Road ready (after a slight glitch) MGOC to the rescue.

[davidraw2024]

Preparing the car for show season and a mystery to solve. The Triumph engine had acquired a harsh metallic “clatter” (not desirable!) Fortunately the noise stopped when the fan belt was removed and having recently fitted a new water pump the key suspect was the alternator having being taken from a scrap yard in 1987! Spare parts quality is a hot topic in the classic car world and low and behold the problem was the new water pump fitted 7 months ago and having only covered 500 miles.

I’d heard MGOC are working hard to manufacture and source quality parts and I was pleasantly surprised to discover they supply the water pump for the Triumph 1300cc engine (never used in an MG). The part is British made, appears to be a quality item, nicely painted and competitively priced. Worth checking out when searching out parts, particularly for Morris/MG based cars.

Much as I hate doing jobs twice this was a preferable outcome to what might have been a more serious issue and happily the car sounds as sweet as ever

[rhysnolan]

Good to hear it's resolved! What an odd source of such a part. Was it different from that fitted in a Triumph 1500 (Midget motor?)

[davidraw2024]

As far as I am aware all Triumph's 1500cc engines have a water pump with a bigger pulley and a different offset. There are a few Triumph specific items in the MGOC listings and as they appear to appreciate the need for quality this is reassuring. I am now in the habit of requesting the manufacturing source when ordering parts in the hope of supporting quality manufacturers.

[A_Hogg]

I read an article recently where a well respected Triumph specialist said the quality of parts they were able to source was very poor. Even items such as brake master cylinders and servo units that failed to work at all! Not reassuring is it?