×
Advanced Search
×
Search Results
Searched for: suplex
21 Oct 2011 12:36
Ok, my first how to, be kind! 
Those of you who have had to replace a hydragas sphere due to failure in recent times will know that new stock of front displacers is limited and new rears are non-existent. Sphere production ceased in 2002 and with no known plans to produce new stock, this leaves F owners in a dilemma. Personally I love the hydragas system but with even second hand Trophy spheres almost impossible to get hold of and having had one fail when I was touring Tasmania, 2000 km from home and now with a second one gone, I needed something reliable where I wasn’t wonder how I was going to continue to keep my car on the road. Enter the coil spring conversion kit for MGF’s!
This kit was developed by the Sydney MG Centre as a direct swap replacement for the hydragas system in conjunction with Murray Coote (ex Australian rally champion) of MCA Suspension who has an excellent reputation. It consist of coil springs mounted in the car’s hydragas sphere mounting bracket and adjustable dampers utilising the F’s existing secondary damper mounting points. This also leaves open the option of should spheres ever be produced again of changing the suspension back should one wish.
The replacement for the sphere consists of a “top hat”, a coil spring and an adjustable base plate.
The top hat is made of aluminium and turned from a solid billet.
The “brim” fits into the car’s existing mounting clamp.
Inside there is a raised centre for location of the spring.
The springs are produced by King Springs, Australia’s largest aftermarket and performance spring manufacturer. I’ve used King Springs on a number of my previous cars with excellent results and they produce a quality product.
The springs themselves are made of X5K spring steel which apparently is a “Micro-Alloyed high strength spring steel enhanced by additions of silicon, chromium, and vanadium nickel, along with lower carbon than conventional spring steel grades. Material difference allows these springs to withstand higher operating stresses with superior resistance to sag and improved toughness and corrosion fatigue properties. It allows a reduction in the amount of steel required in a spring, making it substantially lighter (by approximately 30%) and reducing the solid height therefore increasing travel.” Had never heard of it before but sounds good!
Front and rear springs are different with the front being slightly taller and thinner.
The adjustable base plate is turned from steel and allows for significant height adjustment. If you like the 4wd look you can have it! 
The replacement for the sphere assembled.
The kit comes with GAZ adjustable dampers but I believe you can purchase the kit without them if you already have adjustable dampers. May reduce freight costs too.
What you will need:
The kit.
One of these, or similar. (note: I haven't fill the passenger foot well with concrete, it’s a failed rear hydragas sphere.
)
One of these.
A couple of these.
Some of these.
Some of these
Some of these.
Maybe some of these.
Possibly one of these.
And not forgetting a workplace supervisor.
The process.
Jack up one side of the car supporting it on car stands. DO NOT rely on a jack alone to support a vehicle! Depressurise the hydragas system on the side you will be working on using a hydragas pump or other method. If not using a pump be aware that the fluid in the suspension is pressurised to around 400 psi. Be careful!
Remove front and rear wheel.
Front
Remove the plastic wheel arch lining. It is secured by a number of metal screws around the edge as well as plastic screw clips.
To improve access to the hydragas bracket bolts, remove the damper first. Assuming you’re top damper bolts aren't seized like mine were.
The bottom damper bolt is undone by a removing the 17mm nut while holding the 13mm bolt.
Remember the order of the fitting. Goes bolt, suspension, brake line bracket, spacer, washer, damper, concave washer, nut.
The top bolt is accessed on the passenger side by removing two bolts and moving the fuse box aside to allow greater room.
On the driver’s side unbolt and disconnect the horns.
Now comes the tricky part, holding the rectangular top of the damper bolt with a 7mm spanner, undo the bolt. In my case the top started rounding off without the bolt budging, hence my having to use a hammer drill.
With the damper removed it’s a straight forward process of removing the four bolts holding the mounting bracket. The bottom two bolts have fixed nuts behind the bracket, the securing nuts on the top two bolts are loose. If you have ABS there is a bracket held on by two of the bolts which also needs to be removed. It holds the ABS sensor wire.
Now undo the hydragas pipe which enters the sphere. On the driver’s side this is easily reached but I found the brake master cylinder was in the way on the passenger side. I ended up removing the pipe from where it meets the pumping valve.
Once disconnected the displacer can be levered out of the mount. The spring on the knuckle should also be removed.
Using the supplied lube, smear a small amount of grease on the baseplate threads.
Screw the top plate right down onto the bottom. The instructions suggest cutting 15mm off the top of the knuckle but I found by fitting the baseplate over the knuckle first this was not necessary. Whether this is the case with F’s which don’t have lowered knuckles, I don’t know.
Next mount the spring (making sure it is one of the front springs; these are taller than the rear) and top hat on the base plate and slot into mounting bracket making sure the top hat is recessed completely.
At this point the instruction suggest cutting a slot in the removed front plate and then reattaching. Height adjustment is then effected through the slot, useful if you want to play around with the height. I chose to adjust first to the suggested height and then refit the plate. Adjustment occurs by inserting the two tools into the holes in the upper and lower baseplate and turning until the require height is reached. On the front this is suggested at 8 mm between the plates.
Don't forget to reattach the ABS bracket if you have it! Bolts should be torqued to 25 nm.
Remove the top nut, bush and two washers from the new damper. Preferably with two people, have one hole the damper from beneath, passing the top bolt through the mounting hole while another secures it with the two washers, bush and nut.
Reconnect the lower damper bolt and torque both it and the top nut. Front done!
Rear
The rear is more difficult due to the limited access. Remove the bottom damper bolt as per the front ones.
Access to the top bolt is more difficult. On the driver’s side, the coolant bottle needs to be moved. It is secured by two bolts. Remove these and the top inflow pipe being careful not to spill coolant everywhere. Carefully move the bottle aside. This should allow access to the top bolt and the rear nuts of the sphere mounting bracket.
The passenger side is more problematic. This involves removing the ECU and its bracket. You may wish to disconnect the battery at this point though I understand it’s not strictly necessary. Remove two upper bolts on the bracket and slide the bracket upward so as to release the bottom rubber mount. Undo the electrical sockets (number and type will vary depending on ECU in car) and remove ECU and bracket.
Now, depending on your car, you may have a number of things still in the way. In my case I had to disconnect and move more electrical cables and two fuel lines. Depending on the air filter setup in your car, this may also have to be removed. Either way, access to the hydragas sphere is still extremely limited.
After removing the damper, you may wish to release the antiroll bar to allow extra suspension movement, though I found this not to be necessary on the second rear I did.
With difficulty, remove the four bolts securing the sphere mounting plate, remembering the top two nuts are not fixed, and remove the plate.
As per the front, undo the hydragas pipe from the sphere. If you do not plan on removing the pipes completely it would be worthwhile securing them to something at this point so they don’t flap around.
The sphere can now be removed, through the engine bay on the driver’s side and out the bottom on the passenger side.
Once again lube the bottom adjuster plate and fit to knuckle then mount spring and top hat. It’s a tight fit!
Again I chose to adjust first, raising it by the suggested 20mm.
Fix front mounting plate.
Install new damper. Damper suggested settings are 10 all round to begin with and adjust for preference from there.
Refit wheels, drop car, do other side and......
Done!
Thoughts
I found the most difficult part (apart from seized bolts) to be getting the hydragas spheres out. The new springs went in very smoothly. Second side of the car took half the time of the first.
Using the suggested settings, the front is sitting at 350mm (basically Trophy spec). The rear seems a little high but will wait and see how it settles after some driving before adjusting. Due to the adjustment, both front and rear could be dropped further, though due to my using the car as a tourer I prefer having a slightly higher ride height, means I’m not bottoming out on every neglected back road I use!
The ride is very smooth. Being use to Trophy spring rates, I’ve developed an automatic reaction where I brace for every bump or pothole I see, but with this setup that’s no longer necessary. On a nearby road I avoid due to it feeling like I’m riding in a jackhammer, the F now floats across the bumps – really impressed. The car feels like it rolls more in cornering but that’s expected with a softer spring rate. Need to play with the damper settings to see what I can achieve with them. Also does tend to pitch more than with the hydragas due to the loss in self levelling capability but no more than most other cars I've driven.
The reason I like this setup over the suplex is that if you did decide you wanted a firmer spring rate it’s just a matter of having another set of springs made up. I’ve taken measurements and thanks to Dieter’s assistance have a current spring rate figure to work off. Also helps that King Springs are about 45 min down the road. If you did choose to go down that track, with practice I don’t see it taking more than an hour to swap between spring setups.
I'll continue to update on how this conversion goes as I put some k's on it. Any questions just shoot.
Those of you who have had to replace a hydragas sphere due to failure in recent times will know that new stock of front displacers is limited and new rears are non-existent. Sphere production ceased in 2002 and with no known plans to produce new stock, this leaves F owners in a dilemma. Personally I love the hydragas system but with even second hand Trophy spheres almost impossible to get hold of and having had one fail when I was touring Tasmania, 2000 km from home and now with a second one gone, I needed something reliable where I wasn’t wonder how I was going to continue to keep my car on the road. Enter the coil spring conversion kit for MGF’s!
This kit was developed by the Sydney MG Centre as a direct swap replacement for the hydragas system in conjunction with Murray Coote (ex Australian rally champion) of MCA Suspension who has an excellent reputation. It consist of coil springs mounted in the car’s hydragas sphere mounting bracket and adjustable dampers utilising the F’s existing secondary damper mounting points. This also leaves open the option of should spheres ever be produced again of changing the suspension back should one wish.
The replacement for the sphere consists of a “top hat”, a coil spring and an adjustable base plate.
The top hat is made of aluminium and turned from a solid billet.
The “brim” fits into the car’s existing mounting clamp.
Inside there is a raised centre for location of the spring.
The springs are produced by King Springs, Australia’s largest aftermarket and performance spring manufacturer. I’ve used King Springs on a number of my previous cars with excellent results and they produce a quality product.
The springs themselves are made of X5K spring steel which apparently is a “Micro-Alloyed high strength spring steel enhanced by additions of silicon, chromium, and vanadium nickel, along with lower carbon than conventional spring steel grades. Material difference allows these springs to withstand higher operating stresses with superior resistance to sag and improved toughness and corrosion fatigue properties. It allows a reduction in the amount of steel required in a spring, making it substantially lighter (by approximately 30%) and reducing the solid height therefore increasing travel.” Had never heard of it before but sounds good!
Front and rear springs are different with the front being slightly taller and thinner.
The adjustable base plate is turned from steel and allows for significant height adjustment. If you like the 4wd look you can have it!
The replacement for the sphere assembled.
The kit comes with GAZ adjustable dampers but I believe you can purchase the kit without them if you already have adjustable dampers. May reduce freight costs too.
What you will need:
The kit.
One of these, or similar. (note: I haven't fill the passenger foot well with concrete, it’s a failed rear hydragas sphere.
)
One of these.
A couple of these.
Some of these.
Some of these
Some of these.
Maybe some of these.
Possibly one of these.
And not forgetting a workplace supervisor.
The process.
Jack up one side of the car supporting it on car stands. DO NOT rely on a jack alone to support a vehicle! Depressurise the hydragas system on the side you will be working on using a hydragas pump or other method. If not using a pump be aware that the fluid in the suspension is pressurised to around 400 psi. Be careful!
Remove front and rear wheel.
Front
Remove the plastic wheel arch lining. It is secured by a number of metal screws around the edge as well as plastic screw clips.
To improve access to the hydragas bracket bolts, remove the damper first. Assuming you’re top damper bolts aren't seized like mine were.
The bottom damper bolt is undone by a removing the 17mm nut while holding the 13mm bolt.
Remember the order of the fitting. Goes bolt, suspension, brake line bracket, spacer, washer, damper, concave washer, nut.
The top bolt is accessed on the passenger side by removing two bolts and moving the fuse box aside to allow greater room.
On the driver’s side unbolt and disconnect the horns.
Now comes the tricky part, holding the rectangular top of the damper bolt with a 7mm spanner, undo the bolt. In my case the top started rounding off without the bolt budging, hence my having to use a hammer drill.
With the damper removed it’s a straight forward process of removing the four bolts holding the mounting bracket. The bottom two bolts have fixed nuts behind the bracket, the securing nuts on the top two bolts are loose. If you have ABS there is a bracket held on by two of the bolts which also needs to be removed. It holds the ABS sensor wire.
Now undo the hydragas pipe which enters the sphere. On the driver’s side this is easily reached but I found the brake master cylinder was in the way on the passenger side. I ended up removing the pipe from where it meets the pumping valve.
Once disconnected the displacer can be levered out of the mount. The spring on the knuckle should also be removed.
Using the supplied lube, smear a small amount of grease on the baseplate threads.
Screw the top plate right down onto the bottom. The instructions suggest cutting 15mm off the top of the knuckle but I found by fitting the baseplate over the knuckle first this was not necessary. Whether this is the case with F’s which don’t have lowered knuckles, I don’t know.
Next mount the spring (making sure it is one of the front springs; these are taller than the rear) and top hat on the base plate and slot into mounting bracket making sure the top hat is recessed completely.
At this point the instruction suggest cutting a slot in the removed front plate and then reattaching. Height adjustment is then effected through the slot, useful if you want to play around with the height. I chose to adjust first to the suggested height and then refit the plate. Adjustment occurs by inserting the two tools into the holes in the upper and lower baseplate and turning until the require height is reached. On the front this is suggested at 8 mm between the plates.
Don't forget to reattach the ABS bracket if you have it! Bolts should be torqued to 25 nm.
Remove the top nut, bush and two washers from the new damper. Preferably with two people, have one hole the damper from beneath, passing the top bolt through the mounting hole while another secures it with the two washers, bush and nut.
Reconnect the lower damper bolt and torque both it and the top nut. Front done!
Rear
The rear is more difficult due to the limited access. Remove the bottom damper bolt as per the front ones.
Access to the top bolt is more difficult. On the driver’s side, the coolant bottle needs to be moved. It is secured by two bolts. Remove these and the top inflow pipe being careful not to spill coolant everywhere. Carefully move the bottle aside. This should allow access to the top bolt and the rear nuts of the sphere mounting bracket.
The passenger side is more problematic. This involves removing the ECU and its bracket. You may wish to disconnect the battery at this point though I understand it’s not strictly necessary. Remove two upper bolts on the bracket and slide the bracket upward so as to release the bottom rubber mount. Undo the electrical sockets (number and type will vary depending on ECU in car) and remove ECU and bracket.
Now, depending on your car, you may have a number of things still in the way. In my case I had to disconnect and move more electrical cables and two fuel lines. Depending on the air filter setup in your car, this may also have to be removed. Either way, access to the hydragas sphere is still extremely limited.
After removing the damper, you may wish to release the antiroll bar to allow extra suspension movement, though I found this not to be necessary on the second rear I did.
With difficulty, remove the four bolts securing the sphere mounting plate, remembering the top two nuts are not fixed, and remove the plate.
As per the front, undo the hydragas pipe from the sphere. If you do not plan on removing the pipes completely it would be worthwhile securing them to something at this point so they don’t flap around.
The sphere can now be removed, through the engine bay on the driver’s side and out the bottom on the passenger side.
Once again lube the bottom adjuster plate and fit to knuckle then mount spring and top hat. It’s a tight fit!
Again I chose to adjust first, raising it by the suggested 20mm.
Fix front mounting plate.
Install new damper. Damper suggested settings are 10 all round to begin with and adjust for preference from there.
Refit wheels, drop car, do other side and......
Done!
Thoughts
I found the most difficult part (apart from seized bolts) to be getting the hydragas spheres out. The new springs went in very smoothly. Second side of the car took half the time of the first.
Using the suggested settings, the front is sitting at 350mm (basically Trophy spec). The rear seems a little high but will wait and see how it settles after some driving before adjusting. Due to the adjustment, both front and rear could be dropped further, though due to my using the car as a tourer I prefer having a slightly higher ride height, means I’m not bottoming out on every neglected back road I use!
The ride is very smooth. Being use to Trophy spring rates, I’ve developed an automatic reaction where I brace for every bump or pothole I see, but with this setup that’s no longer necessary. On a nearby road I avoid due to it feeling like I’m riding in a jackhammer, the F now floats across the bumps – really impressed. The car feels like it rolls more in cornering but that’s expected with a softer spring rate. Need to play with the damper settings to see what I can achieve with them. Also does tend to pitch more than with the hydragas due to the loss in self levelling capability but no more than most other cars I've driven.
The reason I like this setup over the suplex is that if you did decide you wanted a firmer spring rate it’s just a matter of having another set of springs made up. I’ve taken measurements and thanks to Dieter’s assistance have a current spring rate figure to work off. Also helps that King Springs are about 45 min down the road. If you did choose to go down that track, with practice I don’t see it taking more than an hour to swap between spring setups.
I'll continue to update on how this conversion goes as I put some k's on it. Any questions just shoot.
Category: How Tos
30 Aug 2011 20:41
well i changed most of the suspension on the mgf, but there was no sign of any leaks with the hydrolastic spheres or pipes. i suspected that the diaphram was gone . and now with the cost of buying a new sphere and refitting then having to get the tracking realigned its in the hundreds. the cost of the suplex system £900 then fitting etc its out of my league in trying to keep a excelent car on the rd. some times you have to cut your losses. i think thats why so many mgfs are being broken its a crying shame
Category: MGF/TF Pitstop
30 Aug 2011 16:06
Congrats!well my pride and joy has been sold, now i have got a mgtf 135 in x power grey what a beauty. i took the staur roll hoops of my mgf along with the tbar and the speakers which where expensive. could anybody tell me if they would fit straight on the mgtf. i think they would but i thought id check on here first.
oh i will post pics very soon of the mgtf as soon as ive prissed my hands off the steering wheel.
me personnaly think the suspension on the mgf is a better . but with the prices for the suplex suspension is way to high and the hydrolastic needed topping up every 4 months at £40 a throw it was a no no for me. but the mgtf is still great to drive
And
straight fit for the hoops too! 
Category: MGF/TF Pitstop
30 Aug 2011 15:55
well my pride and joy has been sold, now i have got a mgtf 135 in x power grey what a beauty. i took the staur roll hoops of my mgf along with the tbar and the speakers which where expensive. could anybody tell me if they would fit straight on the mgtf. i think they would but i thought id check on here first.
oh i will post pics very soon of the mgtf as soon as ive prissed my hands off the steering wheel.
me personnaly think the suspension on the mgf is a better . but with the prices for the suplex suspension is way to high and the hydrolastic needed topping up every 4 months at £40 a throw it was a no no for me. but the mgtf is still great to drive
oh i will post pics very soon of the mgtf as soon as ive prissed my hands off the steering wheel.
me personnaly think the suspension on the mgf is a better . but with the prices for the suplex suspension is way to high and the hydrolastic needed topping up every 4 months at £40 a throw it was a no no for me. but the mgtf is still great to drive
Category: MGF/TF Pitstop
29 Aug 2011 07:07
Displaying 301 - 305 out of 341 results.
Time to create page: 3.532 seconds