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SHOCKS - which way to go?

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Woodie

Woodie

Jedi Warrior
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I have read much in the last few hours on Peter C and his shocks and on the conversion kits for front and rear on a 1970 Midget.

WHat would be better? Change all 4 to tube shocks, or replace all 4 with peterC's, If the decision is to keep all 4 armstrongs is this just to keep the car "pure" or is the handling just as good as 4 tube shocks.

The car is a stock road car. BUT I do drive it like I stole it. I was told thats how to drive it..
 
I dunno, i went with lever shocks. I went as far as to make up a custom upper control arm and shock mount similar to frontline. I intended on finishing them and comparing them to the levers, but I got busy driving and never found the time/motivation to finish them.
 
Whooooo-weeeee! You are opening a can of worms with that question. Lemme ask you this: which is better, Coke or Pepsi?

I like Coke, but that is what I grew up with.


BTW, I have designed a front tube shock conversion which I hope to be selling within the next year. Last night I bolted v3.0 of the design onto the car. It looks real good if I do say so myself. And the best part, I didn't have to drill, cut or weld my car in any way. The kit is totally bolt-on. I could return the suspension of my care to concours stock in about 2 hours.
 
ok Morris how much for the Pepsi (your v3.0). I assume the kit is for the hardware only and I would buy the shocks seprately??

email if you want ggagne1101@rogers.com
 
I'll drop you an email later once I have some pics. I am a ways away from being ready to sell. I have to go and try to kill myself first before I give anybody else a turn. Also, I have already discovered a few minor changes that need to be made. I think I will be at v3.5 before I am ready to go to market.

I had envisioned selling the kit as hardware only. The shocks I used can be picked up for about $15 a piece. Or you can get adjustable shocks from Summit for about $50 a piece if memory serves. I figure it makes the most sense to let the end user pick the shocks he likes. As for price, there are still quite few things I need to iron out before I can set a price, but my goal is to sell the kit for roughly what it costs to get shocks rebuilt.
 
If adjustability and performance are of any concern to you I would say tube shocks are the only way to go.

Sorry for the bad camera phone pics. Ive got more but not on the pc im at now.

Newmancent001.jpg
 
ok spridgetpwr84 what did you do at the front, and on the back did you just flip the spring brackets to lower the bottom of the shock? Did you simply use the rebound strap hole for the top mount and what shocks did you use. What about spacers, and sleeves.?
 
Morris:

You have my attention, if they fit a quarter bug, you have my full attention.

Keep me in the loop.

Thanks
Pat
 
Woodie said:
ok spridgetpwr84 what did you do at the front, and on the back did you just flip the spring brackets to lower the bottom of the shock? Did you simply use the rebound strap hole for the top mount and what shocks did you use. What about spacers, and sleeves.?
Click to expand...

I used a double adjustable shock from carrera all the around. Its now called QA1 https://www.carrerashocks.com/

To mount the lower rear shock I simply used an L shaped piece of steel for the mounting point in the rear and drlled about 3 holes in the side to get the right height. On the top I welded a piece of steel to the top of the axle housing. To get the correct angle a few grade 8 washers were used to get the angle. The front was simple, all bolt on. Ill take some pictures as I will be putting the car up in the air tomorrow.
 
Lemme ask this: Do you know of a tube shock that's lasted 30+ years? If so, put it on your car....if not, replace the originals with new ones & forget about them for another 30+ years!

That's for a street car - pure racer is another thing altogether!
 
You all have a lot more experience than I, however, I'll counter Tony's arguement....sure, lever shocks have lasted 30-40 years...however, how many times have they needed maintenance and rebuilding in that time? Apples to oranges as tube shocks typically aren't rebuildable.

I'm going to give the tube shock a try when I go to do it. I, without a doubt, need to do something as the levers are definitely in need of TLC. I figure if I can't get the DIY tube conversion to work, I can always flip back to the levers.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]sure, lever shocks have lasted 30-40 years...however, how many times have they needed maintenance and rebuilding in that time? [/QUOTE]

Lemme see, hmm, 1979 MGB that I bought new - nothing's been done to them yet!

2007-1979 = 28 years! Oops, doesn't count

How about 1974-1/2 MGB GT, 2nd owner - shocks haven't been touched that I can tell (brakes were redone last week for 1st time in 85,000 mile life of car)!

2007-1974 = 33 years! Aha!
 
Boy, you *are* opening up a can of worms!
(and I've had that can thrown at me many times /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif ).

One of things that will give you information is to use the "Search" function here at BCF. That will provide a lot of info that is already out there.

Anyway, for a street car, the lever units are fine. When I hunted down a Midget for my own brother a few years ago, he asked about convering to tube and I told him that for a street toy, the lever dampers are fine.
A nice thing to do with them is to flush them out *fully* (not just top them up) and add fresh shock oil.

And the question of what shock oil to use in the lever units is it's own can of worms...to be safe, I'd use the stuff from Moss or Vic/Brit.....or use motorcycle fork oil

And if you have leaky or worn dampers, Peter C (a member here) has an excellent reputation for rebuilding these units. Otherwise all I can say is that the other popular rebuilder (located near me) has a poor reputation for quality.
Note how I am not "naming names" here....dumping on vendors by name is considered "bad form" here at BCF

If you are racing or doing heavy autocross, the tube shocks are the choice. I cannot think of a non-vintage racer Spridget that is running lever dampers anymore.
If you would like to see the method that I used for fitting the front levers, you can ~Click Here~

By the way, the rear dampers can be switched to tube-type by flipping the lower leaf spring plate and fitting a properly positioned mounting bolt to the chassis. I replaced the axle strap mounting bolt with an upper shock mount (and moved the upper axle strap bolt).

You can see my left rear shock here (that's the battery in front of it...the arrow is just pointing to the panhard rod end)

[Also~The reason you have to scroll over to view some of these posts is because the camera phone picture is too large and is messing up the browser window]

panhard1.jpg
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] nice thing to do with them is to flush them out *fully* (not just top them up) and add fresh shock oil.[/QUOTE]

& if you want to uprate them a bit, beafier valves are available.
 
tony barnhill said:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:] nice thing to do with them is to flush them out *fully* (not just top them up) and add fresh shock oil.
Click to expand...

& if you want to uprate them a bit, beafier valves are available. [/QUOTE]

Yes. Good point.

And I think Peter C has them.
 
Back in the days when levers were required in H Production, we switched to MGB valves.
Now we can run Penske remote reservoir shocks, at 1800 bucks a pop.
The price of progress, eh?
Jeff
 
Ha, I kinda figured when I opened my mouth someone would prove me wrong, and Tony did just that.

I'm still going to try the tube shocks for the heck of it. Like I said, I can always go back.
 
Let us know how they do!! & you really don't need to buy a kit to convert the rears...just slide up under it & study it for awhile & it'll hit you.
 
Spridgetpwr84, question as I am one of the folks that sells the composite rear leaf spring I see in your photo, are they floated at the spring clamps with spacers and not bolted thru in anyway and using anti tramp bars to locate the rear end. The reason I ask we always instruct people to mount them that way because drilling into the composite material can cause the spring to fail.
 
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