::standfirst The T-Series' handling and safety depend on regular chassis lubrication and a handful of wear items. Neglected kingpins, tired lever-arm dampers, worn steering joints and leaking brake cylinders are the usual culprits. Keep the many grease points served and these cars stay sweet to drive.
Know your model
What you look after, and how, depends on which T-Type you own. See The Models for the full history; the running-gear headlines are:
- TA, TB, TC. Beam front axle on half-elliptic springs, worm-and-peg steering box, and centre-lock wire wheels on splined hubs. Simple, sturdy, and utterly dependent on regular chassis lubrication.
- TD, TF (including TF 1500). Independent front suspension, coil springs and wishbones with kingpins / swivel pins, rack-and-pinion steering, and bolt-on steel disc wheels. More modern to drive, and with a different set of wear points.
Rear suspension is half-elliptic on all of them, and lever-arm hydraulic dampers work at both ends throughout the range.
Chassis lubrication (the big one)
This is the single most important running-gear job on a T-Series and the one owners under-do most often. These cars have many grease points, kingpins/swivels, steering joints, spring shackles, propshaft, handbrake linkage, and they were designed to be served often.
- Grease every driving season at least, and more often for the front kingpins/swivels on a TD/TF, which take the loads of independent front suspension.
- Neglected kingpins wear rapidly, producing heavy, sloppy steering that no amount of tracking will cure, and once the pins and bushes are past their limits, the fix is a full strip and rebuild.
- Regular greasing does more than lubricate: it flushes water and grit out of the joint, which is a large part of why serviced cars last so much longer than sleepers.
- Some grease nipples sit awkwardly close to a spring or bracket, a 90° angled adaptor for the grease gun is not a luxury, it is the tool that gets the job actually done.
A £30 grease gun and half an hour twice a year saves £1,500 in kingpin work.
Lever-arm dampers
Front and rear hydraulic lever-arm dampers damp the suspension through internal valving and rely on being kept topped up with the correct fluid. Old dampers leak from the shaft seal, lose damping through worn internals, or seize.
Test them by bouncing each corner firmly and letting go: the car should settle in one movement, not oscillate. Off the car, a healthy damper offers steady resistance through its stroke, not a dead spot.
Options when they are tired:
- Top up and reseal if only slightly leaking and still damping cleanly.
- Rebuild using specialist kits, feasible for the mechanically confident.
- Fit reconditioned or remanufactured units from a marque specialist, usually the most reliable outcome for cars that are driven regularly.
Steering
TD/TF rack-and-pinion. The rack is filled with oil, not grease, through a plug on the rack body; use the specified oil and keep the rubber gaiters intact, a split gaiter lets oil out and grit in, and a dry rack wears fast. The tie-rod ends wear and give play at the front wheels, a very common MOT/handling fault and one of the first things to check on a TD/TF that feels vague.
TA/TB/TC steering box. The earlier cars use a worm-and-peg steering box that needs its own periodic lubrication and adjustment. Excessive free-play at the wheel rim usually points to a wear-adjustment that is due, or to worn drop-arm and idler joints downstream, check the whole linkage before condemning the box.
Suspension bushes
Perished rubber wishbone and shackle bushes let metal work on metal, spoil the ride, and load the joints with impacts they were never meant to take. Renewing them is not expensive, and any time you have a corner apart for damper or kingpin work is the right time to do it.
Brakes
The T-Series uses hydraulic drum brakes all round. Treat brake work as safety-critical and to the workshop manual's specification.
- Pull the drums during any service. Look for weeping wheel cylinders, and for oil in the rear drums, the latter is the classic sign of a leaking axle seal, which will contaminate the shoes and ruin braking on that side until the seal is renewed and the drum, shoes and backplate cleaned.
- Flexible hoses perish from the inside out. Renew any that are cracked, swollen or of unknown age.
- Brake fluid is hygroscopic. Change it at least every two years to keep the boiling point up and corrosion down.
- Do not mix DOT specifications casually. Follow the manual's recommendation, or specialist advice for a considered change.
Wheels
Wire-wheel cars (TA/TB/TC and optional on TD/TF). Check the splined hubs for wear, a hub that clicks or loosens under drive is asking to strip. Check spoke tension at every service; a couple of loose spokes lets the whole wheel work and destroys itself. Have wire wheels rebuilt or retensioned by a competent specialist rather than trying to true them at home.
Disc-wheel cars. Check the wheel studs and fittings, a stretched or corroded stud is the sort of failure that only announces itself once. Torque wheel nuts to the manual figure.
Tyres. Whatever the tread depth, age matters on a classic car. Rubber perishes with time and UV even if the car is barely driven. As a rule of thumb, renew tyres older than about ten years regardless of tread, and sooner if the sidewalls show cracking.
Related reading
- The Models, front-suspension, steering and wheel differences across TA, TB, TC, TD and TF.
- Buying Guide, what to check on the running gear before you sign a cheque.
- MG TD & TF Modern Upgrades: Front Disc Brakes and Telescopic Dampers, converting away from the standard drums and lever-arms described above.
- Wheels & Tyres: Wire vs Bolt-On Disc, Splines, Truing and Tyre Choice, splined hubs, disc-wheel studs and tyre choice in full.
FAQ
How often should I grease an MG TD/TF chassis? At least once a driving season, and more often for the front kingpins and steering joints if the car sees regular use. Neglected greasing is the single most common cause of heavy steering and premature kingpin wear.
Why is my T-Type's steering heavy? On TD/TF, worn or dry kingpins/swivels are the usual answer, sometimes combined with worn tie-rod ends. On TA/TB/TC, look at the steering box adjustment and the drop-arm/idler joints. Under-inflated tyres and dry chassis points contribute on both.
Do MG T-Series lever-arm dampers need topping up? Yes. Front and rear lever-arm dampers hold a small quantity of the correct hydraulic fluid, and level should be checked periodically. Persistent leaks or lost damping mean a rebuild or a reconditioned replacement.
What brakes does the MG T-Series have? Hydraulic drum brakes all round on every T-Type from TA through TF 1500. There are no discs from the factory. Regular inspection of wheel cylinders, hoses and fluid is essential.