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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - A season of falling leafs

Tootling along merrily in the midget on Saturday along the Deeside Road on a rather fine Autumn day, I heard a crack from the inner rear offside wheel arch. Thinking it was a stone, I thought no more about it until I returned home, and noticed the car leaning slighty - to the offside. Measuring the distance forward of the rear wheel arch to the ground offside is around 135mm and near side 150mm. In addition, the top of the offside rear wheel is inside the top of the arch, whereas nearside is not. Handling by the by seems unaffected.

I fear the worst - a broken leaf...do the sypmtoms match this, or could it possibly be something else?
Cannot see much underneath - will have to raise the rear I guess - but leaf springs do look original given the appearance, and bushes look er... tired.

Recommendations for decent replacement springs, hangers and bushes - ie the full set - greatly appreciated.

Mark O

sounds like it might be a broken spring but it might also be something else so will need checking carefully underneath

the quality of standard rear springs seems to be have been OK for quite a while now

bushes - I had a full set of front and rear suspension bushes in first the MGOC yellow ones but changed to full sets of Super-Flex which I prefer

if you want non-standard springs then Kim Dear of Magic Midget is the place to go - http://magicmidget.co.uk/
Nigel Atkins

Nigel

Standard - good quality - springs required I think.
Peter May?

Cheers

Mark
Mark O

Mark,
well as I put it would appear that the standard springs from the usual suppliers seem OK and have been for 3, 4, plus years so you could consider them

I've never dealt with Peter May so can't comment but many others on here have

earlier this year(?) Clive Berry tried to see if there was any interest here in him having a batch of good rear springs made up but there wasn't

personally I'd still contact Kim Dear if I wanted standard (or uprated) rear springs for his opinion or supply, the '9.5" freelength 360lb rate' front springs he had made when I needed them (having been very badly let down by T*ss)



Nigel Atkins

It would have been nice if Clive had let the people who showed interest know that it is not going to happen.

Still waiting.....
Onno K

Didnt moss correct the issues they were having with there springs

I remember the debate back when gryf broke his rear leaf spring...1,2 years ago perhaps

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

I had better clarify the situation.

My aim was to offer high quality, UK manufactured leaf springs to OE spec. The items available from the usual retailers were, at the time of dire quality.

I managed a couple of batches but, I was not comfortable that they were consistent in their quality. I also had a very nice sample pair made by another manufacturer but have a feeling the next pair would not be the same.

Leaf spring making really does appear to have become an artisan craft and no longer an engineering discipline.

There are other facilities in Europe which I believe could make them exactly as I want them but, I have no desire for stock of 1000 Midget springs!

Also, the quality of springs imported from the sub-continent had improved. I hope they are still passable.

I suspect others mentioned above have had a similar experience and pulled out of the market too.

Now I feel totally depressed!
Clive Berry

When I found the vetran-leafspringmaker(age 82) after buying my 3rd cr*p set I dropped all of my leafsprings and he all made them good for me.
Apperently the bad ones are bend in shape but not hardened or hardened enough: twice, first at 960C-ish then cool down and another 700C-ish.

Ive now have enough(4 sets) proper leafsprings probably for the rest of my life! :)

photo: a good one with proper bolt-clamps.


Arie de Best

Anyone tried Brost Forge Motorsprings in Roman Road, London or Paddington Motors Springs in London for leaf springs?

Mike
M Wood

This thread was discussed on 16/09/2013

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