Morris Minor Owners Club

Exactly - but one day he may wonder what it is.............

BMC -- and all those who need to undertake the same job -- I think I can be of some help, having just replaced mine.

Total job time: it took two people roughly twelve hours to get everything prepared, then welded. One person with experience welding and grinding, etc. could probably do it in six hours, if they book it.

Difficulty: not immense. It's just tedious and annoying.

First. It helps A LOT to have at least the center 12" of the floors out, and of course all the interior, if you're doing the job with the car sitting. My Mog needed its floors out anyway, so that was a no-brainer. I'll write my guide as though you've got the floors out (because I don't know how to write the other way).[frame][/frame]
Second. You may find it wise to take some long angle iron or tube steel and make a temporary crossmember between the sills. We did it and it helped a lot. Lash (or tack-weld) the chassis legs onto it.

Third. Make sure to remove the loom, prop shaft, and brake line, and anything else in the way, from the middle of the car. It is wise to steal the handbrake captive nut from the old xmember, also. It will be good, at this point, to place the chassis legs rather high off the ground with axle stands.

Fourth. With access through the floor, take a torch and cut the old crossmember (since it's junk anyway) between the chassis legs and their torsion bars. The xmember is now in three pieces. We found it good to cut again at the insides of the sills, making five pieces. But my old crossmember was in such bad shape, much of it came out with an air chisel, and some of it by twisting by hand.[frame][/frame]
Fifth. You'll notice in the photo that we took the 'camel hump' out completely, and torched/chiseled/ground the old center of the xmember out of it. You may find it more efficient to leave the camel hump and drill the spot-welds out from above or below, but keep in mind you will need to free the handbrake no matter what, because its captive nut is attached to the crossmember.

Sixth. My driver's side sill needed replacing, and both sills needed some hole-patching. Having the crossmember off is a perfect opportunity for that. We also added some 1/4" sheet steel over where the crossmember attaches to the sills, to spread the loads more effectively -- doing that or not is your choice, but I suggest it.[frame][/frame]
Seventh. Replace one torsion bar at a time, and do it with the crossmember hanging below where it will go. It's easier. The torsion bar reassembly was the hardest and most time-consuming part of the whole job. When you get to the remaining side's lever arm, you may find it too high to place the bolt in its hole -- if so, jack up the chassis leg at its rear end, and if you still haven't enough room, take off the lower bump-stop from that side's wheel well, allowing the wheel to drop further and thus rotating the lever arm down.[frame][/frame]
Eighth. Weld the new crossmember onto the sills first, and make the welds as solid as you can. You may require shims under the sills to get it to reach all the way, but you shouldn't need more than perhaps 2mm -- otherwise your car is out of alignment. (Mine actually is, and needed about 3mm.) If you retained the 'camel hump', spot-weld it onto the xmember and drill the new hole into it for the handbrake bolt, spotting on the captive nut from underneath. With the new member in, you can remove the temporary one.

Ninth. Replace the loom, brake line, and prop shaft, and the floor -- which can be spot-welded across. (Haven't done this part yet.) Prior to putting in the floor, weld the chassis legs onto the new member. We used new flanges made from thicker steel, and seam-welded them, but you could spot-weld with the original flanges if they're not too beat up. This is also a great time to replace all the underside grommets, if you have a fresh set.

Tenth. If your torsion bar is bent obscenely, as mine is (in the last photo), replace it.

Hope that helps! If anyone spots anything I forgot, please add it.

Excellent! Many thanks - you have given me hope - although my floors are good and I won't be cutting them out - at least that's not Plan A !!

Well, if I can do such a job, you certainly can, BMC!

If you'd rather not chew up your floors -- and I can't blame you at all for not wanting to, it's an annoying and lengthy job -- I can see three ways to ease the process: put the car on a lift (maybe a local mechanic would let you use one? Ones in my town do) and get it to maybe head height; put the car in a rolling cage and work from the side; or, worst case, jack it up as far as you can and hit it that way. I wouldn't favor doing that last one at all.

Thanks - I have made a simple 'roll over' jig - but I'm not too sure that will help since it attaches to the suspension - which will likely have to be partially removed to get the T bars out of the way!

Actually, BMC, it is possible to leave the torsion bars attached at the front -- indeed, that's how I did my xmember replacement, pulling the old rotten crossmember out and back rather than taking out the bars. It may be better to leave them for alignment of the new 'member. But if your bars need renewed or painted or inspected, certainly take them out.

There are lots of ways of going at it -- I believe a body can work around anything, if he so wants.

A rollover cage is certainly a good thing to have for many many tasks, including this one -- but I'd suggest that a temporary crossmember, as I did, is a MUST when the car is on its side in a cage, supported only by the suspension. And probably a good idea to weld, rather than lash, the chassis legs onto the temp.

Yes - I do like the temporary crossmember idea - I will do that if/when I get forced into this job! I can see the T bars can be left in place - but I suspect will be a bluddy nuisance to work around!

Cross member under the bed.
Where do you keep your spare engines and gearboxes??????????

Oh they live in the garage alongside the cars - under the Hornby Dublo railway!