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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Correct Ride Height

Hi,

I'm needing some advice regarding my rear suspension.

In the 1st photo above you can see my chassis is higher than where is should be. I assumed that when I fitted the engine and gear box the front suspension and somewhat the rear as well would settle to the correct height as the front spring is compressed into the set position.

The rear though is what's bothering me, without anymore significant weight to be added at the rear to compress the rear springs how are you supposed to compress the springs further so that the rear of the chassis is at the correct height. If I try to jack up the axle it lifts the whole chassis.

I'm guess I'm looking for advice on how to properly fit the rear suspension so that when the car is fully loaded it will sit correctly.

The rear springs are "supposedly" new old stock and certainly looked that way when they arrived.

Would you say that the 2nd photo looks about right in terms of ride height, as I have seen photo's of the rear wheel much further into the wheel arch.

The shackles on mine are near vertical and I have read that people suggest the shackles should be angled backwards. How do you achieve that without compressing the rear springs which as I have said is difficult without lift the whole chassis.

Many thanks

James






James Paul

Thought it might help to show the ride height when I got the car, which had the old very worn springs and the positions of the shackles. This isn't far off where mine are.

Also should the check straps be tight when the chassis is at the correct height or slightly loose / bent?

Thanks
James Paul

A tank of fuel will help that. Plus a bit of road use and it will soon settle. The shackle is OK, it wil go further back with some load on. The problem is if they point forward at all, then when laden the spring locks up solid!
The usual problem over ride height is that they settle too fast! But if yours are genuine OEM NOS ones maybe that won't be a problem!
GuyW

Sorry clicked back on my browser which resubmits the post.





James Paul

The check straps shouldn't be tight but should allow a couple of inches droop at least. If they were tight then you'd lift the inner wheel when cornering and with the standard diff lose drive out of the corner.
David Billington

Thanks for the replies.

So as long as the shackles are not pointing forwards and the check straps are not tight then when everything is fitted and after a few miles everything should settle down.

Good to know. Can carry on now and stop worrying about it.
James Paul

Its not a bad idea to leave the shackle bolts just a little slack until it is sitting on its wheels, or even after you have loaded it and driven a couple of miles.
GuyW

Lovely overhead MIG welding on that "before" image!
AdrianR

Yes they did a cracking job of covering up this mess! 🤦🏼


James Paul

I've seen far far worse. How long ago was that welding done? Without that welding, good bad or indifferent, the car is likely to have been scrapped. You should have seen what I did to my Sprite, and others did to theirs, to keep them on the road 'back in the day'.
anamnesis

No idea was way before my ownership. Car was riddled with patch and bodge repairs like this.
James Paul

Ah, memories of traditional craftsmanship with flattened out oil cans and thick underseal.

Reminds me of a piece I read about historic motorsport, with the author (well known name that I can't recall) commenting that the current set of revivals were nothing like the actual cars in period as they were all too clean and shiny - back then most club racers were run on a shoestring budget and apart from engines, held together which whatever came quickly and cheaply to hand.
AdrianR

I've still got the pop rivet gun I bought to repair my Sprite when I got it from the breakers in 1977. The last of those rivets only came out a couple of years ago, when I did some more extensive welding. I almost regreted replacing them with weld. 😅
anamnesis

I once rode a BSA M21 and sidecar almost 200 miles from Oxford to Cornwall with the sidecar chassis attached to the bike frame with fencing wire. To keep the two parts going in approximately the same direction I had to lean heavily against the top of the sidecar cabin, whilst at the same time leaning the bike the other way to make it go straight. Corners were even more exciting!
GuyW

When I lived in Southern California I drove to Halifax, Nova Scotia and somewhere in Connecticut my right front inner wheel bearing outer race became loose in the hub. This was in 1978 while Ford Econoline van was a 1965. I stopped at every scrapers I could find but since they salt the roads in that part of the country, finding even a 13 year old car was difficult. What to do? Shim the bearing in the hub using aluminium cans. About 1000 miles later, after many stops tore-shim I found one in Escanaba, Michigan. That hub is still on the van sitting in my drive. Bodge job out of necessity.

Talk about thread drift ;-)
Martin

I recall going to a club meet at the local country pub in the 70's. The pub was in a wooded area.The Frog in front of me was very scruffy and on going over a yump in the road, there was a hail of sparks as part of the seat runner went through the floor and hit the road. After a bit of searching in the wood we found some useful branches and wedged the seat partly back into place. Club meet over the car returned home with the wooden props in place!
Bob Beaumont

😅. Yep, thems were the days .lol
anamnesis

In 1980 I drove a Triumph 2500TC from somewhere in what is now Serbia home to UK on 3 shock absorbers (a rear had broken). We'd been to Greece and on our way back, 3 up plus camping gear. Serbia was then Yugoslavia and they'd no idea what a Triumph was so I drove on. Interesting diagonal swaying ISTR.
Bill Bretherton

James, back to your ride height question: if I read your photo right none on the brightwork, body fittings or trim are on yet?
Every rebuild we have done always amazes me how heavy these are collectively, making quite a difference to ride height.
Paul Walbran

I came back from Denmark in 1977 in an ex-post office Morris 1000 van with four men and a load of scuba gear. There was a loud crack driving onto the ferry in Esbjerg as a suspension bracket appeared through the rear floor.
We found a piece of wood (part of a pallet I think) in the terminal yard in Harwich so a bloke called Mike Parker, a very big guy, stood on the wheel while two of the other guys plus a random collection of passers-by lifted the back of the van and I, being the smallest, crawled under and whacked the timber in with the butt end of a dive knife.
It got us all home and my dad and I got it back together enough for the MoT and sold it. But I can't remember removing the lump of wood. I wonder if it's still there.
Greybeard

We might have passed each other in YugoSerbia Bill. I was in Greece (again) that year too in my Sprite, and went that route in 1980 instead of Italy/Brindisi. August/September.

Speaking of wood Grey, my brother bought a red mk3 midget with wood securing both sides of the rear spring hangers(the front ones). It was so solid he left it there, painted it in underseal, and also sold it with an mot. Botch? We didn't know the meaning of the word. 😂.

Like I said, we should all be grateful to the inventiveness of back then. Some of those old bangers are only still on the road today, being slagged off as they are restored to concours, because of clever fixes.

And look how much the environment was saved. Instead of a rusting oil leaking Triumph or Moggie van dumped at the side of the road, the careful and thoughful owners, took them home. 😅.

Besides, a 2500TC was quite a nice motor. I wouldn't have dumped it either.
anamnesis

Anam

We were away for most of August- drove down through Germany, Austria and Italy (via Venice) then the Croation coast road, then inland to avoid Albania and on to Greece. Then back up the middle of Yugoslavia via Belgrade and so on. I remember a guy approached us on a campsite in Northern Yugoslavia with a bicycle that had a lock he couldn't undo. So I sawed it off for him - maybe he'd nicked it, I don't know, but we declined his offer of a bed for the night.

So many stories we must all have. And, yes, the Triumph was lovely. Never missed a beat. Sorry, James, more thread drift!
Bill Bretherton

>>So many stories we must all have<<

That's the best part of traveling. And the people that you get to meet.
Martin

James, my Frogeye sits at the same angle as yours. Springs renewed a few years ago. Maybe I don't do enough miles to get them to settle.

Ah, pop rivets. I hacked the sills off my first Frogeye with a cold chisel and hammer, and riveted galvanised sheets on, in a borrowed garage. Drove home for lunch half way through, with one outer sill missing. I didn't know any better. The sheets were not long enough so there was a join plugged with fibreglass. None of this caused any MOT problems. I still see that car, which has of course been properly welded now. But I still think my job was not too bad - here it is a few years later. Spot the year from the company Cortina next to it.



Les Rose

This thread was discussed between 24/01/2022 and 27/01/2022

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