Morris Minor Owners Club

As it happens - I did use an 18mm socket on my 'windy' gun recently

19.5 years ago a back street garage did that on my Minor - it was a few weeks later that I found they'd stripped the thread out of a few of the nuts! I've never let a garage touch any of my Minors since then.

On modern cars they're unlikely to strip or shear when overtightened - so beware what a tyre place can do! 120Nm on the windy gun means they only need to 'click' the torque wrench rather than waste time tightening them to the correct torque

And as carefully mentioned by Roy, great for UNDOING things.

No good at all for doing things up on a car.

Well they are - but only if I remember to turn the torque setting down to #1 position! Actually - I have an air wrench for 'doing up' - but the windy gun is so much faster!

Heh .. I did note to a tyre dealer recently that I was going to have an entertaining time undoing the nuts he did up with his 'windy gun' ... sigh, I guess I will be getting my two foot pry-bar and a hammer out again!

I generally avoid letting any garage do work on my cars since 'professionals' are often even bigger bodgers than us 'amateurs'

So to recap, it's a 3/8 Whitworth? So many numbers thrown out, my head was spinning.

The lugs I'm replacing were stripped, and I've seen this happen on many of my older cars. I always hand-tighten them.

or 18mm if you are careful ... also how many do you need since I'm pretty sure I have a few hanging about in the bottom of my 'spare nuts toolbox' ... if it's only a couple-or-three then I'm happy to post them to you if you paypal me the postage.

alainmoran wrote:or 18mm if you are careful ... also how many do you need since I'm pretty sure I have a few hanging about in the bottom of my 'spare nuts toolbox' ... if it's only a couple-or-three then I'm happy to post them to you if you paypal me the postage.

Thanks much for the offer, only 4 (one per wheel). Will check locally first.
Have a friend who says he has them, but whether or not he finds them is another story.
I spaced out on these when I placed my last order with Bull Motif (which is now on the way).
Good local vintage British car parts shop near me (Moss Motors) with an extensive stock. That's why asked, thinking might match up to an old Austin, Mini or Sprite. Moss doesn't carry Morris

well if you find you are stuck for them then they are better going round in circles on your car than sat at the bottom of my toolbox

im 99% sure they are the same as midget ones... but my sprites are wire wheeled so I cant check

Mini, Midget and Minor 1000 are all 3/8" UNF thread, BUT not all the same taper angle in the wheel itself, so you do need to make sure that the nut suits the wheel - more the case if fitting non-standard wheels. For example the wheels on ours have a Farina A40 centre and the taper is not the same as either a Mini, Midget or Minor! I had to get new nuts from the Farina Owners Club.

The spanner size is one of two - for the Minor it is 3/8" BSW (or 7/16" BSF) nut size (18mm is within 0.001" of the same A/F size!), and for Mini, Midget etc. it is 11/16" A/F. There is no 'good' metric equivalent to 11/16"; 17mm is too small and 18mm too large to work properly without potential nut damage or slippage.

Wheel, or lug, nuts usually have a bigger head than the standard for the thread size, so it can be unreliable to refer to the wheel stud/bolt thread by the spanner size that is used on it!

Moss will likely have the Mini nuts - just need to get one and compare the taper. If it's same - the only difference will be the Across Flats size - which will get annoying every time you do any work on the wheels!

I just measured the wheel nuts on mine with a calipers. The nuts are old but vary between 17.7mm and 18mm. On some the 11/16" fits and on some it actually doesn't and I have to use an 18mm. I suppose the tolerances on the sockets are different and also vary. Use whatever gives the best fit.
Declan

17.7mm is a bit more than 11/16" (17.46mm), so if the socket is oversize, it might just fit, but the actual nut hexagon A/F size for standard Minor nuts is 3/8" BSW, which is also 18mm within 0.001". The 'right' size spanner for these nuts is 3/8" BSW or co-incidently 18mm can be used quite correctly.