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MG MGB Technical - Heavy-Duty Shock Valves

Has anyone installed the heavy-duty shock valves? I am looking to firm up my suspension a little and thought this might be the easiest way.

Don '64B
don scott

I put the ones from Moss in the rear of my 68B a couple of years ago and found no improvement. I have 10K of dirt road and thought it may help wheel tramp on the ripples. On the highway I cant feel any difference in handeling. Denis
Denis4

I replaced my very worn (leaking from around the arms) Armstrong front shocks with 30% uprated ones and I pressume this is achieved by the valves inside - the ride is more firm.

You could also try changing the oil to a thicker type. Cannot remember but something about the viscosity standard is '20'. Have read somewhere that some use up to '50'. Search for Penrite shock absorber oil.

/Moss
Moss

Bear in mind that while the Workshop manual says that 20W can be used where the correct oil is not available, it should not be used in low temperatures. I suspect this is more to do with damaging the internals than giving one a slightly firm ride, so 50W would seem way out of the range ... except perhaps in Hades.
PaulH Solihull

The valves you have already are easy to uprated. There are 2 springs, the large one controls rebound, and can be fine tuned by adding or taking away shims. The small spring controls bump and is adjusted using the the small nut (usually soldered in place). Ideally stiffer springs should be used but you can stiffen things up by adding shims to the large spring and adding 1/2 a turn or so to the small nut. It's a bit trial and error, but interesting.
Allan Reeling

Don-
I have the uprated valves in my front dampers. Yes, they do help firm up the handling a bit, mostly by decreasing roll moment and hence resulting in less delay to steering wheel input. Don't bother increasing the damping rate in the rear dampers, as all that you'll get is a stiffer ride back there.
Stephen Strange

This thread was discussed on 19/05/2012

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