radius arm kit and other handling questions!

Post by **Alec** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:44 pm

Hello richard,

would you please clarify "Uprated Marina van torsion bars".

Do you mean heavy duty Marina van torsion bars or that Marina van torsion bars were used to uprate the front springing?

Alec

Post by **bmcecosse** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:16 pm

Sounds like an excellent set-up, and not costing a fortune either!

Post by **IslipMinor** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 12:51 am

They are standard Marina van torsion bars, which are a bit stiffer than the standard Minor ones. They are still a bit soft, but uprated Minor ones were very expensive at the time, and the Marina bars from a scrap yard, even with the adaptors at the cross-member end, were a lot more reasonable!

Post by **jonathon** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:45 am

All Marina/Ital torsion bars except those from the 1.3L cars were approximately 30% uprated over the standard minor ones. Good conversion and 'period' (almost)

Post by **rayofleamington** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:08 pm

According to the Morris design engineers, the early 7 leaf springs are more similar in performance to the later 5 leaf saloon springs.
The Traveller 7 leaf springs are stiffer, intended for more weight.

It's probably not too easy to tell the difference on 40 year old springs! They are very likely to perform differently to new ones. This is worth bearing in mind when changing springs - When I needed a new spring for my 54 I managed to get an original (51 year old) 7 leaf spring to match (Thanks to CAM). Even then it was a bit of a gamble whether it would be similar enough or whether to change the rear springs to a new pair.