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MG MGF Technical - Lowering knuckles made by Carl & Dieter

Hi,
I think all is clear now. The drawings and pictures are still a little under construction related to tolerances of the lathe works on an new turned bolt.

Most important measure is the working hight of the bolt from its upper shoulder (seat) where the hydragas-piston meets the bolt until the bottom surface.
This measure was at mine 38.6 mm and could be reduced down 7mm to 31.6.

I reworked the standard bolt as Carl suggested.
The remainig seat-ring of about 1.2mm width should be enough to lead the suspension force along the washer to the piston. I'll fill the knuckles with graphit grease. If the resulting hight does not satisfy me then I'll turn some small washers (2mm high), equal to the existing and add them between bolt shoulder and Hydra-piston.

Short knuckles can be turned for new very easy. The material is not hardened but of good quality (I recommend stainless steal). An educated lathe worker will be able to identify the important surfaces and measures very easy if he can see by a sample how the bolt should work.

http://www.fortunecity.de/hockenheim/senna/253/lowering/

Thanks at first again to Carl and John and Torsten Ohms for their help on this job.

I'll go to fit them with help of the 'Carl-design pump' this weekend and hope that the description in the workshopmanual is really wrong.
There is advised to disassamble the hydragas units completely before removing the lowering knuckles. ;-)

Attention!
Keep your hands off this work, if you are not able to explain whats going on here. Purchase new knuckles from aftermarket supplies if you are in dought.

Cheers and have a nice weekend
(Greets from the oilsump)

Dieter
NE-WZ77
Dieter

Hi,

I wrote myself :
>Attention!
Keep your hands off this work, if you are not able to explain whats going on here.

<grin> it was right thought.
I did not fit the reworked knuckles recently.
Its at first a piggy work without owning a hydragas pump with suction function. Very low space to change the knuckle joints.

And second, the reworked knuckles need a special view on sealing against mud and water. I had'nt the additional materials that Carl suggested and so I left it out. (lithium grease and i.e thin stainless steal wire required.)

See you later : ... lowered


Cheers
Dieter
PS. the pressure pump works really good.
Dieter

I got the Satur lowering knuckles kit fitted, but my car is now SOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOOOWWWWW. I thought it was about 1,2" in height reduction, but it looks more like 2" (tyres are just in wheelarch)!

I have already figured a way which entries to take to park my car in a nearby underground car park, since it will be impossible to drive my F into it!

Perhaps MS should sell the knuckles and the SS frontpipe as a bundle ;-)

I dunno what happened, but dealer said he followed strictly Satur docs that came with them... I'll check again.

205 front wheels now screech again against front wheel arch covers. didn't do that for over 1,5 years...
Dirk Vael

:-/
Baaahhhh, <wine> hhHuuu huuh,
LUCKY BOY !!!

Got my F yesterday evening back from the dealers check on my 'home made' Hydragas-Cylinder change.
I wrote that had had no convinience in my own work because of lack of suction function of the 'pump'

You should see that 'thing' <<Hu huu>>
I ride only in the dark now :(

They pumped it up to

395 mm <grrrrr> on both sides !!!

Anyway, now I must not beg again for some more 'green stuff'....
It's enough inside for the following experiments on different lowering steps by different long knuckels.

Cheers
Angry Dieter >:-(
- no more convinience in any workshop -

Dieter

Dieter - oops I think you mean 'no more confidence' (not convinience) but I wish my german was as good as your english :-)

Anyway lowering your car again will be much easier than raising Dirks.

Dirk - you'll need to get the garage to put another washer on the knuckles and/or pump up the pressure to get it to a useable height - 1 to 2 fingers between tyre and wheel arch.

You may also find the ride is be uncomforably hard, but that's a personal matter.

I much prefered the ride of my F after I took my short knuckles off last spring (after about 2 months use - and to comply with MGFAT Regs.)

See dieters excellent pics at http://www.fortunecity.de/hockenheim/senna/253/lowering

jt
a10jst
John Thomas

perhaps dealer left out some hydragas anyway? I'll check with him...

Car looks awesome now, but that's about it.

Indeed it drives damn hard and screeching sounds (read: "frontpipe & cat destroying") are more common now... haven't measured it yet, but I guess it will be around 310mm.
Once I get my F back (perhaps on Friday I'll measure)
Dirk Vael

Hi,
nice to see some techies back here and thanks for the translation help. I better should not use such complicate words <grin>
I remember my first english lessons..
This is an apple. This is a tree... ;)
That was easy.!!

FAO Dirk,
>> I'll check with him...
If you really are 'with him', .... I mean together with a mechanic at the pump ;-)
Then look for the pressure when they pump it up!!

If it is far below 360 psi then IMO thats to low.
Anyway that all depends on the MS fitting instructions.

If you need to sell the car to a 'grandfather' like ..;-).. then it could be set back on more comfortable behavior as John suggested and by raising the pressure up to the range of 360 ... 400 PSI.

IMO the 16mm inner diameter washers which are to add to the bolts could be up to app. 4 or 5 mm thick (I'll try that myself later on)

And now the last important term
The lever relations of the upper wishbone (Lenghth to pressure point of the knuckle joint).
Carl stated already 1 to 4. I got it a little smaller with 1 to 3.5 at the rear wishbone.

Cheers
Dieter

Dieter

This thread was discussed between 12/11/1999 and 16/11/1999

MG MGF Technical index

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