On the B, the lever shock serves as the upper suspension arm. If you
removed it, you would have to replace it with something else. This would
probably affect the cost effectiveness of the conversion considerably.
Plus, why bother?
Addendum: I am reminded that there are kits which replace the lever shock
and coil spring with a wishbone and coilover shock. While this may be in
fact superior from an engineering point of view, it is a good example of
what I meant about the cost.
For example, when I bought my B it had 4 very sick lever shocks. For less
than the cost of two replacement lever shocks, I installed a 4-wheel tube
shock kit, with shocks, and replaced the front suspension bushings while
I was at it. So my decision was primarily driven by economics. If you
price the coilover front shock kits, you will see that you are paying the
sort of premium associated with high-performance modifications. That's
fine, but if that had been my only option at the time, I would have stuck
with the lever shocks, at least on the front.
On the other hand, the maker of the tube shock kit I installed is
apparently no longer in business, and I am not sure if that solution (the
cheap alternative) is even available anymore. So perhaps the point is
moot.
Ajhsys@aol.com had this to say:
>Just a question. I am not doing a tube shock replacement on my Midget, but
>why wouldn't you remove the lever shox altogether? Wouldn't that reduce the
>weight considerably? Are the lever shox required for some kind of support?
>
>I'm just curious.
>
>Allen Hefner
>SCCA Philly Region Rally Steward
>'77 Midget
>'92 Mitsubishi Expo LRV Sport
>
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>In a message dated 4/10/00 5:39:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>mvheim@studiolimage.com writes:
>
><< Um, did you read the instructions that came with the tube shock setup?
> You are supposed to remove the valves from the lever shocks, thus totally
> disabling them (making their condition irrelevant). This will be a lot
> simpler than removing all that hardware...
>
> Cheers,
> Max
>
> Jon Lind had this to say:
>
> >I have a front tube shock conversion kit for sale. I bought it from Steve
> >Darby off this list. I'm getting rid of it because, apparently, there's
> >more life in my right front stock shock than my left. As a result, with
>the
> >tube shocks on, damping on the left is about right but it's way too tight
>on
> >the right. Instead of trying to figure out how to "equally disable" the
> >right and left girlings, I'm just going to go back to using the stock
>setup.
> > I'll also throw in the cheap $15 each shocks that I bought for it. >>
>
>
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the red one with the silver bootlid.
|