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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Victim of bad parts again? This time front springs


As some of you honored members of the knowledge bank know, I fitted (among a pile of other front suspension and steering parts) brand new 340lbs front springs from one of your praised supliers.
I have the new springs / front lowered 1" by 1/2" spacers.
I have now noticed, that the car actually is leaning towards he left hand side. The car is in fact 15mm, allmost 9/16", lower in the LH side when measuring at the LH front wheel.
I didn't notice it with the old discarded soft springs.
It is not the wings, I can see the A-pans have different angles.
I have tried to jack up the rear, to lift the rear wheels just off the ground with a jack under the diff. housing, so that the car was only resting on the front wheels. This was the same result, it was still 15mm lower in the LH side. This told me that it is in the front and not at the rear I have a problem, allthough the rear LH was leaning a little too, propably due to the "hanging" LH front?
As a test today, I exchanged the LH spacers with 7,5mm spacers, allmost 5/16", but on the LH only.
This allowed the car to have nearly same height, only maybe 3mm off.
It appear that my new springs are not alike. What are your experiences? I have no intentions to complain against the suplier, since it is more than half a year ago I bought them.
As some of you know I bought 1500 springs one and a half months ago. Today too, to check them, I hoisted the front, in the middle of the front, off the floor. As soon as the last front wheel left the floor, the car leaned towards the LH side too! So, are my new 1500 springs not alike too, or is it the distribution of the weight in the car the reason for leaning to LH?? The rear is much softer than the front, you know.
Is there some sort of spell cast over my new suspension parts?
Do we have to buy 10 pcs of each part, choose the best and return the rest?
Hmmmmm......
Sorry for yet another long post.
Jan


Jan Kruber

Ideally, you should remove both front springs and measure them, to be sure. You could also swap them over, to see if the problem moves to the other side.
Dave O'Neill 2

As Dave has put (both).

These things are frustrating but Kim is NOT like the usual suppliers, IF the springs are at fault (I'm not saying now you have) and you've not caused the damage I'm sure Kim would want to help you out and sort any faults with his goods.

I may well be wrong, I very often am, and I've not seen your car other than photos but I've suspected and put, perhaps in other words, that I find your car's suspension set up /ride height to be suspicious for whatever reason(s).

IIRC Kim offered to have the springs back when you found they made your car sit too high for your liking, that is not to say the springs can't be faulty but I'd have thought that Kim would have noticed before posting at least if the springs were significantly different heights. It's possible but I can't think that Kim would also mix up a set of springs. Those springs are probably from the sets he had made to help me out when Toss really did balls-up the springs they sold me but denied it (all in the Archives).

If both sets of springs create the same fault then if it's not the springs it's your car.

What other new suspension parts were fitted?
Nigel Atkins

Jan,
another thought, more info for those with more knowledge than I, what and where are you measuring from and how are you measuring - I note "It is not the wings, I can see the A-pans have different angles."

There are a few ride height threads and posts in the Archives, sorry if yours was one of them as I can't recall it.
Nigel Atkins

Nigel
"What other new suspension parts were fitted?"
All of them!
Springs
A-pans
Anti roll bar 5/8"
Link assembly
Bolts, bolts, fulcrum pins, poly bushes.... etc ...just simly everything

I don't know if the LH hanging was from the beginning this year or if it increased during the season.
I'll look at it during the winter break
Jan Kruber

If you can get one of these things sitting square and level you are a wizard!

I doubt the front springs are the issue. They are a simple component.

It's more likely an issue with chassis alignment, spring pans/wishbones, anti-roll bar not mounted in its neutral position, miss matched rear springs, rear axle alignment, the floor not level, corner weights not equal, the list goes on and on.

Front springs are difficult to get wrong, the rest of the stuff is difficult to get right. So I would doubt it is a front spring issue.

Malc.
Malcolm Le Chevalier

Jan,
I thought you had changed a lot on the suspension so I asked the question hoping to also elicit a response from someone other than me to back up my thoughts and previous posts.

Malc has put exactly as I and others would be thinking, of course we've not seen the springs so we could be wrong.

I think I remember issues with wishbones for you, and others, perhaps yours are fine though, I don't know.

The difference, or lack of, that the 1500 rear springs brought, of course I don't know the quality of them or your previous rear springs.

The driving test comparison with the TR6(?) which showed up your Midget's rear handling.

All things added together and the photo (intentional pun now for hopefully humour) just didn't sit right with me.

I would honestly suggest you check both Kim's and the 1500 springs, measure off car and compression test instructions will be in the Archives, as one or both sets could be well out of specification, it will take them out of the solution process (or end it) and will take away your concern about them.

Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 03/09/2018 and 04/09/2018

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