Fun with leaf springs

[Mike]

Hi guys, hope everyone has had a great christmas!
I recently fitted some lowered leaf springs for my mgb and am having some issues with rear end steering. when I put the throttle on at speed over 35-40mph the car pulls to the right and when I take the throttle off the car pulls to the left any ideas what this can be? as I couldnt find anywere decents to put the axle stands and jack on the back end I had to lower one side at a time so I have it in my head that this has twisted the rear axle and the leaf springs are no longer perpendicular to the car if that makes sense??? or is this just pronounced due to the lowering of the car as I heard leaf springs sometimes do that dodgy s thing when too much torque is put through them??? any light on the situation would be much apreciated!!! A picture for your time

[dude]

You didn't re'use the bushings did you?

My camaro did this a bit before I changed the bushings.
You also should also tighten the bushings with the tyres on the ground.

If it has a panhard rod that could use some "adjusting"

[monty400k]

Ive had this with a few cars, 1990 Delta and a few 205 GTi's, weird as it may sound it was the front wishbone bushes everytime so might be worth checking them, (discovered this after replacing all of the rear bushes in the Delta to know effect) they were all front wheel drive though, Ive got an MGB at the moment and have replaced the rear springs a few times, I'd check the u bolts are tight as Ive found they need torqued up after a few miles, I assume you fitted new ones, they are cheap and the ones that come off always have knackered threads so wont tighten up properly...

[penrhynrallycentre]

This does happen to a Mk1 or 2 escort if you lower them and don't throw away the stupid isopak packaging.
How exactly have you lowered the car can you explain exactly what has been done

PRC

[rodney]

the delta and pug are front wheel drive and the mg rwd,.

[Mike]

hi thanks guys,
I replaced the u bolts and all the bushes on the rear end. Monty have you got any idea what torque the u bolts should be at? it would probably be that also my rear drop link bars have slight play in them could it be this?

[monty400k]

I did mine up to 30 lb. ft, much more may crush the pads, I still had to re tighten them 3 weeks later though as I was experiencing rear wheel steering, I suppose the suspension took a while to settle. I don't have drop links at the back of mine as its got telescopic dampers, either way some play in the drop links wouldn't cause rear wheel steering, just knocking over bumps...

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Try undoing the lever arm damper lower mountings and checking to see if the damping action is OK. You can top them up with thicker oil if necessary for stiffer damping, or fit a telescopic damper conversion kit.

[bortaf]

Dec 28, 2011 17:30:31 GMT monty400k said:

I did mine up to 30 lb. ft, much more may crush the pads, I still had to re tighten them 3 weeks later though as I was experiencing rear wheel steering, I suppose the suspension took a while to settle. I don't have drop links at the back of mine as its got telescopic dampers, either way some play in the drop links wouldn't cause rear wheel steering, just knocking over bumps...

Had this with 90% of rear leaves i've changed, TBH i leave all the bolts slightly loose, go for a drive then tighten fully and recheck after a few hundred miles, especialy if i used new pads. Did you tighten both sides with the car on it's wheels? if not i'd undo the shackles a wee bit go for a drive and redo all the nuts and bolts again.

[ChasR]

What bushes did you did? If they were the stock rubber items they are pretty pants if the quality of the ones I have bought were anything to go by.

Did you lower using lowering blocks, springs or both?

Drop links? If your car is a rubber bumper (a post '77) with the stock ARB in place there should be no drop links in place since the ARB mounts onto the car using adjustable ends (a little like TREs on a rack) with it mounting onto the axle as it does onto subframes on most cars (using a bush wrapped and clamped around the ARB).

I shall assume you are talking about the lever arm damper tie rod. I would not expect that to cause your issue but it would not help too much with damping.

However, the fact that you mention one of the springs is bent so that it's symmetry does not follow as you would expect (do you have a picture of the springs on the car with the wheels on the floor?) makes me wonder if the axle position has changed.