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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Front Suspension

My midget has tube shocks mounted to the front end in the fashion described on page 105 of The MG Midget & Austin Healey Sprite High Performance Manual By Daniel Stapleton, David Vizard, John Sprinzel. I am worried that the same issues noted in the book of the top hole being elongated and the bottom wishbone cracking may occur. I'd like to upgrade to the Frontline kit, but before I spend the money, I would like to know if anyone has personal experience with the kit. Is it worth it or should I just renew the setup I have now? See the photo for how this is set up on my Midget.


Brian Smythia

Is it worth it to go to the FL setup

YES!!!!!!

the FL setup is way more then just a tube shock conversion.

You get a properly located top arm instead of the wobely shock arm.
You get negetive camber built in to the kit witch makes the turn in even better.
And a good adjusable shock.

it realy is worth the cash
Onno Könemann

As Nick as he's just converted his Frogeye.
Gary Lazarus

I converted mine 10+ years ago. Wouldn't live without it. Should also go for 11/16 arb as well.

A
Anthony Cutler

I fitted the FL kit 15 years ago on the IoW Frog, No regrets..
K Harris

Most of us have fitted the Frontlne kit, I don't know of anyone who have taken it off, so that is testament to it is it not?
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

Thanks for all the input, everyone. I guess I know what my winter project will be :-)
Brian Smythia

Daniel Stapleton wrote the book, David Vizard and John Sprinzel wrote the forwards.

There are about 3 different versions of those kits from Australia, USA and the UK respectively. The UK kit originated from Spridgebits (no longer trading)and was based on what was available in Australia (as related to myself by Spridgebits). The kit used a Spax damper. I think Carrera in the USA still do a similar kit.

It's possible to deal with the weakness in the wishbone in the same manner that Frontline does (spread the load across both sides of the wishbone. More seriously There isn't an obvious solution to the problem with the top damper pickup though I seem to recall the Spridgebits kit had a plate that picked up from the Armstrong mounting on the inside where the damper mounts but this still wasn't that successful.

An alternative to the Frontline kit (based on a design by Dave Billington) would be to use reconditioned adjustable Armstrong dampers and Peter May Eng Ltd negative camber trunnions.
Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

what is the real benefit of a frontline kit over the Peter May sollution?
a.o. arnold

OK, I'm going to put forward a different angle here....

I have driven MANY Spridgets with and without the David Billington designed unit and I have to say that the lever arm O/E set up works just as well.... (no disrespect David).

Peter May's Uprated shocks work well, replace the springs too and as suggested, the ARB. (I use 400lb, std ride height).

My opinion only, I know others will disagree... lol

Mark.

M T Boldry

Mark,

No offence taken, but bear in mind that I was motivated to design the units because the readily available recon lever arm dampers were crap, in my experience, and in the late 1980s new wasn't an option and NOS were rumours. I haven't had the opportunity myself to drive another spridget back to back to compare good lever arms against telescopics fitment and upper link but when I fitted the units to my frogeye the difference was immediately noticeable and a great improvement compared to the recent recon lever arm dampers.

BTW I did have a real sweet set of lever arms on an A40 Farina and that had telescopics on the rear as standard.
David Billington

I have cars with both set ups, and my opinion is similar to Mark's. The Frontline (DB designed) set up is only marginaly better than an uprated 100% sound standard setup.
I believe that most times people are replacing knackered old lever shocks with Frontline, and probably bushes too, so then they feel the difference is night and day but I am sure that isn't the case.
Ian
Ian Webb '73 GAN5

I upgraded to 11/16 arb in Aug '93; liked the improvement very much - for me, the biggest improvement per pound and time on any Midget.

Then upgraded to FL spec in Apr '96.

The upgrade was peformed with existing dampers and bushes in good condition.

I recorded at the time a noticeable improvement based on driving the same car back-back in the same day (after fixing the comedey-effect toe-out, of course!).

It may be that some/all of this improvement could have been obtained with uprated dampers and offset top trunion.

I think we'd have to engage the Stig on a similar 3-way back-to-back comparison to get the figures.

One side effect is that 13 years and many miles later, the dampers are still 100% without any servicing. I used to find the old lever-arms would deteriorate noticeably over the years, and at different rates right and left... leading to some undesirable characteristics.

A
Anthony Cutler

Mark is right

You should compare like for like

so a FL (DB) setup with poly bushes should be compared with a brand new uprated (properly!!!)leverarm with top link, neg camber trunion and polybushes

Then they come verry close
But then they almost cost the same!!

Then the FL kit has the added benifit of an adjustable damper.
And it is more durable
The leverarm simply wears out faster than the proper arm and proper damper.

So the balance swings to the FL (DB designed) kit.
Unless you are after originality then the 1 hole you need to drill fort the FL mounting plate might be to mutch

Onno Könemann

The advantage of the Frontline kit is that it's lighter. With development it could have more advantages but Tim has seemingly no interest in developing it.
Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

This thread was discussed between 29/09/2009 and 30/09/2009

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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