I usually put the jack under the spring pan and remove the inner a-arm pivot
from the crossmember.
Larry Hoy
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgs@autox.team.net]On
>Behalf Of Ken Waringa
>Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 7:23 AM
>To: MG
>Subject: Front Suspension Lsesson Learned (kind of long)
>
>
>Last night I installed new a-arm bushings in the driver's side of my son's
>79 MGB. I'm planing on doing the passenger side tomorrow morning.
>
>I don't have a spring compressor so I used my floor jack under the spring
>pan to get the spring tension released. This is a real chore. The problem
>I found is that the A-arm is hanging at an angle downward, but the jack sits
>level on the floor. The two front bolts, actually one bolt and the sway bar
>link, came out fairly easy. The problem is the two inner bolts. As you try
>to raise the spring pan to relieve tension on the bolts, the whole car
>raises. No problem I figure, I'll use a punch to drive them out. Well the
>rear inner bolt wasn't much problem. I used a big screwdriver to help align
>the hole some then knocked the bolt out. The front bolt however was a
>different story. I had a lot of trouble aligning the holes (read couldn't
>get the holes close) so I decided to just knock the bolt out, I've got spare
>bolts! Everything was going fine until the bolt finally cleared the a-arm.
>Well if it was shot from a gun it couldn't have flown harder. Luckily for
>me, it went in the opposite direction I was in. The rest of the disassembly
>was uneventful. I installed the new V8 bushings and now we come to
>reassembly.
>
>I'm very concerned about getting the spring pan back in since I had so much
>trouble getting it out. I get the arms assembled with out fully tightening
>the assembly, now for the spring pan. I jacked it up and got the two front
>bolts with out too much trouble. I put the link in first then used the
>hammer to align the outer rear hole. Now I'm faced with aligning the two
>inner holes. I have a large C-clamp that I used on the inner rear corner to
>hold the plate in place. I then lowered the jack and positioned it on the
>inner side of the spring tray. Unfortunately I couldn't get it jack in the
>location I wanted because the jack stand was in the way. Well I jacked it
>back up until the car just lifted off the jack stand. I was very concerned
>about lifting the whole car since all 4 tires are off and it's sitting on 4
>jack stands. Well the holes still didn't align, but they were getting
>closer. Time for the big screwdriver. With a lot of grunting and a few
>choice four letter words the rear hole finally aligned and the screw was in.
>Now for the front hole. Again, a lot more grunting, more four letter words,
>more grunting and it finally went through, the hard part was done. Time for
>a beer.
>
>Now to finish, I get under and tighten the A-arm nuts, now just got to put
>the cotter pins in and everything is set. Wrong! I couldn't get the cotter
>pin through the forward nut on the inner side of the a-arm. No matter how
>much I tightened it, I just couldn't get it on far enough to get the pin
>through. I had visions of having to disassemble the whole thing again. (By
>now the better half is coming out about every 15 minutes to inform me of the
>time, wanting to eat dinner. I keep telling her I'm almost done.) Take a
>beer break to think about the problem The rear nut went on just fine, no
>problem installing the cotter pin. I start to look closer and for some
>reason the nuts appear different. The one on the front appears thicker than
>the one on the back. How can this be, then I think about the nut on the
>outside end of the A-arm at the bottom of the king pin. I remove the nut
>from the bottom of the king pin and low and behold, they are different. The
>thread size is the same, but the nuts on the inner end of the A-arms are
>thinner than the nut holding the outer end of the A-arm. I switched the
>nuts, and everything worked fine.
>
>Now I have the other side to contend with tomorrow morning. Does anyone
>have any secrets about removing and installing the spring pans with a jack?
>Also, after I finish the passenger side suspension, I'm going to rebuild the
>calipers and rear brake cylinders. Any advice for the brakes?
>
>The last time I did this, suspension and brake calipers, was about 10 years
>ago on a 1970 MGB. This is bringing back memories.
>
>Any advise is appreciated.
>
>Ken Waringa
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