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MG MGB Technical - Lever shocks

My right side front shock is loosing a little fluid. After 125k miles its time for a rebuild. Are both front shocks the same or are they left/right handed? The drivers side seems fine but do they halve to be done in pairs? Thanks Bob
Bob Ekstrand

Bob

Probably best to do both. Not really much other than seals that wear out in these, but replacing both gives you a little piece of mind.

Peter Caldwell at World Wide Auto usually has a good supply in stock, or he can rebuild yours. He guarantees them not to leak. Price for MGB is reasonable.


http://www.nosimport.com
Bruce-C

I would say it's one of those things that you would definitely do both if you're doing one. The don't seem to be handed at all.
Simon Jansen

These shockers are not handed and the golden rule used to be that if a shocker had covered more than 40,000 miles then replace the pair so you are well over that so its definitely time to swap them both.
Iain MacKintosh

Do the upper bushing as well, the pin can be a bugger to remove...but new shocks are quite an improvment in ride/handling...
Pete

Thanks for all the help. Bruce, the e-mail address was really helpful. Thanks a lot! BOB
Bob Ekstrand

Never done both, had to change one on each of three cars, still waiting many years later to change the other. Same with rears (which *are* handed of course).
Paul Hunt

Bob-
Unless you want funky handling, you need to have equal damping rates on both front wheels. I have to agree with Bruce that Peter Caldwell at World Wide Auto does the best rebuilds. I won't use anybody else.
Steve S.

If your new one is different to the old then there is something wrong with the rebuild, or the other one needs changing anyway.
Paul Hunt

I think I will be calling world wide in a day or so to order one. If the left and right feel unbalanced I will get another. It looks like 4 bolts on top and a longer sideways one below. Are there any difficulties involved in the change? Any tips? Thanks a lot for all the help! Bob
Bob Ekstrand

Bob; Not too tough to replace,but a couple of things to be aware of. Most importantly, be aware that the coil spring is held in place by the A-frame on the lower end and the shock on the upper end.Releasing the spring without some means of controlling it can have dire consquenses. Normally,supporting the weight of the car on the lower A-frame with a jack stand will provide enough spring compression to allow an easy shock change. Once in a while, a car with long,strong springs or one with little weight on the front end(engine removed etc.)will require alternate methods of compressing the spring. Just be sure that the shock is not the only thing retaining the spring before you remove the fasteners. The other thing to be aware of is the too common frozen fulcrum pin syndrome. The long horizontal bolt that attaches the shock arms to the spindle is referred to as a fulcrum pin-purchase 2 of these and a new set of bushings for this location before you begin the job-inexpensive time savers.I normally use the poly version of the bushings for better life. Dan Craig
Dan Craig

Bob-
When preparing to remove the front lever arm dampers, be sure to get the car high enough off the ground so that the spring pans will be able to end up vertical after both the swivel hubs and the springs have been removed. If you do not take the precaution of getting the car up high enough off of the ground, you will run into problems when trying to reinstall the springs. In order to remove the springs of the front suspension, place a hydraulic bottle jack under the spring pan in order to contain the pressure of the coil spring. Loop a strong rope through a coil of the spring and tie it to the upper suspension arm in order to prevent the coil spring from jumping out as this event can occur quite violently. Remove the cotter pins from both the top of the king pin and the fulcrum pin, and then loosen both of the castle nuts. Make sure that you do not remove the upper fulcrum pin before you have loosened the castle nut that secures the upper trunnion to the kingpin as the upper fulcrum pin secures the upper trunnion to the kingpin and thus prevents it from turning. Next, unscrew the nuts on the fulcrum pin until it is flush with the end of the machine bolt, and then strike it with a hammer in order to determine if the fulcrum pin is rusted in place. Note that the lower fulcrum pin has a steel bushing on its shank inside of the trunnion. If the bushing has rusted onto the fulcrum pin, the fulcrum pin will have to be cut off by means of a Dremel tool that is fitted with a cutting wheel. Remove the machine bolt of the center arm of the lever arm damper and the upper fulcrum pin, and then allow the swivel hub / kingpin assembly to swing away. Finally, slowly lower the jack until the coil spring falls free. At this point you can remove the lever arm damper.
Steve S.

Steve,

Sounds like a lot of unnecessary work!

If a trolley jack is placed under the outer part of the lower wishbone and raised to take the weight of the car, the shock absorber can be replaced by undoing the top trunnion pin and the four bolts securing it to the crossmember.

On replacing with the new one and new bushes, it is helpful to loosen the nut & bolt tying the two arms of the shock absorber together and driving a narrow bladed chisel between the arms to open up the outer end so it drops over the bushes before they are fully compressed into the top trunnion.

By the way - I don't believe that an MGB front spring can escape with any force - it is totally unloaded before it comes free from the lower pan and the crossmember recess - the worst it can do is force the lower pan downwards, and even that tends to be quite gentle due to the friction in the inner lower wishbone bushes.
Chris at Octarine Services

I used your method described above Chris, and is was absolutely no problem to do.
Mike

Same here. Can change out the shocks in less than 1/2 hour following chris's method.
Bruce-C

This thread was discussed between 05/02/2009 and 11/02/2009

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