Dick,
Thanks for the kind words.........I wish all the people we helped had the
courtesy to say "Thank you!"
Unless your TF engine has been hopped up, or unless you live where there are
no hills of any consequence (and I don't mean mountains, just hills), you'll
find the MGA's 4.33 axle ratio is a bit too high. I speak from personal
experience, having owned and driven many Ts with both ratios.
The ideal is a 4.55 ratio, available from a Z magnette rear axle, or from
Moss, who have just made available a kit to convert to 4.55. This does not
sound like much of a change from the TF's original 4.875 but it does make a
worthwhile difference.
Of course, plan B would be to fit the superb 5-speed gearbox conversion
offered by Steve Neal in New England. It costs $1,750 or so but, if you
haven't rebuilt your stock gearbox yet, that's about what a rebuild and a
rear axle change would cost. The other benefit is that you get a quiet,
smooth-shifting gearbox into the bargain!
By the way, whether an MGA rear end is wire- or steel-wheeled makes no
difference for the T-conversion as you take the gears out of the pumpkin and
adapt them to your differential.
Lawrie
British Sportscar Center
-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Dell <rddell@mindspring.com>
To: mg-t@autox.team.net <mg-t@autox.team.net>
Date: Monday, April 12, 1999 7:12 AM
Subject: TF axle ratio
>Hello All,
>
>My work on the TF is going well. New fuel pump and brakes all around will
>help the go and stop functions. Thanks for all the help from the group.
>
>Special thanks to Lawrie Alexander out at The British Sportscar Center in
>California for all his help by email. Wish we had someplace similar here on
>the East coast.
>
>Next question now involves driveability.
>
>I want to upgrade my gear ratio on the TF to something a bit more
>reasonable. I don't pull stumps much anymore so first gear is pretty much
>unuseable and highway speed just wrings that poor little 1250 to the limit.
>
>Does anyone have any tips on doing a gear change? I do have a spare MGA
>rear axle that could be a donor but it's a wire wheel axle and my TF will
>stay a solid wheel car. Not sure about the possibilities there.
>
>Dick Dell
>Raleigh NC
>
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