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MG MGB Technical - Shock rebuild

I would like to know, has anyone tried to rebuild a front or rear shocks for a 1979 or a similar unit. The only problem I see, is that the bushings on the pivot arm wear out and leak. The only soultion that I see at this point is too send them off to be rebuilt on a exchange program. I think a about a hundred dollars is a little to much for a couple of bushings!
A.A. McFadden

Yes, somebody did attempted it in the past, check the archives. To sum it up briefly, the repair resulted in a bigger leak, and the guy sworn never to do that again. (no, that guy was not me.)

Check with apple hydraulics, I used they to do rebuilds of the 79B front shocks. They did a good job, no leaks, and the rebuilds looked like new. And they warrant their work.

John Long
John Long

There's alot more to it than just slapping some new bushings. There's a cylinder inside that get resleeved if worn, rebuilt piston, bushings, seals and rebuilt valves. Then there is grit blasting, repainting, and the difficult job of seperating the arms and reassembly again, not intheis order, of course. Go with Apple Hydraulics <http://www.applehydraulics.com/>
gerry masterman

To give you another alternative, I had Peter Caldwell at World Wide Auto Parts of Madison rebuild my shocks. I have been well satisfied with the results and he is somewhat less expensive than Apple. The web site for them is: http://www.mailbag.com/users/nosimport/
Good luck - Dave
David DuBois

A.A.-
I've used the rebuilt units from both companies. First from Apple Hydraulics and then from World Wide Auto Parts. The rebuilds from World Wide are definitely a more thorough rebuild. The ones from Apple use plain rubber(?) washers retained by steel washers against the lever arm while the ones from World Wide use a radial double lip oil seal. World Wide uses nylon bushings while Apple still uses bronze. World Wide press-fits a stainless steel sleeve on the shaft so that it will be concentric with the seal while Apple just smooths theirs. World Wide uses new fine-threaded hardware and installs everything with anti-seize compound for convenient future disassembly while Apple doesn't. I took the ones from Apple off of my car and put them on my unemployed high schooler #4 Son's car. Mine now uses the World Wide Units.
Steve S.

This thread was discussed on 28/04/2002

MG MGB Technical index

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