MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGF Technical - shock absorber mount... broken solders

AGAIN, AGAIN and AGAIN... I have another F%#*$NG problem with my MGF-CUP... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!

Lets have a look at the picture shown here : http://www.forumtuning.com/viewtopic.php?t=1266

Then... take care about yours !

In fact, the "CUP" shock absorbers are too rigids and my mount is totally destroyed

If you have any solutions... you're welcome !
Arnaud

Hi Arnaud,
this is a known problem (despite being sometimes denied on this forum ;o) There are re-inforcement brackets that fits but IMO one can also drill and spotweld DIY-brackets or just drill tiny holes and then spot-weld in those holes to get a proper junction. As on your photo it seems that only the lower weld has taken the load.... I thought that all cup-cars had real re-inforcements at these 4 pickup points ?? It is a tough place to reach, if welded take care to disconnect battery and MEMS connections !

BR, Carl.
Carl Blom

Yep, been discussed on here many a time. It appears that some shock mountings are stronger than others though so not everyone with uprated shocks will experience this.

I think, after 90,000 miles, mine are starting to go, the car felt a bit loose on the rear last night and when i got home i opened the boot and bounced the rear a bit - there is a teltale 'squeek' coming from the rear righthand side shock mounting so i think it's finally let go.

Ho hum, another job to add to the list for January (5 year service and clutch).

SF
Scarlet Fever

Just for the record, I've had the Cup Car re-inforcement brackets welded around my rear shock mountings. They are pretty hefty and the engine had to be totally removed to do this work. My understanding was that these brackets were a standard modification to all Cup Cars.

Here's why I had to go to these lengths on my road car.

The right hand rear mounting area developed a rattle/squeak. It sounded as if a cable (e.g the bonnet release cable) was hitting the bodywork when you went over a bump. In fact it was a crack in the bodywork squeaking, which could be reproduced, if I jumped up and down on the driver's door sill - an interesting sight!

The cracks were not actually in the shock mounting as on Arnaud's pictures, but above the mount in the side of the body. These cracks were welded several times, but over time they broke open again. After three attempts we gave up and went for the Cup Car bracket fix.

I have just thrown a couple of pics of the cup car mounts up at http://www.mgs-on-track.com/index.php?pg=101 if anyone is interested.

Roy Ford at TechSpeed Motorsport had never seen a failure like mine on any road car. Now, Roy was the MGR competitions manager for the MGF Cup cars back when the first batch went to Japan and France and he's seen a lot of MGFs since! TechSpeed have also fitted their Bilsteins to a lot of MGFs other than mine, without any problems.

The conclusion was that my car simply had a weakness in that area of the bodywork. The sheet metal is not exactly thick and if you've ever done a tour of the Mayflower factory and seen how all the bodies are spot welded, old-style, by hand, then this is perhaps not too remote a possibility.

Of course, my car has been thrown around a lot of bends rather quickly on various tracks around the country and this could have had some bearing on the matter :-)

Dave Livingstone

Oh for Pete's sake. I have the bilsteins and have a rattle on the left rear and a bloody annoying squeek on the right side.

Will have to go and look.
S Laithwaite

Thanks for the pictures.
My car is a "french cup", which is totally different from the UK cup cars. (first difference : it's road legal !)
Arnaud

Arnaud,

>>My car is a "french cup", which is totally different from the UK cup cars.

Yes, I appreciate that. You may want to talk to Roy Ford at TechSpeed to find out more - he was involved with the cup cars for France (and Japan).
Dave Livingstone

This thread was discussed on 05/12/2003

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG MGF Technical BBS now