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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Negative Camber

I suppose that this first posting is directed mainly to Paul Wiley - Paul, how helpful has your negative camber setup been and what do you have to do to get it?
Marc

Marc,

I was half way through a reply when my system crashed, but I will get back to you. The short answer is negative camber wishbones or a front handling kit. The best place to start is by evaluating your current set up before spending any money.

Paul
Paul

Yikes, I went to negative camber last year and I went back to stock wishbones this spring. Changing them out took me a great deal of time. But the car is just too twitchy with 'em. They would be _super_ if you did autocross or something, because the negative camber substantially reduces the car's "push", or understeer, going into turns. But man, they are almost scary at high speeds going straight. I very nearly had a terrible wreck when I was blasting down a hilly country road here in central VA -- anyone from the area will know we have lots of narrow hilly roads with zero shoulders -- came off the top of a sharp hill, wheels left ground momentarily, when I landed I was lucky to regain control as the negative camber had made the front end so incredibly desirous of turning.

FWIW, I did put on a Hopkinson sway bar set and I like it a great deal; the car is much more controllable though I know you can argue that using a rear bar may actually reduce rear traction. Also, I am told that if the lower A-arm pieces are too severe for your taste, you can have the front hubs shimmed to provide just a tiny bit, maybe half a degree, of negative camber. That would probably be enough to help the car dive into corners better.
Harry

Harry,

Agreed too much negative camber is not good, so a system that can be varied is very sensible. One cheap solution might be brass trunnion bushes which are availble for midget but I've not seen then advertised for a B.

My other suggestion is a K series powered Midget for those hilly country roads.

Paul
Paul

Is this "push" you're talking about a function of the raised suspension height on later B's? My '71 is very neutral, tho I'll admit it's pretty far from stock, but it seems the steering was pretty much dead on center even when stock and with worn out parts.
Jim Blackwood

Harry,
Sounds as though you needed more castor, more toe-in, or both, dialed into your front suspension alignment. Negative camber alone shouldn't make your car twitchy. I don't have it in front of me, but as I recall, the old Huffaker Special Tuning booklet for MGBs recommended a setting of 7 degrees positive castor, with (again from memory) 1.5 degrees negative camber and a little bit (1/16th inch) of toe-in at the front.

Regards,
Jerry Causey
Jerry Causey

Jerry, I set the toe to 3/32" and heaven knows what the castor is, since it is not adjustable. Now I run it at half a degree of negative camber on each side and I am happy.
Harry

Harry,
I changed my car also to neg camber and the car seems to drive better in cornering. Haven't seen any difference in straight line or at highway speeds. I did the change myself by altering the lower A-arms. Maybe I don't have so much neg camber than when you buy the A-arms from Moss or VB. I do run 15x7 rims and 215/60/15 Bridgestones on the front. That may make the difference. The front really sticks to the ground. I also have the Ron Hopkinson swaybars and love them.
Mr too live in an area with hills and very narrow and winding roads so I enjoy driving the MG on these roads.
BTW, what is your E-mail address and where are you located. We might meet some day.
Werner
Werner Van Clapdurp

Harry,
wow, "came off the top of a sharp hill, wheels left ground momentarily" have got to get me some of that!!!

Spriggsie
Clem Spriggs

Werner,
Those wheels and tyres would be my choice but I would have to flare rear wheel arch.

My question is whether the steering is noticebly heavier at slow speeds?

Paul
Paul

Paul,
I haven't installed the wheels on the rear axle yet.
Parking need more musclepower in the arms but slow driving is not a noticeable difference
Werner
Werner

1.5 degrees is way too much for the street-0.5 to 0.75 degrees negative is just fine and should not make the car twitchy unless you are running something much lower than 60 profile tyres on a 6J+ rim.
I find that the only disadvantage is increased sensitivity to crosswinds at high speeds and ruts in the carrigeway left by the continued passage of HGVs.
The thing that you have to do is actually measure what negative camber you are getting -I beleive that the nominal dimension that the negative camber arms use is to position the distance tube holes 6mm outboard-this can be quite crude as dimesional tolerances of the chassis rails,compression of the mounting pads etc can cause very different camber settiings on each side of the suspension.

John Bourke
John Bourke

This thread was discussed between 07/03/2001 and 11/03/2001

MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical index

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