Rear Differential

Rear Differential Rebuild (new thrust washers)

The process is documented well at the Chicagoland MG club website "MGB Differential Clunk Removal" so I will not repeat it here.

Symptoms in my car were:

• Loud clunking at highway speed for about 30 seconds that went away.
• Chirping rear tire when turning hard right from a stop
• Play in the rear axle with the parking brake on.

Parts

Rear Axle Parts Diagram for Late Tubed Axle at Moss Motors
At a minimum you will need:

• Two Oil seals for rear axle : #120-700 (#90 diagram)

• One gasket for the "rear pumpkin" or make your own: #296-210 (#61 diag.)
• Two thrust washers for the differential pinion #267-130 (#67 in diag.) - Copper washers
  
• Two thrust washers for the differential pinion #267-140 (#65 in diag.) - Phenol washers
  
• One Pinion Pin Peg 267-125 (#70 in diag). Say that 3 times fast! Its a good idea to replace this pin.
• Hylomar for the bearing cap
• SilGlide for the axle seals
  

Not mentioned in the article

• Pulling one axle may be difficult. I had to place the hub back on with the nut and hit sharply from the back (from middle of car toward exterior) to dislodge bearing cap and pull the axle.
• Placing the pinion gears back in is an art. Once you get it, you "get it" in how to do it.
  

1. I placed the first pinion gear the bottom and geared it in with the differential gears on the axle, then rotated the "pinion cage" so that gear was at the top.
2. Rotate a wheel so the gear goes toward the front of the car and is almost out of meshing with the differential gears.
3. Feed in the bottom pinion gear at about a 45 degree angle so it starts to mesh with the diff gears.
   
4. Now rotate the wheel so the bottom gear goes in toward the pinion pin whole (back of car to front) and the other pinion gear comes from the front of the car toward the back.
   
5. Check for alignment with the pinion hole. Back out, adjust the starting point (Step 2) and repeat until everything lines up.

When you do this, it will make sense. Trust me!

MGB GT Front End Damage Assessment

Introduction

I obtained this car from an impound lot back in Virginia approximately three years ago. The car was involved in a hit-and-run incident and sustained impact damage on the front wing and front suspension. I am currently ripping out the sills for rust replacement so its also time to assess the collision damage. I am posting these pics and descriptions for an evaluation by the good folks on the MG-Experience forum and my local car club, the NCMGCC.

I have never driven this car other than to take it to end of the driveway and back. I have no experience with the suspension or steering other than "it works at low speed."

The obvious

This picture shows the original damage to the driver's wing. I have since removed the wing and have a heritage replacement waiting installation after the sill work. The picture gives you an idea as to the force involved. Not shown is a badly damaged Rostyle wheel that I discarded. The rim was severely bent and the tire had blown on impact.

Steering

Note how the steering column rubs against the frame. When turning the steering wheel you feel the column rubbing, though the wheel turns easily.

View from the front

It may not be immediately evident from the picture, but visually you can see the wheels are no longer aligned in parallel. When the passenger wheel is turned noticeably to the right, the driver's wheel is pointing straight ahead. Arrows added to show the misalignment.
Damage to front shock

This is an interesting observation. Notice how the rear shock arm is protruding much more than the front. 3.2 mm gap in front (A) , 6.2 mm in the rear (B). Not evident from the picture but the metal tab that comes up around from the beneath the car is slightly "popped" at its apex (blue arrow.)

Now the questions...

Before seeing all this damage I had already decided to drop the suspension and rebuild it with poly bushings. Is that a waste of time? Should I instead try to locate a rebuildable suspension and chuck this one? Or just find a new shock for the driver's side? Replace all driver's side components?

What other evaluation is needed to help me make a decision?

Thanks for looking!

Tim