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MG MGF Technical - Sloppy Gearbox

Hi All, Just spoiled myself and got an old MGF (1998 with 110k miles on the clock, but it's one owner spent a lot on servicing and it's had the head rebuild) The two problems it has are a very sloppy gear change, and a bouncing speedo needle. I've been reading what I can and it seems a common issue with old MGF's that the selector mechanism bushes wear, and you can buy a new assembly from Mike Satur, but I wondered if you can just buy the bushes, instead of splashing out £225 on a new mechanism. The speedo needle seems likely to be a cable issue? I think I remember something similar on my old B. Any help much appreciated.
J Ash

Hi J,

You can just go for changing the bellcrank assy at the gearbox. This will tighten up things nicely. The original balls/sockets are rubber insulated to the bellcrank and these deteriorate. You can also breathe on the gearstick assy to remove a bit of slop - without binding, of course. I have fitted Mike's SS unit and it tightens things up a treat. Well worth doing.

The bellcrank assy is available from Mike S or Brown and Gammons.

Have a quick look at the bellcrank assy and see if the rubbers in the sockets are perishing.

HTH

willyphixitt
W A Nixson

The speedo cable does a rather Birmingham to Crewe by way of Beachy Head, so is notoriously susceptible to causing the needle to twitch. Replacing it should improve things if you can face the task without educated mice.
Mike Cunningham

Thanks I'll do a bit of digging on the bell crank!
J Ash

The distance between the gearstick and the gearbox brings inherent lack of precision, which isn't exactly helped by the rather long OE gear lever - taking a hacksaw to it has long been a favoured 'mod', and it disguises slack in the bellcrank/cable assemblies better than you might expect. That slackness can come from the bellcrank, but the cable end sockets wear out too. Sources of new or low mileage cable end sockets are however rare, generally only available as complete cables.

The speedo cable is in IIRC two sections, joined with square pin & socket joints. The jumping suggests rounding of the square pin; the fault is more likely to lie in the rear section, as that works harder driving the front section of cable whereas the front section only has the speedo needle to turn. Happily the rear section is the easier to change...
bandit

This thread was discussed between 27/12/2009 and 29/12/2009

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