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MG MGB Technical - Suspension alternatives.

Is it worth to update the suspension to telescopic dampers or should one just rebuild the suspension with new/reconditioned shock absorbers?

What have you guys done and what is recommended?

Thanks
Alex
Alexander Sorby Wigstrom

The usual suspects, Gaz, Koni and Spax are just too hard on a roadster, work marginally better on the heavier GT, but it is marginal. The problem with Armstrongs is the quality of so-called re-conned units. Decent units are available at a price, unfortunately the better ones are re-built in the States!! Another problem is the drop off of damping performance as they heat up on a journey. If you have decently functioning lever arms they can be improved by using better oil. I found that using synthetic motor cycle fork oil makes the dampers performance more consistent.
Allan Reeling

I took the Spax telescopics that came with my V8 off after the second set failed (which needed to be on their softest setting or they were awful), and put lever-arms back on. Reconditioned they are only as good as the returned unit from the PO, but they are cheap enough if you get a premature failure. With two cars over a total of 46 years and 160k miles I've only had one that fell into that category.

A pal changed from Koni to Gaz which were better, but comparing otherwise very similar roadsters his were good on the track but tended to hop round poorly surfaced road corners, whereas mine gave better performance on the road. So it more depends on what use the car will get, I'd say.
Paul Hunt

I took the Spax telescopics that came with my V8 off after the second set failed (which needed to be on their softest setting or they were awful), and put lever-arms back on. Reconditioned they are only as good as the returned unit from the PO, but they are cheap enough if you get a premature failure. With two cars over a total of 46 years and 160k miles I've only had one that fell into that category.

A pal changed from Koni to Gaz which were better, but comparing otherwise very similar roadsters his were good on the track but tended to hop round poorly surfaced road corners, whereas mine gave better performance on the road. So it more depends on what use the car will get, I'd say.
Paul Hunt

Peter Caldwell, at WWW advanced auto, rebuilds Armstrong dampers to better than new condition. He installs seals at the pivot points, something that new Armstrong dampers don't come with. He can set them up with an adjustable valve so that you can have the best of all worlds. His prices are also very reasonable. RAY
rjm RAY

It's generally accepted that MGB's handle better, and are more comfortable in the process, quite stiff at the front and softish at the rear. A condition which favours mild understeer.

By the way what has happened to the format of these pages? It's rubbish.
75^110:3:26^36:5:28^15:1:3^18:0:2^127:1:5^5:0:1

Format of these pages? As far as I'm aware they haven't changed for years.

But a by-line of "75^110:3:26^36:5:28^15:1:3^18:0:2^127:1:5^5:0:1, arial small, threadlist" makes me think it is your configuration that is awry somewhere.
Paul Hunt

i have GAZ on both front and rear (72 GT). the car handles well and is not over-stiff , but i have little to compare it to as my old armstrongs were leaking and my rear springs (replaced by parabolics) were sagging....
G
Graham Moore

Graham,
You have parabolic which are far more compliant than multi-leaf springs due to the absence of inter-leaf friction.
The trouble with Spax in particular, is that they don't seem to "tuned" to our cars (with the possible exception of the RV8).
With small deflections they have too much resistance to movement and instead of merely damping out oscillations they prevent the spring being compliant. Spax are also flaming noisy!!
Allan Reeling

This thread was discussed between 07/11/2015 and 09/11/2015

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