[Mgs] [MG-MGB] latch problem

[Councill, David]

I guess I should have put the bolt-through plate in position in the
picture to demonstrate more. Close look at the picture will show its
relative position which will indicate more about the height difference
of the loop piece that I was alluding to. I may just have the plate
welded back on if I cannot find a readily available replacement. I'll be
heading to Oregon (NW USA) in a few days where my son can probably weld
it plus I will be not too far from a British car salvage yard that may
have something similar. The trunk lid looks normal and the seal is old
but not brittle enough to motivate me to replace it yet.

My 72B has a new seal and latching was never a problem - unlatching was
though. I had to fix that using shims to push the latch inwards a bit
more (or at least it seems to be fixed). Plus I did the trick where I
drilled a 1/8" hole, covered by the latching mechanism which allows me
to manually push the latch if necessary using a small pin.

David Councill
64 B
67 BGT
72 B



-----Original Message-----
From: mgs-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:mgs-bounces at autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Paul Hunt
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2010 6:27 AM
To: MG-MGB at yahoogroups.com; MG Digest
Subject: Re: [Mgs] [MG-MGB] latch problem

Hasn't the reddish one lost its bolt-through plate?  That should be
welded
to the loop.  It's the distance from those holes to the end of the loop
that
is important, not from the ends of the loop.  Only one 'striker' (the
official name of that part) is shown for all years in the Parts
Catalogue as
well.  Parts Catalogue pictures can be misleading as to exact shape, it
could well be a generic drawing when there are detail differences in the

actual part for different models.  Having said that on my 75 GT it is
flat-topped, a smidgen under 2.5" from the bottom of the plate to the
top of
the loop.  It's also curved in the other orientation, as if to follow
the
curve of the boot surround (an unnecessary nicety, I would have
thought).
It's not a problem with the seal being too thick, is it?

For the sake of 6-8mm I would have thought you could put an angle in the

flat top of the orange part, like there is in the red one, maybe filing
the
holes out a bit more as well.

PaulH.

----- Original Message -----
>I have run into a bit of a mystery with the boot lid on my 64B
> restoration project - I haven't been able to get it to latch. I
removed
> the locking mechanism to better see where the problem is and I can see
> that the latch doesn't reach high enough to even get to the latching
> mechanism.