Front ride height

[gturner008]

The car is now going well. The rear now does not help with steering and the new door mirror means I'm less at risk of crashing!

The advice I now need is around front ride height. Dave, my mechanic, tells me the front sits about two inches higher than it should. Nothing Dave can see explains this.

Anyone got any ideas why? The car drives well and all looks ok, other than the front is high. Cheers. Gary

[BDA]

I assume you have a Twin Cam. I have adjustable Spax shocks and there is no way I can get the nose as low as I'd like. However, Richard at Banks suggested the front ride height measured at the body behind the front wheel should be 5 3/4" and the rear ride height measured at the body in front of the rear wheel should be 6 1/4". In any case, the rear should be about 1/2" higher than the front. In my case, I have settled on 6" and 6 1/2"
 

[TCS4605R]

I set my front ride height at 6" measured from the middle of the 'T' on the frame.  As I understand it, the Europas shipped to the USA needed to comply with the Federal headlight height regulation.  In order to do this, the front ride height was raised to a really goofy height.  I also have Spax shocks front and rear with adjustable spring perches and shorter springs that I bought from Dave Bean about 25 years ago.  The Spax shocks and shorter springs allowed me to get the 6" front ride height with the rear set 1/2" higher as BDA mentioned.

[EuropaTC]

Hi Gary,

2" sounds a lot, it might be worth asking what that number is based on. If it's just "it looks too high compared with others I've seen" then it might be that it's a perception thing and there's really nothing wrong.  There were mechanical differences between the S2 & TC cars and generally speaking the S2 looks lower (and "proper" ) at the front compared with the TC, which can look nose high. In fact there was a comment by Graham Arnold in the Club Lotus mag that the TC Europas should look high at the front.

Having said all that, I'm not convinced the nose-high stance is to do with handling or construction regulations that Lotus were battling at the time, and perhaps it's noteworthy that it was on the TC where the front spoiler made it's appearance to improve stability at speed.

However we do have some references from the period to go at. Several road tests of the period show side elevations with measurements, I've added the one from Motor which very handily gives measurements taken from the ground to the centres of the bumpers (plus lots of others). I had this laminated and in the workshop as a reference when I started work on my car. One thing I would add is that they give a lowest clearance measurement under the front suspension of 4.5". I'm assuming that's under the roll bar and not from the chassis, it's not clear in the article.

However if you have standard suspension there's not a lot you can do about it. I always felt mine was too high at the front and finally it got on my nerves enough to do something about it, which is basically fit adjustable suspension. The second attachment is my car before and after conversion, where it is just slightly lower all round, but more so at the front than with OEM suspension.

Brian

[4129R]

That size diagram is very useful, but it doesn't tell you what size shoes you have to wear to stop hitting the throttle and brake at the same time.

As 4129R is currently LHD, this is a potential problem.

RHD seem to have more room between the two as the right pedal is not in the hole.

[TCS4605R]

Brian,

Can you tell me the manufacturer, size and offset of the wheels on your car - they are great looking.

Tom

[EuropaTC]

Brian,

Can you tell me the manufacturer, size and offset of the wheels on your car - they are great looking.

Tom

Hi Tom,

The wheels are standard MG Rover and were fitted to the MGF VVC 1995-1999. This page http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/suspension/wheel_options_for_the_mgf.htm shows them plus the details you're after.  You can still buy them new, but they are relatively expensive for what they are. A far preferable alternative is to buy second hand from Ebay where they're quite cheap (£100-ish needing paint, £250 refurbished) although shipping costs to the US might be horrendous.

Was the MGF imported to the states in any great number ? if so, you might pick some up over there from owners wanting to move up to 16" wheels which were a later option on the MGF.


Brian

PS - they are spot on for PCD, no clearance issues on my car but you need larger wheel studs (Land Rover/MG) with new wheel nuts, OEM MG-Rover are the best.

[TCS4605R]

Brian - I don't think the MGF was ever imported to the USA, but thanks for the information.  I'll search the web to see what I can find.

Tom - 4605R

[2483R]

A common reason for the bow up look is sagging rear springs. You didn’t say if you have factory springs/shocks. But the rear stock springs will sag, the fronts not so much.

The factory rear springs also rubbed against the shock,  producing an annoying squeak as you went down the road. The factory installed rubber covers on the shocks to cure this, and they helped, for a while.

The cure is new springs. A bigger diameter spring will end the shock/spring squeak.

You can also lower the front. The rule of thumb is never lower a car beyond when the lower suspension arm is parallel to the ground. It is a good rule of thumb for both front and rear.

[BDA]

I disagree. I have new springs on adjustable spring perches. The nose on my TC will not get as low as an S2 regardless of where I adjust either the front or rear springs.

[EuropaTC]

I disagree. I have new springs on adjustable spring perches. The nose on my TC will not get as low as an S2 regardless of where I adjust either the front or rear springs.

I think you're right about the TC/S2 ride height thing, didn't they alter the front wishbone mounting points on the TC chassis to get round the headlamp height restrictions or something ?  Whatever the reason, I seem to recall Jay Mitchell on the Yahoo group explaining you'd never get the TC looking like the S2 and he'd be the one to know on that score.

Mine is set up so the inner mount and outer wishbone trunnion bolt are roughly in line horizontally. If I set the front significantly lower (with the outer bolt above the inner) then I started to see some negative camber coming in which I couldn't adjust out with fixed wishbones. The setting doesn't affect ultimate ground clearance as that's due to the roll bar mount pin on the bottom of the damper, but it did bring the centre of anti-roll bar closer to hitting things.  I made the two mounting struts adjustball to pull it back up towards the body and restore the original operating angles.

Brian