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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - More rear dampers

Hi I'm new to site so please treat gently.

My 1500 Midge has a very loud and irritating clank seeming to come from behind drivers seat when going over bumps or pot holes in the road. I have renewed all exhaust fittings but clank still occurs.

A Morgan owner friend suggested it could be fault in armstrong dampers. Has anybody got any ideas?
B Wood

Hi Welcome.
going along with your Morgan freinds good suggestion - often the bolts for the damper can be loose without seeming so and a good tightening is required. Or possibly the big links off the damper could be loose, damage, worn or broken.

Let us know how you get on with that or any other suggestions made here as obviously there are other things it could be but you'll need to look under the car for them anyway so damper is a good one to start with.

Nigel Atkins

It could be something is lose. I had a clunk from the rear over bumps, yet a visual inspection couldn’t find anything. One of the bolts securing a rear damper wasn’t done up quite tight enough. It wasn’t lose enough to notice by hand but half a turn to nip it up and the problem went away.

Check the whole of the rear suspension carefully and see if anything needs tightening up. Inspect the bushes (drop links, spring ends), u bolts, shackle nuts, leaf spring mounts.

Look for a lose handbrake cable knocking on something. Brake lines not secured properly, fuel line not secured properly.
Chris Madge

Check the bolts that hold the damper unit in place. They can work loose and movement of the damper against the mounting bracket is surprisingly loud.
GuyW

Yep. What everyone else said.

Mine did that when I first got it on the road after restoration. Turns out I had only done the damper bolts up finger tight! It passed it's MOT like that though!

Unlikely to be anything internally wrong with the damper.

Malc.
Malcolm Le Chevalier

thanks everybody for your suggestions, I will be acting on them this weekend.
B Wood

An old tip before attempting to diagnose mystery clunks and clanks is to empty the boot, check under the seats, glove boxes, door pockets (not midgets obviously) etc. for foreign objects and then repeat your test drive and see if the noise is still there. Also check wheels are properly located and wheel nuts are tight!


AdrianR

This thread was discussed between 01/07/2020 and 07/07/2020

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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