Ron Peterson wrote:
> What do the rear leaf springs in an MGB (1977) look like when they are in
> good condition? Are they flat? Bowed up? Bowed down? Car seems to be
> bottoming out more often these days and I'm beginning to suspect the springs.
> Also, the rear end hops under acceleration and often feels like it's about to
> loose it (as though it wants to keep going in a straight line) when going
> around corners. Is that just normal behavior for this car?
To which Greg replies:
As it happens Ron, I did this very job last night. About a week ago I decided
to liberate the "fast road" suspension from my '69 B Hanger Queen and use it
on my '77 B. This entailed taking both the front coils and rear leaf springs
off the '69 and putting them on the '77. While I had things apart, I compared
the '77 springs with each other and with their replacements. All of this is
because I intensely dislike the ride height of the rubber bumper cars. After
I put on 8 spoke alloys and low profile tires, I could have rented out the
space left in the wheel wells. Anyway, The rear springs are definitely _NOT_
flat. I could measure tonight if need be, but I'd say they have about 7 inches
of bow in them when they are sitting on the garage floor. Also, the bow is
down when looking at the springs on the car. I think you might even hit the
bump stops (you do have the bump stops don't you?) before the spring gets flat
or bowed up. The stock springs have 7 leaves and the lowered springs have 5 but
are slightly stiffer. This B (the '77) has over 100K miles on it and I would
say the springs were in very good shape. I don't know if they'd ever been
replaced. It doesn't count for much but they looked original, right down to
the undercoating overspray where the springs met the front and rear body
attachment points.
The end result of this effort was well worth it. The car doesn't sit quite as
low as my '69 did (not sure why) but it came down about 1.25 inches in front
and 1.5 inches in the rear. It now sits perfectly level and looks awesome.
Ob question: Does anyone know of a stiffer than stock sway bar set that uses
the original mounts. I was going to take the ADDCO sway bars off the '69 but
I've never been happy with the way they attach. It's sturdy enough but it
looks kind of cheesy. It mainly offends my engineering sensibilities. I would
like to find a set of bars which attach just like the originals. As for the
ADDCO bars they worked beautifully with the springs and shocks I was using.
The car cornered very flat and neutral with just a bit throttle-on-oversteer
which is how I like it. I hope the '77 turns out as nice.
Greg
|