This is in reply to the question by Dan Hobbs regarding re-bushing the MGB
suspension. I just completed doing this to my '79 "B" and the following
procedure worked for me:
1. Jack front of car and place on jack stands. Lift car such that spring
pan is at least 18" off the ground.
2. Remove road wheels
3. Place floor jack under spring pan such that the "cup" on the jack is
under the "doughnut" shaped part of the spring pan. Lift suspension, with
floor jack, until car just starts to lift off jack stand. When placing
floor jack under suspension, have the jack handle exiting under the front
bumper.
4. With suspension now supported by floor jack, remove bolt, with nut and
washer, holding left damper arm to damper. Remove clamp bolt in middle of
two damper arms. Remove upper fulcrum pin cotter pin and castle nut and
remove pin. This may be stuck and need to be driven out. At this point the
road spring is free to be released.
5. Support axel assembly with a "bungee" tie down strap. I used one
connected to front bumper mount, passing under road wheel mounting flange,
and the other end hooked over the horizontal shaft passing through the damper.
6. Now move to the front of the car and s-l-o-w-l-y start to lower floow
jack. This will release the road spring pressure and when the floor jack
has been fully lowered you'll be able to remove the road spring. While you
have it out of the car would be a good time to check it's "free" length. On
the rubber bumper roadsters this should be 10.2 (+ - 0.060) inches.
7. With road spring removed you can now proceed to remove the lower pivot
bolt and distance piece. You may find that the distance piece has welded
itself to the bolt and the only way to remove it will be with heat and
pressure. I had to do this on one of mine and this is a common problem.
8. Continue with dissambly of the remander of the suspension and replace
all bushings. I would recommend using the "V8" bushings.
9. Re-assemble in the reverse order and when you get to the point of
re-compressing the road spring, just place it in position and compress it
with the floor jack. When re-assembling the upper and lower pivot bolts put
a little "anti-seize" on them to make the next guys job a little easier.
Also check that the 3 grease fittings are free of old grease by pumping in
new grease while you have the suspension apart.
Hope this helps and just remember to be very careful when lowering and
raising the road spring. There is a lot of energy stored in it and caution
is the word of the day!!
Regards, Orin Harding
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