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Whitworth on 59 Sprite.

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Deanr

Freshman Member
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Just getting started on this car and was curious how much Whitworth I would find.
I have none on hand and would be a major hold up to wait on some.
 
I am new to the MG Midget but I think you will find that you will have UNF bolts and maybe some UNC, but no Whitworth threads.
Whitworth came in 2 flavors. BSF and BSW for fine and coarse. Most cars in the UK used UNF and UNC.

David
 
I wasn’t sure as I only been driving it not working on it. I thought Whitworth would only be found on the SUs but it is British.
 
Does look like the cabs use some BSF spanner/wrenches.
BSF spanner.jpg
BSF and BSW head sizes were brought into line some years ago so there are two sizes marked on them. For instance 7/16 BSF 1/2 BSW At one time you had to have 2 separate sets of spanners one BSF and one BSW.

David
 
Yup, car is all "standard" mostly fine thread other than at least one nut on the carbs. Only a handful of sizes as well so it's an easy car to work on.
 
Another thread (with different wrench sizes) that you'll run across is British Association (BA). Used by Lucas, Smiths and SU. Examples of BA cheese head screws include SU carb dashpots, Lucas distributor points, Smiths fuel sending units, SU electric pumps (I'm not familiar with the mechanical SU pump). The threaded studs on the back of Smiths gauges are BA.

So be cautious when chasing threads. BA and Whitworth thread gauges are available on Amazon. Descriptions of British threads can be found on British Tools and Fasteners web site.
 
There is also a Bolt IIRC on the E-Brake cable that is Whitworth. For the most part all SAE Fine thread other than mentioned above.
 
Years ago I bought a Myford lathe from back in the 40s. It's pretty much Whitworth so in one of my trips to the UK I bought a couple of sets of Whitworth wrenches and sockets at boot sales. They were very inexpensive, even though good quality names. In the work I've done so far on our bug eye I've had to use Whitworth wrenches a couple of times but probably could have gotten away with an adjustable spanner. You can see that I have a set of Whitworth, SAE and Metric wrenches on the wall behind the lathe...

The contraption to the right side of this shot is a Zeiss operating room microscope I adapted for doing fine work on the lathe.

Myford.jpg
 
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