Hello All, doing my leaf springs along with my suspension rubbers. As original, the leaf springs have six bolts, for 3/8 in some british threading, and two in 1/4 with some british threading. The 1/4 inch bolts on mine were so rusted away that their threads were essentialy gone- when I went to remove them... well, they did not remove so well. For the moment, I replaced the rear leaf spring bolts with a set of four american bolts of appropriate size- fine thread with nylock nuts. Is there any reason why this would not be adequate?
Also, I noticed the lower bracket on both sides was quite deformed, bent really. I figure they are not supposed to be bent, but is this normal? It seems like it was once put on with the force of an incredible mechanic who swore by the german 'gutentight' methodology of attaching parts.
Leaf Springs- Four or six bolts - also spring brackets bent.
- Julian Evers
- Posts: 27
- Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2013 1:55 am
Re: Leaf Springs- Four or six bolts - also spring brackets b
The 2 smaller bolts you refer to are in fact studs in the centre of the spring and do 2 things. The first is to hold the spring together when it is not on the car and the second is to hold the plates with the shock absorber mountings on in the right place. The four larger ones are at the corners of the mounting plates and hold the springs to the axles. Note that the ones at the front have heads extended upwards to the depth of the axle, internally drilled and are joined by a plate just above the axle. These extended bolts and the plate act as "The top of the box" and add rigidity to the front axle mounting. If not used then there will be lateral movement in the front axle/spring set up on cornering, likely to make your journey much more interesting than intended!
Best regards
Julian
TC3382/MG 7305, 130,000 miles together and counting.
Best regards
Julian
TC3382/MG 7305, 130,000 miles together and counting.
Re: Leaf Springs- Four or six bolts - also spring brackets b
I see - I was mostly referring to the rear of the car at the moment, but I would imagine there is not much difference. So, my problem here is that the studs were quite... ah, not exactly studs anymore- and the holes they were drilled into were not exactly 'tapped' anymore either- at least not from my assessment of the situation. Does anyone have a suggestion for how to fix this?
Looking at pictures online, it seems that the getup on the front and rear suspension is very similar. Hopefully the front will be less rusty to work with because I might need to take it apart a bit as well to get to those bushings soon... eek. It seems like the way those little studs add stiffness because they are tapped into some 'meat' in order to prevent wobbling this way and that on the axle - which seems reasonable.
I'm sure someone else has run into this problem before. I'm considering a few ways of going about this. The mounting of the springs on this car is quite odd indeed, it seems like the TD changed this design shortly after - probably (definitely) a cost saving measure, by using U-bolts instead of the odd bracket that the TC used to distance the springs from the axle, though it makes sense that they did it this way to distance the axle from the springs.
Nonetheless, I can imagine that with the amount of forces involved at this part of the car, that the four bolts might possibly rock forward and back if the car was to bounce over something or get cornered hard, and that could cause for a big issue, so I appreciate you telling me this. I'm not exactly a mechanical engineer, so I'd like some folks to chime in about the fixing of this.
My two ideas thus far are this
1- run a tap into the existing 1/4 inch holes - possibly a 5/16 or something slightly larger in order to restore the ability to get a bolt snugged into the tapped holes, and enlarge the holes on the lower plate
2- do the same as above, but replace the lower bracket to acommodate the larger center bolts
3- do the same as number one, with the enlarging of the holes, but install an extra plate below the first plate that is slightly wider to ensure that the enlarged holes provide enough strength.
OR
Barring re-installation of the center taps, I was thinking that I could have a set of four square U-bolts made custom to fit around the rear leaf spring, with a considerable extra length to them, and I could make some blocks that fit into the bracket that drops down from the axle such that the effective area the bolts go through - both on the top and the bottom - is thicker and the ability of these things to wobble is thus quite significantly reduced.
Understanding that there are already holes in the welded bracket dropping down from the axle it seems quite possible that a third bolt could be put between these blocks to hold them tightly to the bracket, making it impossible for this to move.
For ease of understanding, I drew this idea up (poorly!)
Maybe I am over thinking it?
Looking at pictures online, it seems that the getup on the front and rear suspension is very similar. Hopefully the front will be less rusty to work with because I might need to take it apart a bit as well to get to those bushings soon... eek. It seems like the way those little studs add stiffness because they are tapped into some 'meat' in order to prevent wobbling this way and that on the axle - which seems reasonable.
I'm sure someone else has run into this problem before. I'm considering a few ways of going about this. The mounting of the springs on this car is quite odd indeed, it seems like the TD changed this design shortly after - probably (definitely) a cost saving measure, by using U-bolts instead of the odd bracket that the TC used to distance the springs from the axle, though it makes sense that they did it this way to distance the axle from the springs.
Nonetheless, I can imagine that with the amount of forces involved at this part of the car, that the four bolts might possibly rock forward and back if the car was to bounce over something or get cornered hard, and that could cause for a big issue, so I appreciate you telling me this. I'm not exactly a mechanical engineer, so I'd like some folks to chime in about the fixing of this.
My two ideas thus far are this
1- run a tap into the existing 1/4 inch holes - possibly a 5/16 or something slightly larger in order to restore the ability to get a bolt snugged into the tapped holes, and enlarge the holes on the lower plate
2- do the same as above, but replace the lower bracket to acommodate the larger center bolts
3- do the same as number one, with the enlarging of the holes, but install an extra plate below the first plate that is slightly wider to ensure that the enlarged holes provide enough strength.
OR
Barring re-installation of the center taps, I was thinking that I could have a set of four square U-bolts made custom to fit around the rear leaf spring, with a considerable extra length to them, and I could make some blocks that fit into the bracket that drops down from the axle such that the effective area the bolts go through - both on the top and the bottom - is thicker and the ability of these things to wobble is thus quite significantly reduced.
Understanding that there are already holes in the welded bracket dropping down from the axle it seems quite possible that a third bolt could be put between these blocks to hold them tightly to the bracket, making it impossible for this to move.
For ease of understanding, I drew this idea up (poorly!)
Maybe I am over thinking it?
Re: Leaf Springs- Four or six bolts - also spring brackets b
Kam-
I cannot help you with the two locating bolts on each spring mount, as mine were fine, so I would just be speculating. The other 4 bolts get tightened down good and tight. They also get banged up, it seems. To add to Julien's advice above, the typical replacement is with 5/16 bolts of the right length, and double nutted. Jam nuts might be considered if you think the length is an issue (sticking down) when double nutted. Do be sure and use good hardened bolts and nuts, like grade 8, or if using metric, grade 12.9. And whenever something on a TC requires "tight" nuts and bolts, beware of the unknown PO's. Or in this case, check the mounts for any cracks. Bolts like this with leaf springs are sometimes called "spring center bolts" which is some general term, I think, for hardened bolts.
As for overthinking on this general original design, I think the MG engineers already did that, and what they came up with is as good as it gets. The double nut process is: tighten down the nut to how tight you want things, then hold that nut with a wrench so it will not turn, then add the second nut and tighten it down good onto the 1st nut with another wrench.
I cannot help you with the two locating bolts on each spring mount, as mine were fine, so I would just be speculating. The other 4 bolts get tightened down good and tight. They also get banged up, it seems. To add to Julien's advice above, the typical replacement is with 5/16 bolts of the right length, and double nutted. Jam nuts might be considered if you think the length is an issue (sticking down) when double nutted. Do be sure and use good hardened bolts and nuts, like grade 8, or if using metric, grade 12.9. And whenever something on a TC requires "tight" nuts and bolts, beware of the unknown PO's. Or in this case, check the mounts for any cracks. Bolts like this with leaf springs are sometimes called "spring center bolts" which is some general term, I think, for hardened bolts.
As for overthinking on this general original design, I think the MG engineers already did that, and what they came up with is as good as it gets. The double nut process is: tighten down the nut to how tight you want things, then hold that nut with a wrench so it will not turn, then add the second nut and tighten it down good onto the 1st nut with another wrench.
Re: Leaf Springs- Four or six bolts - also spring brackets b
Yes- I have double nutted things before. I will try and tap out those holes to 5/16 american and see how it goes.