Steering, Suspension, & Brakes

tips, technology, tools and techniques related to non-driveline mechanical components

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JChimbolo
Joseph Chimbolo
Madison CT
(5 posts)

Registered:
01/24/2010 07:50PM

Main British Car:
1962 1800

early MGB rear leaf ride height
Posted by: JChimbolo
Date: February 08, 2010 09:15AM

I put springs new early B rear springs in that were supposed to be the 1 in lower type. The rear droop straps are tight, meaning they are holding the tension. There is no gas or interior in the car. But shouldn't there be slack on the straps?


ex-tyke
Graham Creswick
Chatham, Ontario, Canada
(1165 posts)

Registered:
10/25/2007 11:17AM

Main British Car:
1976 MGB Ford 302

authors avatar
Re: early MGB rear leaf ride height
Posted by: ex-tyke
Date: February 08, 2010 09:55AM

New springs will take time to settle - get the car operational and pile up the miles. In the interim, you may have to play around with lowering blocks as a temporary measure to get your desired ride height.
It is possible that the rebound straps may not be slack if you haven't got interior, fuel, etc.


eyeosteverino
Steve Kimball
Southwest NM
(30 posts)

Registered:
03/02/2008 10:58AM

Main British Car:
67 Sunbeam, 2.8 L V6 Ford,

Re: early MGB rear leaf ride height
Posted by: eyeosteverino
Date: June 10, 2010 11:14PM

I put new rear springs, std type, from Moss, and they gave me the jacked up look too. The new straps looked like they might break. I removed the two bottem leafs, still too high. Then I reinstalled the two leafs on top upside down. This preloaded the whole stack, got it right.


302GT
Larry Shimp

(240 posts)

Registered:
11/17/2007 01:13PM

Main British Car:
1968 MGB GT Ford 302 crate engine

authors avatar
Re: early MGB rear leaf ride height
Posted by: 302GT
Date: June 23, 2010 08:50AM

Moss Europe has a new type of progressive leaf spring (not available from Moss US). Threy have (as I recall) only two leaves and might be worth checking out.


castlesid
Kevin Jackson
Sidcup UK
(361 posts)

Registered:
11/18/2007 10:38AM

Main British Car:
1975 MGB GT Rover V8 4.35L

Re: early MGB rear leaf ride height
Posted by: castlesid
Date: November 22, 2010 02:58PM

Joseph,

Have you checked the rear spring hangers, are they facing back towards the rear of the car? if so return springs
problem generally is that a lot of the basic replacement leaf springs are incorrectly set(too much arch) and result in too high a ride height.

What measurement do you have at the moment between centre of wheel and bottom of chrome strip which is the dimension used.

A chrome bumper car should have something between 14 3/4" to 15 1/4"

The other two leaf springs are the Parabolics or diabolics as they are often called, a friend fitted them to his V8 roadster which was a chrome bumper car and ended up with a rear ride height of 16 1/2"!!!

From research I did I came to the conclusion that all the so called standard replacement springs are rubbish and nowhere the correct specs and you are lucky if you even get a matching pair.

Moss UK do competition springs which are actually softer, 90lb rating for the roadster 110lb GT and these are the correct or even lower ride height if required.

Kevin Jackson.


MGBV8
Carl Floyd
Kingsport, TN
(4511 posts)

Registered:
10/23/2007 11:32PM

Main British Car:
1979 MGB Buick 215

authors avatar
Re: early MGB rear leaf ride height
Posted by: MGBV8
Date: November 22, 2010 10:03PM

Depends who you got the springs from. I don't think you got what you ordered.

I have read many horror stories about replacements leaf springs being waaay too high. When it was time to get stock height springs for my dad's '63, I had him order them from Brit-Tek. It sits right.


roverman
Art Gertz
Winchester, CA.
(3188 posts)

Registered:
04/24/2009 11:02AM

Main British Car:
74' Jensen Healy, 79 Huff. GT 1, 74 MGB Lotus 907,2L

Re: early MGB rear leaf ride height
Posted by: roverman
Date: November 27, 2010 12:45PM

Even the "Amish", use composite leaf springs ! Perhaps its time to enter the 21st century for suspension materials and designs ? Composite monoleafs are about 1/6th the weight of conventional stacked steel. Never rust,break, change rate,work harden, or need painting. GM has been using these for decades.They can be "custom" made for quite reasonable rates,(forum volume) ? 2cents, roverman.



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