Hi Spridget forum, and where do I start?

[davester]

I've been hanging out on the MG forum until now and finally revived my dad's MGBGT a couple of weeks ago. However, yesterday I went up and retrieved my '65 Sprite from my brother. I think I'll be spending a bit of time here in Spridget-land. I bought this car in '73 but sold it to the bro' for $400 a few years later. It is now returning home after languishing in his garage but for very occasional outings for a looong time. It only has 108k original miles on it, the body/interior were restored about 20 years ago and it has been garaged/covered ever since. It is dead stock and looks beautiful. The oil and antifreeze is fresh and it has new tires.

On my drive home (from Santa Rosa to Berkeley via CA Highway 1 - beautiful route), I made a few observations:

1) The battery is toast and is also unsecured. I need to decide on a replacement (cheap discount store, AGM, repro, whatever) and replace the old holddowns.

2) The engine runs pretty well. I won't mess with that for a while.

3) Does this thing really redline at 65 mph??? My memory says that it went faster than that. My iPhone GPS showed the speedo to be pretty correct but I'm wondering about the tach and whether it can be calibrated easily if it is reading incorrectly.

4) The big issue...the suspension is in awful shape and it is a bit hair-raising to go around corners with. My bro' says that he replaced the shocks a while back but when I asked about bushings he said "bushings?...nope, those are the originals, plus I think the sway bar mount is broken off". So, that awful clanking when I try to go around corners must be the metal on metal sound that occurs after the original rubber bushings have turned to dust. I haven't done suspension work for a while so I'm a little unsure how to approach this. Assuming that the shocks are good, do I really need to rip it completely apart or should I just approach it a bit at a time (starting with replacing all of the bushings)? Also, should I go with stock bushings or get some of the new space age stuff (polyurethane and the like). This car is not going to be a racer, just an around town and country road cruiser, but i definitely want the suspension to be significantly firmed up so that I can corner with confidence.

5) The brakes were converted over to silicone fluid many years ago, but they take a heck of an effort to get them to work. I asked my bro' about the flex lines "nope, I've never replaced those" so I'll be getting some new ones of those. Hopefully that will improve the braking just a teensy bit.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. Any advice on the above would be appreciated, and especially advice on things I've overlooked.

 

[walshja]

so which car do you like better?

my 1974 with the 1275 engine hit 80 once, so I would think you car should go faster

being from California, what kind of shape is the body work in? probably no rust !!!!

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Does your "ear tach" agree with the car's tach? If so, then the clutch my be slipping.

 

[davester]

I think you're right about the clutch. I checked some old specs and the car should top out at 92 mph (not that I ever want to drive it that fast). I just took it out and took it up near redline in 3rd then stomped on the gas and got sudden spurt in revs with not much in speed. Grrrr!! I really wasn't wanting to have to do major surgery on both the drivetrain and the suspension so soon. I can't remember how easy it is to replace the clutch on this. Do I have to yank the engine?

On the (minor) bright side, I went out and fooled around and found out that the battery clamps were loose. I tightened them up, and presto, changeo, we've got battery power. I save the $100 or so for a new battery that I can now put towards a new clutch.

...and walshja, as you surmised, there's not a speck of rust on this car. Here's a pic...

 

[jvandyke]

Looks great. Glad you've come over from the dark side (Bs).
Yep, pull motor and gearbox for clutch (can just pull motor and leave gearbox but it's about as much hassle either way they say, I did both as a unit the one and only time I had to pull mine...so far, not very hard). Dang nice car.

 

[jlaird]

I think at the least you owe your brother dinner some place nice.

 

[davester]

Have you been talking to my brother?

On a good note, I went out and did some more extensive testing, and no, the clutch does not seem to be the problem. However I hooked a test tachometer up and it reads around 60% of the built-in tach's revs. Anybody know how to recalibrate this?

 

[jvandyke]

Make sure the tach's ground is decent.

 

[tdskip]

Cool! Looks like your significant other is enjoying the car as well.

I miss the off the beaten path roads up in the Bay, there are some great drives up there surprisingly close-in to everything.

 

[John Moore]

wow! Great looking Spridget! Love the color. Looks like a super project!

 

[drooartz]

I got to say, I really like a Sprite in that blue. Different, and very nice.

 

[davester]

That blue color is original, though it has had a respray. I'll take and post some photos later that show the blue with white piping interior which looks pretty sharp. The material was as close to original as could be found...not perfect but pretty sharp.

So fellas (and ladies), what about my unanswered big question...how to go about front suspension resto...what to start with and what to not worry about (kingpins, bushes, etc), and what kind of bushings to use?

 

[drooartz]

I got rebuilt a-arms, kingpins, and shocks from PeterC at World Wide Imports. I stuck with the original style rubber bushes. Haven't drive it yet, but those should tidy up the front end nicely.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

As of a few weeks ago the king pins were getting hard to find.

I fitted new rubber bushings last year, but I may change to poly since the rubber bushings are already starting to look sad.

 

[theleisure]

Welcome to the forum. I'd start by swapping all old bushings over to poly. That'll clean up the sloppy ride to some degree(maybe that's all you need) and it's the cheapest fix. If that fixes your issue you're only out about $40 if I remember correctly. Lower inner a arm bushes are the biggest pain to swap but the whole project is pretty easy overall.

 

[HAN8L1965]

I put poly bushings all way around in my 65 and it rides real nice also had Peter C redo the the dampers front and rear. Never drove mine before the rebuild but it sure is solid and comfortable to drive today and I do not have the anti sway bar. My car was originally painted like yours I still have the original interior and like you said it is a very nice look.

Mark

 

[Sarastro]

Re your tach calibration question--there are a few different types of electronic tachs used in MGs, and I'm never clear as to which is used where. But most, if not all, have an adjustment, which looks like a little screwdriver adjustment on the electronics board. I'd start with this, since the tach is so far off you don't have much to lose.

However, since it's so far off, it sounds more like components deteriorating than ajustment changing. It might be best just to replace the tach. These show up on eBay all the time, and they're not expensive.

 

[tdskip]

The other thing to note is that at least when mounted on a, um, TR, rubber bushings don't seem to last very long any more. A couple years and they star disi ntegrating. Not sure if the suppliers are the same, but poly seem to last <span style="font-weight: bold">much</span> better.