Werner,
I will offer advice with my limited experience here. I had the same
situation with the rear axle on my 1967 +4, although my rear end extended
about the same distance further on the right side. One thing is don't
measure to a fender or to any body part since that can vary a bit due to
where it is clamped to the chassis. Measure from the axle to the chassis
frame.
There is no way to shift the rear axle assembly over by loosing the U-clamps
since the springs fit into notches in the rear end. So the only thing you
can do is to check the location of the spring mounting points with respect
to the chassis. If these are different from side to side you could possibly
shim them with washers to one side or the other. I had my car totally apart
last winter and one of the things I noticed was a side-to-side bow in my
leaf springs. So I replaced them and when I reinstalled I tried to make sure
that the distances from each spring to the chassis were as close to the same
as I could get them. The end result was that I improved the offset, but I
didn't totally eliminate it. This did not appear to cause any handling
problems in my car and the reason I went to this trouble was that I had the
rear end out of the car anyway.
On the front end, I would again make sure that you are measuring to the
chassis and not to a fender. If you still see a difference then I would
guess that the spring stiffness from left to right is not identical, or that
the front assembly is not bolted up to the chassis the same on each side.
However beware since these are just educated guesses and I don't really have
much experience with adjusting the front ends on these cars.
Regards,
Phil Roettjer
67 +4
67 MGB
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Werner Pels [SMTP:wernerpels@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 3:29 PM
> To: Morgans@Autox. Team. Net
> Subject: Body/rear axle alignment - 70 Plus 8
>
> In my never-ending quest to find potential sources of my occasionally
> violent left front wheel hop (exacerbated by flat spot, but clearly
> incipient), I've been looking at various aspects of body geometry.
>
> 1. What I see is that the left front side of the car is about 1 1/2 "
> higher
> (at various measurement points) off the ground than the right. Is that a
> clue?
>
> 2. I also note that the body sits on the rear axle such that the axle is
> about 1/2-3/4" further to the left (looking forward) than it should be.
> That
> may not have anything to do with the front wheel hop, but it can't be good
> -
> and it probably also explains my worrisome tailpipe clearance at the
> inside
> of the right wheel.
>
> I have no idea what to do about #1 above, but I'll try to remedy #2. The
> body seems slung on the rear axle by a couple of U-bolts incorporating the
> springs on either side. If I jack the rear up to relieve the weight on the
> leaf springs, is it possible to loosen those U-bolts and somehow nudge the
> body over to the right (or the axle to the left)?
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Werner Pels
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