Tube Shocks Are A Bad Idea

Spax Shox don't work on MG's

Spax Shocks don't work on MG's

This spring we’ve had  a couple of MG’s come in that  rode like buckboards, and this has been directly attributable to a tube shock rear conversion.  Great for the vendors but not so great for the ride.  Save this 10/10ths equipment for the race track, otherwise it will ruin your dental work.

Butch has just finished up sorting out the Seattle-area MGB seen here, a nice car which the rough carpenters had got at.  It took him a day and a half just to repair the wiring.  For reasons we don’t understand the turn signals on MGB’s fail when the green feed wire goes open between the fuse panel & the flasher.  In this case the repair was accomplished (?) by taking power off the adjacent 4-way flasher.  Problem solved !

Brake shoes on leading edge up

Wrong

Brake shoes leading edge up

Wrong Again

So what if the turn signals stay on after the ignition is switched off ?  The 4-way flashers were just a redundancy anyway.

However the main event turned out to be a persistent click, click, click coming from the rear of the car when slowly rolling over a rough surface.  This one was a real challenge only to be solved by taking off the Spax Adjustables and driving the car !   Who Woulda’ thunk it ?   With the car sitting on the ground the shocks were already fully extended.  The clicking was the shock piston hitting the top of the chamber when rear spring rebounded.   We installed a pair of rebuilt lever shocks and problem solved.

hole in the floor of an MGB

Bad

torn out spring perch

Badder

In other MGB news we’re also working with another MGB which came in with an overdrive problem, uncertain engagement and a lack of desire to back up.  It’s a late car with the switch wiring in the gear shift knob, a common enough problem so that we keep the switch harness in stock, and the reversing problem was a small glob of sludge trapped in the operating valve.  But coming back from his initial road test Butch reported that the handling was kinda’ squirrely.  Indeed it must have been with the left rear spring perch torn away from the floor.  It’s on the fix-list for today.

energizing a late MGB fuel pump

tap, tap, tap

While still on the subject of MGB’s here’s an intervention with a wider application.  Last Sunday morning, being up early with time on my hands, I hopped in my MGB and noodled down to Hillsdale, New York, near Great Barrington to look in on another MGB that couldn’t be roused from it’s winter hibernation.  I turned on the ignition switch and knew instantly what the problem was; no fuel delivery.

Because it’s a late model car the complete repair was easily effected with just a Phillips Head screw driver.  I opened the trunk, took off the sheet metal guard and with the ignition on gave it a tap with the other end of the screw driver.  Click, click, click and we were off to the races again.

A sludge choked heater valve

Amazing story of the week: no leaks from this MGA heater valve

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