder completely blocked, so fluid ran down the backplate inside the drum instead. Fortunately clear of the shoes.
paulh4

Scary. Don't even want to think, had you not picked over the contents of the package.

Slow down and be thorough.

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB
Gary Hansen

"Expect the best, plan for the worst".

paulh4

I used to think you could keep an MGB going as a humble fitter, after all most bits are available off the shelf, compared with many old vehicles where you need to do more fettling and adapting. However, this might indicate you need a bit of engineering nous as well.
Peter Allen

A fitter doesn't just bolt things together, a fitter makes things fit!

I also run a dremel grinder down that pickup hole to blend in the two parts and if a stage 2 engine I use a router to open up a second inlet port to the pump as per the tuning manual.
Chris at Octarine Services

ditto Chris
Interestingly the original pickups had a drilled parallel hole but this one was actually cast and conical, quite large at the pickup end tapering smaller at the pump. When i first cracked it out of the packaging i thought ,this looks ok ,they've opened up the hole already, I usually drill them out a couple of sizes up and do the porting job as you describe on anything modded---I notice most new pumps now have the cutouts in the endplate already and it's a simple channel accross job compared to the old cutting out the end of the plate job-
I don't tend to do it to std road engines ,thinking being, that without the modded channel it helps retain oil in the pump if the car is standing for a while whereas the channel lets the pump drain off over time
willy
William Revit

This thread was discussed between 01/08/2020 and 02/08/2020

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