Last night I finished (mostly :) my rebuild of my 1975 MGB's suspension.
I started about two months ago by putting new rear springs on. The
left rear was easy, but the right rear's front bolt had seized and had
to be hacked off. The bolt had corroded to the sleeve in the bishing.
I had another set of rear shocks that seemed to be in good shape. I
flushed them and refilled them with correct shock fluid, cleaned them,
and painted the arms. I fit new shock links. As I part of rebuilding,
I, as usual, elected to do some modification. Since my '75 B was
thoughtfully constructed with no sway bars, it was easy to decide
what the modification would be! Fitting the rear bar from the Hopkinson
handling kit to the B was fairly easy, but the paper templates didn't
exactly match the holes in the mounting plates.
The front: parts to be reused were cleaned, sandblasted, and painted.
Hmmm....how to get those upper trunions off? Their just a slip fit...
Vise, propane torch, long piece of steel...After heating up the trunion
it was easy to twist off. New uprights, bushings, and hardware. Already
had new brakes and wheel bearings.
Removing MGB coil springs: I use the compressor that Victoria British
sells. Except I run the compressor inside the coil spring, and run the
threaded rods through a piece of plate. The plate goes under the spring
pan. This method makes it fairly easy to compress the spring down towards
the spring pan. Then remove the spring, pan, and compressor as one unit.
It's a little harder to replace them. You have to make sure that the spring
goes up around the seating cup.
I think the hardest thing to do was putting the front sway bar on. One is
supposed to mount the bar in place, drop it into the end links, and ta-da!
it's done. It didn't work that easy for me. I had to put the sway bar into
the end links, and move the bar from side to side to get the link bolts into
place. I spent an hour sworking that thing into place.
The car is amazing now! Stiff. Flat around the corners. Predictable.
However, it seems that at speeds above 40, minor steering corrections
cause a bauble in the cars direction. Maybe not. I may just be sensitive.
I does feel like I'm steering both ends of the car. I'm very happy with
the way the car corners. I'd reccomend the R/H handling kit.
I still have tie rod ends and steering rack boots to put on. Also I need
tires. I'd like to hear from folks who're running 185/70's on their B's.
I've got stock rostyle wheels. Do more SOLers run stock size tires or the
185/70's?
I finished the work behind schedule one and ahead of schedule two. That means
that I missed the autocross today :(, but I'll be ready for the BMCA rally
next weekend. (British Motoring Club of AR) This will be the 2nd annual
nav rally pitting the BMCA against the local Corvair guys. I hope I do ok,
I've got marque honor to defend...an MG won it last year!
Keith "going around corners faster" Wheeler
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