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Suspension options

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Stewart

Stewart

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For the final faze of my B I'm planning on lowering it to the CB ride height during a needed suspension rebuild and I am trying to figure out what I need to get.

For the front I have a CB front cross member and I am assuming that the suspension parts are swapped over from the original to the new CB one? Also for the front springs with out the weight of the rubber bumpers the 74 and earlier springs would be the way to go?

For the rear suspension I know the limiting straps and the link between the axle and the shock needs to be changed to the CB ones. The rear springs I'm not sure about. What are the options for the rear springs?
 
Hi Stewart,

I'm new to the board so others will likely have more info, but the way I've seen this done is simply using shorter but stiffer coil springs in the front and flatter but stiffer leaf springs in the back. Moss & Victoria British both sell these parts along with the poly bushings you'll likely want to use when you rebuild the front end.

Not sure if/how having switched to a CB cross member would affect the height though.
 
Stewart, On the rubber bumper cars the front bracket for the rear leaf springs hangs down about 2 inches lower than the early models. In turn, that will raise the rear of the car aprox. 1 inch at the axle. Moss has a rear lowering kit to drop the car down to the proper height. You will need the earlier front springs for the proper height there. The only problem you might have and I'm not sure that you will, is with the weight of the front rubber bumper, and they are much heavier that the chrome bumpers, it might lower the front a little more than you want. Jut my two cents worth.Hope it works out for you. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
I've dropped mine form rubber to chrome, (i've done the whole conversion!)

The front was a simple case of swapping for smaller springs, the crossmember is different, but is a biggger job than swapping the springs.

The rear is a case of swapping for lowered springs, but mine was still too high so I put in some 1" lowering blocks aswell

See here

https://www.mgocaccessories.co.uk/acatalog/MGOC_Accessories__Handling_26.html

Or look here if you fancy something abit different!

https://www.hoyle-engineering.co.uk/index.html
 
It would make sence that the steering rack would be different do to the changed angle. A rebuilt replacement steering rack was on the list of things so it wouldn't bug me to much to switch over to the earlier box if it could still mount up to the 75 steering colum.

My thoughts on switching to the chrome bumper crossmember is to return the B to the correct height without changing the geomotry and travel of the suspension and to keep the ride the same but it could be I'm just over thinking this to much.
 
No offense, but I beleive the latter...it is more simple than you are trying to make it. When the B went to the higher ride height, they did it mostly with the springs...went from 6 leaf rear springs to a 7 leaf and added the lift piece to the forward connection of the rear spring and in the front went to longer coil springs. Of course the linkage to the shocks were lenghtened slightly to match. Reversing the change is not difficult to do and the handling is greatly improved.

The weight differnce between the bumpers is just minor and you must also consider the overhang differences. One the 77 that I helped a buddy lower, we were constantly scraping the front end on driveway aprons, etc. but I have than problem with my CB cars anyhow /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif

If you get into swapping the crossmember, you will get into more than a few changes you will have to make, I imagine...like the steering rack, column?, mounting pads and bolts, sway bar links, and the like.

Good luck! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

Bruce /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif
 
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