 | Car and hood care
 | Paul Lathwell at DotComoff shares his views on car care
here. |
| he also explains the general problems with the hood
here. |
| Paul discusses the pro's and con's of hard top ownership
here, including how to fitment. |
| Dieter has
this
page on hood reproofing.
|
|
| Wipers
| Mike Satur's windscreen wiper linkage
 | Broon shows how to install it
here. |
| Dieter has some pictures
here.
|
|
| Wiper ball joint.
| Dieter shows how to repair the ball joint
here. |
| There is an improved wiper mechanism repair kit available, the
part number is DKT000010, and consists of the link bars ball joints,
some rubber shims and instructions. These kits are selling for
around £16 from
Xpart or
Rimmers. The kit is mentioned in the above link. |
| Hepburn on the MG-Rover.org forum has this excellent tip for a
repair to the driver side wiper linkage -
|
- Park the wipers at the 1 o'clock position to ensure best
access to wiper mechanism under bonnet. Pull apart the ball joint
(if not already apart). Tip: set wipers going and turn off ignition
to obtain correct parking position.
- Grind off the "rivet like" lip securing the top half of the
ball joint to the mechanism plate and remove it. A small Dremmel
type tool works well for this, albeit slowly.
- Drill a 5mm hole through the top half of the ball joint, in
such a way you can put an M4 bolt through it and the mechanism plate
for re-attachment.
- Do as above to the bottom half of the ball joint, being
careful to maintain the same or similar angle. This part will have
to be done in situ.
- Take a 40 or 50mm M4 bolt, place a large (20mm) M4 washer on
it and feed the bolt upwards through the bottom half of the ball
joint.
- Place the upper half of the ball joint back into place and
push the above bolt through it and the wiper mechanism plate. Tip:
Locate the upper half of the ball joint back into the wiper
mechanism plate before inserting the bolt through it.
- Place another 20mm M4 washer on the bolt, followed by an M4
nut. Tighten quite firmly. This should result in the ball joint and
wiper mechanism plate being "sandwiched" by the washers.
- Test wipers (with water on screen) and ensure there is no
"judder" on the driver side wiper. If there is then tighten the
"sandwich" further and test again. Repeat until any "judder" is
gone.
- Once satisfied with your repair apply a "nylon" locking nut
on top of the 1st nut and tighten securely. Tip: M4 nylon nuts can
be obtained from model shops.
- Finally, vacuum away the grinding dust from the area below
the wiper mechanism to ensure it does not leave "rust" stains after
a few days.
- A final tip - keep a spare nut & bolt "sandwich" in the car
together with the tools to fit it, just in case the fitted one
breaks. That way you can always fit it in situ in the event of it
breaking again. I've not needed to yet, but best be prepared eh?
| Another tip from Hepburn obtained from a nice AA man. That is to
trap a layer of rubber glove (the type used by mechanics) between
the ball joint halves. It won't last long but may be enough to get
you home... |
|
one more solution from Dr Dave/Disco Dave over on the MG-Rover
forum.
|
|
|
| Wind stops
| Dieter has
this page on wind stops, including dimensions for the OE MGR wind
stop posts. |
| Rob Bell did the infamous 'blue wig' test for wind stops on his
web site
here. |
| Adrianvvc from the MGF Register forums gives this tip
for fitting the MGR windstop without using a template to an MG F
-
| Remove the plastic rear finishing bulkhead only 3 screws and
release from clips. |
| Then remove metal strip 4 screws, keep rear 2 only. |
| Refit metal strip with 3 screws temporary under bulkhead to
locate position of front 2 holes, drill a pilot hole through these
and bulkhead. |
| Replace metal strip and bulkhead holes will line up for the 2
windstop brackets ! |
| The replace and two holes will line
|
|
|
| Window regulator
| Dieter has a page on a broken door window bracket
here. |
| the parts for the door window regulator are shown on Dieters
EPC page.
|
|
| Glass
| Tony Thompson explains how to adjust the door glass in his web
site
here. |
| Dieter shows how to adjust the door glass and cheater
here. |
| Steve gives this tip for scratches on the windscreen -
"To remove the usual arc caused by a
defective wiper blade, use jewellers rouge. This is a very fine powder
that should be mixed with a liquid glass polish to make a paste, apply
using plenty of elbow grease !. You should finish up with little or no
sign of the scratch (depending on how deep it was) and without any
windscreen distortion."
|
|
| Cheater
| Here's a great tip from Jerry 'MGtfnut' Herbert on how to make the
cheater fit......
"The cheater is held on by 2 screws at the top against the door
frame, and an adjustment at the bottom of the window runner "A". I
took the whole lot out because there was 2/3 mm of movement of the
cheater, when the window runner was fixed. I found that the cheater
bit is held onto the runner "U" shaped channel with 2 small machine
screws. These had come loose, and the detents locating it had become
distorted. With a bit of careful squeezing in a vice, I managed to
close up the slack in the metal runner making the detent positive, and
replaced the machine screws using Loctite.
I then carefully bent the top edge of the door frame, with protective
strips of metal and "Mole" grips, inwards slightly.
When it was all replaced the cheater fitted perfectly, so much so that
I can take the plastic tube dodge out!!" |
| Garvin made
these covers to fit over the slot left in the cheater after he'd
fitted power mirrors.
|
|
| Doors
|
| Headlights
| Gregg Hiltons MGF FAQ page has a section on how to colour code the
F's headlights
here. |
| Rob Bell has
this page on the misty headlamp problem associated with the F.
|
|
| High level brake light
| BPR160 from the MG-Rover.org forum explains how to replace a bulb
in the F's high level brake light - "Undo the 2 screws which hold
the HLBL in and remove the connector. Undo the 5 Phillips screws and
gently pull the two halves apart. Bulbs are 286's."
|
|
| Wing mirrors
| Nice page
here
from Dieter showing the procedure for stripping a wing mirror. |
| and
another page from Dieter for the repair of the wing mirror casing.
|
|
| Aerodynamics
| Rob Bell has
this page on modifying the rear side air intake ducts. |
| Again from Rob Bell's site,
this page covers the TF 200 HPD hybrid, and the aerodynamics that
were added to it.
|
|
