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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Telescopic front shocks

Hopefully a quick question,

I recently bought these spax shocks for the front of my midget,

they are decidedly 2nd hand and will get a clean up and paint before fitting,

however, they came with no fitting instructions, but I reckon that they look like the spridgebits kit of old?

has anyone got these fitted on their car and any pics of them fitted?

Its the top mounts that I'm not too sure about, and it looks like I may have to drill through the inner wing, which is why I thought I'd ask before trying to fit!

Thanks
John


John Collins

I would hazard a guess that they would mount on top of the existing shock.

I don't think the inner wing would be anywhere near strong enough to cope.
Dave O'Neill 2

Thats what I thought Dave, but when you offer them up on the shock, it looks like the plate butts up against the inner wing for a bolt to pass from shock top mount bracket, through the wing, then through the plate. This may then feed the load back onto the top of the shock?

John
John Collins

Yes, that sounds feasible.

I'm hoping they're for the K-car?
Dave O'Neill 2

Yes Dave, K-engine is in now and nearly ready for running, but trying to sort brakes and suspension now.

John


John Collins

Those will likely cause the A-arm to crack.
Trevor Jessie

John,

Those look a lot like mine, but my car is 12 miles from home so I can't go look right now. I have a vague memory that they do bolt through the inner wing. I can check when I see it next, but you will probably have an answer before then.

Charley
C R Huff

Interesting looking exhausts!
Dave O'Neill 2

I fitted my own ones, I did drill through the inner wing and bolted it on, this worked for a bit but as pointed out, the inner wing isn't really strong enough, mine started to bend a bit even though the bracket is a good size

fixed it eventually by joining the inner wing to the top of the old damper while adding a triangualtion arm

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/3234431171_65cfb07e11_b.jpg

you can see the bracket there, perhaps a bigger one might work better if you don't want to join it to the top of the old damper

mine is joined on to only one side of the lower A arm in the same way as the ARB, and seems to be coping OK (couple of thousand miles)

hope that helps

Rob
Rob Armstrong

They do bolt through the inner wing. IIRC there was a pretty good photo of such an installation in Daniel's original book. I'm not a fan of such brackets though, I fear they add additional stress to the shock mounting bolts that are already well stressed and certainly going to be a problem if they strip or break. Second question, how to you balance the shock action from side to side if you're not absolutely sure the original lever shocks are working equally? If you drain them to remove the shock action then you risk early wear on the shaft pivots. As you can tell I'm not a fan of tube shock conversions on the front unless you can completely replace the lever units as done with the front line suspension.
Bill Young

Rather than draining the original dampers, you just remove the valves.
Dave O'Neill 2

I'd agree that the bracket (maybe Spridgebits kit IIRC?) pictured in Daniel's book looked to be too small.

Additional stress will be added to the shock mounting bolts, but IMO I think that the extra load will be small. My bracket is based on the Peter May dual arm damper kit; the bracket for the extra arm on that kit bolts only onto the front two damper bolts. Mine is on all three, bolted to the inner wing, and also through the inner wing to the new tube shock bracket.

As to the old lever arms, mine are still full of shock oil but de-valved so there is very little resistance and the pivots stay lubricated, so all the damping is done on the new tube. With the valves in and the tube shocks the damping is a little hard!

Rob
Rob Armstrong

Hi,

thanks for all comments, so it looks like I was on the right way of thinking as per fitting.

However, I am in 2 minds as to whether to fit them, they are for my k-midget and I hope to drive it very reguarly (much more than my blue midget) and it won't have an easy life, so by reading the above, maybe these aren't the way to go, and that I should just save up and go the frontline route?

John
John Collins

Almost certainly the Spridgebits kit which for good reason doesn't appear in The Spridget High Performance manual.

Over time the inner wing hole will elongate even after being reinforced on both sides.

The wishbone will crack unless the bottom bracket is converted to something like the Frontline bottom bracket.

I think I even have my old kit that I haven't got the heart to sell onto anyone and is collecting dust under my garage bench.

The original damper is still the top suspension link so fitting the kit doesn't eliminate wear in the damper (my car had good dampers) and would still benefit from a Peter May top link.

At the time this kit was sold it was the only alternative to the Amstrong damper, there are better alternatives now.
Daniel Thirteen-Twelve

I hate to throw hand grandes in the room BUT, Am I the only one thats thinking these are for the rear and NOT the front....check out vic brit. catologe

part number 5-6003

Prop...I hope Im not wasting my supply of the pineapples
Prop

The mounting plate for the rear kit is quite different.
Dean Smith ('73 RWA)

Except the frontline kit, does exist another alternative to the front Amstrong damper?
One cheaper I mean....
ld derancourt

http://www.mambamotorsport.co.uk/components/spridgetfrontsus.html

About £320 incl.



John Collinson

This thread was discussed between 20/01/2010 and 26/01/2010

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.