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MG MGB Technical - Veers left

66 BGT. When cruising and entering a left hand bend, the car seems to gently lean right and veer left. It has an uneasy feeling about it. No problem going straight or right bends. Any ideas where to start looking? There is no backlash in the steering.

Richard.
RH Davidson

Check the rear axle u bolts for tightness. If they are loose, they can cause the axle to move about giving the car an out of control feeling. RAY
rjm RAY

Loose U-bolts usually causes rear-wheel steer when pointing straight ahead but coming on or off the throttle. I'd be looking at the dampers, could be one of the rears with different characteristics to the other. BTW leaning right on a left-hand bend is normal for the MGB, and vice-versa, some of the factory publicity phots show alarming amounts of body roll by today's standards.
Paul Hunt

Checked the U-bolts and they were tight. Jacked up the back of the car and found the left rear wheel spokes all lose on the outer half of the hub. Could move the rim in and out and watch the spokes move in and out the hub - scary.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas of the cause? What preventative measures can I take? Are spoked rimes acceptable for aggressive driving?

Richard.
RH Davidson

Richard,

Yeah, I had it happen on a Healey. If the spokes are not in tune, the loose ones don't take the load anymore, and they let the tight ones take all the load. So, fewer spokes take the load and they start popping.

I think good spoke wheels are okay for aggressive driving, but old out of tune ones are not.

Take a lightweight spanner and go tap all the spokes and see how they sound. I bet a bunch of them just make a dull thud when you tap them instead of a nice ring. The ones that ring are taking the load, and the dullards are just along for the ride.

Charley
C R Huff

I've seen people talk about routine retightening of spokes, but in 20 years I have never done this or had any come loose. Break, yes, and that is said to be the chroming process causing hydrogen embrittlement. However I didn't have any spokes break for the first few years on my chrome wires, then the occasional one, increasing to several per year. At that point I had one wheel respoked in stainless as an experiment, and I've had the first breakage on that after just a couple of years! Fortunately I now have a supply of replacement (stainless) spokes and suitable spanner and replacement only takes a few minutes.
Paul Hunt

Richard I have had spokes loosen on A models,B models, C models and the odd triumph and Healy. Tuning them is a developed skill but not that big a deal, the hard part is freeing up 40 years of rust and paint.As I remember Snap.On makes a quality spoke wrench and the better the wrench the easier it is to free up those "tuff" ones. RIC
RIC LLOYD

This thread was discussed between 08/09/2009 and 19/09/2009

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