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MG MGA - Suspension help

I am planning to rebuild my front suspension. Having never done this before I would apprciate any helpful suggestions or cautions. I was planning on purchasing a "major suspension kit" from Moss. Should I buy the heavy-duty MGB V8 kit?
Terry Marcus

i love the red Prothane bushings I bought - you can get them through Moss and they come with the correct grease.

use tie down ratchet nylon straps to compress the springs while you take the linkages apart - very safe and easy.

JIM in NH
AJ Mail

Mgb Bushing in the lower A arms. They are one piece and work great.
Gordon Harrison

Be sure to check Barney's website. Should just about tell and show you everything:

http://www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/suspensn/susp1.htm

Lots of good information.
Don Carlberg

As far as cautions go, have ample and redundant support of the chassis both front and rear, and keep the car relatively level front to rear and left to right.
Steve K

My advice for what it's worth.
Avoid V8 bushes at all costs, they just wear out or rust to the pivot.
As someone who has had to hacksaw them off in the past, ill always use the polly bushes.
Recently I've found the rubber bushes to be of poor quality and only last a few years max, so my advice would be polly every time. If you have modern tyres, then they also go hand in hand.
If you insist on going down the V8 bush route, fit them with antiseeze compound.

Cheers
Mark
Mark Hester

Terry,

Rebuilding your front suspension is an involved process but manageable and well worth the time. Take the time to read the WSM and Barney’s site multiple times before picking up a wrench. My ’59 had a bad front end shimmy right around 60 mph that could not be fixed with wheel balancing. In the end all of the rubber was replaced (poly bushings), the shocks were rebuilt (World Wide), the right swivel pin replaced, New bump stops, new trunnion bushings installed, replaced the a-arms, brakes rebuilt, new brake lines and wheel bearings (steel wheels) repacked. All of the steel was taken down to bare metal. Most was coated with POR-15 and receive a top coat of black satin paint. On top of that I acquired the correct steel wheels, new tires and new wheel nuts.

Along the way there were a few unpleasant surprises;

The a-arms had oval shaped holes were they connect to the trunnions – not unexpected but not repairable as bead blasting also revealed cracks at the other end of the a-arms.

One of the front hubs had spun a bearing at some point requiring the use of bearing set until I could get a decent hub.

The trunnion bearings can be tricky. It may or may not be possible to unscrew the swivel links from the trunnions depending on how well the bushing cutout is aligned in the trunnion. Don’t force the swivel link out, rather drive or cut the bushing out with the swivel link cutout centered over the bushing. In my case the bushing cutouts had been cut with a hacksaw and 2 out of 4 swivel links could not be unscrewed by hand. Light interference will probably not hurt the swivel link but might require a light dressing with a fine file. After installing new bushings if the trunnion will not screw in easily start over. Bushings are less expensive than swivel links.

The cross over brake lines for the front drum brakes were so rusted that both broke on removal.

Two of five steel wheels had visible cracks. http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/wheels/wl101.htm

It takes about 3 weeks for POR-15 to wear off your skin.

Feel free to email me off line if you have any specific questions or want pictures.

John



jbackman

This thread was discussed between 23/02/2013 and 24/02/2013

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