MG Sports Cars

3rd time was the charm on the axles; got the one that didn't fit on the 2nd round back last Friday & installed it. Didn't get a chance to drive the car till today though. Still lots to sort through but it was fun to drive it anyway. Took my son to his buddy's house & the kids drooled on the car (a bunch of 15yr olds all with their learners permits).

Posted in the engine section -- carb needs to be adjusted; hope to sort that out tomorrow.

Also getting a backfire (through the exhaust if I recall) sometimes after shutting it off. Will work that after carb adjust if getting the carb doesn't resolve both (thining it may be dumping too much fuel in).

Anyway, was fun to drive it again -- and my wife didn't have to walk home w/me this time :).

Kudos!

Great!!

Long journey Rob, but the rewards will continue for a long time. Look great! Can't wait till next May

Excellent news - congratulations!

Fantastic! Rob.

Good deal. How's it ride?

JB

Good news

The ride was much harsher than it should be. I had the shocs set mid way (single adjustable QA1 coilovers). I cranked them down to the minimum rebound dampening & will test it again tomorrow but my gut says I'm going to need to trade out the springs for lighter ones. I have 200lb springs (10") currently; have been trolling craigslist for some 150 or 175 to try.

Interesting. I came at it from the other end, too soft and had to firm it up. Takes a little experimentation but I ran calculations on the loading initially and those turned out to be right. I went softer on outside advice but then corrected it later. We clearly have a different lever arm ratio as I'm running heavier springs than you are and it's still a fairly soft ride I think. More testing soon, as Max is planning to fire up the Roadmaster today.

JB

Hey Jim - my 200 lb springs aren't as bad as I thought. Turns out I was hitting my bump stops. I'd meant to trim them but never did. After trimming and with the rebound dampening at the lowest setting, it may even be a little soft.

Sounds better Rob. It's a good thing to be able to customize the bump stops, you need just enough to keep it from banging. I'm sure that improved the ride noticeably.

JB

My suspension (independent Hoyle) is set up with 200 pound springs in front and 225 in the rear. I tried 200 in the rear and it was a little soft under hard acceleration, but otherwise fine.

I now have single adjustable QA1 shocks (rebound only). I set them to a moderately firm rebound. In the past I have had single adjustable shocks where the compression and rebound were adjusted together, and realized that when the rebound was right, compression was much too stiff. My recommendation is to have a soft compression setting (combined with adequate suspension travel) and a firm rebound setting. The soft compression setting will allow the suspension to deflect and keep the tires in contact with the road upon hitting irregularities, while the stiff rebound will control oscillations. Maybe on smooth surfaces stiffer compression settings will be useful, but not in the real world. I also found that it is better to control body roll by using sway bars and not to rely on overly stiff springs and shock settings. The obvious symptom of a too stiff suspension is that the car will bounce sideways on bumpy corners. With a soft suspension, mid-corner bumps will have no effect.