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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - I Need More Spring Help Please

1974 MG midget 1275cc. I've some problem going on here trying to get my re-arched springs back in. I'm thinking that the spring shop may have "overdone it" when re-arching, but I'd like to get some opinions and eliminate the dumb stuff first before ripping it all apart again.

I can’t get things to bolt up. With the front spring plate mounted, when I swing the spring up toward the axle, the rear end of the spring hits the bottom of the car and there is still about an inch gap between the spring and the bottom of the axle (axle hanging by rebounds). I also tried it with both the front and rear plates mounted to car first, but then even with a jack, I can't get the middle of the spring high enough to get the U-bolts through the plates (not even close). Also, with this method, the rear shackles are not sitting in a vertical orientation but are actually horizontal, with what should be the "lower" end of the shackle pointing towards the front of the car.

I know that one end of the spring is slightly longer than the other; I have the shorter side facing the front of the car, is this correct?

Here’s what the spring shop did: After dropping the springs off, the technician called me to tell me that he could not find any spec listings for the amount of bend for the Midget springs (I couldn’t either). He said he would have to make his best estimate. When I picked them up he told me he had also added a leaf to each to stiffen them up some. With the spring ends on the floor, I measure 6.5” from floor to bottom of the arch. Does this sound like too much? Or, is the extra leaf causing the problem? I’m leaning towards the probability that they were over-arched. Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks, Matthew
M Moment

Matthew,
In the first place, the rear suspension of an RWA Midget is quite stiff enough, thank you. You do not need an extra leaf. The spring guy simply does not understand that this is the light end of a 1700-pound car ;-) That extra leaf might mean that the u-bolts will not be long enough, too.

Yes, the shorter end of the spring is to the front of the car.

I just went out to the garage and measured several sets of used springs. They were all between 5.5" and 6.5", so your measurement is good. Remember when I mentioned a piece of 2x4 with a notch in it? Place this under the bottom plate that the u-bolts are supposed to go through with the notch aligned to allow passage of the end of the bolt that goes through all the leaves of the spring. Try to leave enough room on each side to start the nuts on the u-bolts. Jack the spring up into position, start the nuts on at least half-way through the threads and you are home free. Of course, getting the u-bolts properly into place and all the bits in between is NOT trivial. Be patient.
David "only patient with machinery" Lieb
David Lieb

David:
Yes, I do remember your suggestion about the 2x4 block and I did try it. It did work as far as getting the middle of the spring up closer to the axle, but the other problem still remains. When I do that, the rear end of the spring is pushed HARD up against the floor of the car, the shackle pins are horizontal, and the mounting bracket is pushed too far to the rear to get the three mounting bolt holes to line up. Even if I was to mount the rear bracket first (not connected to spring) I think the rear end of the spring would simply "mash" against the bracket as I jacked and I could never physically pull the rear end of the spring down to insert the shackle pin assys.
I tried to upload a photo but I got a message saying "the file you specified is too large." Any tips on uploading photos? Tried checking archives but couldn't find anything.

Thanks, Matthew
M Moment

Matthew,
As far as pictures are concerned, I am not sure what the limit is, but you will be doing us all a favor by reducing the size. If you do not have a btter graphics program on your computer than MS Paint, try going to http://www.photoshop.com and go down to the lower right of the page looking for the free online version of Photoshop. Lots of capability and 2GB of online storage besides. Use it to knock your resolution down to 640x480 and a jpg compression in the realm of 80% and the site should not object to it. Otherwise, you can post it to your own site and give us a link to it.
David "simulating helpfulness" Lieb
David Lieb

This thread was discussed between 12/04/2008 and 14/04/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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