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MG TD TF 1500 - Spontaneous disassembly of A-arm

I must be a fairly insensitive person. Did a 120 miles stint last week, and I thought the TF was behaving a bit less than perfect, with a tendency of a front wheel shimmy and generally unpleasantly bouncy left front wheel. Cruising at 50-55 mph.

Jacked up the car today only to find that the front bolts (of the four) keeping the A-arm inner connecting tube to the transverse frame member) had lost their nuts and the rear ones were very slack, som that the A-arm was suspende in air up front. (Photo)

Really scary that this could happen without creating more alarming signals. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

regards

Jan

Jan Kristoffersen

I have seen the spring pan bolts holding the A-arms on shear off. Luckily it was on someone else's car and only at low speed taking a corner. The diagnosis showed the problem was due to the owner having used hardware store grade 2 bolts which couldn't bear up under the stresses on the suspension.
Lew Palmer

yes,I will buy some proper quality bolts for sure!
Jan Kristoffersen



Yikes, Jan!

Thanks for the heads-up alert! I'll be checking right away. Most importantly, you found out before something serious occurred!

Safety Fast,

Jerry

Jerry Chandler 1951 TD

Sheared bolts happened on my TR-4 and it is VERY distressing even at a fairly low speed. I have a concern about at least one bold installed by the PO on the TD and want to replace them all. Moss? LBC? Some other source of quality strong nots and bolts?

Thanks.

Jud
J K Chapin

I have ordered eight new ones from Brown and Gammons.
Same parts no as bolts for MGA brake drums. Hopefully strong stuff. They come with Simmonds nuts.

Regards,

Jan
Jan Kristoffersen

I had the same thing happen on my TD a couple years ago. First drive in the spring slowly around the neighborhood when the front left side let go bending up the fender and bending the shock arms. Body shop took care of the fender and I straightened out the shock arms. Replaced the bolts with a grade 8 variety. I now crawl areound underneith each spring.
Bob McLeod TD 5618

correction; the B&G bolts are for MGA brake disc mounting. BOB; your story tells me I am lucky that only two out of four nuts fell off their bolts!


regards,

Jan
Jan Kristoffersen

Jan,

Did you have spring washers under the nuts?

All,

Can anybody explain why in the workshop manual it specifies the following for these bolts (page K6).

"The two rear inner bolts have their nuts uppermost and the six other bolts have their nuts below."

The only reason I can think of is for ease of access.



John

52 TD
J Scragg

The remaining nuts has spring washers. But they were all a bit loose and have been retightened, waiting for a full set of new bolts and Nyloc nuts. Probably an access issue with one bolt pointing upwards.
Jan Kristoffersen

I was just reading this post and was reminded that I watched Rick Smith point out to an owner that he had Grade 2 bolts and should upgrade them. This was at the Safety Inspection at the GoF in Oneonta last week. I hope that owner has read this post and seen Lew Palmer's post above.
Mort
Mort Resnicoff (50 TD-Mobius)

These are the nuts and bolts I got from B&G yesterday for assembly of A arms to frame traverse bridge. Seems to be the right stuff. Locking nuts. Should I still use spring washers?

Regards,

Jan

Jan Kristoffersen

I once saw something similar when a friends TF front shock absorber came off the chassis rail and the front wheel adopted a drunken lean. We repaired it using some of the front guard bolts to get home.

Matthew
M Magilton

Hello,

The saga continues. The new bolts from Brown and Gammons are just a bit too large for the holes in the A-arm/traverse bridge. The old bolts are 5/16 thick, he new ones are 3/8 inch thick. The old ones are a bit sloppy in the holes, but the new ones will definetely not enter the holes in the traverse.

Advice please!

Thank you,

Jan
Jan Kristoffersen

This thread was discussed between 10/09/2013 and 20/09/2013

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