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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Front telescopic shocks

On the mustard midge I have just bought there is a frontline front suspension kit installed with spax adjustable telescopic shocks, one side is bouncing up and down like a brides nighty, so I would like to know what folks have found to be a good replacement and who would be selling them ?.
Frontline have priced them at £187.54+vat for a pair ouch...
Rob Newt

Frontline now use AVO and they are under contract so you can't buy direct from AVO (I know as AVO are only a few miles away from me)

Spax may not be under contract so if you can get a number of the unit or just contact Spax as I'd guess they are not custom built and are fitted to other cars so widely available at a sensible price

You need a pair of course
Nigel Atkins

We have AVO's on the racer front and rear. I must confess I am not very impressed by them. They seem overly heavy and I am not convinced the bump/rebound rates are optimised for a midget. They are also uber expensive.

Another problem with AVOs is their poor quality control - there have been numerous cases where dampers have been supplied with the poly inserts but with the wrong retaining strap, which allows the inserts to squeeze out sideways.

I'm also not impressed with the current quality control at SPAX having had 2 major damper failure incidents in the last couple of years on my TF.

Currently I recommend Pro-Tech dampers (the company is owned by Rod Avo). These are lightweight, alloy bodied, and come valved to suit your application. I have them on my TF, my Ginetta G15 racer and am about to get a set for the Midget racer. They are superb and excellent value at around 140GBP a pair (total).

Pro Tech may not have drawings for your particular application but if you drop them one of your old dampers then they will make a set up to suit.


http://www.protechshocks.co.uk/
Deborah Evans

Deborah
Thanks for the info,these Pro-Tech sound interesting,I will give them a bell to see if they can do adjustable as Iam forever messing about with the settings on the Turbo Midge depending on what Iam doing with the car, currently using Spax on the rear and found them to be ok but I have not done too many miles yet,did you find them ok before the failure ?
I was thinking it could be a one off.

Nigel
lookd like FL have got us by the short and curlys,
I would be interested what other folks have used on there FL front kit ?
Rob Newt

AVo front and rear on my Frontline kit and they seem good enough to me on my road only car

I take on Deborah's comments and hear these applied to a lot of adjustable dampers

Unless I could swap and try other makes I could never say they AVO the best I could reasonable get but the set up is a lot better than the original Spidget set up (IMO)

Frontline have changed a bit since the company was set up

Personally I wouldn't deal with them again and no one could deny their prices are high

I'm happy to accept high prices for good quality products and/or service
Nigel Atkins

The problems I had with SPAX dampers were two fold and were the result of the bloody stupid design of the TF suspension whereby both the front and rear lower damper bolts are in single shear.

The initial problem was that I was supplied rose jointed dampers where the lower mount was over-size for the mounting bolts (unbeknown to me since I didn't fit them). This lead to both rear lower mounting bolts failing as a result of High Cycle Fatigue within a space of 6 weeks from fitting.

Accordingly SPAX replaced these with dampers with metalastic lower bushes (and charged me full list price to boot!). All well and good, the car ran for about 2 1/2 years before a similar failure occurred. Further analysis showed that the metal used in the damper bushes was not up to spec and wore against the mounting bolt, leading to play, HCF and bolt failure.

I will not use SPAX again!

Rob, Pro Tech can supply either single adjustable dampers (fixed bump:rebound rate) or double adjustable dampers. If you specify your spring rate(s) and corner weight(s), then they will valve the damper to suit your car. Additionally they can supply them either bushed or with rose joints. You may find that the bushes/rose joints need to be sleeved to suit the FL set up but Pro Tech will also do this for you - this is what they did for my rose jointed dampers on my TF at no additional cost (I merely gave them an old damper to use as a mule).

Additionally Pro Tech supply their dampers as accurately matched pairs (which many more expensive companies do not!).


A photo of the rear dampers for the coil over set up on the rear of my Ginetta G15 racer:



Deborah Evans

Rob, if you do fit the dampers that Debora suggests, make sure you fit them with the adjustersAWAY from the tyre when the steering is turned in full lock... It can have some very strange effects on the car's handling.... ;-)

Mark.
M T Boldry

May I also throw it out there that Nitron Racing are incredible at what they do.

http://www.nitron.co.uk/products_design.htm

We used to run their stuff on a few of our cars in the CSCC Tintops and Britcar. Never failed to produce good results.

Pete
PeterJMoore

Just removed offside FL kit,sandblasted and painted and ready to go on the turbo, looking good.
Went to remove nearside FL kit...STOP...whats this no bolts...some dippy Dorah has welded in the kit as the thread had gone on the mounting plates..
Thought I had a bargain, doesnt seem so good now !
Rob Newt

:(

nothing that cant be sorted easily though dude surely

PeterJMoore

This thread was discussed between 13/07/2010 and 21/07/2010

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.