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MG MGB Technical - tube shock replacement

My '77 MGB came with tube shocks that need to be replaced. What brand and model# are the best?
jim johnston

Please tell us what sort of setup this tube shock is part of. Is it part of a coil over shock conversion, a Moss bargain conversion, spax conversion, Monroe SensaTrack conversion, or Koni conversion?
Bob Muenchausen

It's not a coil over. How can I tell the rest, it's realy rusty?
jim johnston

Why not just remove a shock. Take it to a suspension shop & let them take the neccessary measurements. They should be able to offer some suggestion as to a replacement. I went this way when I replaced the Spax shocks on the front of my car with locally made non adjustable shocks. Barrrie E
Barrie Egerton

Jim - are you talking about front or rear shocks? How long are they at installed height? Is there any sign of what color they were painted?
Jeff Schlemmer

If rears, the original lever-arms are the best replacement. A fraction of the price (future exchange replacements anyway) and just as good a ride and handling, in fact without the excessive harshness that most tubulars seem to suffer from. Mine (which I've already had to replace once because of leaking) are fortunately adjustable but anything other than the softest setting was unbearable. After some 10 years they are getting a bit bouncy, so I thought I'd harden them up a bit and at least gain the benefit of the adjustment, but I find both adjusters have siezed! Which is why I'm going back to the originals.
Paul Hunt

Second that. My tubes were the same even at the softest setting were too hard and tended to unseat the car during brisk cornering on uneven surfaces. I just don't think either that you can select dampers on the basis of open and closed lengths as it's far to complex a subject and then you are stuck with them as manufactured. Go for the lever arms, uprated ones if you wish, they are by far the best compromise of comfort and handling and then they are about half the price.
Iain MacKintosh

Jim:

Moss just revamped their tube shock conversion kits with new shocks and front bracket sets.

The supplied rear shocks are now correctly valved to give a well controlled but comfortable ride. These should work on your existing rear kits.

As noted, correct valving is critical as too hard will cause the car to hammer over wavy pavement. Correctly valved the rear shock kits do give better location than the original lever arm shocks.

If you have a front kit that utilizes two long bolts to mount the bracket above the front shock, you may think about upgrading to the new bracket design which mounts the bracket under the existing front shock with less likelyhood of the bolts getting loose.

Or remove the front tube conversion and purchase a pair of new or rebuilt front shocks. For simplicity, the original front shock design is hard to beat.

Kelvin.

KJ Dodd

This thread was discussed between 17/04/2005 and 19/04/2005

MG MGB Technical index

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