Rear Spring Saddle Bushes

[jagnut66]

As mentioned in another post, I have come to the conclusion that modern rubber is rubbish. I believe that it may have been discussed on here before that the modern chemical make up of it is not as resilient as it used to be.
Therefore I have replaced all the bushes on Sally with silicon ones. However, I initially couldn't find any rear spring saddle bushes in silicon, so bought some new rubber ones and fitted them instead.
Sally is up on axle stands while she's being worked on, so you'd think they'd be under no real stress......
By chance I was working in that area again and happened to glance at them, to find them already splitting!
Despite not even having gone out on the road under load as yet!
Fortunately I have now found some silicon items and replaced them, I have included a link below for any others on here who need to replace theirs.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Morris-Minor ... 2749.l2649
Best wishes,
Mike.

[philthehill]

The spring seat/saddle pads/bushes have been available from ESM for some considerable time.
https://www.morrisminorspares.com/rear- ... ng-p831321
The commercial Minors do not have the rubber pads but have metal version of the pad. This gives a positive retention/location of the axle on the spring. The commercial metal pads can be used on a non commercial Minor.
You can go the whole hog and fit alloy spring saddle pads/bushes which are available from Peter May Engineering.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MG-Midget-an ... Swl05ekEvv
The Minor and Midget spring plates/pads have the same part number.
Plate...........ACA5139.
Pad............ACA5138.

[jagnut66]

Love the 'Teardrop' Mike.
You'll be needing twice as many spring bushes then!

The commercial Minors do not have the rubber pads but have metal version of the pad. This gives a positive retention/location of the axle on the spring. The commercial metal pads can be used on a non commercial Minor.
You can go the whole hog and fit alloy spring saddle pads/bushes which are available from Peter May Engineering.

I didn't see any listed individually when I looked on the main suppliers sites, I could only see them as part of a set at the time, which I didn't need. So if I missed them, well spotted Phil.
Still it has given rise to an unintended comparison test and if the rubber ones can't even survive a couple of months up in the air I doubt they would last long on the road.
As to the metal ones you mention, I can understand the need for extra durability on a working vehicle like a van, however I do wonder what they would do for the ride / passenger comfort in a vehicle intended to carry people, namely the Saloons and Travellers?
Best wishes,
Mike.

As a post script: The bushes Phil found on the ESM site total up (for a set of four) to a little over half the price of those on eBay, even allowing for VAT and postage. So a win for ESM there.

[philthehill]

The only restriction will be the transverse articulation between spring and axle casing. The lateral articulation (fore and aft) will not be effected. The restriction on transverse articulation will act somewhat like an antiroll bar.

I purchased a set of poly spring pads way back from ESM and they seem to be ok but they are going to be replaced long term by either the commercial spring pads obtained from Les or the Peter May Eng alloy pad set.

[Admin]

Sorry, my post was in the wrong place!

[kevin s]

I plan to delete them on ours because they are already breaking up, I used to take them off escorts in the day and it made a massive difference to the feel of the car particularly making the rear axle break away far more progressive, ride wasn't really affected most noticeable was a bit more engine noise but that was on much more powerfull engines

I was planning to use the minor saloon plates with a brass bush to ensure they locate on the pin in the spring, is that the difference on the van ones ?

[philthehill]

Here is the Minor commercial spring plates.
They are comprised of the main flat part, the locator which is brazed into the main flat, the lower plate sleeve and the spring leaf bolt.
The upper plate is on the left and the lower plate with sleeve on the right. A separate sleeve is shown for clarity.

Spring plate.JPG (1.65 MiB) Viewed 740 times

The upper plate does not have the sleeve as the head of the spring leaf bolt is a close fit into the centre of the locator.
The locator fits into the centre hole of the axle mount bracket therefore holding everything in place and removing any possibility of movement.
The main plate is 8mm thick. The Minor plate is quite thin and I would suggest is not up to the job as required to hold the axle in place especially if there has been an increase in engine power.

[kevin s]

Thanks Phil,

Yes the axle spring seats don't look particularly robust, I've got plenty of thick plate so I think it will be a couple of bits of plate with a hole drilled in the centre and knock up some alloy bushes on the lathe if required, for the bottom I will just double up the damper bracket under the spring.

The engine is at the moment a standard 1098, not sure where this will go long term, at the end of the day we already have a couple of much faster classics (TR7V8 and lotus elan), so the minor is more about being fun to drive than outright performance, at the moment with a few tweaks (slight negative camber, slightly lower and 13" midget wheels) the front feels really firmly planted with good feedback through the steering, the back end feels like a trailer being dragged around behind it, we are planning to fit traveller springs with a leaf removed, fork oil in the dampers and polybushes to hopefully tighten it all up a bit.

[philthehill]

I would suggest that you do not use an alloy bush. The area is prone to trapping water and the reaction between steel and alloy could lead to the alloy bush being eaten away in short time. A steel bush is to be recommended in this application.
The alloy plates sold by Peter May engineering are more suitable for a track car which has the suspension inspected and stripped on a regular basis and is not subject to road crud.

[kevin s]

Good point, i may even have a piece of steel tube the right diameter.