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MG MGB Technical - Sorry telescopic Shocks again

Yet again. I have checked the archives, but...
A local club member has an ex RPS development car. It is/was a RB GT It has fibreglass front wings, bonnet , bumper armatures removed and faired in fibreglass bumpers, parabolic rear springs. So in weight it will be closer to a CB car. It came with adjustable Spax fitted at the rear and they have never liked the ride, following it it looks very bouncy. One of the shocks actually collapsed from corrosion damage and the question is what to replace them with. I know the current Spax is less extreme than the original one, however they don't seem to last. From the archives going direct to Gaz and getting their recommended fit looks a good option, paying for the Konis wouldn't be out of the question, but they are said to be a bit firm, and not adjustable. If anyone has some relevant experience then feed back very welcome.
Stan Best

Binned my Spax after the second set failed, went back to lever-arms, no further problems.
paulh4

When I got my MGA it had a Gaz adjustable telescopic rear shock conversion.
They were recommended for a road-going MGA/B but to be honest I think they were really designed for a Racing MGB and they were outrageously stiff, even on the softest setting.

The ride was so hard that even the smallest bump would cause the wheels to skip off the road.

I recently returned to using lever-arm shock absorbers and the ride is transformed, they work like they should damping out the bumps on the road with no skipping or wallowing.

So I would say, unless you are racing or have a track day car, lever-arms are excellent.

Cheers
Colyn

Colyn Firth

It depends on if you can get good quality lever arm dampers now.

Apart from being too hard most adjustable telescopics will probably have variable quality and not that well matching valves in them, not that anything on our cars are that well matched one side to the other.

Disappointing Gaz didn't do better on a standard car as they have the necessary details available, unless the previous owner got 'custom made' and gave wrong details.

I know when my mate spoke with one of the Gaz directors about the dampers for car he was told the car manufacturer used a different model of damper to the one they recommended, probably looking for one damper to cover all the models.


Nigel Atkins

You can get new lever-arms, but I don't know about the quality. For rebuilt the quality is only as good as the returned unit, but they are cheap enough - far cheaper than new and telescopics - for the very occasional premature failure (IME) not to be too big a deal.
paulh4

With parabolic springs the stiffer Gaz and Spax dampers will not prove overly hard, as the springs don't have any "internal" friction and therefore require more control from the dampers.
But I have had early failures from both Spax and Gaz.
The Konis on my parabolic sprung V8 roadster are very good and far better and longer lasting than the aforementioned efforts.
Lever arms are not generally recommended for use with parabolics. They were designed and valved to suit multi-leaf "cart" springs.
Allan Reeling

Thanks all very helpful, as ever on the BBS even with a well worn question
Stan Best

FWIW Parabolics with Gaz set on 4 clicks from softest or 6 clicks with 2 up and luggage. Konis were too hard and have to be removed to be adjusted. C/B Roadster
Michael Beswick

The Konis are not available at the moment. I'm told a pair of Spax are going on as it's MoT time. Will be interesting to see how the current offering compare to the truck shocks we used to be offered
Stan Best

This thread was discussed between 27/01/2019 and 02/02/2019

MG MGB Technical index

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