LE 500 GEAR CHANGE

[patioman]

MY gear change on my le500 is like a spoon in a rice pudding does anyone know of a remedy for this ? Particularilly going from 1st to 2nd.

[diesel destroyer]

Easy fix:

Adjust the cables to make sure they have no excessive play..

Inspect all four ends for wear..

Best fix:

Mike Satur Slick shifter kit and bell crank assembly... Its how they all should have left the factory

[MaddAussie]

The 500 LE seems to have reverted to the uber long gear stick, I'd suggest shortening it a little first...

[MartinW]

The Chinese spec cars have a different mechanism below the lever compared to earlier cars I believe, but the most common issue is getting reverse, it can be a lottery! As for 1st to 2nd this is normally only a problem when doing redline shifts and I have fluffed that once or twice in the heat of the traffic light drag strip battle much to my chagrin. A steady but positive pressure is required.

As to shortening the gearstick it is not that easy as the gear knob is held in place via a spring clip and not threaded like earlier cars. I have shortened mine by counter boring the aftermarket gear knob, but if you take a grinder to the top of the shaft then you will need to use an earlier threaded knob or aftermarket type with grub screws.

A heavier knob may help as MG are currently releasing a heavy type for the MG6 as that does improve the feel of the mechanism.

[patioman]

MY gear change on my le500 is like a spoon in a rice pudding does anyone know of a remedy for this ? Particularilly going from 1st to 2nd.

Following advise from members I purchased SSK from Mike Satur and presented it to my qualified garage for fitting no problem one thought,however it now appears that nothing seems to fit where it should do and is having to be modified,my mechanic contacted the supplier and he is sending more bits so not as simple as was made out in the first place.It now turns out that the Gear nob on the LE500 is held in place by a clip and the supplied gear stick has a threaded end more problems.Just to sum up don't think when one of these kits is supplied it is not a straight forward job to do,although the supplie said it was a DIY job.

[Rob Bell]

You'll find this true of quite a lot of components on the Chinese era TFs. At first glance everything looks the same as it did on the last of the MG Rover cars - bar the obviously different instrument cluster and front bumper. And then you're lulled into this false sense of security when the N-series engine looks almost identical, uses MEMS3 and it seems even uses the Pektron Security control unit. But then you scrape the surface. Curiously, although everything looks the same - and indeed much of the car is the same, there are little details everywhere where a Chinese engineer or designer, who in component reverse-engineering boredom, has decided to change a detail here and a measurement there. Look at the door handle surround and compare it to the MG Rover item as just one example.

The gear selector mechanism is as Martin says, quite different from the earlier one (I'd love to see one up close) - and so I would imagine that there would be differences in the way that it is mounted to the central tunnel, and how it attaches to the gear selector cables.

The MS kit is for MGR cars - and usually it is a straightforward fit. That it isn't here is interesting - and we'd love to see some pictures if possible?

[patioman]

Hi Rob,I will have a word with my man tomorrow and see if he has managed to fit the part or whether it is still able to compare them.It is interesting that you say the MS part is for the MGR when it was sold to me as a replacement on the LE500 TF.
Watch this space !!

[robbie1003]

having worked for mg/rover before the demise it interests me how the quality of Chinese influence and changes has been passed onto the rather imperfect British vehicle we all know and love/put up with. one thing that's scary is as we know the Chinese are quite experienced in copy's but at the moment lack a piece of the jigsaw that will then put the rest of the world back into the dark ages. I realise its off topic but a friend of mine worked at rover and ran company car just before the cockup at rover, a 75 as I remember, every time he filled up with fuel he had to check weather the engine was diesel or petrol as his vehicle was a test bed for development, auto/manual, boot full of equipment to measure this and that etc. personally (it might sound sad to some) but really interesting that somebody I know was there at the time that all that stuff went on, the story's of the management and motorsport and spending beyond their means just baffles me how they were let to get away with it. the development of mg in Chinese hands will be a interesting one, I hope its not as sad as it was in the british hands.

[MartinW]

I did warn you in May that it was a different set up and the gear knob, which turns brown with use, is a clip in! Roger Parker ran an article some time back in EMG on the differences between the gear shift systems in the MGR cars vs the NAC cars and how to fit a Chinese version to an MGR car.

As to the differences, even the gear lever surround bezel has differences under the surface. As to the ECU, Mark at Z&F had to remove the ECU from my car because his laptop would not communicate via the OBDII, yet when he plugged it into his 2003 TF it read the ECU no problem through his OBDII and even allowed him to start his car, whilst his ECU worked on my LE500.

[patioman]

I appreciate the fact that you did remark about the gear nob in an earlier post but as I ordered and discussed with MS that the part was for my particular model of car he assured me that there would not be a problem,and of course I believed him,silly me !

[patioman]

It now seems that the LE500 gear change is totally different to the MGTF rover cars and as such the parts are being returned to the supplier for a refund,and all the labour costs will have to be absorbed by me.An expensive learning curve.

[Rob Bell]

Did you manage to get any pictures? Would be invaluable to educate other Chinese-era TFs owners thinking of a similar conversion using the Mike Satur quick shift kit...

I suspect you could get it to fit though: if Roger was talking about a retro-fit of the Chinese gear selector mechanism to MG-Rover cars, then presumably this is a two-way process and you should be able to fit an MG Rover-era mechanism to a Chinese car. I've not seen Roger's article, so I don't know whether the cable ends need changing or whether there are some modifications required to the lever mounting points?

Presumably your garage wasn't too keen on taking on such a project - a shame, because the gear change quality is quite different with the Mike Satur kit: satisfyingly mechanical!

[patioman]

Hi I have sent a reply to the technical department.

[patioman]

Hi I have tried sending pictures etc to Technical@mgfregister.org and I keep getting a message saying cannot deliver as R.Bell file is full so have sent info to membership department who I hope will be able to send to you.

[Rob Bell]

Yes, that account is a smidge full

Try sending to my other email account: rob dot bell at ucl dot ac dot uk

Cheers

[Rob Bell]

I've got the pictures, thanks! There is a very clear and obvious difference in the assembly dimensions. It simply will not be a direct fit. I am sure it could be made to fit, but that is not quite the same as buying something that is supposedly a straight swap.

Unfortunately, it doesn't move you much further forward on the gearchange quality issue?

Let me know if you're happy for me to post the images on the forum

[Rob Bell]

Here are the pictures of the Chinese gear selector mechanism.

The first picture shows the problem with the MS Quick Shift kit fitted: the gear lever sprouts in the wrong place. It perhaps isn't a deal breaker, in that it probably could still be used if connected up, but it isn't right.

Lever sprouts in the wrong place with the MS kit in place!

Here's the MS QS assembly:

The MS QuickShift assembly

And here is the Chinese version:

Chinese selector mechanism

This compared to the MG Rover original:



More pictures of the Chinese selector mechanism that Freddy kindly sent me:

It looks as though the Chinese TFs will need a specific quick shift kit that relocates the lever around 30mm further back by the looks of things, which is a bit of a shame.

[Neil Rushton]

Probably not worth the investment making a Chinese specific version given the numbers built, I've been wondering whether its possible to shorten the Chinese gearstick & then thread it to take a Momo knob in place of the alloy one?

[Rob Bell]

Agreed. My thought though would be to re-drill the mounting points on the MS lever mechanism, which will sort the upper mounting points, and then drill and tap the lower ones in the tunnel (the base of the "tunnel" is 3 or 4mm thick, and should take a tap - or failing that, a Rivnut).

All do-able given a bit of time and ingenuity. Shame Fred's garage didn't want to see this through. Perhaps it is a Lancashire/ Yorkshire thing

[Neil Rushton]

The parts are made in Yorkshire and trying to fit them to a car in Lancashire its a recipe for disaster