british-cars
[Top] [All Lists]

MGB suspension rebuild

To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Subject: MGB suspension rebuild
From: KMWHEELER@ualr.edu
Date: Sun, 13 Mar 1994 15:35:24 -0600 (CST)
 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


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • MGB suspension rebuild, KMWHEELER <=