• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Shock Absorber Inquiry

Share this page

MgKid1974

MgKid1974

Senior Member
Offline
I am investing in some new Tube Shock Absorbers for my 1974 MGB but I have gotten into kind of a dillema. There are two kinds of shocks I am looking into: KYB and Monroe Sensatrac. The KYBs are a little more expensive, but I am not sure if there is a significant enough of a performance gain to spend the extra $100. Any kind of help or suggestions would be awesome.

Thank you,

Greg
 
In my opinion there is no performance advantage to tube shocks at all. In fact, most people who try them find the ride is harsh. Lever shocks perform the same function as tube shocks and last 30 years.

The problem with tube shocks is that the car's suspension was never designed for them, so the mounting and angles are not optimum. Also, no tube shock has ever been designed specifically for an MGB.

Might I suggest sending your original shocks to Peter at Worldwide? The will be guaranteed against leaks and should last forever.
 
I concur with Steve S. I've never seen a complaint about Peter's work.
 
Do yhou have a web address?
 
I also agree with Steve, tube shocks have been known to rip the sheetmetal they are attached to. The originals lasted 30 years, will the tube shocks?
 
Hate to be the voice of dissention, but...

I have heard the Monroe kit is too harsh; dunno about the KYB. Spax and Koni both make very reputable tube shock kits for the MGB. I have a Koni kit on my B and I love it. They are fully adjustable and fit perfectly. The brackets are well engineered. Koni has one of the best reputations in the business.

hub.jpg


WRT angles, the rear shock in particular has a much better angle for damping than the lever arm/rod.
 
My LE came with the monroe kit on it....It is a little stiffer, but I kinda like the harshed ride, this is a sports car...not a cadillac. The only problem I've had is that the rear mounting bolts have a tendcy to come loose every 1000 miles or so, I am not sure if this problem has to do with the kit itself or the DPO installation(considering the way the Weber was installed on this car I am gunna go with DPO installation).
On another note, I don't fine much difference in the handling compared to my other stock B's...And yes those are 25 year old shocks in those cars, but both of those cars have very low mileage(under 20k) so that kinda stuff is in pretty good nick.
 
the prices on the tube kits does seem rather pricey... however, the prices on their reconditioned arm strongs doesn't seem too bad, as far as I can tell.
 
I'm still running the same rear Monroe tube shock kit, I first installed about 8 years ago. As for them being harsher - not sure it’d make any difference in my case as my ride is already pretty stiff thanks to my already significantly modified suspension. Personally unless I’m traversing pot holes & speed bumps – I kind of like the feel.

Also while the basic kit designs are pretty much the same from one vendor to the next – I must say that I like the build quality of the kits offered today by all the vendors (MGOC, Moss & VB) a heck of a lot more than the one I got way back when. Been actually thinking about replacing mine some day.
 
Also when viewing MGOC parts don't forget to subtract the 17.5% VAT from the price. However you will have to pay shipping.
 
The design of the MGB rear suspension does not allow a good angle of the rear shock and places a lot of unusual loads on it. The mounting points cause the shock to sit at a very shallow angle which is not very efficient. I think this is one reason for the harder ride of tube shocks, even those designed for lighter vehicles. Lever shocks move vertically only, directly in line with the axle itself.

Front kits are known for being problematic since the suspension design incorporates the shock arms into the suspension itself. Complete coil-over suspension kits are very good and a noticable improvement on the original front suspension design, but they are very expensive and are not for the purist! Then there is this... https://www.motorheadltd.com/tubeshock.htm

I'm very suprised at the number of people using tube kits on this forum. The same question asked on the other two big MG forums would yield a 95% opinion strongly for levers! In fact there was just an enormous topic on tube shocks on the UK board.
 
If you want a stiffer ride, put in a set of upgraded valves in the stock shocks. You'll definitely see the differance. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif PJ
 
Steve,

I only have tube shocks in the rear and they seem to work fine. There was some concern about binding with the rear sway-bar and some kits actually suggest its removal. But all I did was add another spacer (washer) and everything cleared just fine.

As for the front shocks I must admit that I never liked the side style mounting and will keep my lever shocks for now. But I have noticed a lot of folks who have them who seem to be happy. However should I ever change I’d go with a coil-over setup.

As for the “tube shock” damage link? That front end looked like it had other “issues” besides side loading of tube shocks. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

In my case the selection of the tube shock conversion was a pretty simple choice. I had two bad rear lever shocks one according to my mechanic friend only one was rebuildible. The other one was totally shot with a bent lever arm along with a busted link. All thanks to an impromptu off roading incident by the previous owner. Anyway at the time it seemed more cost effective to go with the tube shock conversion (then about $150 I think) than rebuilding the one lever shock and purchasing a new or rebuilt unit & it’s link.

Besides now I can go down to the local auto parts store should I need to replace the shocks in the future for a fraction of the cost.
 
To me, there's only one way to go if you're thinking of converting to front tubes:

hawkes1.jpg
 
Looks great Tony!

BTW Can't recall where you got that setup? Also what was your investment?

I've pretty much taken my front end as far as I can without going to something like yours.
 
I may be wrong, but that looks like a Hawk/Hoyle setup. Am I right?
 
also, that cracked lower wishbone in the picture that Steve_S posted, doesn't quite look like an MGB suspension to me. I could be wrong on that account to though. I thought all Bs use 'C' steel beams to form the lower wishbones, and the spring pan is of a different shape. The C-beams would possibly offer better resistance to cracking than the parts pictured.

Either way, I still wouldn't put side mounted tubes on my front end. I vaguely recall reading about someone converting their car to tubes, but made a custom mounting scheme that used MGB springs, placed the shock centerline of the wishbones, anchored at the bottom near the pivot, and angled inwards towards the top.


I'm gonna have to see if I can find that page again.
 
Back
Top