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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Twitchy steering

Question from a Midget newbie, driving along steady speed, lift off accelerator and car twitches, twitches again on accelerating. Checked trunnions and replaced, where to next to replace?
Thanks for any help

David

D G Boyd

Check that the rear axle U bolts are tight.
You have a smart looking car !
GuyW

Yeah, good looking car David and welcome to the BBS
If the U bolts are ok the front eye bushes of the rear springs could be worn out maybe
William Revit

Certainly sounds like the rear axle is moving about more than it should.
Mike Howlett

Thanks Guys, spent the last few months taking bumpers off, welding in patches where side lights had been, filling and sanding and getting the car to look presentable, happy with progress so far but need to sort of the twitch as soon as possible to keep safe.
Will look at the U bolts and the location bushes of the springs as first pointers, thanks for info guys.

David
D G Boyd

Check also on the rubber pads between axle and spring where the U bolts fasten. They do deteriorate with time.
GuyW

Some torque steer is normal in a Midget. (left with throttle down, right if you lift the throttle. Wel known since 1958. If it is excessive it is most likely the back axle or too much toe out in the front. With a Panard rod it stopped on my car (1/4 elliptic springs)

Flip
Flip Brühl

Yes a Panhard rod is a good idea - I made my own. But even without it the car should not twitch that much.

Les
L B Rose

Another vote for rear spring U bolt tightness. But also check track rod ends and front wheel bearings for play too. A loose ish front wheel bearing made mine unsteady on track.
Rob Armstrong

Many years ago I had a set of new leaf springs which had no lateral strength at all which also caused the right/left swerve.
Clive Berry

Hi David,good looking car.
I am a newbie myself with a thread (becoming something of a tome) running for the MX5 5 speed gearbox conversion.
When I drove my 1275 home to Cornwall from Birmingham the first time I reached 50+mph and took my foot off the accelerator I near crapped myself! The "torque" steer was terrible. When I got home and checked it out the next day I found that the rubber shims in the offside axle U bolt were badly worn. Simply tightening it up very well has cured the problem.
Question for others...do you replace these with polyurathene items?
cheers, John
j c macleod

David

Welcome and nice car too!

Have you made sure everything else is as should be, such as tyre pressures, rear brakes not binding, rear brake shoes not caintaminared with oil or worn, and properly adjusted, front brakes working fine (not a sticky caliper) and all the suspension and steering joints and shock absorber mounting bolts ok?

Then feel the outside of the wheel bearings - got a hot one?

Cheers
Mike

M Wood

j c macleod - yes you can get replacement poly pads for the rear axle
C MADGE

I think the clue in this case was strait line left - right twitching with on-off power, almost certainly loose or worn axle pads.
Other suspension and steering faults tend to show up in different ways. That's not to say that they won't need checking for as well as the axle location fault could well be masking all the others!
GuyW

On the subject (I run blue poly pads in mine) I note that there are solid ones available. I haven't yet decided on why these need to be NOT solid (there's a metalasitc bush and some rear shackles in there too)

Rob Armstrong

Rob. Peter May and others have solid pads but check your track regs before buying. Although I doubt whether anyone will ever look, for Roadgoing Production classes, bushes and pads must be rubber or polywhatever, not metal.

My polybushes are red - are the blue ones harder? If so, please can you tell me where you got yours from?

Fortunately twitching hasn't been one of my problems but, from your description David, I would be looking at the rear axle mountings and suspension fittings including shock absorber links and rubber bushings.
C Mee

Hi Colin. I'm well into sports libre so I don't think a set of solid spring pads is going to raise an eyebrow, they might pay more attention to the rear discs and rose jointed rear links!

I bought mine online I think, they are superpro ones with a kangaroo on them
I know they come in different grades but I can't remember which ones are harder; there are black, red, yellow and blue types.

For connection to the original post, I noticed no increase in ride harshness with a poly rear end.
Rob Armstrong

This thread was discussed between 26/11/2018 and 28/11/2018

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