Been there done that... The thump could be you bottoming out on the bump
stop. You have reduced travel as a result of the shorter springs. To get
that back you can purchase shorter bump stops. Making your shocks a litle
stiffer might help too. Make sure that all the bolts are tight. When you do
that much work at once things can losen up on you as new parts break in ie
bushes, lockwashers compress etc. The next thing I would look at are the
rubber pads that go between the crossmember assembly and frame where those 4
huge bolts are. Mine rotted and fell out allowing the crossmember to rock on
the remaining rubber pads. Gave a nice thump sound when I steped on the
brake, went over bumps. When do you hear/feel this thump. Are you going over
a bump, pothole, dip in the road? At what speed? What else do you not like
about the front end? Some of these unfavorable characteristics may help us
diagnose the bigger problem.
Chris Reichle
creichle@nsc.msmail.miami.edu
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From: mgs-owner
To: mg list
Subject: MGB Front supension mods.
Date: Thursday, September 18, 1997 8:30PM
I have a '77 rubber bumper B. I've rebuilt the entire front
suspension including new rack & pinion unit, polyurethene A-arm
bushings, new lower A-arms, along with new swivel hubs, kingpins,
bearings etc. In other words, the whole lot.
The car drove and handled much better then when bought from
the PO. (It was so bad that the steering wheel would not come
back to center during a turn: seized distance tube/kingpins).
With the rebuilt front end as a baseline I decided to lower the
front by a spring change (#480 rate) and install a Spax shock
kit at the same time.
Now that all the changes are done, I'm not that happy with the
overall performance. My main problem is that there is a 'thump'
that I can hear (slightly) and feel through the steering wheel. It
seems to occur mostly on the down-stroke of the suspension.
The lowered coil springs introduces a lot of negative camber
onto the spindles/wheels/tires. How bad is this on the kingpin
bushs and other stressed components? I'm not worried about
tire wear.
Has anyone else been this route and had the same problem?
My goal is to prep the car for DSP class auto_x. Right now I'm
running HS class, but would like to lower the car to c/b height
which makes it 'not stock anymore'.
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