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MG MGB Technical - Telescopic shocks conversion

My shocks at the rear are leaking (standard lever arm) and to get uprated exchange units will be 45 vs 120 for a GAZ conversion kit.

I have a standard BGT and wondered if
1] anyone has experience of converting - and if they considered it worthwhile or little noticeable difference - and if worthwhile, in what sense? (the only comment i would make about my existing is that there is little comfort when going over humps or ramps, & hilds well on roundabouts at reasonable speed)

2] any preference between brands - GAZ seems to be cheapest although RRP of GAZ/SPAX is about the same with KONI the most expensive.

Front conversions are £300 ish so will not be considering that at the mo. Please remember when responding, I have a standard BGT, not a fast road or race car.
Graham Moore

Graham,

For what it's worth, I converted my roadster to rear tube shocks (Gabriel - early VW application, non adjustable but very well weighted to the B) some years ago. Like your lever arms, mine were well worn. The result works well for daily driving and touring local countryside - no sporting use. I don't imagine they are superior to well rebuilt lever arms.

My reason for going the conversion path was comparative costs. Quality rebuilt lever arms here are much more expensive than the tube option. Thats just the way parts costs work down here.

Based on your figures I would have stayed with lever arms. Others will have experience with the adjustable type of tube shocks available and no doubt will offer their experience.

Regards
Roger
R Taylor

Hi, I converted my 71 GT to GAZ all round, and it transformed the car!
One of my cars traits was that whenever overtaking, when you crossed the centre of the carriageway onto the the other side of the road, the car rocked from side to side like a boat! The new damper conversion cured this and as I said before, the ride was transformed for the better. Also the GAZ are easily on car adjustsble and so you can have them set to suit your taste.
Ian
I K Jackson

I had spax on my roadster ant quite frankly they were awful. Too hard for the car and made it jumpy on corners. And that was at the softest setting. I converted back to uprated lever arms from B Hive they were less than £20 each and made a huge difference to the car
Iain MacKintosh

There have been a lot of problems with telescopic conversions. Mostly being way too hard, but also replacement cost vs rebuilt lever-arms. My V8 came to me with them and when the second set needed replacing (one f the first started leaking so both had to be replaced, then the second set went very soft in compression but the adjuster had seized by then) so I went back to lever-arms.

I can second Iain's prices for lever-arm and yours for telescopic.
Paul Hunt

refurbed LA dampers - for £20 retail (including refurb and repaint costs and profit, transport costs, retailers costs and profit and then 20% VAT) you can't expect much and in my experience you don't get much (perhaps 18 months)

there's a chap in the USA (sorry forget his name) that seems to do a good refurb job

a while ago I thought I saw new ones for sale but that might have been in the USA

ETA: just remembered - Peter Caldwell (of Worldwide Auto Parts in Madison, Wisconsin) - http://www.nosimport.com/
Nigel Atkins

I got 4 refurbed L.As. from mgbhive severn years ago.Two were sent back within a year as they were leaking, they were replaced by Mgbhive and all of them have been fine since.
Trevor Harvey

Well, it's been about 8 years since I fitted my rebuilt lever arms and they have been absolutely fine. Now I hear what Nigel says and I tend to agree but just to make matters even worse when I got my refurbed ones I think they were about £14 each. Anyway the proof of the pudding is in the eating and mine have been great.
Iain MacKintosh

Peter Caldwell, of Worldwide Auto Parts, rebuilds lever arm dampers to better than new specifications. He even installs seals on the shafts. The stock units didn't have this feature. He can also sell you uprated and adjustable shocks if you desire them. His prices are very reasonable he's considered the best in the business. RAY
rjm RAY

I have to agree with Ian, not all telly shock conversions are good but the GAZ are great. I have mine set on 4 out of 30. Denis
Denis4

"The new damper conversion cured this and as I said before, the ride was transformed for the better"

Surely, replacing worn out dampers with either new or rebuilt lever-arms would also have transformed the ride?
Dave O'Neill2

Hi, maybe new lever arms would have made the ride better, but
they are not adjustable unless you pay a fortune for the modified adjustable ones. Gaz are and are certainly not too hard as are the spax.
I K Jackson

"Surely, replacing worn out dampers with either new or rebuilt lever-arms would also have transformed the ride?"

Exactly.

In my experience you can get a duff rebuilt that fails in a year or so, but that's only happened once to me in about five replacements.

Paul Hunt

Paul I had already used two sets of new lever rear shockers in 10 years the last set with the HD valves but the GAZ were a big improvement. I do have 10km of dirt road to get out of home and its a test for any shock but the GAZ make the B handle it better than my wife's modern. The main area of improvement is control of wheel tramp on corrugated corners.
Denis
Denis4

Graham,

"(the only comment i would make about my existing is that there is little comfort when going over humps or ramps, & hilds well on roundabouts at reasonable speed)"

I spent years trying to overcome this, starting with parabolic springs and the recommended Koni tube shocks. The Konis were far too hard. I replaced with Gaz. Gaz set at 0 have no damping, so I disconnected the Konis and drove the car (carefully). The ride was transformed, but useless for daily use. I wafted along. I now have Gaz set at 4 (like Denis). For 2 up +holiday luggage, it goes to 6.

You refer to "uprated" lever arms. Generally uprating IMHO means firmer, whereas I suspect you want softer. I don't believe tubes are any better than levers,but I am not sure uprated levers will provide what you want.
Michael Beswick

My B has Spax shocks at the rear and they are dreadful. I'll be re-converting back soon so you can have the fittings if you want them!
A Riddett

You could substitute a Monroe Sensa-trac gas shock for the Spax or other harsh riding shocks and get about the same control as original Armstrong levers had. I used the Monroe Sensa-trac #5893. This allowed me to retain the tube shock conversion hardware to mount it, saving me the change out back to Lever shocks. FWIW
RK Muenchausen

(Mr/Ms) Riddett - The fittings would be useful. My mobile is 07778 370161 if you could txt me and perhaps you could let me know how much the postage would be. My postcode is CB3 0HT. regards, Graham
Graham Moore

Hi Guys,
I bought a front end kit c/w non adjustable telescopic shocks from Frontline Engineering when they were in Bath back in 2010 for my '73 BGT and it was the best thing I did to the handling, however my only complaint is that you could feel running over a tram ticket they are that sensitive. Frontline now have a representative here in Oz Sydney and they told me that I can purchase a set of adjustable shocks if I wanted. I am using a set of local Hans Petersen telescopic shocks in the rear end with no problems. I have a Dax Cobra as well and have just replaced 2 of the 4 rear shocks from Spax to Gaz as I think they are a superior shock. Saying that I was told that servicing Gaz shocks is an easy tast unlike the Spax. Having said that I have unfortunately 4 adjustable Spax in my RV8 purchased 2 years ago. Touch wood they are still working with no problems.
John Coldwell

Ok, I did it. Fitted GAZ at the back along with MGOC parabolic springs & yellow poly bushes. Fortunately, the stock one spacer up top and 3 down (on the springs) has given me a level car with about 2.5 fingers between the top of the rear wheel and the wheel arch (previously the wheel arch was approaching the top of the rim)

I set the gaz on 5 to start with and to be honest the ride was 'peculiar'. No huge jolts - but whilst driving along a reasonably good condition town road, my belly was being shaken like a cocktail - but slowly almost like being on a boat - undulating is the word I am seeking i think.

So I increased the setting progressively in 3-stops thinking it must be too soft - a surprise taking into account comments made by others but I wondered if the parabolics were having a softening effect - I'd say it got slightly better as i reached setting 20 (which appears to be my max - i thought there were 32 stops?), but, it was not a driveable car without a good supply of sick bags.

So I wound it to zero - perfectly stable, soft, rides bumps manhole covers.... and i will try playing around a bit more as i have just put new tyres on today.

so my experience seems to match much of what i was advised of by the majority of others ie, no setting greater than zero really works.

I figured modern tech would have quite an edge on 40+ year old lever dampers but i can't help wondering if they are an overspend that shows little benefit really.

I also thought that hard suspension would be like constantly hitting ramps at 30 but it's very different. It will be interesting to see what happens to the back end when shooting round roundabouts on various settings.

thank you to all who replied. i have to say they do look the part at least!

Graham


Graham Moore

Graham Make sure your brackets are the right way up both top and bottom as I have only ever heard good things about GAZ and my car rides like a dream. Several friends also have fitted to Bs and one C roadster and all recon there great. I think you may be reaching the end of shocker travel either up or down. If the car is lowered this can happen even with the supplied brackets. In other words the car at rest in not in the middle of the shocker travel.
Denis
Denis4

>>my belly was being shaken like a cocktail<<
I had the same when the yellow bushes were fitted on my midget, it had a standard suspension set up (other than front uprated lever arm dampers) so I couldn't adjust anything other than tyres pressures

things got better as the miles went on the car plus I suppose I got used to it

I now have adjustable front and rear dampers with Super-Flex bushes, I feel the Super-Flex are more compliant and I prefer them
Nigel Atkins

i also have yellow bushes. i was going to get black (softer) but was talked out of it by a chap at MGOC
Graham Moore

I've had everything on my B's. Spax on a roadster are horrendous, far too hard AND noisy!! I had spax on a GT, better, still bloody noisy though.Probably ride better because of the extra weight, but one gave up after less than 10,000 miles. Put a pair of Gaz on, better than Spax, just!!! When I rebuilt my factory V8, I kept the original LA's and filled them with Motor bike fork oil. They are oceans better than any of the tubes! Long may they last!!
Allan Reeling

Allan just reminded me the back of my Midget wasn't standard it had Spax, I'd forgotten that

I can't say I noticed the Spax making the ride hard that came with the fitting of the yellow bushes but it wasn't that hard, depending on what you're used to
Nigel Atkins

"They are oceans better than any of the tubes! Long may they last!!"

Ditto. After two sets of Spax failed I reverted to lever-arms. And when they fail they can be replaced individually at a fraction of the cost.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 26/04/2014 and 23/05/2014

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