Morris Minor Owners Club

I replaced the telescopic dampers with
a set of coilovers!
Steven

thanks for the pointer.

all good now, except, my rear break hose burst leaving me no breaks and more time sitting on the drive.

never ending this minor repair lark!

Hi Danny, change your rubber brake pipes to braided ones
their stronger and you get a better brake peddle
Steven

that was my plan, though where the shock has been modififed to fit, its right in the way of the nut the holds the pipe. Was thinking that if i have to take them off to change the pipe i'll upgrade the shocks to spax gas adjustable shox.

I understand that the disadvantage of braided hoses for normal road use is that deterioration is not obvious until they suddenly fail. Fine for racing, where it's no trouble to change the hoses every race, but ime ordinary rubber hoses last for many years and deteriorate so slowly that this should be picked up in the course of normal servicing. I have never had a hose burst, though I've had several which have swollen internally, usually showing up as slowness in the brake releasing.

Kevin

Faceplant wrote: all good now

So..... What was knocking ???

I don't see any advantage in the braided pipes - the standard pipes are fine, and much cheaper. And the 'story' about 'harder pedal etc' is just that - a story! New standard flexi hoses properly bled are perfectly satisfactory.

Braided hoses are a pretty standard upgrade on motorbikes where you can feel the difference through your hand.
The energy that would be lost expanding the rubber hose goes to braking effort instead.

If the flexi hoses are 'expanding' - they need renewing! Certainly there used to be 'double green band' hoses for competition use.

Can't get any results searching on double green band brake hose variations on that theme.
Searching on competition brake hoses just returns braided hoses.
Are double green band brake hoses the budget option?

They were certainly 'de rigueur' back in the day for the Mini Cooper S !!

the knocking was the tie bar, the bolt was slightly loose in the hole in the end of the bar. my dad found it lying on the floor while i bounced the wing. i tightened the nut but only stopped the knocking for a day. roads round here are riddled with potholes. I just tried to fit the replacements (bought for both sides) and the bar is different to the origional, its about 1cm too long! need to send back so esm can find out why. another week on the drive! my 2nd car is getting lots us use.

replaced the rear break pipe aswell, i went for rubber, and will have to keep an eye on it as the one i took off looks like it was rubbing on the body. might wrap it with a piece of garden hose secured wil cable ties for protection. will bleed tomorrow once i get a bleeding kit.

good news is the clocks change tonight so i'll have some light in the evening to get my minor back!

Highly unlikely the tie-bar replacement would be wrong length. Are you sure? Can you show a picture of old and new side by side? Just 'maybe' your tiebars have been shortened to give more castor, although 1 cm shorter seems a LOT. Note that the bolts through the tiebar must be HIGH TENSILE, not just any old bolt.

100% sure its different in lenght to mine, i'll post a pic when i get my camera back.

Why can't you drill the tie bar mounting hole out and fit
a bigger bolt. But do it on both sides, then send the new tie bar back
seems like your having a lot of bother!
Steven

Drilling out will work well - just don't go too far, and as above you must use high tensile bolts. Allen cap screws are great!

might try that, it is turning out to be a pain in the rear!

It's a lot easier than having to refit new tiebars then you
could be back to square one again with the knocking!
You could change the the tiebar bushes to polyurethane
one if you haven't allready
steven