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Midget front suspension

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MGFever

MGFever

Senior Member
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Hey guys,
I'm looking for a little advice on the Midget suspension. When I rebuilt the Midget, I think I bought a repainted set of shocks that were supposed to be re-built. In any case they have been getting so rough that I finally pullled them last weeekend for an inspection. One was nearly dry, the other not quite as bad. I did re-fill them with oil, pumping them quite a few times until I was sure I had them full. It did make a difference, at least I'm not worried about flying off the road now! But I'm still getting a wheel hop especially on the left side at 55-60 MPH. I did not replace the bushes or the swivel axles. I have bought a King pin set but now realize I don't have a way to get them reamed unless I can get my machinist to try. Any suggestions?
 
wheel hop...as when braking?....or hit a bump and the wheel hops whithout braking?
 
If your wheel is hopping up and down at a steady 55-60 MPH, then you likely have a shock or wheel balance problem....or maybe a wheel that's out-of-round or flat spotted.Switch front wheels and see if the hop switches sides.
You should try the old "bounce the front end" method too....if it rebounds more than once or twice, your shocks are bad.
Re-built lever shocks are notoriously prone to fail (according to various comments I've read here and seen personally). You may wish to experiment, if the shocks are bad anyway.....certain types of hydraulic oil might be substituted to improve things, because of "seal-swelling" additives.....or even the stuff used to "seal" automatic transmissions...might be worth a shot. Your only real alternative is to buy new shocks (or find a place that gives an iron-clad guarantee on re-built units).
There's no way to install the king pin bushings without the proper reamer.....and if you install the new king pins with old bushings, it's sort of a waste. The proper reamer (from Moss and VB) is expensive, but many local MG clubs buy one to share among members....maybe it's time to join your local club......or a local foreign car shop may do it if you bring in the hubs (that's what I do).
 
Thanks everyone. I'll try the wheel test. It is a hop at a steady speed. You can even see it and feel it as your driving down the road. Last year it was so bad I had several other drivers mention it so it must have been noticeable at lower speeds also. I just have a hunch it really needs a full rebuild. Not looking forward to that expense but it sure would make a world of differnce to have it cleared up!
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i just purchased a set of rebuilt fronts for my midge.....so far i am very pleased...price was reasonable. and like Dave says..peter was very helpful and friendly....They have my reccomendation
 
Thanks! I'll check it out!
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On another note, I converted the rears to tube shocks with the Gabriel Gas Shocks. Definitely tighter! In fact it rides like a log truck now! I think I'll take them back off and save the shocks for my MGB when I get around to that one!
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I have a "65 Sprite that gets driven very spiritedly it the mountains of northern California. I installed the tube shock conversions from Winners' Circle on all four corners, and it absolutely transformed the handling.
I live in Michigan, and my brother in Ca. did the actual installation. I had forgotten about it and my comment to him after the first time I drove it, was "What did you do to my car?!" No more understeer, no more porpoising through the whoop de doos, and a rock solid feel in the corners. The lever shocks that were removed had less than 3000 miles from new, and were still in good shape.
If you don't mind giving up a little tire wear, crank in about 1 degree negative camber in the front, as well.
I think you will find it a worthwhile expense. The '65 still rides decent, and handles more like it should. It also has BFG 185 70, Touring TA's
on it, on stock wheels. (Soon to be replaced)
BTW, when I said the car gets driven spiritedly, you can read that as "HARD!"
Bugeye58
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Spirited Driving? eh......i like the sound of that. i have heard that cracking of lower a frames can occur. Especially with front tube conversions.Any troubles there?..
 
Nope, no problems so far regarding the control arms. I run the same suspension setup on the "H" Production car, as do many people, and I don't recall of hearing of any difficulties along those lines. On the street car, I'm running Delrin bushings, which are harder than the urethane bushes. On the race car I run eccentric bushings that I made from aluminum. I don't know where exactly these cracks are supposed to be appearing, but if anyone out there has experienced this, I would be interested in finding out just where the cracks are, so I could devise a suitable reinforcement.
I should have mentioned in my previous post, that with the tube shocks, you use the lever shock as the upper control arm, but drain the oil out of them. To get the negative camber I spoke of, the easiest way is to use about a 1/4" shim between the shock and the mounting surface. Just be sure to use longer, grade 8 bolts when you add the shim.
Bugeye58
 
Jeff:

I've seen several Spridget "A" arms crack......when I was a college kid, I even welded/patched a cracked one to get around for a while (bad idea). As I re-call, the crack usually occurs about 1.5" inboard from the lower kingpin mounts (the fulcrum pin area).....just where the steel "folds up". I've also heard concerns about "A" arms that have been drilled to add sway bars (on older Sprites without sway bars).....drilling without reinforcement can lead to cracks (so I've heard).

The "A" arm mounts can crack too (the "ears" attached to the frame). Two of mine were cracked when I got this car (I reinforeced all four by brazing in plates). My older Sprite needed one repaired too....some of this may be caused by ham-fisted previous owners using too much muscle to remove the rubber bushings (I'm running delrin).

I have 4 tube shocks on my car (leaving the front levers as the upper contol arms....with valves disabled). It's an excellent mod in my view, but I've heard others poo-poo the idea....anyway, in my opinion, adding the front tubes has got to be one of the most noticeable improvements I've even done to this car. I "added" negative camber by slotting the front lever shock bodies with a long end-mill....tedious job!

My page on the tube shock mod is here:

https://npmccabe.tripod.com/spritetubeshock.htm

An excellent source of Spridget parts (and ideas for stuff you might fab yourself) are at:

https://www.petermayengineering.co.uk/
(go to "specialst products")

Frontline has some good stuff too:

https://www.mgcars.org.uk/frontline/frntsus.htm

Related to this, I kind of wish we had an "FISC" series in the U.S.:

https://www.fisc-racing.com/index2.html
 
Nial, I've had the mount points crack as well, but never a control arm. I do reinforce the ones on the "H" car, and the street car with the tube shocks has new, later style "A" arms that were already reinforced when I bought them. My daily driver here is a '72 Midget that is going to get the tube shocks when I get around to doing it. I just need to fab the bracketry for them, as I already have the shocks. Right now I'm concentrating on the new race car, so the '72 has been kind of "back burnered."
Jeff
 
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