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MG TD TF 1500 - Chassis Has A Twist In It!

A while back I commented on the right rear spring being weak. After pulling the tub off, I checked the frame over real good and found out that it has a 1/2" twist in it from the right rear corner to the left front corner. More inspections reveled that the right dumb iron was re-welded at some point in the cars life, telling me it was in an accident where the right front was hit. Evidentially causing the right frame to be pushed up enough to damage the dumb iron, possibly breaking it off and adding a twist in the frame. I've straightened frames on race cars, but this is a little different. Using the instructions in the shop maintenance manual, taking the twist out is fairly easy. Must have been a common thing, or why would instructions be put in the manual to correct it. Oh well, another detour, but the good part is there's no other damage. And the saga continues. (Grin). PJ
P S Jennings

That might make some good pictures to post here. I don't think I've seen any of a frame fixing in progress?

I feel lucky, mine matched the numbers in shop manual perfectly.
efh Haskell

Will do Ed, but first I have to put a couple of heavy cinch bolts in my shop floor to anchor the frame to on one end. As of yesterday, I'm staying close to the wife who just had oral surgery and who won't be feeling very well for a few days, so I've stopped doing anything on the car for now. Gotta take care of the better half! PJ
P S Jennings

Yep. Pretty common issue if your TD has been in an accident. Mine apparently was hit in the area right behind the passenger door. I was fortunate to have an uncle who owned a body shop. It did not take much to get it back to factory specks. Nice that they added this information in the shop manual.
Bruce Cunha

Yesterday I had a few moments to do some more checking and after cross sectioning and measuring all angles, I've found that the chassis is perfectly square within 1/64th of an inch and the rails are perfectly straight. You would think that only a 1/2 inch twist in the frame would hardly be noticeable, but it is. With the weight on the front, the twist shows up in the right rear, which in turn caused me to think the right rear leaf spring was weak, but now I know the spring is good, or at least it appears that way. I have to now put in 4 removable anchor points in the floor of my shop using large cinch bolts to anchor and pull the chassis in shape. It has to be a cold reverse twist, no heat. Depending on the strength of this frame, which I don't think it's very strong, I should be able to get the twist out with very little effort. More to follow. PJ
P S Jennings

Just an idea, but as long as you're putting bolts in your floor (my wife would kill me!), you might think to position them to also be useful if and when you have to compress the front springs. I discovered that with a naked chasis there is insufficient weight to compress the springs using the jack method. I know somebody else out there used floor bolts to fix that situation.
efh Haskell

Thanks for the idea Ed, a very good idea at that, but I use one of these to collapse coil springs. It's very small and will fit up through the bottom hole.



P S Jennings

Sorry but I forgot to acknowledge Steve Simmons, who this photo belongs to. I have a photo of mine, but it's somewhere in never, never land. Thanks Steve, hope you don't mind. PJ
P S Jennings

This thread was discussed between 28/07/2010 and 29/07/2010

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