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?

[Ye Ol Ripper]

I often purchase MG( B series) & Triumph parts from Moss Europe. They seem competitively priced & as I understand it from their Technical person , who is incidentally a Triumph fanatic/ guru ; he informed me that they are imported from the USA.

So I imagine that they have been tested over there with many classic British cars there.

So worth looking at.

[davidraw2024]

Until very recently we had a local Moss Europe store but sadly it is now closed and on-line shopping is the only purchasing option. I've always found Moss Spares good to deal with and it surprises me to have to say that the faulty water pump came from them. They responded quickly and with video evidence offered a replacement pump or refund without hesitation.

Their water pump was manufactured by a company called County based in India who apparently have a reputation for supplying quality engine parts. I appreciate occasional production failures do occur but I lost confidence in fitting that brand again (who doesn't hate doing the same work more than once).

As an observation the County unit had bare metal castings whilst the MGCO unit was neatly painted and whilst that doesn't guarantee quality it certainly gave the impression of high standards.

I would reiterate Moss Europe Spares where very professional and helpful and sadly it seems spare parts quality remains a minefield for consumers and suppliers alike.