Suspension Cross member

[bmcecosse]

A friend has a chance of a cheapish Minor - but the suspension crossmember in the centre of the car looks quite 'crumbly' although the rest of the chassis is not too bad. Has anyone replaced this cross member - WITHOUT tipping the car over on it's side ? Is it possible to do it from below - with just ordinary car ramps and trolley jacks etc ??

[alex_holden]

I should think it would be possible albeit not for the faint of heart. Easier with a pit/lift.

[Willie]

Yes, i have replaced the centre cross member on two of my Minors. I
would rate this as one of the most difficult jobs during a rebuild but it was accomplished on both cars without rolling the body. The originals are laminated which is where the rust sets in and one of the specialists sells a replacement which is not laminated. This seems like a good idea but I have had no personal experience. I am careful to seal all the exposed laminated edges i.e. around the hole for the prop shaft, with Waxoyl regularly. One of these replacements was on my present convertible and I did it AFTER I had rebuilt the sill sections so that the car was solid

[paulk]

I've done the end 1/3 repair panel just on axle stands and then repaired/mostly replaced the bottom flange of the whole thing in the same position.

Yes its possible but its a 'My First cars a Datsun Cherry' of a job.

use Lots of axle stands to hold the car stable and in one position. THen you have the joy of lots of crawling around under a car with weld splatter raining down on your head and getting trapped in your ears.

If and when I have to do this again I will DEFINATLY try to roll the car. It MUST be easier than doing it this way.

Also I 'only' changed One end 1/3rd and about 1/3 of what was left, so the car was still quite sturdy with the other part of the crossmenber in position. Without these bits I could imagine the car getting quite floppy (and I don't think thats good).

Its nice to say I've done it but I won't be doing it that way again. Also the quality of my welding upside down isn't great and that would be a better job on its side too.

[bmcecosse]

Thanks lads - that's encouraging - I think !! In fact it's just really one side that is 'crunchy' - the other side seems much more solid. I just don't want to encourage him to take this car unless this is possible - because I am sure I will get stuck with doing this job - and we definitely have no-where to do a 'rolling' . How easy - in fact what's the best way - to get the old one out of the way ?

[plastic_orange]

I've done the entire crossmember from underneath (for a mate about 20 years ago), so it is entirely possible. From what I remember it wasn't particularly difficult. I used a variety of sharp instruments plus oxy acetylene equipment to remove the old one, then measured several times before attaching the new one. I didn't cut through from the top (easy way) as I'd replaced the floor a few years earlier.
Nowadays, use plasma discs on an angle grinder (4 1/2 inch) for neat cutting.
If it is only the centre a bit flakey, can you not just repair this with steel where it is weak?

Pete

[Willie]

It is the usual problem of unpicking the original welds but with the added difficulties of being upside down in a cramped space. You have to re-plate the floor section too but at least you do that from above. It is the fact that the torsion bars and the rear brake pipe have to be removed which makes it such a fussy job.

[paulk]

Getting the old one off is just Grinding or Plasma cutting (if you can).

Trouble I had was the floor above needed quite some work to patch up.

the end of the chassis rail has a nice little flange that includes a hole for the torsion bar so thats fairly easy to pinpoint and then tie in with the hole in the crossmember panel. THe rest is just fixing positions through measurement and getting the floor to fit tight to the top flange of the crossmember.

[bigginger]

Excuse my 'LCV' hollow laughing

[bmcecosse]

Rotter!