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MG MGB Technical - front spring removal

Hi there,

I'm looking to replace the front springs in my '75 B Roadster. I've got the replacement springs ready to go, and now I'm kind of stuck on the removal process. I know to put a compressor on the spring and drop the spring pan, and that's not the problem. Here's my problem: I need to find a spring compressor that fits. The one I tries fit inside the spring alright, but the shaft was way too long and I couldn't get any squeeze on the spring. By the looks of it, there's not much room to get an external spring compressor on there.

So here's my question, first off, is there a particular type of compressor anyone can recomend? I would like to avoid trying to stick a jack under the pan and doing it that way if I could.

Your advice would be appreciated.

~Dave
Dave Ryzuk

I don't recommend that you stick a jack under the spring pan and do it that way, but that's what many of us do. The spring is relatively loose in the pan before the pan is fully dropped. The fully extended length of the spring is only about 10"s, so it really can't fly out and hurt anyone, even if you let the jack down quickly. You would actually have to pull the pan down to get the spring out.
Jeff
Jeff Schlemmer

Dave: I have never seen a spring compressor that would fit inside the MGB spring pan. I don't remove the spring pan to change a spring. I use a floor jack under the lower A frame close to the outside end. Place the car on jack stands, remove the wheels, remove the upper sway bar links, (your 75 may not have a sway bar, if it doesn't ignore this step)
Place the jack under the the end of the a arms and jack the a arm far enough to lift the shock arm off the bump stop. Loosen the the inner arm to the wishbone pivot nuts. Remove the lower trunion nut and bolt. I don't tie the springs, but If you fear the springs may fly out you can run a chain or some heavy rope through the pan and spring to tie it in place. You will have to provide enough slack to allow the A frame/wishbone to drop down so the spring can be released. Low jack slowly until spring is free. Remove the spring. Assembly is the reverse of removal. A long tapered alignment pin can be used to assist in aligning the lower trunion to the wishbone. If removing the lower trunion pin is difficult or impossible you may have to remove the spring pan. However, if the trunion pin will not come out it should be fixed, if you want the suspension to work as it should.
Clifton Gordon

I should have mentioned that on assembly be sure the suspension is fully loaded when the inner wishbone nuts are tightened.

Clifton
Clifton Gordon

Hi Dave,
I found the same problem, nothing fits!
The jacking process works well.
I did it by taking out the four pan bolts. The back/inner ones first, let the pan down to level, and than take out the outer pair. Then lower away. Reverse the process to put the spring back in.
Its a good idea to tie some rope to the spring, but as Jeff says, at full suspension lenght it's not under too much pressure. As long as you keep the bottom level the spring is going nowhere.

Next time I do one I'm going to try a different method I read of. Some inspired person on this BBS. Should work better and be easier than the above.
Wheel off, jack under the outer end of the pan, take the pressure off the shocker arms, then unbolt the shocker fron its base and lower away. One guy says he doesn't even need to use a jack. He can get enough leverage fron the arms. Personally I like to do it the easy way!
You do need a socket with a short extension to get at the 2 back shocker bolts easily. Could be done with a ring spanner, but it would be tedious. Take care not to tear/damage the little rubber boots under the pinion.


Peter

This worked fine for me:

0) loosen wheel nuts, jack high and support on stands
1) remove roadwheels
2) remove brake calipers and/or hoses and support if still attached to hoses on car
3) remove antirollbar from a-arms, if fitted
4) seperate steering arms from tie rod-ends, or simply unbolt the steering arms from the hub assemblies.
5) place GOOD floor jack under lower trunion and raise until shock arms are clear of bump stop. Ensure jack is stable/secure.
6) Loosen upper link bolt and remove nut (hoping it's not frozen in place!)
7) stand to the front of the vehicle and slowly lower trolley jack.

Easy & safe. To refit, reverse above procedure, ensuring spring is well centered in pan before commencing raising operation.
Curtis Walker

Curtis, spot on and 100% safe I have never tried spring compressors on the B, the hydraulic troley jack works so well. In my case its start the hub spinners on the ground of course.
Stan Best

i recall that rather than removing all 4 bottom pan bolts, which can be difficult to align during reassembly, i got away with having the crossmember on a stand, using a jack to compress the spring, then took only the outer 2 pan blots off, and just loosened the inner 2. then, when you slowly let the jack down, the bottom spring pan hinges open far enogh to remove the spring. reassembly then only requires you to shove in the new spring then jack up till the outer pan holes line up, then bolt up and tighten all 4. did this on one side after removing all 4 bolts on the previous side, and found this way a lot easier as far as reassembly was concerned. spring replacement by this method took me about 30mins for a side, including cussing the rusted bolts a lot.
cheers
mick
m rae

In my experience, removing the spring pan is a mug's game as you'll never get the holes to line up well enough to get the bolts through.

Removing the shock absorber could be an option, but it's hard enough getting the bolts into the tapped holes even when the shocker is free to move in all directions.

My vote is for taking out the pin from the top trunnion. The top pin is likely to be easier to get off than the bottom one, and the bottom one has loads of washers and boots and stuff which are harder to put back together again! You'll need to loosen off the bolt that joins the shock absorber arms, disconnect the track-rods and also disconnect the anti-roll bar. Cannot remember whether it is necessary to disconnect the brake pipes (probably not, otherwise I would have bad memories of bleeding the brakes).

If I recall correctly, when unloaded the spring is not really compressed very much anyway.

I agree with Mick, its an hour's job all in.

Neil
Neil

I did it the same was Curtis mentions. Just take particular note of his step 0 - jack high. You do have to lower the spring pan a long way to get the spring to drop out. When I first did it I did wrap a chain through the spring but as Clifton mentioned the tension seemed to be off the springs before there was a danger of them flying out. I also had to then force the lower frame down a little to finally remove the spring.

Simon
Simon Jansen

I suggested doing the change by removing the bottom trunion bolt because you don't have to remove the track rod ends and you can leave the brake calipers in place. I have found the bottom trunion is usually easier to remove than the top. The bottom should have grease in it making it easier to remove. I just removed my springs a few weeks ago to shorten them and and used the method I suggested. The seals and washers weren't a big problem. It just worked bettter for me than any other method I have used for spring changing. FWIW, Clifton
Clifton Gordon

I have alaways undone the top trunnion pin, the hub hinges away and you can just lift the spring out. There is no need to undo the spring pan bolts at all.
Stan Best

Hi David - long time since I last saw you!

I made myself a spring compressor to work on my B, but after a couple of uses, I found that I ended up doing it in a way similar to what Curtis describes. It may depend on the length of the springs you are working with. My stock 73 springs came out quite easily without the compressor after a couple of times of sorting out the method. I had to make several swaps because of receiving the wrong springs, so by the time I was done the project it was pretty easy. I'm not sure if the springs in the 75B are different in length or spring rate, so if you find you need to compress the spring alittle to help get it out, let me know and you can borrow my compressor - you are still in Victoria, right?

BTW - are you going to install V8 bushings also - now is a great time to do it, and it is a great improvement over the original bushings.

Erick
Erick Vesterback

I have removed the front springs dozens (hundreds)of times by the following method. With the car on stands under the forward end of the chassis just behind where it sweepe up for the suspension beam, slacken the swaybar link bolt & the outer 5/16 pan bolt - about 1/8" will do. Put a jack under the inner edge of the spring pan & remove the 2 x 5/16 inner pan bolts then just lower the pan. You will have to use a large screw driver to lever the pan down enough to remove the spring - put the lever over the pan, under the spring & through the hole in the centre. you can use a 1/2 ton bottle jack or a garage floor jack with a piece of wood on it so it dosen't slip. I also use this method to remove the springs when replacing the front beam rubber pads.
Garth.
Garth Bagnall

Lots of good stuff here. I am shortly removing my entire front suspension from the car. I will probably leave the springs in place. If I decide that I do want to remove them at a later date has anyone experience of removing the springs with the suspension off the car?

Thanks
Iain
I D Cameron

The you probably will need a compressor, like when the suspension is on the car but the engine and gearbox out. 'An MG is Born' showed a nifty home-brewed tool for compressing the spring when the cross-member was off the car based on a Land Rover universal joint and some rods and plates that went through holes in the spring-pan and upper wishbone and pulled the two together. It needs to be threaded long enough to allow the spring to lose all tension once the upper or lower trunnion bolt has been removed of course, which will be significantly longer than with the assembly complete.

Either that or a stout helmet.
Paul Hunt 2

If the crossmember is out, then it would be easy to get at the shock absorber mounting bolts so you could try that way. Wouldn't do it myself, though - even with a stout helmet...!

Neil
Neil

It's generally reckoned that it's easier to take the springs out when the cross member is on the car. I did it that way round when I took the cross memeber off.
Stan Best

Wow! huge response on this one. Thanks so much for your help everyone!
I did the job, and I still have all my fingers and toes. There are a lot of good methods suggested on here, and I'm sure the ways other than how I did are the more proper way, but here's how I did it.

Being one to try the easy way first, I put the car on jack stands, and slipped the jack underneath the spring pan. I loosened the spring pan bolts and only removed the inner ones. The pan then unhinged, as suggested above, and the spring compression was small enough at that point that I could pull it free by hand.

I was a bit worried about how I was going to get the new ones in there, but I put lowering springs in, so they actually just slipped right in without any trouble. So, I used the jack to hold the spring pan in place while I replaced all the bolts, and that was that.

THanks so much for your help everyone.

Eric, it has indeed been a long time. I'll send you an e-mail when I get a chance. I got run out of town about a year and a half ago and forced to take to the streets of Surrey. I didn't change the bushings. I know it was a good opportunity, but the ones in there are pretty new. I replaced them a couple years ago with the stock ones. I might change them out this winter though.

Talk to you later,

~Dave
Dave Ryzuk

...and everyone lived happily ever after.
The end.

Thanks for reporting back Dave! Its always nice to hear what worked best!
Jeff Schlemmer

This thread was discussed between 28/06/2006 and 01/07/2006

MG MGB Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGB Technical BBS is active now.