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MG MGA - Suspension clonk

Earlier in the year, I rebuilt the front suspension with new rubber seals thrust washers and shock absorbers.

Since reassembly I have a clonk on the nearside which sounds like the spring is not seating properly. This is audible when going over bumps and if I push (bounce) hard enough on the front n/s wing I can also hear it.

I have stripped and reassembled the suspension again, and the noise is still there, the spring appears to be correctly seated, so any suggestions?
John Bray

John, the ends of the springs are ground to a flat profile, whereas the spring cups are bowl shaped. I always thought that was not good. Maybe the spring is shifting around trying to find a sweet spot to rest.
You could grind off the sharp edges and/or grease up the cups.
Art Pearse

Check your shock...sounds as if it's not working.
Gene Gillam

Art,
I think you may be right, in the past I have heard the spring find its natural home with quite a loud thud as it does so. Although this time its not finding that spot very quickly.

Gene,
The new shocks are one of the items that I have changed so it is possible, I have a spare set somewhere so may swap them over.

Regards...John

John Bray

Also check to see if your shock mounts are tight. There have been a few threads on another forum discussing stripped threads on mounting plate requiring replacing the plate or heli-coils.
Larry Wheeler

Larry beat me to it.

I wound up replacing one mounting plate on both my frame, and my brother's. In both cases, the shocks showed signs of prior removal. My fronts were identified by Peter C. as being replacements from the mid 1960s, and the shock with the loose frame threads on my brother's had been attached by bolts, and not the original studs.

As I said on the other forum, the failure mode seems to be that the shocks are removed for whatever reason, and at some point the fasteners loosen, and begin to wear out the threads in the frame. In the case of my car, that led to a catastrophic suspension collapse while my father was driving, which luckily did not lead to injury or further damage.

When Peter returned my shocks after overhauling them, he included a set of special wedge lock washers which will hopefully prevent a recurrence. More detailed information of the repair process with pictures can be seen here:

http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?2,2021722

Usually these fasteners are fairly trouble free, but since yours have been apart, I would follow Larry's advice and double check them for tightness.

-Del
D Rawlins

Try also the top bushes. If the right amount and type of washers/spacers are not used then the top knuckle can still move slightly back and forth. I found this after a suspension rebuild. Luckily I still had not thrown out the old spacers and found the new ones where different. Swapping them for more similar ones did the trick.

Neil
Neil Purves

I had the same problem. I had all my shocks rebuilt so I assumed it couldn't be that. Wrong. One of the front shocks was DOA - I just didn't know it. A mechanic caught it at a club spring tune up. Replaced one from World Wide. Problem gone.
Live and learn.
Lmazoway

This thread was discussed between 28/10/2014 and 09/11/2014

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