Leaf Springs

[MrIan]

Having had Boris Minor for a few weeks now and gradually getting round him sorting bits I've noticed he's been fitted with 7 leaf rear springs in addition to gas adjustable shocks (that appear to be siezed on the highest damping rate !!!!). So to the main question, can individual leafs be removed from the spring to soften it. The only rear seat passenger is my woofie and at the moment the rear suspension is so firm you have to really push down hard on the wing to get any movement and I do mean hard. The car feels like the only rear suspension I have is the air in the tyres !!!!!

[bmcecosse]

It's more likely to be the dampers causing the problem. Even 7 leaf springs are still 'soft' by modern car standards! Is there good clearance off the bump stops? But to answer the Q - yes - you can remove leaves to soften if necessary - but 7 leaf springs are generally ideal - and they eliminate axle tramp as a side benefit!

[philthehill]

If you remove any leaves start from the bottom up i.e. remove shortest first.
I have fitted 7 leaf springs fitted to my Minor with the shortest spring leaf removed so making them 6 leaf springs.
The ride is good and not to soft and not too hard. I have taken about 3/4" off the top of the rear bump stops to give a bit more travel.
I am surprised that the damper adjuster is seized. Try a little release oil on the thread.

[bmcecosse]

I suspect your car is a lot lighter than a standard Minor Phil! And yes - many who think Minor suspension is too hard - find that it's actually sitting about 1/2" from the bump stops ! However - slight caveat - some of the crappy 'bolt on' damper kits won't have enough travel in the damper to allow the bump stops to be shortened. The original lever arms have plenty of extra travel - I have just over 1" cut off the stops on my Trav - and SAE 40 in the dampers of course. Rides lovely!

[MrIan]

Well maybe I'll try new dampers first. There's from memory at least 2" clearance between the bump stop and chassis. The spax adjuster on one damper just turns without doing anything at all and the other even after soaking and leaving them for a few days just will not turn. You can feel that any more pressure is just going to strip something. I must admit to them being the first spax dampers that I can't adjust. I've had spax on my capri for about 20 years and they still adjust yet these I'd say are duff.

[Chipper]

I had a 2-door saloon with a Fiat twin-cam fitted that had 7-leaf Traveller springs and gas Spax dampers fitted. It was rather harsh/hard-riding at the back, I found, leading to a rather choppy ride, even with the dampers on their softest settings.

Minor Mania did a Minor convertible with Fiat twin-cam, and found that just using four leaf springs gave a far better handling combination, so you may want to try that approach...

I would be tempted to use penetrating fluid such as PlusGas and a blowlamp to try to loosen off the stuck Spax damper adjuster screw.

They do have to be turned quite alot (around 22 turns, IIRC) to fully adjust between fully hard and fully soft; you should hear a 'clicking' sound/feel at each end of the adjustment range.

[philthehill]

Whilst the ride with 4 spring leafs may have been softer Minor Mania must have fitted traction control bars as at the best of times the rear springs on a Minor have a tendency to wind up and let the tyre tramp like hell.
In my experience fitting the traveller 7 leaf (minus bottom leaf) springs with traction control arms to a road car is the best solution all round.
Correctly positioned/angled tele dampers also helps the ride though if you can obtain upgraded lever arm dampers all well and good.

[IslipMinor]

We have 7-leaf Saloon springs on our 1958 car and have removed the bottom, smallest leaf and turned it upside down before re-inserting it as a new top leaf, but working against the other 6 leaves. Softens and lowers the car by about 2". Just removing the bottom leaf, as Phil has done, would soften slightly and I would think lower it by 1/2" or a bit more.

I have fitted adjustable Spax to a couple of cars and found them harsh even on 'full soft', so not sure what they would be like on a Minor, especially on the rear? We have telescopic oil filled Koni's all round, with the fronts having 30% uprated valves and set to 'full hard', and the backs on standard valves and on 'full soft' - the result is firm, even very firm, but not harsh.

As a note the early saloon 7-leaf springs are not the same as the Traveller. The saloon has 7/32" thick leaves and the Traveller has 1/4".

[MrIan]

So with Boris Minor being a 1959 might the 7 leaf springs be original? Been looking at replacement shock prices and am tempted to try just a basic oil shock seeing as they are a third of the price of an adjustable spax damper. What do you recon ?

[bmcecosse]

Nothing wrong with lever arm dampers - filled with SAE 40 oil. They are just teledampers folded up, after all ! And they have plenty of suspension travel built in. Some of the crappy 'bolt on' teledamper kits use dampers with very restricted stroke length. The kits where the dampers are heavily angled towards the centre of the car are particularly hopeless.....

[MrIan]

I would try the original lever arm dampers with thicker oil but they'd already been removed when I purchased the car. As there appears to be an overall saying that even on the softest setting the Spax gas give a bit of choppy ride I was thinking at a third of the price I might just as well try standard oil telescopic dampers. I'd hate to shell out on adjustable gas dampers to find even on the softest setting they were still too firm.

[bmcecosse]

The gas is only there supposedly to suppress aeration in the damping oil. I have Spax adjusts on my TR7 and they are fine !

[MrIan]

Yes I have spax adjustable gas on the back of my MK2 Capri and they're fine there too, but then a Capri needs all the help it can get on the back end !!

[IslipMinor]

MrIan,

I have a pair of Minor rear dampers, complete with the linkages, but not the rear axle brackets that you are very welcome to have - we live near Oxford.

They were removed from the car around 40 years ago to fit telescopics, and they have just come to light during our recent loft clearing exercise.

[MrIan]

MrIan,

I have a pair of Minor rear dampers, complete with the linkages, but not the rear axle brackets that you are very welcome to have - we live near Oxford.

They were removed from the car around 40 years ago to fit telescopics, and they have just come to light during our recent loft clearing exercise.

Thank you very much for the offer, if you were closer i'd pop round n get them, but i'm up here in sunny Lancashire

I've ordered a pair of standard oil telescopic dampers which I recon should be ok and will be here before weekend so fingers crossed. I might very well take you up on the offer of the dampers yet !!!!

[philthehill]

As you are in Lancashire it may be beneficial to enquire at Leadbetters of Lancashire and see if they still have any of their own rear tele damper kits using the non adjustable tele dampers.
I have them fitted to the rear of my minor and they work well.[frame][/frame]

I have got a new set of gas SPAX rear dampers and fitting kits on the shelf but have never seen the need to fit them.

[MrIan]

I've already ordered a new pair of standard oil tele dampers, cheap enough so worth a try and also a test to see if there's any improvement. (or rather any suspension )

[MrIan]

I think I might very well have gone n slipped up here. As ESM did the spax kit and a gas kit and also an oil kit for the rear, then on top of that listed the individual dampers I asumed that any choice of the 3 dampers would be ok !!!
It now appears that spax do different kits to what is fitted to my old Boris Minor. ie ESM list them showing a cross member kit rear where as mine doesn't use a crossmember but just bolts to the chassis rail at the top !.
Fingers crossed.
Shall report back later maybe with lots of "$"****"*!*"**$"

[philthehill]

I suspect that this what you have fitted:-

http://www.jagspares.co.uk/Morris/partd ... tno=SUN113

The top mounting for the damper fits with a special sleeve over the original top damper link mounting which is located on the inside of the chassis rail.
This is a similar top mounting arrangement to that pictured in my post above.

[bmcecosse]

Be happy -the crossmember is well known for cracking - and puts the dampers at a stupid angle to the suspension movement.......