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When a fun job goes bad...

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You know a modern body shop can bend it back where it should be. They do it with lazers and such.
 
Thayt doesn't sound like quality control with the 3 deg on one side and 1.5 deg on the other side.

I was actually going to suggest:
Both A-arms do the same on the one side. What do they do on the other side?

Then I would suggest frame damage.

I've seen them tight, sometimes very tough to assemble, but can't assemble, not without something being askew.

Perhaps very careful measurements with a level and vernier caliper on the chassis tabs.
 
I measured in an assortment of ways and from various points.

The lower tabs square up. The mounting holes for the shocks are out of whack. And when you look at how the metal edges meet there seems to be variance in the towers themselves. I do not know the order assembly or what the jigs looked like, but I'm convinced this car has been wrong for 50+ years.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :wink:
 
Trevor, I think you are correct, the chassis is not true. I don't think they even knew what a construction jig was when they were building MGs considering all the rear axles that are offset and the number of cars that have poorly aligned front suspensions. I worked on a friends BE several years ago and had a similar problem on one side after we replaced the A frames and lower trunions. The top trunion was a bear to get attached to the shock. We checked everything we could and finally decided that the shock mounting wasn't true, wound up doing the same as you and introducing some twist in the A arm to get it together. I remember what a friend here in KC told me about the cars that used to come into the dealership when he worked for the local BMC/Triumph dealer. Some of them had differences in wheelbase of almost 1" between the left and right side. Made for some unusual handling.
 
Like I said a modern frame straightner can bend em so both are the same. It is done with lazers and chains.
 
After reading all the input thus far a would say it maybe the mounting surface of the shock. sounds like its angle is off. Can you compare the angle of there mounting surfaces? with the arm sticking out there it would not take a whole lot of angle defection to throw it off.
 
There in lies the problem. Very little was symmetrical about the two sides and neither seemed correct in all aspects, so I'm going to tackle the project later and change the geometry to suit my needs.
 
tosoutherncars said:
Sounds like a job for a BFH. :wink:
Click to expand...

I'm actually with Jack on this one - having done a lot of woodworking, if you don't start with something straight at the beginning, it only gets worse. I can imagine that you would have tracking and geometry issues without straightening, neither of which can be good. I don't imagine an hour or two on a frame machine would be that expensive. I feel like this is one that needs to be done right and one that might be outside the ability of your typical restorer.
 
A frame rack could get it closer, but I would need to have a target and some decent reference points. I think I'm going to consult with a fellow I know that does custom suspensions and see if he can help me. Although, last time he looked at my midget he just shook his head in disbelief and muttered something about pub engineering.
 
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