This is my first post for Morris Minors so be gentle folks, although I have been messing with classic rust since 1984.
My own toy is a GT6 Mk3 but we have restored a 'wet' 69 Morris Mk2 Mini for my son and this current project, "Goucho", is for my daughter who has just started driving lessons.
For the past 3 years I have been stripping and welding in new bits. I've replaced the usual offenders such as inner rear wings, A-posts, sills, lower 10 inches of doors and rear wings and......the chassis rails & crossmember. I could go into the details but the car was given the factory alignment check before and after repairs and it is still straight. The chassis rails were from Charles Ware and although one was 1/4" too long forward of the eyebolt mount they went back in within 1/32" of the originals using the eyebolt holes as a common reference point.
So imagine my horror when reassembling the clutch relay arm to find out that it didn't line up. It's not a chassis leg problem but more something that BMC seems to have messed all those years ago. The pedal arm is fine and needed no repairs. The relay arm was oval on both legs so I welded that on the worn sides and reprofiled the holes to get rid of the slack so they matched the new clevis pins. The old clevis pins were so worn they looked more like camshafts for a model engine. New linkage straps were purchased.
The adjuster from the clutch arm was also worn so that was welded and reprofiled.
In total I took around 3/8" slack out of the mechanism.
I reassembled this lot and although I could get the bits to fit it was obvious that it wasn't lined up. It worked but was very heavy and it wouldn't be long before the pins wore out again. So it all came back out.
I tried removing the distance piece between the bush housing and the chassis. It helped a little bit but now I was paranoid that one good pothole would cause it to dislodge from the gearbox bush end. I couldn't shim out the clutch pedal arm as the amount I needed would have been over the limit for the castellated retaining nut.
I therefore decided to sacrifice a little bit of future adjustment and put a dog leg into the linkage straps. This allowed the whole lot to go back as assembled by BMC but had the benefit of removing most of the mechanical resistance other than the clutch springs themselves and the friction on the pedal shaft retaining nut.
Picture shows the dog leg. The red line is the alignment of the pedal arm. The blue on is the relay arm.
Now if I've made an absolute howler please let me know. If I haven't then this might help you to make your clutch easier in traffic.
All feedback welcome.[frame]
Sort out the mounts and it will all line up just fine....
