Ron,
I understand what you are saying and totally agree with it. We would be
in a heck of a pickle if we had to scrounge for used parts or get them
made like so many in the antique auto hobby must. Moss performs a very
good service and we need to remember that it is in their interest to
provide correct high quality parts because there are a lot of us out
here as potential customers.
As for your generator problem, I, too had mine go out on the way to the
Gettysburg GOF last year (actually 2005, now).
Mine had been generating merrily away for 35 years on a car that is
driven a fair amount for a TD. The Gettysburg trip was a mere 40 miles
and thank goodness that is when I had a problem. I'd purchased a
Holcombe generator rebuild kit sometime before and figured that I would
just rebuild it with that. When I opened it up I found that the field
coils had wrapped themselves around the armature and it wouldn't come
out easily. The cloth wrapping around the coils seemed fragile, so I
didn't want to do anything to screw them up. I ended up taking it to a
local rebuilder, who said he was quite busy and that it would be awhile
until he could get to it. It turned out that my generator was probably
from a Bugeye Sprite by the date on it. In the meantime I got another
used generator from a Sprite person and disassembled it to see how much
wear was there. I got brushes, bearing and bushing from Moss and
rebuilt that generator myself. The armature in it was in good shape. I
got the pulley back from the shop that I took mine to and used it in
place of the Sprite pulley. So then I installed it on the car and it
was back in service after only a couple of weeks. A few more weeks went
by and I heard nothing from the shop, so I called and still no
progress. After nine weeks, I again checked and when there was still
nothing done, I retrieved my generator. Then, since I already had the
car back in use, I threw caution to the wind and pushed the field
windings out of the way, remove the armature, replaced it with the new
one, and replaced the bushing, bearing and brushes. So now I have a
spare generator, but only one TD pulley. In the meantime, I took a look
at the generators for my MGA and early MGB, which are very similar to
the Sprite except with no tach drive. By using a TD or Sprite end cap
and armature, they could work on a TD.
After all of that, the point is, that for generators, at least, there
are lots of usable used ones out there that you can mix and match parts
on to work on a TD, and they are really quite simple to work on.
I learned a lot about generators, which I wouldn't have learned by just
buying a new part.
Charlie
Parkinson,Ron wrote:
>Hi Scott,
>
>I can empathize with your problem but also with Moss. They are
>performing a service in having "most" of the wear parts of so many car's
>we love at prices that are really very reasonable even compared to parts
>for new cars that can be truly mass produced. A lot of cars wouldn't be
>on the road otherwise for cost or availability. They must struggle with
>the economics of a very difficult business model.
>
>I choose an original part when I can, then a previously installed
>replacement part, then I go to new. My car would have been off the road
>for a full season if Moss didn't have a very reasonably priced generator
>from India.
>
>All that aside, I believe I have a full set of bumpers that are older
>replacements that I would part with and I know went together. Please
>let me know what you need and I'll take some pictures next weekend.
>
>Best,
>Ron Parkinson
>'53 TD
>Newton, MA
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