Creaking suspension

[Grumpy21]

As I work round the car it’s getting better snd better. Now I’m starting to notice the creaking rear suspension. Is this normal for a traveller or is it more likely bushes (the front were shot) or even springs. ESM do a full kit for around £150 that seems good value to me.

[philthehill]

Check that there is no obvious corrosion around the spring mount which could allow the spring mounts to flex and groan.
I would check that the springs are serviceable and do not have any broken leaves and the end of the spring leaf has not worn into the leaf above.
Do not lubricate the springs as lubricating the springs will make them flex more and there is the possibility that the spring leaf will break as it comes up against the end of the wear ridge of the leaf above.
Check the rubber bushes for serviceability. If any signs of wear or failure replace the pins and fit poly bushes to the rear spring eyes.
The ESM spring and bush kit seems reasonable. I would recommend that you purchase the kit with poly bushes.
https://www.morrisminorspares.com/rear- ... es-p831333

[jagnut66]

That's a good kit, just a shame they don't include the rear bump stops, while they're at it.
Preferably for the same price......
Best wishes,
Mike.

[Grumpy21]

this is the kit I'm looking at

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/rear- ... es-p831326

Everything on the car looks to be in order, though from experience with MGBs I'm thinking the groaning may be s drop link bush?

[philthehill]

The kit you have listed does not appear to include these:-

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/rear- ... de-p831342

Discard the rubber bushes and fit the poly bushes listed above.

Lightly grease all poly bushes before fitting. The poly spring pads do not need to be lubricated.

[Grumpy21]

Interesting. The kit has 6 bushes per side two for each end of the spring and I assume two for the chassis end of the drop links. Which are the bushes you indicate are missing? No point doing 99% of the job is there.

[philthehill]

The bushes that you need are the two bushes (per side) for the damper links and fit into the top of the link.
Each spring pivot point is comprised of two bushes. So you need two at the front of the spring, two at the rear of the spring and two to fit into the body shackle pin eye. Therefore you will need 12 bushes just for the spring shackles.
The damper link bushes are yellow and there are no yellow bushes in the ESM kit.
I would suggest that the blue bushes are fitted to the spring front eye as they may be a different shore hardness to the red bushes though testing the shore hardness of a variety of poly bushes there is very little if any difference in the shore hardness relating to the colour.
Below is a range of spring eye bushes available. From L to R;- black Rubber, poly Red, poly Green, poly Light Blue, poly Dark Blue, poly Yellow & poly Black.

[Grumpy21]

Thanks for clearing that up. I haven’t looked at the rear yet but made the incorrect assumption it was a similar setup to MGs with don’t have bushes on the dampers just a rubberised ball joint which is next to impossible to remove intact.

I’ll be adding the bushes you suggest, many thanks

Gary

[philthehill]

The MG B and MG Midget have similar links between the damper and body to that of the Minor.
The main difference between the MG links and the Minor links is that the MG has a one piece bush at its upper end instead of two as per the Minor link.

[Grumpy21]

Sorry I should have said ‘don’t have replaceable bushes’, the upper connector is a moulded rubber sheathed stud and the lower a rubberised ball joint. Neither come away easily are it’s far quicker to simply cut them off an buy new. See item 2 in the moss diagram.

In any case I digress, your info re MM is correct and most welcomed, thanks