You can adjust the position of the axle on the leaf spring slightly but
enough to make a difference. The bump stop brackets that also slide under
the u of the ubolts can be rotated around the axle giving a bit of axle
movement relative to the spring. Give everything another look to make sure
it looks the same on both sides. A front end that was aligned for a certain
ride hight in the back will have to be realigned for a new ride hight in the
back which you now have thanks to new springs. When you do the rear leaf
springs you should tighten the ubolts with the wheels on the ground. This
allows the rear end to settle into place. Since you have a shimmy, check
that all of the bolts are tight. Replace the A-arms on the other side before
doing an alignment or racking your brain about the shimmy.
Chris Reichle
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From: mgs-owner
To: mgs
Subject: Leaf Springs and Steering Geometry?
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 1997 10:58PM
Can changing the rear leaf springs on a 'B' change the front-end
geometry?
Here's how it happened. Last week, I replaced the A-arms on the
left side (Ran out of time before doing the right side.) The holes
were pretty ovaled out, and replacing the arms did wonders in
reducing my 65 mph shimmy.
Then a few days ago, I replaced the sagging rear leaf springs with
the seven-leaf units. Everything was well until I drove the car and
realized that most of the shimmy had come back. In addition, the
steering wheel is now cocked about fifteen degrees to the left when
the car is traveling straight forward. The car doesn't pull to
either side, and didn't pull prior to the control-arm swap, but this
has me puzzled. Could changing the rear leaf springs have affected
the front end this way? I'm going to put on the new right-side
control arms tomorrow and see what that does, as well as check to see
if anything loosened up on the left side, but I'd like to have some
idea of things to check prior to getting started.
Could I have mis-installed the leaf springs? There doesn't seem to
be any adjustable parts back there, and everything lined up and
bolted up pretty well.
Scott Gardner
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