MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

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 - Rear shock arm lose on spindle -- repair.

I managed to drag myself out of the sun for the last few days and do some work on the midget.

Then, having completed welding and painting primer on the passenger side, I decided to do a few little bits and bobs mechanically before getting the car down off the stands.

I noticed my shock arm was moving sidways on the passenger side. I thought at first it was the spindle moving in the body. But when I removed the drop link from the arm, I found the arm was free to rotate on the spindle and move sideways.

knackered splines. I Took the shock off the car and removed the arm from the spindle. I clamped mole grips to the spindle and the shock itself is very good indeed. Probably been like this for years looking at the splines, and yet it got an mot. :).

Anyway, I can't waste a good shock, so I repaired it.

I set the arm in the correct position on the spindle, and drilled four holes so I could hammer in 4 locating pins to compensate for the worn splines.


Lawrence Slater

Then I hammered in the four hard masonary nails, ground them down and gave it few blobs of weld.

I did consider just welding it, but didn't want to risk too much heat ruining the seals inside. So I opted for pins and blobs of weld instead.

Works a treat. :).


Lawrence Slater

Neat solution Lawrence.

Guy W

Thanks Guy.

I'm quite pleased with the result and enjoyed doing it. Outside in the sun on my trusty old black decker workmate, and using my trusty old black and decker drill too. What could be better?
Lawrence Slater

Nice.

I seem to recall making a similar repair on the kickstart of my Honda SS50...many years ago.

The pinchbolt wouldn't hold it tight enough to stop it rotating on the shaft, so I drilled a hole and pinned it. It may have even been a masonry nail that I used.
Dave O'Neill2

Nice save Lawrence. Here is a thought for some applications when you need to weld and are concerned with heat damage. See if you can put the section that is prone to heat damage under water while leaving the section to be welded above the water.

In your case I suspect pinning was better because some cast or hardened metals don't respond well to plain steel wire migs.

Charley
C R Huff

Wow! What a day.... Lawrence did this and Nigel learned what a pair of pliers were today on the:

MG General section Thread Heading
Uhhh......all 4 wheels seized?!

Id say we are all progressing nicely! I wish someone close by me would buy a machine shop so we could do this full time for money!

LOL! :-)
Steven Devine

Dave, masonary nails are very useful things to have lying around. :). Just used one. Whacked it in, cut it off, and used the remainder to hammer into the next hole, etc, until all four were done.

I wonder why the fronts arms are bolted on and the rears are splined and peened?

Thanks for the heat tip Charlie, I'll remember that.

Steven, I don't read the MGB general section, but now I know Nigel is experimenting with tools, I might go and have a look lol.

Edit. Looked, and got bored reading it. ;).
Lawrence Slater

Lawrence,

I've seen a number of LA dampers where the arms were welded on rather than held with a nut, both fronts and rears. I don't know if this is a factory thing or done be re-conditioners.
David Billington

<<I wonder why the fronts arms are bolted on and the rears are splined and peened?>>

Well the obvious difference is that the front form an active part of the suspension arms with axial forces on the damper, trying to force it off the spindle. On the rear, there is no such loading. The nut on the fronts is probably more of a fail safe design. By which I mean that if the arm were to begin to loosen it would be a progressive failure as the nut loosened, whereas if it were splined and peened like the rears, then failure could be sudden and acute.

What has puzzled me about the fronts is what holds the spindle into the body of the damper as there is nothing obvious on the back end of it. And there are reports of the spindle working its way out of the casing (recent thread on that)
Guy W

Guy, IIRC the spindle is splined and a press-fit in the rocker, which is in the middle of the damper.
Dave O'Neill2

This thread was discussed between 18/07/2013 and 19/07/2013

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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