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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 - MIdget Wishbones

Has anyone on here fitted the premier wishbones from the spridget wishbone company and if so how do you find them?
N J Schofield

There considard top notch... Its the direction Im going (eventually) barry has dane some good work making them better then stock

he has 2 versions.... the basic, which is better then any thing that came out of BMC, and the premier which is a racing ttpe of wishbone.
Prop

I've just ordered a set of the Premier wishbones. Barry has emailed me to say they are despatched. Hopefully they will come on Monday. He seems a very nice guy on the phone. Let's face it, any improvement over the stock item is worthwhile.
Mike Howlett

My Barry King Premier wishbones are with me now, so I have taken some photos for you. They seem very well made and have several labels explaining what they do. The principal difference is (I think) that the threaded fulcrum pin is solid and has a grease fitting at each end. So when you pump the grease in it must go around the threads where it is needed, and because you can grease both ends, neither end gets starved of lubrication. Here is the wishbone.



Mike Howlett

Here is a close up of the top label.



Mike Howlett

Here is a close up of the bottom label.



Mike Howlett

And here is the fulcrum pin. It doesn't show very well in the photo but it is solid.



Mike Howlett

And this is Barry's flyer.



Mike Howlett

Mike,

Thanks for the pictures. Considering the apparent quality of the product I feel it is a shame, last time I looked, that the images in the gallery at http://www.spridgetwishbone.co.uk appear to be so low resolution and pixelated as to detract from the product/website in my opinion.

Mind you having run across what seems to be the new Frontline site http://www.frontlinedevelopments.com/ , a big improvement over the earlier one, but full of lacking images and bad links, it's tolerable.
David Billington

a triumph of marketing over substance - new Frontline site
Nigel Atkins

You're right - the Frontline site is terrible. Most of the links don't work. The one picture of the front suspension is from a weird angle and shows you nothing. Even I could do better!
Mike Howlett

Hi thanks for your comments on our wishbones,to clarify a couple of points the reasons the fulcrun pin is solid 1 The grease groove on the std pin causes wear and creates swarf within the bushes,2 A solid pin avoids distortion under the hardening process,3 The bushes have a lubrication scroll in the thread.PS i take note re photos on website something i need to address PPS also i hope to be at midget 50 with a trade stand,also did tou enjoy the article in the Safety Fast magazine?Thanks Barry King
bp king

I enjoyed the article in Safety Fast - it was very informative - and looking forward to seeing the actual product at Midget50

PS - it's not just the photos that you need to sort out on the website - some of the pages lose some of the words as well - it's not a big deal though, and shouldn't take too long to be sorted ;) As it stands, it's way better than some sites around ....
rachmacb

Hi

Ive just fitted BK premier wishbones, recon stub axles and kingpins, a thicker ARB and polybushes, lowered springs and pan spacers. I knew it was going to be good when I hit the cobbles at the end of the road without a single knock or clunk.

I did have to go back to the supplier of the king pins and sort through to find what I thought was the set with the closest fit on the fulcrun pins though. Theres definitely some variation in the kingpins commonly supplied.

Sadly I only took one tour round the block before I decided i needed to bleed the clutch a bit more - after just fitting toyota 5 speed as well - not the usual "bleeding" nightmare as you can reach in through the bonnet with this set up to access the bleed nipple and even get a 10mm socket on to it.

Peter May -ve trunnions are on the way to complete the mods.

An archived thread on the subject refers to "a little less -ve camber on the drivers side as the car usually sits a bit lower on this side". Is this correct. The lower the car the more negative camber - surely. Think of the car jacked up in the air with the wheels hanging free - simulating maximum ride height and maximum positive camber. At rest my car sits with the lever arms just about horizontal and approximately zero camber. (-ve camber trunnions not fitted)
S G Macfarlane

I see the FL suspension kit uses PTFE IGUS bushes... has anyone recently bough a kit with these?

[The oilites provide a nice 'clank-clnk' over white lines etc when slightly worn...]

Can these be retro-fitted?

A
Anthony Cutler

Anthony,

I've seen these at the company that was making them recently and the spindle is hard anodised aluminium. IIRC they're not going to be interchangeable as they were dimensionally different to the oilites which in the case of the later ones were just thick walled IIRC and not tophat as I had used. The IGUS bearings I was shown were tophat versions.

Make me wonder if FL will still supply the spindle and bearings for the earlier versions if they require replacing.
David Billington

I once looked into using IGUS spherical bearings/rod ends on the racer I built (beacuse they were so cheap!) and found that an eqivalent size 'proper' metal bearing/rod ends with PTFE linings were able to withstand much higher loads than the IGUS parts.

Whilst they might be OK in terms of ultimate load, as they are being loaded closer to their maximum than an equivalent metal part they would probably wear and fail a lot sooner.

I don't know if this is applicable in this situation, or if anyone has any first hand experience of this? do you mean the rubber bushes or other bushes elsewhere?!

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

Malcolm,

The IGUS bearings are being used as the pivot bushes on the inner end of the FL top arm that replaces the lever arm damper.
David Billington

Ah, gotcha, I was a bit confused there. My (albeit) theoretical experience with IGUS bearings is they are not as robust as metal parts.

The old addage of you get what you pay for, an IGUS spherical bearing is £3, a PTFE lined steel spherical bearing is £20.

But on the other hand I would think frontline know what they were doing! :-)

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

Malcolm,

Time will tell I guess.

When I was talking to a guy at the fabricators I mentioned that I had designed the original units that Tim Fenna copied, his comment was "busted" and I got the impression that explained a few things for him. I got contacted years ago by Keith Brading of IOW frogeye fame as he didn't think Tim's claims to have designed it married up with his apparent lack of technical knowledge of the design, the late John Mead knew I had designed and built the originals and passed my contact details to Keith resulting in a long chat on the phone.
David Billington

also explains why he teamed up with the guy he did and let him take over the business

(with hindsight, unfortunately) the Batheaston and Steventon division and then move seemed strange

having had to remove a rear damper I can tell you the bottom fixing with different sized, threaded coonnection either side is very poor should you ever have to replace the bottom damper bush or damper
Nigel Atkins

some Midgeting political history here?!

Being new to this game I don't know who these characters are and the nosey side of me whats to know the full story. However it is probably best to save it all for a rainy day, or a seperate thread! ;-)

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

er yes,

yes

and yes
Nigel Atkins

Malcolm,

Tim Fenna ran/runs Frontline. I met him on a mechanical engineering OND course in 1985 at Bath Technical college, he didn't complete the 1st year. IIRC he went on to do business studies.

Keith Brading ran the Isle of Wight Frogeye company producing rebuilt? frogeyes originally using the front chassis section of the donor car so it qualified as the original, then later producing all new cars complying to the SVA or appropriate rules at the time up into the late 1990s or early 2000s.

Me, I completed the ME course, it having been commuted to an ONC due to lack of students. That cut things short by a term and the college weren't happy about giving me the money back for the term so I suggested giving me the run of the workshops which they happily agreed to. At about that time I had replaced the front dampers with "recons" from the local factor and they were little better than those they replaced, except for the paint. That inspired me to conceive and design what are shown here http://www.metal-arts.co.uk/sprite/frontsuspmods/index.html the freedom of the college workshops allowed me to make them and other things. I made the mistake the following year of allowing Tim Fenna of copying the design for his own use, the rest is history. The year after the OND I went on to do a Mech Eng degree so was busy for a few years and never developed it myself.
David Billington

What a bar-steward. I hate lazy, stupid, inconsiderate people like that.

It's a shame there are so many of them in the world.

Malcolm
M Le Chevalier

Tim later took on Ed Bralic both were at Batheaston

Ed lived in Oxfordshire but travelled to Bath, the Midget centre, the MGB centre was in Steventon, Oxfodshire

Tim may have(?) sold to fund a Healey regeneration project(?)

Ed moved to Steventon now no longer the MGB centre and near to where he lived

I was never sure how the (previous) MGB centre at Steventon fitted into the business, or was it a franchise??

Ed may now be Frontline?

Ed and Tim were/are compatible in business issues

Frontline Costello is/was a trading name of Frontline Spridget Ltd

As with the old site the new site is confusing
Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 12/03/2011 and 16/03/2011

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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