Morris Minor Owners Club

Is a 5-ratio gearbox even a good idea at all on the Minor? Think about it, traffic speeds are lower now than they were 10 years ago, even on motorways and a standard spec Minor will always be more reliable than a modified one.

Whats the point? My totally standard saloon will easily go past 70mph if I wanted it to and will still exceed 40mpg.

'a standard spec Minor will always be more reliable than a modified one'. Why?
'Whats the point? My totally standard saloon will easily go past 70mph if I wanted it to and will still exceed 40mpg' No point at all if you are happy with you're cars performance. Std Minors are perfectly reasonable to drive, if thats what you want.
BM, well its geared for about 176mph, but this is theoretical as we know, so I'd be more than happy with 140-145mph. But acceleration off the line is important (about 4 secs atm) as is drivabilily and flexibility of torque/acceleration, but we have bucket loads of both so really the gearing is mainly going to change for the drag strip.

So - no point gearing it to beyond 145 mph! Unless you plan on slip-streaming Lewis into the Parabolica- and nipping past on the inside ??

jonathon wrote:(...) the Fiat TC also has a 5 spd box, but these are becoming hard to find now , and are reasonably expensive to recon.

Hi Jonathon, how expensive is 'reasonably expensive', and can you recommend anyone to do it? I got a spare s/h 5 speed earlier this year but the tail stock is slightly different. Doesn't seem possible to mix and match so I would need to alter my propshaft otherwise. Might be better to rebuild one and sell the good one.

Oh, did you find out what the L/H casting in the Marina engine bay was?

Sorry for the hijack.

Difficult to say Darren, £360 plus vat would see the box stripped and rebuild with seals and bearings only. If gears etc were found to be worn then this would be advised on at the point of stripping.
The Marina panel was just a cover plate for the LHD conversion

Do you do it or can you recommend a company?