BGT seat height

[Not_Anumber]

Having gone down what has seemed a very time consuming rabbit hole to transplant an MGF EPAS steering column into by RB MGB GT, ive now got the drivers seat back in and found the height of the steering wheel is a bit too low as id suspected. Id rather avoid spending even more time taking it apart again to fabricate new brackets and perhaps need to make any irreversible modifications to the dash etc so am wondering about options to lower the driver's seat.
Removing the wooden strips and spacers would be easy but won't provide enough clearance on its own.

Much has been written over the years about various seat transplants but does anyone know if they sucessfully lower the height by much ?

[Not_Anumber]

In the absence of suggestions ive tried a bit of surgery on the existing drivers seat.
The rubber webbing straps were anchored into small holes on the top of the seat base tubular frame. 10 mins with a pillar drill and the straps are now fitted into a new set of fixing holes in the underside of the tube, That has dropped the webbing strap plafform by almost an inch on its own.
Additionally the base seat foam which had been recently replaced has now been put on a diet and has been relieved of an inch and a half of its height.

Hopefully these mods together with losing the wooden packing strip spacers under the runners should hopefully drop the seat height significantly to give better clearance under the steering wheel without looking too obvious.

Il get someone to help me stretch and hold the cover in place tomorrow whilst i refit the ring clips that hold the sides of the cover onto the frame. I can then reassemble the backrest and try it in the car. If the seat base cover ends up looking baggy in the middle then I can add a pad of half inch very high density foam between the webbing and the cut down foam to lift the centre.

[MGB281]

Chris, out of interest how high off the floor is the standard MGB seat? As you know I am going down the same route but will be fitting MX5 seats and I have no reference for seat height. I will add a photo of what I have done tomorrow. Could you also give me the measurement from floor to bottom of steering wheel, that way we will both be singing from the same hymm sheet.
If you search "lowering a MGB seat on the MGExperience you will find instructions on how to slice some foam off the seat base foams.
Finally I need some advice on which type of sensor for the EPAS, there are loads of Three wire Hall Effect sensors on Ebay, Amazon etc but are they the correct type to give me the 12v square wave signal that I think the EPAS needs?

[MGB281]

Double post by mistake!

[Not_Anumber]

Unfortunately Philip I've already modified the seat height so that's one set of measurements i hadn't taken before modifying. What i had as a standard late B GT seat may not have been a great reference as id rebuilt it with new foams with zero use since and it seemed much higher than before.

It would be best if another forum member can chime in at this point with their seat height.. (Also my passenger seat isnt around to be measured at present)

The front centre of my now modified drivers seat is now 18cm from the floor. That is with carpet and underlay in place. . Measuring from the same point on the floor up to the bottom of the steering wheel gives 35cm. In this instance i still have an MGF steering wheel which is nominally 14inch though with a slightly flatter bottom section.

When the original late MGB column and 14" wheel were in place it was 37cm from the floor to bottom of that wheel. Butt this was without carpet and underlay I think as far as I remember. Again this is something that another forum member with an unmodified setup could please confirm

[MGB281]

The information was really useful, I measured today and I am at 35cms from bare floor to bottom of a 33cms steering wheel, I have a very cheap (free!) Momo copy with a flat at the bottom so am probably at if 36cms if measured to the flat portion. I can re drill the bracket which bolts to the cross bar and gain 8mm, the distance from bulkhead to cross bar brackets is 16cms and from bulkhead bracket is 45cms so that 8mm should raise the steering wheel by nearly 2.5cms. Four years ago I added info on here; https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mgb-and-gt- ... 476/page-2 From that MX5 seats could in theory gain me another 4cms, since I haven't driven a MGB for nearly fifteen years I am not sure if Ruth could see out if I lower them by that amount.

[Not_Anumber]

That sounds good Philip. You will be able to get the column mounted higher in yours due to the difference in the bracketry etc between the earlier and later Bs. This may avoid you needing to modify your seat height.

[Allan T]

Not sure this will be of any interest, but I've just been looking at the Frontline MGB seats, and they say they're significantly lower than the standards. Good luck! Allan

https://shop.frontline-cars.co.uk/parts ... product/89

[Bumpa]

Excuse what may be a daft question, but is it possible to alter the height of the steering wheel? The way it is set up as standard, any deviation from the normal position will put the upper column out of line with the lower column. Or am I wrong?

[Ian F]

Mike, I think that is right, given that these MGs have split columns which must be aligned.

Ian F