Something interesting happened on the way to the forum (actually while looking up information for Richard in regards to the clutch pedal stop in the TD/TF). First, according to the T series Handbook, published by the New England Register, the pedal stop on the early TDs (TD/0251 through TD/22250) was accomplished by the cable that operated the clutch. Starting with TD22251 through the TFs, the cable was abandoned and a rod linkage was used to operate the clutch. At this point, a clutch stop bolt was added to the bottom of the pedal box in the cars. The cable stop and the the clutch stop bolt effectively stops any further travel of the throw out bearing against the thrust plate on the clutch pressure plate beyond the point where the clutch disk is released and the prevention of possible damage to the clutch throwout bearing due to over travel. Over time, the clutch cables were no longer produced and the early cars that had originally been equipped with the cable were converted to the clutch rod linkage, but since there was no mention anywhere about the clutch stop bolt, said bolt was not added to these cars. Also the cable stop bolt in a number of the later TDs and in the TFs were undoubtedly lost or didn't get reinstalled during repair or restoration.
Fast forward a number of years and Mike O'Connor of O'Connor classics in California wrote an article in response to the breakage/bending of the main clutch rod in TD as a result of interference with the web of the clutch lever on the side of the sump. Mike's cure for this problem was to grind the web of the clutch lever at an angle so that the clutch rod was no longer bothered by this web. Also somewhere around that time frame, two other gentlemen in California wrote a seemingly unrelated article about, among other things, the missing clutch stop bolt and how to make one and install it in the early cars that never had one. Both of these articles reside in my great file of things MG, having been read by me and filed for future reference (such as when someone like Richard asks the question about excessive clutch pedal travel). In particular, Mike O'Connor's article piqued by curiosity as to why I had never had a problem with clutch rod breakage or bending even though the web in the clutch lever on our TD had never been modified. My curiosity was piqued, but not sufficiently to make me explore the reason the clutch rod/clutch lever in our TD had not had any problem and so nothing was looked into or done other than check that the clutch stop bolt was in fact installed in our TD. Because of Richard's question, I dug out the two aforementioned articles and made copies to send to Richard and it was then that the penny finally dropped - the missing clutch stop bolt was the reason for the need of Mike O'Connor's modification to the clutch lever on the early TD. I also realized that I had never heard of a clutch rod being broken on a TF. Serendipity is a wonderful thing
Cheers,
Dave
http://homepages.donobi.net/sufuelpumps/