Son Simon is now a Morris Minor owner - 1968 Traveller/Pickup conversation. Trouble is that a few people have been telling him that its a common fault of the Moris Minor for their wheels to come off .................. including his Dad, who incidentally never owned one
He's asked me to put a post up asking if their is any truth in these ugly rumours I suppose they must have come from somewhere.
I remember many years ago when driving into a carpark the wheel collapsed on an old Austin 1100 - suppose that was metal fatigue, rot etc.
Grateful for any comments - just to make him feel better about it
I've had one of the lower arms, that come out from the torsion arm to the trunnion, go, but that was a fault in the manufacture of the part. You could see the weak spot in the break.
I too was told tails of wheels loosing lower trunnions when I first started to drive. Either its jealousy or it's a way of making sure young 'uns maintain their car properly. It made me rigidly work to the 3, 6 and 12,000 mile services shown in the Workshop manual. I've never had one go... now watch as I loose all 6 in as many months.....
Oh no you won't Perhaps all those years ago folks didn't really look after their cars like they do now. I think MOTs came into force about 40 years ago but maybe over the years they have become more stringent.
As long as the correct wheels are fitted - with the correct retaining nuts - and they are correctly tightened (not too tight and not too slack) - then the wheels are very unlikely to come off! early Mini had wheels that were too thin - they pulled over the wheel nuts quite easily - we lost 4 wheels that way until we managed to source enough of the later 'thick' wheels. I suspect as above - the problem really relates to trunnion/king-pin failure. Check the ones on the 'new' car very carefully - and apply grease regularly.
As has been said, it is essential to keep the top and bottom trunions regularly greased. You wil see the grease nipple on the ends of the trunions. When greasing ensure that the grease travels right through the trunion and pushes through the rubber seal at the other end. This will make sure that there isn't any old dried grease blocking the threads. It is good practise to give them (and the track rod end) a squirt every time you take the wheels off to adjust the brakes.
Thanks everyone - he's already much happier now and he's going to get all the relevant areas thoroughly checked. I'm taking the Trav/pick-up to the National so I'm sure I'll be able to pick up lots of handy hints and tips from fellow members.
hi well funny you ask this it happened to me when i was 17 just past my test in a 4 door mogey i was going over stratford upon avon bridge looking in my mirror saw a wheel going the opposite way to me then the car when bump on the road had to fit the spare one on this was down to not tighten the nuts up after a service was done on the car after that always double checked the nuts from now on neil
Perhaps all those years ago folks didn't really look after their cars like they do now.
generally because people didn't look after their cars, modern ones are designed as maintenance free as much as possible! This has led to a worsening attitiude where many folks don't even bother to make basic safety checks...
Ray. MMOC#47368. Forum moderator.
Jan 06: The Minor SII Africa adventure: http://www.minor-detour.com
Oct 06: back from Dresden with my Trabant 601 Kombi
Jan 07: back from a month thru North Africa (via Timbuktu) in a S3 Landy
June 07 - back from Zwickau Trabi Treffen
Aug 07 & Aug 08 - back from the Lands End to Orkney in 71 pickup
Sept 2010 - finally gave up breaking down in a SII Landy...
where to break down next?
2013... managed to seize my 1275 just by driving it round the block
funny thing I was showing off my mm wheels that have just been sand blasted ,painted and re shod to a neighbour and he said that the wheel centres break out over time . Suggested I check for cracks regularly