Ride height for a non-standard gearbox

[Napoleon Boot]

When the previous owner installed an automatic gearbox to my 1971 Traveller, he had to mount the 1098 engine lower to fit the transmission tunnel, and as a result my sump is about 2 inches closer to the road than standard. Unfortunately where I live is full of speed bumps, many of them the decorative ‘rockery’ style with stone setts jutting perpendicular to the road.

The inevitable has occurred and my sump has been holed, and I’m going to have to bite the bullet and get the ride height lifted. I don’t have a Minor specialist near, but there is a classics friendly garage.

My measurements are below. My thought is to raise the torsion bars by one spline at the front (not the vernier plate end), possibly two. But will this muck up the geometry of the car and the handling?

Sump to ground: 4 1/4 inches
Crossmember to ground: 8 1/2 inches
Exhaust silencer to ground: 3 inches
Wheel arch to ground: 24 inches


I’d love to hear from anyone’s first hand experience as so much of what I’ve found is received wisdom and some of it is contradictory.


Thanks in anticipation,
Seb

[philthehill]

If you raise the front by turning the arm on the torsion bar downwards you will increase the negative camber very slightly. You will slightly increase the caster angle as well. With the standard tie rods you increase the loading on the front tie bar mount bracket.. Adjustable tie rods are best
With both settings altered you will not get much negative effect as regards the steering in fact you may get a benefit as regards handling with increased negative camber and increased caster angle.
I would suggest that you use Marina (approx 30% increase in strength) or Marina van torsion bars which are the best.
Unfortunately there is not much you can do about raising the rear end other than increasing the length of the shackle plates which places an increased strain on the chassis therefore I do not recommend lengthening the shackles.
As regards the measurements posted I would suggest that the car is sitting too low for comfort.

[Napoleon Boot]

Thank you Phil, that’s very helpful. Would you say it’s essential to fit stronger torsion bars first? Only that I don’t have any and would like to get the car sorted quickly - if you think it’s essential I might need to wait until I can get hold of some.
Many thanks
Seb

[philthehill]

Fitting the upgraded torsion bars is not essential but I would put it on your wish list.
The most important thing is to get the ride height correct for what you have.

[Napoleon Boot]

Hi Phil, thanks for the speedy reply, that’s put my mind at rest. I’ll definitely be looking out for some for a future upgrade; at the moment I’m mainly doing 20mph max so hopefully my standard torsion bars will be up to the job.

Thanks again,
Seb

[Steve Phillips]

When fitting different engines such as the fiat TC etc its almost impossible to get the sump high enough, and if you lower the Morris you’ve really had it, so a common cure for this and probably many other engine swaps (I know yours isn’t a swap but you have the same symptoms / problems) is to remove the sump and oil pickup and shorten both by the required amount, this is normally done in conjunction with putting wings on the side of the sump to keep the oil capacity as original and fabricating the base of the modified sump from 3mm - 1/8" plate,

While you don’t want to use your sump as a ski if you do it doesn’t hurt it and you don’t risk breaking or bending the oil pickup inside the sump,
of course this is only worth doing if your transmission exhaust etc are not much lower,

Steve

[Napoleon Boot]

Thanks Steve, yep I was thinking about getting a modified sump, but after lying on the floor and measuring, the transmission is level with the existing sump so I don’t think it would help. The existing sump (which now has a hole) looks like it’s been bashed in a bit, whether intentionally or not, I don’t know! But I think lifting the front up a bit is the best solution.

Seb