Panhard rod

Having fitted the anti-tramp bars that made a huge difference to the handling it was time to knock up a Panhard rod. Because of the non standard tank with the extra wide lip surrounding it, plus the non standard over axle exhaust there was no chance of an off the shelf Panhard rod fitting into the small space between them.  Therefore I had to do it my way – the hard way – again.

The main upright from the body that the rod attaches to was angled to fit between the exhaust and fuel tank. Even this still needed another cut and offsetting by 5mm.  Once the upright was in place the side and rear mounting stays could be fabricated to just miss the bits that wouldn’t normally be in the way. The easiest part to make was the bracket mounting on the axle because there was nothing in the way.

Foolishly I didn’t think to take any photos until after I’d dropped it back on the  floor. Instead I have a pic of the black wrinkle finish cam covers that I’ve just fitted. These have had the lettering removed and look fairly subtle but I do wonder if they’ve just a bit too plain.

4age-midget-cam-covers

Tramp free Midget

Since it has been on the road the air filter on the 4AGE throttle bodies has been a foam ITG unit that slips over the trumpets. You hear that sock style air filters rob power and I don’t see why the filter I was running would be any different. Also the noise generated was rather excessive so something needed to be done. Some time ago I purchased a Pipercross PX600 airbox but hadn’t gotten round to fitting it.

Clearance under the bonnet is tight ( the existing foam filter touches the bonnet) so it required some juggling to fit. By aligning the airbox so that it was high at the rear and low at the front it fitted under the bonnet. However it did just touch the bonnet but this was overcome by the use of a heat gun and some reshaping of the airbox on the top edge.

midget-airbox

The good news is that it all works and induction noise is much reduced so turning it more into a Q car.

This weekend I’ve finally fitted an anti-tramp bar kit that I purchased a while back from a trader at the MG event at Silverstone.  Thinking I would need longer U bolts I made enquiries to the trader but (fortunately) they didn’t reply so I started looking at making the brackets that attach to the springs. This was when I discovered that the kit I had been sold wouldn’t work because the rear brackets weren’t for a Midget.  At least I found this out before buying longer U bolts.  A few hours of cutting, drilling and welding had some rear brackets made up and the anti-tramp bars fitted.  Next up will be the panhard rod.

anti-tramp-bar