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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - negative camber wishbones

Hi all recently found some old stock of our negative camber wishbones about 8 pairs @2 degrees 2.5 & 3 degrees if anyone remembers these they were blue hammerite finish they are based on our original std reproduction we will adapt them for two grease nipples.We hope to be @ Stoneleigh in Feb so they will be on display there thanks Barry Ps hope to post some photos early next week.
bp king

Barry, I may be interested in a pair of these, but not at the moment, personal finances a little stretched....

Mark.
Mark T. Boldry

Having brought up this topic in the first place, and then finding that there were two variants of these wishbones, negative and normal. Anthony Cutler and myself were early at Peter May's Christmas event and while idly peering at our cars, it was noticed that my car has one wheel with negative camber, and the other front is normal. And a load of toe-in as well!

Looks as though I will be doing both my wishbones in 2009!

What's the betting that they be a pig to remove?

Roly
Roly Alcock

My car is the same Roly loads of negative on the drivers side, normal on the passenger side. however nothing to do with negative camber bottom wishbones, more to do with chassis geometry very poor!
Hope to try and rectify it this year with May's negative camber bushes (top trunion) in reverse. :-))
Bob (Robert) Midget Turbo

Barry
I would be interested in a pair of these for a project I have on the go, its need a pair of wishbones.
How should I contact you ?
Ian
Ian Webb '73 GAN5

Bob, thats interesting, thanks for your heads up. Although however having different designs of wishbonce on each side does leave some room for improvement.

How long would one expect to expect to change a wishbone? 2 hours, 2 days etc etc!

Roly
Roly Alcock

My driver's side (left) has 1/2 degree positive camber, and my other side has almost 3 degrees positive camber. It is an early car and I think it has been that way since it was new. There is a misalignment of the shock tower (I believe).
Trevor Jessie

Barry,
I would be interested in a pair of the 2-degree wishbones with dual grease fittings. Any idea of a price shipped to our land of ice and snow?

Roly,
If it was changed a week ago, it would only take an hour or so to change a wishbone.

In the real world, however, there are issues with removing the cotter pin that prevents the rotation of the fulcrum pin; the removal of the fulcrum pin, bushings that will need renewed, and a myriad of things that COULD go wrong. I won't even mention the possibility of needing a new kingpin. Assume you will need new wishbone bushings and upper trunnion bushings as well as a new trunnion pin and cotter.
David "the optimist" Lieb
David Lieb

Roly

Don't forget also that the metalastic bushes on the lower/inner wishbones usually seise to the pins. There's a variety of ways to 'free' them, including buring the bush (rubber) away.

My favourite is to use a hammer chisel on the bolts; the vibration quickly breaks up the rubber and the pins can be removed.

A
Anthony Cutler


I am sure that Anthony will never believe this (being as how he was the one who first noticed my apparent excessive toe-in), but I had the car checked at my local tyre dealer today and the toe-in is 3mm, as Haynes states.

So no excessive toe-in, just negative camber on one side.

I'll carry on enjoying driving it. Two nice days and the midget has been out both days with the top down, and with the dog.

Roly
Roly Alcock

Roly,
It is not too difficult to inspect the upper trunnion bushings by removing a wheel. I would suspect that they would be a likely source of excessive negative camber. They can be renewed without disconnecting anything else (just jack under the springpan till the shock arm rises off the bumpstop and operate). If you try hard enough, you won't see all the other suspension parts that should be renewed and your car will only be off the road a day or two.
David "easier said than done" Lieb
David Lieb

Hi Roly

Do I believe in the ability of tyre shops to measure toe-in/out? You guess.

When I first had the Type-R, the tyres wore unevenly. So I took it to the A44 tyre shop and they used their optical system and made multiple adjustments. My next set wore even faster - and when I took it back to A44 the guy said 'Who did this?' and I said 'you did' and managed to get a discount on the re-tracking (but not tyres at £150 per corner!). Still wore unevenly, so I took it to ETB. They also said it was way out; after their head-scratching, the back was better but the front worse. (It seems no-one knows what to do with all the readings they obtain from these optical systems.)

In desparation, I turned to the 'home-made' method I use for BRB - a long, straight steel pole, and used it to set all 4 wheels with a little toe-out on the front (FWD) and a little toe-in on the rear. I'm not saying it's perfect but far far better.

Why not measure the tracking yourself so you can be sure?! Takes less than a minute...

A
Anthony Cutler

Fibreglass fronts, changes is weight etc can all have an effect on tracking requirements. I used one of those double plate thingies that you drive over, and never had any tyre wear when I used a Midget on the road (admittedly not a huge amount).

It stood me in good stead for racing, too, and only improved when we used a laser jobbie. We managed to get the car going quicker in a straight line.
Max T

Ian Webb please contact me via www.spridgetwishbone.co.uk thanks Barry
bp king

I had bits of optical measuring stuff bunged on the rear wheels and bits on the front wheels and something on the steering column, and the result was 1mm toe-in on wheel and 2mm toe-in on the the other. It all looked pukka to me. Certainly more advanced than what I used in the 1960s when I was in the trade.

However it won't hurt to do a double check at home. A bit like doing the rough calculation to see if the slide rule result is correct.

Roly
Roly Alcock

This thread was discussed between 19/12/2008 and 23/12/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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