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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - New to Spridgets - Wishbone query

Hi

I joined the Spridget community in July when I bought a 1967 Sprite MkIV. I had chased a few 'projects' on ebay and without success and had dismissed concours examples as too expensive and too precious to use properly (hoping to do a bit of light hillclimbing next season). I finally found this one in Dorset - mid-priced and 12 months MOT, so no waiting for a bit of road time.

I'm seriously considering reporting the MOT station! I guess I should have taken a Spridget expert along with me to check it out properly! Failed F shock absorbers (nearly understeered into local Millenium garden at 25mph), dodgy steering joints (I thought tramlining went out with X plies), rattling F suspension, useless hand brake, V long and spongy brake pedal and really rubbish India tyres - and that's just for starters - It also has the worst paint job you ever saw! I'm very glad I trailered it back from Dorset instead of driving the 200 miles back home! On the plus side,the shell, despite much previous welding, is solid, it has new brake calipers, new F wings, new sills (not just covers!) an LCB exhaust manifold and telescopic rear shocks (though it does bottom out easily - is this normal?

The front shock absorbers have been changed - it corners predictably now. The steering joints are done - no tramlining. The brakes have been bled several times and are working better, still need a bit of a pump so I'll turn my attention to the M Cylinder next.

I'm in the middle of re-bushing and changing fulcrum pins in the front suspension. I'm amazed at how easily the whole lot came apart, nothing was seized and everything well greased. I think the rattle was actually down to a mutilated and poorly fitting cotter pin as that side is done and the rattle has gone. I'm now working on the other side and found that the wishbone pan is different. The R/H one looked exactly the same as all the catalogue and workshop manual pics. The L/H one, however, has extra holes in it. (See pic). The same holes appear on the other side of the pan. Can anyone explain what these holes are for? They appear to be original and not drilled later. I've surfed for pics of other BMC wishbones (A30, A35, A40) but none have had these holes. The car came with a good file of receipts up to 1997, the last one included 'New Wishbone pans and stub axles'. That was approximately 10k miles ago. I'm wondering whether the PO was diddled by the garage fitting a second-hand unit. It has a dent in the top and has taken a couple of other knocks but it looks 'straight'. The most important question is - is it OK to use this wishbone on my Sprite?

On the road the Sprite is absolutely brilliant fun and as the faults get corrected and we get more familiar and more confident with it, the fun just gets better. For me, a big part of the fun is also the work in the garage - very satisfying when the job goes well and you can really feel the difference when it's done.

I have already found this forum incredibly useful - you've answered loads of my questions before I've asked them - Thanks for all the help so far - I'll be back before too long as there's still a little list of questions waiting for answers! I'll try to make them all one-liners though!


C Mee

Standard suspension and no wear in the fulcrum pins then it should be fine. I had one with the extra holes in, and it cracked along the holes, but I had an extra damper mount on mine so don't worry about that.

It had been fine up till that point, for at least 5 years.

Strangely enough, only one of mine had the extra holes too!

Welcome to the BBS :)

Rob Armstrong

C Mee,

Certain cars such as the A40 Farina had the ARB mounting further out on the wishbone so it is likely that a wishbone from one of those has been fitted to your car and possibly re-drilled to suit. I had an A40 farina but can't remember if it had both sets of holes.
David Billington

Rob - Thanks for the reassurance - I followed your thread about your wishbone failure but didn't make the connection when I found my extra holes this weekend! I have inspected carefully - no signs of cracking at the moment.

David - My wishbone has both sets of holes on both faces so I think that's how it came out of the factory. A bit of rationalisation in the BMC parts department perhaps.
C Mee

Yes, I think it's a 'one size fits all' replacement part.

As previously mentioned, I also think the extra holes are A40.

With regard to the rear shocks, have the bottom spring plates been inverted so that the shock mounting hole is below the plate? Most telescopic conversions require the plates to be swapped from side to side and turned upside down to give more travel.
Dave O'Neill2

This thread was discussed on 08/10/2012

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