trotti
Senior Member
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I have a 100/6 that I've been slowly rehabbing. As background, it's in great condition, but it seems to have never had its shakedown cruise before sitting for over a decade after the rebuild (the PO had health issues and it eventually found its way to me). This makes it a weird combination of everything being freshly rebuilt/replaced, but some things left undone or suffering from the effects of its long storage. I haven't driven it much due to: a) I have an MGA that is bullet proof and serves to get me out on the road, and b) until recently I haven't had much time for these types of projects.
Over the last few weeks, however, I've been able to rebuild the carbs and do a full tune up to get it running right, and then take it on drives to start chasing the gremlins. The latest gremlin was very poor handling when hitting a bump. Loud, jarring sounds coming from the front end and unending squeaks from the back. On the back side, the U bolts holding down the springs took a lot of tightening. They weren't about to come off, but they definitely were not snug. I also tightened the leaf mounting bolts on either end. There's significantly less squeak, but it's not gone. I didn't check at the time because I was focused on the leaf springs, but I also think the shock may be loose on the back passenger side. The reason I now think to check shocks: the front left shock was essentially unbolted . . . all four screws. That's an easy fix, right? Snug down the four bolts into the mounting plate and I'm done! Unfortunately, it never seems to be that easy. Two of the four bolts went in fine, but the other two are missing their captive nuts on the mounting plate. I can see down into the holes of the shock and the nuts are simply not there. For $hits and giggles, I took the car out to test with those two bolts snugged tight (it can't be worse than having driven it unbolted) and the ride significantly improved.
So - thoughts on simply using a nut and washer for the other two screws on the shock? I'm thinking I should also use thread locker on these bolts. There was anti-seize on all and I think that's why the two with captive nuts may have backed out. Getting to those bolts will be a bear with the spring in the way. Any tips or tricks on spring removal?
Over the last few weeks, however, I've been able to rebuild the carbs and do a full tune up to get it running right, and then take it on drives to start chasing the gremlins. The latest gremlin was very poor handling when hitting a bump. Loud, jarring sounds coming from the front end and unending squeaks from the back. On the back side, the U bolts holding down the springs took a lot of tightening. They weren't about to come off, but they definitely were not snug. I also tightened the leaf mounting bolts on either end. There's significantly less squeak, but it's not gone. I didn't check at the time because I was focused on the leaf springs, but I also think the shock may be loose on the back passenger side. The reason I now think to check shocks: the front left shock was essentially unbolted . . . all four screws. That's an easy fix, right? Snug down the four bolts into the mounting plate and I'm done! Unfortunately, it never seems to be that easy. Two of the four bolts went in fine, but the other two are missing their captive nuts on the mounting plate. I can see down into the holes of the shock and the nuts are simply not there. For $hits and giggles, I took the car out to test with those two bolts snugged tight (it can't be worse than having driven it unbolted) and the ride significantly improved.
So - thoughts on simply using a nut and washer for the other two screws on the shock? I'm thinking I should also use thread locker on these bolts. There was anti-seize on all and I think that's why the two with captive nuts may have backed out. Getting to those bolts will be a bear with the spring in the way. Any tips or tricks on spring removal?