Fitting an alternator tensioner on the MG TF
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Due to the weather....and various other excuses, this video was filmed whilst half way through filming the wing repair vid which is soon to follow.
When I fitted the new timing belt I was never happy with the alternators belt as it felt too loose and I struggled to get it set any tighter. This video isn't sponsored but this purchase looked like a relatively cheap and simple solution.......for once!
#restoration
#mg
~~ Products I use during this video ~~
Alternator Tensioner --- tinyurl.com/sr...
Flexible Ratcheting Spanners - amzn.to/37VtJUN
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Just started mine after a couple of months slumber to the usual squeaky belt noise but this time it started smoking and smelling of burning rubber and then nothing fixed? Nope dash charge light on and one fragged belt so turned it of and went home, already purchased the tensioner and belt so that's what I will be doing next week, your video has been very helpful in this regard thanks
Very interesting analysis of this kit in the latest MGOC magazine. The bolt sheared off after a year and he points out several design faults of it. He went back to the original method once he got the broken bolt out of the crankcase using all new MG parts. Think I'll stay with the MG assembly as well.
Hi Lee, Great series of videos! In the latest MGOC magazine, I received today, there is an article about this tensioner where the mounting bolt in the crankcase sheared, probably due to the bolt being too long and bottoming out. As the bolt is hardened steel it was then very difficult to remove! The writer reverted back to using the standard MG Rover.
Thanks Dean...worrying thats the second comment I've seen about them shearing off.....could end up being a future video!! 😳
Hi Mr Lee, totally sympathise with your stomach in the run up to start up. I'm sure you read in the manual when doing the Cam Belt, the tensioner needed two revolutions to settle., and you did that without trouble. If any doubt remains, get your trusty 22mm spanner on that crankshaft and turn it over by hand. If anything is so far out to touch, you'll pick it up then before the magic power of the electric starter does it for you.
On the subject of coolant, you might want to consider filling only with water to begin with, incase of leaks or unexpected bigger problems. It saves you wasting your valuable OAT cooling fluid. The trade off is if everything is Ok, you'll need to empty the coolant system again and refill with the godly orange stuff and yet again bleed the system through.
While your on Ebay get one of the LM377 [my numbers might be off] ODB2 to Bluetooth readers. The one I got off Ebay was about £9, and I do leave it permanently plugged in on the car. The knock off ODB2 reader I got said in the Ebay advert it came with Torque Pro, ODB reader software and it did. I use this permanently on my phone in the car with every journey because that dashboard temperature gauge goes up to half way and stays there no matter what temperature the engine is really at. There is a setting within Torque Pro to tell the ODB2 module to go to sleep if its not being used, to save power when connected all the time. I can still with my utterly cheap Amazon car radio bluetooth to both devices simultaneously and they work fine.
Whenever that little yellow MIL comes on the dashboard, Torque Pro allows you to save the logs, view the errors and then reset the MIL light. Bliss.
I think the presence of a MIL light on the dash of a car presented for MoT is now an automatic failure. After all your efforts this is something you can do without and on my TF this is an almost every other day occurrence. [Cam position sensor issue for split second]
TD below in the comments asked you about the engine bay fan - does it work ? The fan in the engine bay is the post apocalypse blower of doom and will only begin to work once the engine has blown up. From memory, fallible, I think this fan only comes on if the engine bay ambient temperature gets to 115C or higher. Thus it has no connection to coolant temperature.
With the engine running, disconnecting the wires to the coolant temperature sender should bring on the radiator fans in the front. On yours it might bring on the engine bay fan,, but on mine when trying this yesterday only the front radiator fans came on.
From someone's scientific research found on the 'net, the engine bay fan is least effective at reducing engine temperature. Next in line of not very good is the front mounted radiator and electric fan. There is so much coolant between it and the engine that it takes minutes for any cooling effect to be seen at the engine. The interior heater is immediate in effectiveness so this is your friend in any overheating issue. Settings 3 and 4 on the fan speed knob are the least prone to burning out and will be the settings you'll want to bring additional cooling to the engine. The only way you'll know what the real temperature is, is by your ODB reader and mobile phone and that is why you'll want it connected all the time on every journey and to be able to reset that pesky MIL light that once triggered will not go out by a corrected situation, or by itself on next start. Once on its on until reset by software. All hail and bow down to the Torque Pro.
You get this lengthy and I hope informative comment as thanks for your continued video production for areas of the TF I have not yet had the pleasure of working with, that you have.
Really appreciate your comments Alex, think I have the standard Torque app and Carstairs, will give them a whirl. Will also try the fan test too...what could possibly go wrong! Lol
Indeed kudos for creating this footage. The result is great.
‘I have bought a kot from ebay’
- Oh boy, not on ebay
‘It is from MG Mania Ltd.’
- Oh OK, they are a well known trader for many, many years now’
Fitted one of these last year after the bolt snapped on the alternator. It’s so much easier to adjust now.
I hear ya when it comes to starting the car. I was so nervous turning the key after changing the timing belt for the first time, but all good, car started right up as if it had been running just minutes before.
I fitted one of these to my F 3 years ago. Had to replace it this year as the rose joints had seized solid.
Great job Lee. Seeing your videos makes me want to buy back the tf. Greetings from Italy
Good to see you posting another video... I hope you don't have to many issues with the paint work but I have heard in the past from painters that silver is a bugger to match.... Good luck🤞👍
Thanks Grant, ill get to find out when I wash the car....dreading it lol
Hey Lee, nice to see you back! I was waiting for the wings but an alternator spanner job is always fun to watch 😀
Thanks Henk, yeah unfortunately the paint side of things had slowed filming but won't be long now 😉
Hi Lee, did you know that the old bracket should have had an additions bolt to help tension!! WIth the new kit I found you had to have the tensioner had too be one sided to enable tightening the Alterater end! greating PAT
Looking at one of them I am doing a rolling resto just had a remap and fancy exhaust keep up the good content
Nice vid and decent bit of kit , reckon it will start 1st time if petrol pump primed- nice weather coming so no excuse getting stuff done lol
Good luck Lee, I hope everything works out for you, If it were me I would turn the engine over by hand with a ratchet before turning the starter.....at least you know it wont clatter the valves if its not timed correctly.
i’ve heard some horror stories fitting that kit ! snapped off engine block holes rendering the engine useless ! probably best you didn’t know that Lee before you torqued it up ! nice work tho great video as per usual looking forward to the first fire up
That looked incredibly fiddly work, so nice job managing to get a decent camera angle on it as well! 😂
Nice one 👍 got one of these on mine. Better then the standard plate but nonetheless a tight nightmare place to work in
Hi Lee - great to see you back!
I've just fitted the same kit from MG Mania - you appear to be missing the spacer which goes on the fixed bolt, on the left in the video.
Cheers, it didn't come off with the original bracket, was still stuck to the block..came off when I went to refit it lol
@@wheatleysworkshop My kit came with a new spacer
that looks like quite a nice we mod. i would have put some copper slip onthe threads because of where the part is as it will be quite prone to siezing.
Cheers John, I didn't show it on camera but I wound out the rose joints all the way and they had it on already, credit to the folks who put the kit together.
Hello. I replaced my timing belt on a TF 2003 after watching two tutorials. One question: I couldn't find a mark on the crankshaft pulley? I couldn't align the camshaft pulley markings! After making marks on the belt to be disassembled, I aligned them with the new belt. When I tighten my new belt tightly I have a gap tooth on the crankshaft pulley. The engine runs smoothly but the idle tends to stall what to do thank you
Hi Lee, nice idea. Thank you for your videos, quite instructive. The link to the tensioner doesn't work. Could you fix it, please?
Old classic car video of Weston Park you tube
Hi Lee, Im curious if you have checked the engine bay cooling fan to see if its working.
Its a very good point and I'll add it to the list of To Dos!
Two issues that can happen with timing her up:
1. Timing marks can look straight while being a single tooth out on one of the cams. Took me a couple of attempts to get it lined up.
2. Double-check the markings on the cam gears. There are two on each cam gear (longer line and shorter line, opposite sides to one another). Both cam gears should have the words "EXHAUST" next to the short line and "IN" written next to the longer line. Both long lines should be pointing forward, to the front of the car, and short lines pointing to the rear of the car.
DO NOT point both of the long lines towards each other - in between the cams - like you would do with cams on most other cars. Check page 9 (Engine) part of the MGF/TF workshop manual. That's the image to look at, not the other misleading ones. :) If you do get the exhaust cam 180º out, at best it'll sound like a vacuum cleaner and backfire through the intake. Don't ask me how I know. 😅
tl;dr - Make sure the intake cam has the word "IN" (with the long line) pointing to the cam gear locking tool, and the exhaust cam has the word "EXHAUST" (with shorter line or arrow) pointing towards the cam gear locking tool. Easier way of saying it. :)
Now I'm really excited about starting her up lol, seriously though, great advice Jim. I have the image you're talking about it so will triple check it!!
@@wheatleysworkshop
Haha. They're so fiddly to get right, but once right... they just start first time. No issues. :)
Well, I did have one issue where I'd cleaned the valve buckets and refilled them with oil when reconditioning the head. Car had zero compression. Tried the next day and she started straight up lol. Needed time to settle in and squish the excess oil out of the buckets. Doh!
Good luck anyway! I'm sure she'll purr first time. :)
Hi Lee. I have bought one of these however the bolt in the engine has sheared. How hard would it be to drill out the bolt? Is there enough room?
Hi there, I've had a few comments now saying the same. Sounds like its possible to drill it out/extract it from what others are saying. I may be swapping the bolt out for something stronger!!
do you have the link for this part please :)
And here i was thinking about you and this human malware everyone's catching, and what's this about MG Access...crap?...wot??? lmao understatement of the year MGLEE. I assume you had that oh-so-effective alternator splash panel and just forgot to mention removing it lol.......oh and silver paint not working......tell me about it! royal pain in the arse