> Is it <easily> possible to lower a late model MG back to the
> ride height that the designers originally intended?
Rick:
It is not easy, or IMHO recomended to lower the rubber bumper car
down to the original height of the chrome bumper car for the following
reasons.
The front crossmember has an approx. 1" raised pad section courtesy
of the MGB V8. The steering rack is relocated on the later crossmember
requiring fabrication or steering shaft modification to adapt the earlier
crossmember.
At the rear of the car the spring mounting points are extended, as
are the bump stop mounts.
The upshot is that using lowered springs and mounting blocks to
lower the car to chrome bumper height will reduce the suspension travel to
less than that of the chrome bumper car.
This results in problems with bump steer, excessive camber and a
tendency for the car to bottom out on rough roads. These are not qualities
that the chrome bumper car exhibits!
The other down side is that the chrome bumper cars have a tendency
to drag the exhaust going over speed bumps, which has never been positive
experience.
My suggestion for an easy job is to lower the car to within 1" of
chrome bumper spec. This gives the same suspension travel as the original
car and still looks bags better than the original ride height.
Re-arched rear springs & 1" lowered fronts would be one way to go.
Another would be a set of used MGB GT chrome bumper springs which should (me
thinks) give you enough spring rate for the weight of the bumpers.
I'm going to be doing this same job on my 79B acquisition and I
should be able to give an objective comparison as one of my co-workers is
going to drop his 77B down to chrome bumper height using rear spacers and 2"
lowered front springs.
The correct way to lower the car to chrome bumper height is to use
the early front crossmember, which does require steering column
modifications. The rear axle mounts must be relocated, or the spring eyes
reversed. The rear bump stop assembly must be relocated, which requires
major surgery. The rear sway bar mounting locations must also be relocated
if the original bar is to be used. I've seen this work done, but do not
recomend it unless you have nothing better to do with life.
If you are serious about handling the first thing to do would be to
remove the giant barbells off each end of the car. My suggestion there is
to replace the heavy crash beams with light weight tubular armatures. The
rubber bumpers do work really well in these days of bumper car parking for a
daily driver. The rear one is also a great place to set your coffee cup
when you are putting your briefcase in the trunk. But these are heretical
statements to much of the MG crowd.
Good luck.
Kelvin Dodd.
Ventura, CA
Ugly brown 79 MGB in the driveway.
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