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MG MGA - Frozen Rebound Straps

Hey Fellows, I am in the process of removing the rear end. To my dismay I have found that the rebound sraps have thier sleeves rusted to the studs that hold them. I currently have penitrating oil on them in hopes of freeing them. Are there better ideas out there? Thanks again, Tom
Thomas McNamara

It is probaby easier to cut them off and replace them with new ones. They are readily available through Moss Motors and aren't that expensive (about $10 each.)

Good luck,
Don Carlberg
Don Carlberg

They're toast anyway, just make sure you destroy the strap and not the stud on the axle. Once you have removed (cut away) the strap you should be able to free the sleeve and washer by rotating with a hammer and chisel. You can use heat if necessary to remove the nut or this is one of the few occasions that the "nut splitter" comes into its' own.
Neil McGurk

Is it possible to fit new rebound straps to the body if the body is attached to the frame. It looks like a very questionable fit. Have a good day!

John
John Progess

HOLY COW! I finally got the darn sleeves off. I first had to cut away what was left of the rubber from the sleeves. After a lot of trail and error, I was able to spin them with a small pipe wrench. Once they were turning I worked a little penitrating oil in from a spray can. What a bothersome chore!

Next question; it appears that if I tighten the nuts when installing the new strape that the nut/washer will "sqeeze" the new sleeves, locking them in place. Should I use a nylock to allow some rotation? Thanks again, Tom

(There is just enough clearance to allow the P/S sleeve to clear the bolt/stud).
Thomas McNamara

Tom-
Patience! It took 50 years for those things to get stuck on there, a couple of days of soaking to get them apart can save a lot of hard work later. Liberal use of anti-seize when assembling will prevent it from ever being a problem again.

"nut/washer will "squeeze" the new sleeves, locking them in place"
It's supposed to do that. The purpose of the sleeve is to give the nut something to tighten against, without squashing the rubber - it's a removable shoulder.

There have been a number of threads lately on this and other boards, indicating that people do not understand that shaft shoulders and distance tubes are there for a reason, the length is critical and always relative to the mounted part, and the nuts get tightened.
Failure to understand this and assemble accordingly results in parts falling off and the destruction of all of the parts involved. Recent threads on spring eye bushes, front suspension parts, etc. scare me a bit, as there are some serious consequences, both long and short term. In service work, one of the horrors always was a loose bolt variably loaded, generally through thin ears of some sort. The front bush of the rear spring is a good example: it eats the bolt and may shear it, but it also tears up the ears welded to the frame - a five minute bolt R&R turns into many hours of finicky repair of frame rails etc. If the factory supplied split spring washers, split pins, or no locking device you can be sure the nut gets tightened down against some positive stop. There are a very few cases where split pins are used to locate things with an otherwise "loose" nut, like front tapered wheel bearings - but you won't find any such on MG, they being of the old school - <<<Loose parts always fail eventually>>>. Using Nyloc nuts as floating locators is bad practice; in the rare cases when such a thing is needed, you will find a pair of jam nuts. Note that this effectively means the nuts are using each other for the positive stop, and the nuts are still tight.

FRM
FR Millmore

Tom, I found out the hard way that there are two lengths of straps in the market place. Could be that the shorter length one is ment for another model, there is not much in it. The short one will break again. Ask me how I know Sean
S Sherry

John -- fitting new straps. Answer is yes. Done it.
David
D C GRAHAME

After reading this thread, I went home to look at my new rebound straps, there are no distance tubes/sleeves in them. I checked 2 sets of new straps. The mounting studs on my frame seems to have a shoulder for the washer to tighten against. Maybe this "shoulder" is a weld-rusted sleeve from previous rebound rubber, but it seems strange that the new straps don't have any sleeve.
My car is a late-production 1500.

George
G Goeppner

Hey George and others, the bolts or studs that the straps mount to definatly have a shoulder. The new straps, recently purchased, definatly have a tube like distance piece. It is just a little bit longer, perhaps 1/64th inch, than the shoulder on the bolt.

Is the new distance tube too long?

I am thinking that the original design would allow the two to move a bit as the suspension moves. If not, why not a regular threaded bolt as a mounting point? The distance tube in the rubber straps would disallow over tightening and crushing the rubber itself.

Your thoughts? Regards, Tom TC2850
Thomas McNamara

This thread was discussed between 24/10/2009 and 27/10/2009

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