On Fri, 20 Jun 1997 22:28:18 +0000 Dave Houser <mgs4dave@warwick.net>
writes:
>With all this seat belt talk hitting our group, here's a warning to
>heed:
>
>Put in a good set of shoulder belts in my 64B a few years back. No
>problems. Fast forward to about a month ago and while turning into a
>hard left hand turn that previously presented no problems, I hear and
>feel this god-awful screeching-tearing-grating noise from the back
>end.
>Thinking that my wheel was coming off the axle, I of course stopped to
>examine what the hell happened. Looked under couldn't see a thing that
>was hanging off, so I continued home.
>Took it out again today for a run into town and damn if another hard
>left-handed turn didn't set my molars grating with the noise again.
>Okay, now I get serious. Get home, jack up the rear, crawl under and
>for
>those who have been here, you already knew that I saw a bright groove
>beginning on the back end of my driveshaft. The cause was the driver's
>side seat belt anchor bolt hitting the driveshaft! The end was about
>1/4" away from the shaft at rest but apparently there's a lot of side
>to
>side play at the rear especially under hard turns.
>I cut off the offending end so there is about 1" clearance on both
>sides
>now. I'm really thinking about going for the Koni/Spax rear conversion
>to stiffen the back and prevent all that motion. I've got new springs
>and shocks about two years back.Any thoughts on keeping the rear from
>moving?
>
>Cheers,
>Dave Houser
>
Dave,
The tubular shock conversions wont have any effect on the lateral
location of the axle. The tube shocks simply will not stiffen the rear
end from side-to-side at all, if any. To more positively locate the rear
axle would take the installation of a panhard rod or a watts-linkage.
Both of which involve a bit of thought, design and installation pains.
I don't know of anyone who offers a Panhard rod kit for a B, but some
of the vintage racers may know of someone who does.
Rick Morrison
72 MGBGT
74 Midget
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