A few short weeks ago I responded to a thread about "truckish handling",
where a Bugeye Sprite Driver (I think) was investigating an MGB for
purchase. The B had all sorts of interesting things wrong with it, but
the final killing blow to the purchase decision was "truckish handling".
I jumped in and said something about how a B wasn't a Spritfidgit and how
nice and stable the B was at speed.
I'm going to partially retract that... I had the opportunity to drive a
friend's B (the first example of the breed other than my own that I have
driven). Wow, what a difference! The steering was light and managable.
Also, the Weber carb gave instant throttle response.
I figured something was wrong with my steering (play around center, very
high turning effort, sudden changes in force)... and went to another
friend's to replace the steering rack. Good idea, but not the real
problem...
Turns out I had a "frozen" kingpin on the passenger side... the Zerk
fittings had broken off and the thing hadn't been greased since. You
could barely move the wheel hub by hand when the steering rack was
disconnected. This explained why I could take my hands off the wheel in
a corner! <g>.
Well, some rather frightening pyrotechnics later, the old, rock-hard
grease has been replaced by new, gooshy slippery grease. The steering
rack is also "new" (actually off a GT, but in pretty good shape) and lubed.
No slop around center, no "binding" feel (change in force), and steering
only takes about 1/2 the effort of before! Not as nice as my friend's B,
but he has some pretty radical autocross settings on Camber and Caster.
So, the B is now a sports car again. Not as light as the Spitfire, of
course. But MUCH more tossable than it was! Yippee!
John M. Trindle | jtrindle@tsquare.com | Tidewater Sports Car Club
'73 MGB DSP | '69 Spitfire E Stock | '88 RX-7 C Stock
Home Page: http://www.widomaker.com/~trindle
"Sattinger's Law
It works better if you plug it in."
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