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MG MGB Technical - MGB Springs

Has anyone had a problem with replacement front & rear springs? I recently replaced front and rear springs and all bushings on my 72 mgb roadster. I always set the front end on axle stands as close to the king pins on the lower control arms before tightening the lower control arm bolts. Since replacing the springs my car lists to the left about 1" and the rear sets WAY TOO HIGH! The front looks about right but , lower on the left. I thought I was careful when I ordered my springs so not to get GT springs. My car looks weird. Please help!
John

John; Were your springs made in the UK? I installed new springs made in the UK, purchased from
Moss almost three years ago and the car height was very close to stock specifications. Did you
have the rear axle loaded prior to tightening the rear spring eye bolt and the shackles? The shock
link bolt should be tightened with car on the floor or with axle loaded. These items will help
some but if you look in the archives you will find the problem is not unusual. I don't know if they will
settle after time. My suggestion would be to back off the rear bolts and make sure the rear is loaded, spare tire in the boot and retighten and see if that helps.

If that doesn't help I believe the best thing to do may be to return them and try another source. The left
list could be caused by the right rear spring being too high. You can can jack the differential in the
center and if the rear is causing the list the front should change so that it lists very little or none.

Good Luck, Clifton
Clifton Gordon

John, i replaced my rear springs when you could no longer see the top of the rear wheel in the arch - well past their sell by date..!!

The new ones went on ok, but you have to load the suspension i.e. drop the car to the floor, before tightening everything up, otherwise they will be too high and not pre-loaded correctly.

Be advised though, that if springs are new,they are new metal and therefore will undergo some settlement themselves. After about 350miles (which i managed to do immediately after fitting in one trip) the car dropped about half inch or so from height immediately after fitting. I would say they have dropped in total 3/4 - 1 inch since then (about 2500miles). The car looked very high at rear at first and rear arch was over inch high of the rear tyre but now looks reasonable and the ride is greatly improved.

I would say if you tightened the bolts when the vehicle was on stands, you have not set things correctly and (Im assuming you're a left hooker) your weight when driving has caused more settlement in springs at the rear than would be case if bolts were tightended under vehicles own load, as the springs are designed to take vehicle weight plus offset load such as only one passenger, without causing the body of car to list excessively.

If you jack up car, loosen bolts, drop car and leave for a while before tightening you should settle everything without too much hassle..

Hope that helps ~PHIL
Phil

A very common complaint with US-sourced rear springs, I have heard of people having to get a couple of burly friends to sit in the boot before they could get the check-strap installed. Loading of the rear before tightening is a new one on me - but it is certainly required when installing V8 bushes on the front pivots.

Try and measure the loaded height of the front springs. It changed in 72 and 73 - 7" before 72, 7.24" in 72 and 7.44" in 73. I'm sure you would have noticed different free heights. Dont forget that problems at one corner can affect the diagonal corner.
Paul Hunt

Spring heights seem to be a perennial problem. I posted here a few days ago about my car riding too low after fitting new front springs from the MGOC. After long conversations with them, I took the new spring out of one side of my car and measured it's free length. It is 244 mm (just over 9.5 inches). The MGOC swear that ALL the roadster springs they have are 260 mm (10.25 inches). The early cars had a slightly shorter spring (251 mm or 9.9 inches), but MGOC don't recommend them. So what springs was I given? Anyway, they are quite willing to exchange them, so no harm done except for the inconvenience. What hope is there when an organisation like MGOC can't supply decent components every time?

Mike (MGB off the road - again!)
Mike Howlett

John,

I know this is obvious, but have you checked that the shackles, at the rear of the rear springs, are pointing aft? When installing a new spring, it's easy to end up with them pointing forward & the ride is very high indeed. See some archived threads on this.
Kevin Kelleher

There were a number of threads regarding rear springs - some people described cars sitting 2-3" to high. I think you'll need to return yours. BTW properly made made GT springs are OK. I installed them years back with no problem.
Phil Collura

This thread was discussed on 26/07/2002

MG MGB Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGB Technical BBS is active now.