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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Oiling new leaf springs. Good/Bad idea?

I'm putting new 1/4 eliptical leaf springs in my Frog but wonder do people oil them nowadays? I expect most put them on dry these days but years ago it was standard practice to oil and bind to keep them lubricated and keep dirt out.

Anyone got preferences or strong feelings either way?

Rob
Rob aka MG Moneypit

If they are interleaved then no, they don't need oiling but wrapping them in something like Petrotape will keep the dirt and moisture out of them.
Chris at Octarine Services

I spray wd40 on them from time to time just to keep the outsides clean. But it's not really needed.
Lawrence Slater

two sets of 1/4 elliptics.(Sebring rep & Frogeye. I take them apart and moly grease leaves.
Alan
Alan Anstead

Not sure I would go as far as dismantling the springs to grease them!

How about dunking in a bath of used rear axle oil?

I seem to accumulate a few plastic bottles full of the stuff which hangs around the garage until I can get time to go to the oil disposal point at the local dump.

Rob
Rob aka MG Moneypit

Or make some leather sleeve gaiters with elasticated ends - it only takes 1/2 hr once you've made a pattern.
Fergus

I do the same as Alan and stripped them but used clean engine oil to lubricate. Annually I brush them with oil as part of the service.
Bob Beaumont

As Chris said, the later BL ones were interleaved with a thin plastic/nylon sheet to allow independent movement, these lasted many years without further protection from dirt and rain.
David Smith

Did my rears recently. Sprayed them with Dinitrol - the waxy nature of which also acts as a lubricant as well as a water repellant.
Mark O

Echoing David above, when I rebuilt a broken half-elliptic a while back, I used that Teflon strip stuff between the leaves. It was interesting to note that the earlier (1275) springs I used as donors were fitted with those liners from new, but my 1500 springs weren't.

All of this to say that I'd much prefer the dry (Teflon) method to oil or grease, which would retain road grit and become abrasive without some sort of wrapping.

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

Echoing David above, when I rebuilt a broken half-elliptic a while back, I used that Teflon strip stuff between the leaves. It was interesting to note that the earlier (1275) springs I used as donors were fitted with those liners from new, but my 1500 springs weren't.

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

I 'oiled' my rear springs early this year - it transformed the ride, my springs were new in 198 something, and been standing in a garage ever since, they have the plastic interleave.

I used 3in1 silicon spray, as I seem to remember oiling nylon lined accelerator cables buggers them up
Malc Gilliver

This thread was discussed between 26/01/2014 and 27/01/2014

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