Rear shock,s to take note off

[arriva1]

Friend spotted weakness where rear shock,s are bolted to frame behind seat and horrible cracks where apparent !
Fortunately have very good friend who is dab hand at welding, see photo's

Is this a known problem area ?

image.jpg image.jpg
Then fixed :
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[jleyton]

I've heard of that before but worth checking that shocks aren't seizing up and that the correct length ones are fitted.

Cheers

Julian

[arriva1]

shocks are correct ones fitted although unable to speak for previous years but glad it found as frightening prospect otherwise and alert other stag user's to look !!
Trev

[flying farmer]

I have only seen two Stags in this area (both mine), one is fine, the other was cracked just like that.

The problem seems to be that the thicker gauge section underneath was not properly pushed up into the top of the shock turret before it was welded in place on some cars. This leaves a gap between the two panels and the upper thinner layer simply cannot take the repeated pounding from the shock bushes over a period of time and fatigue cracking sets in even if the metal is not rotten. I suspect that it is simply a matter of BLs non existant quality control again!

I knocked the two layers together before welding to get rid of the gap.

Neil

[73stagman]

I have worked on two Stags.... one with no cracks although the area was well cleaned up and checked thoroughly as I was advised it was an area of weakness! the second stag proved the point and needed serious repairs. I believe a repair panel can be bought for this job too.

[arriva1]

I have worked on two Stags.... one with no cracks although the area was well cleaned up and checked thoroughly as I was advised it was an area of weakness! the second stag proved the point and needed serious repairs. I believe a repair panel can be bought for this job too.

Interesting that thanks ,

What sort of damage are we talking about if failed and not spotted ?

Trev

[arriva1]

Any chance British Leyland will do a recall ? Lol


Trev

[73stagman]

Interesting that thanks ,

What sort of damage are we talking about if failed and not spotted ?

Trev

If the failure was complete the top of the shock absorber would not be located and so the rear suspension rebound would not be controlled. The wheel would bounce on the spring out of control on the failed side. You would get serious wheel tramp and possibly lose control of the car. Could be quite nasty!

[arriva1]

If the failure was complete the top of the shock absorber would not be located and so the rear suspension rebound would not be controlled. The wheel would bounce on the spring out of control on the failed side. You would get serious wheel tramp and possibly lose control of the car. Could be quite nasty!

Jesus !!!!

[richardthestag]

wont somebody please think of the children!

Had a couple of dampers fail before, noticed the fluid around the strut on my Stag, bounce test failed but I stayed straight and on the road, no animals nor children were harmed. replaced original dampers with inserts. no drama, except in the wallet front that is.

My first car was a 105e Anglia, the nearside strut top mount failed on that completely and popped a wee dent in the bonnet. oops. again stayed straight, not even close to losing control.

What surprises me is that OP issue not picked up by Mr MOT, maybe because the outer skin section was still intact? in which case there is little chance of the damper going through, if indeed there is any chance of that happening at all really. What is most probably going to happen here is maybe some anoying clonking and bonking and not a whole lot of spinning out of control off the road

Quite a lot of single points of failure on any car that could be quite nasty! i would have thought failed dif nose would be way more dangerous than OP incident

tin foil hat is on

[73stagman]

wont somebody please think of the children!

Had a couple of dampers fail before, noticed the fluid around the strut on my Stag, bounce test failed but I stayed straight and on the road, no animals nor children were harmed. replaced original dampers with inserts. no drama, except in the wallet front that is.

My first car was a 105e Anglia, the nearside strut top mount failed on that completely and popped a wee dent in the bonnet. oops. again stayed straight, not even close to losing control.

What surprises me is that OP issue not picked up by Mr MOT, maybe because the outer skin section was still intact? in which case there is little chance of the damper going through, if indeed there is any chance of that happening at all really. What is most probably going to happen here is maybe some anoying clonking and bonking and not a whole lot of spinning out of control off the road

Quite a lot of single points of failure on any car that could be quite nasty! i would have thought failed dif nose would be way more dangerous than OP incident

tin foil hat is on

Not wanting to be over dramatic but a leaking damper still damps! Not efficiently but it does it. And the one on your Anglia would have been working to some degree against the bonnet again not efficiently but there would have been some damping going on... the bonnet would have been the stop for the top mount. On the rear of the Stag that type of failure has nothing to work against. It is unlikley to be a total failure but the OP asked the question "what if it failed" Well actually it already has so that question must lead to the next stage of failure.... total.
One that is not connected might as well not be there. With a properly working damper on the other side of the car the balance would be way out of whack and difficult for most average drivers to cope with. (The OP and your good self may be the best drivers in the world for all I know!)
The failure is unlikley to happen when driving slowly either its most likley to happen driving faster and hitting a pot hole, an access cover(PC!) or an obstacle..on a bend.... the failure would be instant maybe not catastrophic but certainly would mean any sensible person would be coming home with the car on the back of a recovery vehicle and then some would be changing their underwear.
The MOT man can lie safely in his bed because he cant remove any paint to see cracks in metal and he cant lift the tonneau cover to get at the top of the shock if the roof is up at MOT time. For one he probably wouldnt know how to and Im sure there are loads of other reasons why he wouldnt do that. Its up to us unfortunately to make sure we know whats going on with our cars. Well done to the PO for recognizing the problem and sorting it out straight away.

[richardthestag]

wasnt mean to offend 73sm

was more meant as a tongue in cheek response to sensationalist panicmongering tabloid style reporting!

I maintain that the damper is unlikely to have gone right through the body even if driving over a personel access cover. infact any loss of control is more likely to be directed at the road rather than a loose top mount which if anything would work under compression but generate some noise on the rebound. Hense. "**** what was that, better stop and look" rather than exiting road upside down or arse first.

I also maintain that broken stub axle, loss of road wheel, diff noise failure are all far more likely to result in damage.

Well done OP for spotting the issue and to others for root cause analysis. Seems to be a manufacturing fault, mine is 40 years old and hasnt happened yet

I have been unlucky with my mr MOT man, he spotted a crack in the trans tunnel near my handbrake handle and failed

He also tried to fail on corrosion near the rear seatbelt mounting hole on n/s inner arch. No rear seat belt fitted at that time though.

Edited to add corrosion was only visible under hood cover

[73stagman]

wasnt mean to offend 73sm

was more meant as a tongue in cheek response to sensationalist panicmongering tabloid style reporting!

I maintain that the damper is unlikely to have gone right through the body even if driving over a personel access cover. infact any loss of control is more likely to be directed at the road rather than a loose top mount which if anything would work under compression but generate some noise on the rebound. Hense. "**** what was that, better stop and look" rather than exiting road upside down or arse first.

I also maintain that broken stub axle, loss of road wheel, diff noise failure are all far more likely to result in damage.

Well done OP for spotting the issue and to others for root cause analysis. Seems to be a manufacturing fault, mine is 40 years old and hasnt happened yet

I actually agree that the likelihood of the shock coming through is very low. The results of a failure would be up to conjecture and I aint going to do any tests so you might be right... and there is nothing really to worry about.....

I also agree that other failures would be much more dramatic... just watch Tony Harts lad racing (at Brands Hatch I think) its on youtube when his rear wheel stub axle / drive shaft failed. He just became a passenger and was lucky!