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MG MG Y Type - Excessive front bounce

After being away for 8 weeks, took the YT out on a club run on Saturday. Engine fired on first pull with no choke.
On the run over some secondary bitumen roads (80 & 90kph limit) with uneven surfaces, the YT front end would bounce considerably. I don't think the wheels left the road. Checked dampeners and they are full. running 28psi in tyres.

While the YT has this excessive bounce, I don't feel it is save for me to take passengers in the car. I can keep myself in the seat by holding the steering wheel.

Ideas sought on a solution.

FYI. YT has done about 200 miles since engine rebuild. Car in 4th is pulling 10kph for each 500rpm. (ie 70 at 3000rpm, 80 at 3500rpm). Engine runs so smooth and quite that if I am not watching tacho, the engine is doing 5000rpm before I know it.

Stuart
Stuart Duncan

Stuart,

Although your dampers or shock absorbers may be full it sounds as though they are the problem. Push the car down on each front wing and see if the car returns to normal immediately. If not, then the shockers need re-conditioning. Mail me if you need to know how to dismantle the front suspension.

Paul
P M Grafham

Paul
When I push down on one front wing, both go down and come back up past the original position, then drop to the original position.

The car also squeaks in the rear. A quick look at the rear dampeners, showed the large arm out of the base is horizontal. I also noticed the spring leafs have holes near the ends but have no rubber spaces between them. Should they have spaces like on the TD. I am thinking of spraying a liberal amount of silicon around the rear end to stop the squeaks in the short term.

With the bounce and squeaks, I am thinking I should probably rebuild both front and rear dampeners, so can you send me (to lesley(underscore)stuart at bigpond dot com ) your notes on dismantling the dampeners. I have the rear shock bush installation tool.


Stuart
Stuart Duncan

Stuart,
If you can push down enough for the car to go down and then come back beyond and then return to its original position then they are finished. If you have good s/abs you would find it very hard to push down at all without considerable force,
Easy push down means shockers are on their way out or already gone.Some people might say top them up but normally if they need that much fluid to fill them up to work then there must be a leak and if thats the case then they are sill finished.
John yb0362

JC Jebb

Just received a quote of $375 AU for each Damper to be reconditioned. ($1500 total)
Paul Grafham can you send me your information on dismantling the suspension. My email address is in my post below (change underscore to _ and at and dot)

Before deciding whether to disassemble or send to business, I will take each one off the car and check its operation.
Stuart
Stuart Duncan

Stuart,

Apologies for not having replied before, I have been working away.

I know you e mailed me but I cannot find your e mail address.

Mail me again : pgrafham@talktalk.net and I will send a detailed guide of how to remove the front shockers.

Paul
P M Grafham

I am now considering sending all 4 dampers to NTG in UK as their prices with currency conversion and freight will be well under the cost of getting them refurbished locally.

So far I have removed the rear two (photo attached). bottom is RH and top LH. Notice they have different tops. Is this correct?

Stuart

Stuart Duncan

Other size of rear Dampers.

Both are erratic in movement.

Right one has legible stampings all over it. Left one is harder to rear.
Stuart

Stuart Duncan

Stuart,

I understand from a recent conversation with NTG that they have a backlog of 18 months on shock absorbers.

Because of that, I went to:

Raj Patel
39 Avenue Road Extension
Leicester
LE2 3EP
Tel 44 116 244 8103

They did an excellent job on the last two that I had done.

Paul
P M Grafham

In the past I had much trouble with these dampers but then discovered what I think is a problem. If the caps are removed you will find mounted at the end of the actuating piston a shim metal valve. I found the three webs must cover the three holes otherwise fluid can flow without restriction thus no damping.
Try refilling with motorcycle fork fluid. Bryan
B Mellem

Paul & Bryan

My rear dampers (previous photo) are on their way to NTG. Should arrive early this week. Paul at NTG has said he can do a 7-10 day turn around (and send me similar exchange ones). Next week when I am home, I will remove and clean up the front dampers.

Has anyone replaced the bushes on the rear panhard rod assembly? How easy is it? I am thinking, I might as well do that whilst working on the rear end.

Stuart
Stuart Duncan

An update:
Last week I decided to take the right front Damper off the YT and started cleaning it ready to send it to NTG in UK. Then over the weekend I changed my mind and decided I would instead fit tube shocks in lieu of sending the front dampers away, just in case the dampers get lost and make the car undrivable.

I am looking at something similar to what Tony Slattery has done, but using SWB Land Rover Armstrong shocks which are readily available and I expect to be around for some time. The Land Rover shock has a 273-415mm action which is similar to Tony's 275-390mm measured range. Tony has provided some photos (thank you).

The bottom will be a 1" sq bar machined down for the shocks (19mm dia) and attach to wishbone by the 2 outer bolts using welded-on brackets.

The top will again be 1" sq bar machined down for the shock and attach to the dampers and frame by longer bolts which will fit through 2 tubes welded onto the bar.

Today, I continued cleaning the outside and found the lever action very stiff (had to use all my strength to move the lever up and down) and the rubber bushes are perished. On removing the cap, I found it full of oil and gunk which I tipped out.

After a number of soakings in Kero and brake cleaner, the damper action is now smooth, and without any oil the damper just flops around. I filled it with oil and left it overnight to see if it leaks, which it does (out through the perissed seals). Most oil has now been removed and tube shock brackets designed.

I will keep you posted and post photos when brackets are made next week.

Stuart
Stuart Duncan

Stuart, I used Escort rear shocks not only for the travel, but also the damper valving suited the Y-Type. I can imagine that Land Rover shocks would be significantly firmer than Escort, so you might end up with a very hard ride. I had no trouble getting Escort shocks - you just have to order them in advance.

Good Luck
Tony
A L SLATTERY

Tony, you may be right, but at less that $60 (getting at trade price) for pair, if too hard I can go to another model.

Steve, the mechanic, and I discussed that. He is a Land Drover restorer at home and said engines are about same weight. YT has steel body whereas Land Rover is aluminium which would make up for difference in chassis weight, etc.

Stuart
Stuart Duncan

It's not about weight - it's spring rate v's damper rate - they have to work together or you break the suspension.

Tony
A L SLATTERY

I received the rear lever action dampers back from NTG last Friday week, about 6 weeks after sending them away.

They look good, but one has the lever arm going up whilst the other is going down. see photo.

I have tried to twist the upward arm around but it will not move. I will soak in WD40 and see if it will turn. I could fit as it as long as it fits and dampers the bounce.

My fabrication for fitting tube shocks to the front are finished, I will post some photos when fitted to the YT later in week.

Stuart


Stuart Duncan

This post is to finish off this thread.

With a bit of mechanical assistance I was able to twist one of the rear damper arms so both dampers had their arms with a bend towards the road.

The attached photo shows the front left hand tube shock installation. I will be writing a paper on the fabrication and installation. (Paul let me know if you wish to include on website)

Over the recent weekend, I drove the Y around 400 miles on a club run, roughly 70% on motorway at between 85 -90 kph (3700-4000rpm), rest on secondary roads and 12 km of rough dirt roads. Car handled very well. No bouncing around etc.

On the secondary and dirt roads I kept up with the MGA, MGB and modern Fs. The balanced crank, fly wheel and clutch and roller cam/ lifters give the car good acceleration and a smooth and quiet engine.

Now to install a 4.55 diff to lower the revs to allow me to travel a bit faster on highways.
cheers
Stuart


Stuart Duncan

Thanks for the offer Stuart but to avoid confusion among owners we will stick with the details of Tony Slattery's solution.

Paul
Paul Barrow

This thread was discussed between 26/06/2019 and 10/10/2019

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