problem removing front lever shock on 1962 MGA

I am having problems removing the front shock on a 1962 MGA. The inner wheel well blocks it from coming off of the bolts. See photos. Do I not know some secret, or is something wrong.

I am having trouble getting the shock off of a 1962 MGA because of the inner wheel well being too low to lift it over the bolts that attached the shock. Not sure what I am doing wrong. Any suggestions?

Try removing the studs with a couple of nuts from the dampers then you can slide off the dampers. When you reinstall use bolts that can be fully removed to make the process easier.
It worked for me when I rebuilt my front end.
Liam

Jimmy,

Recently I had to remove the front shocks, and seems to me that the previous owner had the same problem 30 years ago, and he resolved the issue making two cuts above the dumper in the wheel well and bent it about 2 inches in order to gain more space to remove the dumper. He save me the shame to cut the piece by myself. I don´t know if that is a design problem or as Liam suggest it is necesary to remove the studs that are difficult to reach also. Now I have the option to repair the cuts or reshape the whell well in order to remove faster the dumper in the future (next maintenance scheduled in 30 years).

Ours was a tight fit too - the PO had forced it and bent the inside of the wheel well. (See pics) We were removing the body anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to us, but if you could remove the studs, that would help you avoid the damage that we have to fix now. ;)

Good luck!!

We had to do this for our '62. Luckily for us, we removed the whole body. We did see where the DPO beat the snoot out of the wheel well to remove it, which of course we have to repair now.

I would agree with Liam though, put two nuts on each stud and remove the studs, the shock with slide right out then.

Ok, well at least its good to know I'm not a complete idiot and missed some simple solution. Too bad that the car is at home and not very movable at the moment as I work for a group of manufacturing companies that also have a big machine shop. They could probably get the studs out fairly easily, but I will try the two nut solution first.

I dont know Jimmy, it looks like the majority of previous owners preferred the cut-out option.

What I couldnt figure out was both of my front shocks were completely shot. Made me wonder if they got frustrated in filling them so often. Luckily, they folded the material back into the well, so I am going to push and weld it back together again. Either that or replace with the smooth segments from my parts car.

Put vicegrip on studs to loosen. if they break off you can drill them out and replace. I had some that the hole was stripped so I tapped it oversize and got stud with that in oversize
course thread anyway or replace with good grade bolt.

Success! Got the shock off. The two nut solution seemed like the most elegant (even though I will probably place bolts back in, I hated to destroy the original studs for some reason). I used my typical shotgun approach of bathing the studs with both wd-40 and liquid wrench, I suppose because I don't know which one works best. Then tightened two nuts snugly together (very snugly), and then used a wrench on the lower one. I was actually surprised at how easily they came out. A bonus is that I did not have to do the ones in the back of the shock because after removing the front studs, the shock was able to lift out over the rear ones with a little tilt. Thanks everyone. Good solution that worked smoothly.

Regards
Jimmy Dunn

I will be back :-). Not the best mechanic in the world.