Restoring the Sprite’s Front Suspension | Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite Project

Update by Tim Suddard to the Austin-Healey Sprite project car
Sep 27, 2021

An Austin-Healey Sprite’s suspension is simple but, like that also found on an MGB, rather unique in that it doesn’t feature upper A-arms. The lever arm shock absorber simply acts as the upper locating device.

It’s simple yet, judging by all of the wins, obviously effective. Early Sprites also didn’t employ anti-roll bars. The front wheel bearings are rather simple, too.

Fortunately upgraded hardware exists. The Winner’s Circle offers a ¾-inch front anti-roll bar kit, and Moss Motors sells a kit that replaces the original wheel bearings with modern tapered roller bearings. We ordered both for our Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite project.

While you can replace that antiquated lever shock setup with a more modern tube shock conversion, the lever shocks work just fine if rebuilt properly. We sent ours to Apple Hydraulics for a revalved to heavy-duty specs.

We also ordered a lowering kit from Moss Motors that lowers the spring perches about a quarter of an inch. This is said to lower the entire front end by about half an inch.

The stock coil springs are rated at about 271 lbs./in. While 340 lbs./in. springs are a common upgrade, we decided to start with the stock springs as we’re going to lighten the car a bit–no front bumper, for example.

For suspension bushings, we went with Moss Motors’ harder lower A-arm bushings and The Winner’s Circle offset upper A-arm bushings in order to get more negative camber and thus better handling.

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