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 TD TF 1500 - Andrex shocks

I am in the process of rebuilding the andrex shocks on my TD/C. 2 of the 4 shafts are bad so I am planning to go to a local machine shop and have new ones fabricated. If anyone is interested, it might save some money if I can order a larger batch.
J Cosin

Have you ever looked at SKF Speedi Sleeves for shaft repair? It would be a hell of a lot cheaper than having new shafts made. Then ream the bore to accept the sleeve and fit a modern lip seals.
http://www.skf.com/uk/products/New-Market-Offers/SKF-SPEEDI-SLEEVE-new-generation.html

Regards
Declan
D Burns

I would check with Peter at "World Wide Auto Parts" in Madison Wisconsin for the cost of rebuilding them. He is the best one I know of to rebuild shocks, his prices are fair and turn around time is fairly quick. They come back better than new and probably cost less than a machine shop charges. PJ
Paul161

Peter hates to do them, as they are always badly corroded internally, leak, very few parts are available and the action is just not reliable. He has declined to do them in the past...

To me, Andrex shocks are for show, not for go. The internal structure is frail and prone to self-destruct, and they cost an arm and a leg to rebuild with new parts - for little gain. The parts now available are not right, especially the wood discs - they are of very wrong wood type. And the original-type seal has to be replaced with something looking entirely different, which probably won't seal anyway. The shocks build up so much internal pressure that they all leak, even with the original-weight oil, which itself is very hard to locate.

I found an NOS set of Andrex shocks at a dealer once and quickly put it on a car after changing the oil; I noticed very little - if any - difference in the handling - a bit less roll. The splines on the shafts are too thin to really work - I stripped a splined shaft by driving the car in a spirited manner in cold weather, when the internal drag was simply too great - both a steel plate and the shaft were stripped.

So I just clean them up and put them back on the car, and know that I have a genuine Mark II with original Andrex shocks. Use poly bushings, make sure everything is tight and working right, add a sway bar and have Peter stiffen up the original shock valves, and your handling will already be 30% better than most!

That's my experience.

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Hi
i am just also restoring an MG TD/C and started already manufacturing andrex shocks.
So we made forms for the housing and casted already some
aluminium housings (see pic/ first try, needs still a lot of mechanical work)
I also made 3d scans of the original arms and 3d printing (+volume for shrinking) for an ductile graphite iron. Also I have adresses for manufacturing the rest.
This is the state of project andrex. I stopped it a little bit, because the project is bigger than I realised at the beginning and I want to finish the car itself.
the andrex you can add on at last..

so when you want to start a jount venture.. just mail me

for tom lange
the function of the andrex is ( when you believe the literature) is quite interesting, because it is something between stabiliser and damper, especially for low frequencies.

michael

MT Trykowski

I agree with Tom Lange. I had them on my TD front and rear when I was racing it. I found that when they were tighten down, the car tended to lose grip. The MG did stay flat in the corners, but a lot of rubber was left on the track. The grip improved as they were loosened off, but there was a lot of body roll. By the time I was comfortable with the handling, there was very little action from the Andrex shocks. I think a front roll bar would be a better addition than the Andrex.

George
George Raham

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I am actually not looking for much function out of the shocks. Unfortunately, two of my shafts are sufficiently damaged that they can't be used at all so I need new shafts just to reassemble. Still waiting on the quote, I'll let everyone know what the $$ damage is.
J Cosin

Update on this in case anyone's interested. Working w/ a local machine shop, we've come up with a cheaper solution. By replacing the splines on the andrex shafts with a keyway and replacing the two splined discs with new ones w/ tabs to fit the keyway we reduced the cost of replacing bad innards. The modifications also involve using a taper fit to the arms so these need to be slightly modified. The cost is $116/shock not including tapering the arms (~$17 per). However, if there are at least 2 additional folks interested (assuming 4 shocks per individual), the price plummets to $68/shock (plus $12 per arm to taper) which I think is very reasonable. If even more are interested, the price might well go even lower. Let me know. jcosin01 at gmail dot com
J Cosin

This thread was discussed between 27/11/2015 and 08/02/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG TD TF 1500 BBS now