Morris Minor Owners Club

On the subject, what does everyone think of the idea of hanging tele's from the chassis pins originaly used to hold the lever arms and fixing them at the bottom to the axle plates?
I know its an old idea and has been done on many occasions. Is the only 'negative' the fact the sampers arent 100% vertical?

The problem with that mod is that there is not really enough room for the operation of the dampers so you will probably bottom out on vicious
bumps. Since the original top damper pivots are used there will be no problem with failures in that department. You could always lower the bottom pivot more than the suggested 'turn bottom plates upside down and swop left to right' etc. but it would then be rather close to the ground
The fact that the dampers are not upright does at least reduce the effect amount of travel in use. I know of at least two people who are perfectly satisfied with this set up. NOTE. in the diagrams for this mod I have it says that the thread on the end of the top pivot is 5/16 BSF THIS IS WRONG, the thread is 3/8"BSF.

They will also be very short, offering minimal travel.

I had this kit (from a company called RBT equiped) on my minor for years, and it worked perfectly well, but the lower mounting was close to the road. This resulted in my car being stranded when I had to go into a verge to avoid another car on a narrow road. The lower mount was on the road and the wheel was in mid air. I just jacked it up and packed boulders under the wheel to get going again. Also the spax shocks don't like being at an angle and occasionally failed - use Konis if possible.

Pete

There is also no advantage - there is NOTHING wrong with the original lever dampers! They are double acting and adjustable !! Just keep the linkage bushes ok - and if you want to increase the damping us a more viscous oil. Even just changing the umpteen years old oil for new standard oil will help considerably.

I made my own out of the marina rear damper mounts, then used a piece of decent but not over the top angle to go from one side of the chassis to the other, where i welded on little mounts with captivated nuts and the angle is bolted to these and the boot floor. my spax havent complained yet!!

bmcecosse wrote:There is also no advantage - there is NOTHING wrong with the original lever dampers!

...except some bright spark decided to increase the unsprung mass by mounting them on the already heavy axle instead of the body.

Agree with that one !