Morris Minor Owners Club

Why you'd want to involve the club is beyond me, we want them quick don't we.
What you need to find out is, who is commissioning these current lot of foreign imports? go to them and ask why they don't go to Tildesley. put across your figures of time scale and costing from W H Tildesley, and go from there, at least their money is waiting to buy swivel pins and sell to the traders, and they don't have to form a committee to decided what time to start the meeting.
Good on you M25VAN for giving your time and effort to this matter. It's a shame the club isn't run by people like you with enthusiasm to solve problems. I think it's a very reasonable price for what it is. Do these swivel pins come with trunnions? if not, what are the availability like for these and where from? as obviously we would need to buy as a complete unit, well I would anyway.

new old stock right hand one in the for sale section

so was any progress made on this matter?

I'm not trying to barge in on anyone who has found or is making these swivel pics but from what I read its becoming a real problem, I am affiliated with an engineering firm who have the highest standard of manufacture, If i was shown a picture or given some diagrams I could price the job to be manufactured from EN24T or the american equivalent?

Jordan
Total Engineering Developments

I have a technical drawing of one if needed.

Onne, send details to TED ASAP. Let give some work to our businesses in these difficult times

Please do Onne, 'becca's swivel pins are apparently knackered (explains the clunking) and I'd really rather like to replace them asap...

I've sent a pm to ask for them to be forwarded, I cant promise anything though, I'd need to look at drawings first!

Jordan

So, am I assuming correct the suppliers STILL haven't got any in yet then???
I'm glad my two moggies have new ones already, but I do feal sorry for the restorers that need some, and for people that need their car for daily transport.
What happened to my original suggestion, did know one act on it? if they did, then what was the result?
It's all very well having the great spares back up we have, but when a crucial part, that has no aftermarket modification alternative, is unavailable the cars are worthless.

I've just checked with three well known suppliers and all say no stock at present, awaiting delivery - but could not give a date.

We have once confirmed price and what sounds like a potential second quote on the way. It really is time for the club to get involved as per my suggestion above. The suppliers have been promising action for well over a year; and if they can't get something done then we should talk to them about the club doing it in cooperation rather than competition.

My post dated April 15th 2008.

Judge wrote:I believe that one of the reasons behind the club maintaining its funds, was to enable it to look into the production of certain parts if this ever became necessary.

As we are only waiting for a delivery time and not a production time, I don't think we need to involve the MMOC just yet.
To set up a lasting and meaningful deal would take some time, by which the new swivel pins could be with us.
Although inconvenient for us, it would be a shame if the company currently supplying the swivel pins were undermined by a 'new' supplier the MMOC. It has been a production issue that has delayed the arrival of these parts and the commisioning company has had the courage to find a more reliable source, so lets give them a chance of at least getting them to the marketplace to recoup their original cost and the cost of recommisioning.
On the point of the MMOC supplying these parts I would be dead set against only MMOC members being able to purchase these. This idea would probably mean that only a few trader would be able to buy them as most are not members, nor wish to be. And its not really in the spirit of the 'preservation' of the Minor if only 1/3 of Minor owners are able to purchase such a fundamentally important part.
We were told that sometime in Jan 09 would be the delivery date, so lets give them this at least.

Competition is good, monopolies are bad

unnecessary competition is pointless and a waste of resorces. Nothing wrong with monopolies if it works for the end user, same can be said for competition. An MMOC monopoly that discriminates on who the end user is would be just criminal
The trouble here is, that the supplier listens to cries that the parts are too expensive ,so tries to work around this problem, only in this case (I believe) it has not paid off and we have the this sorry state of affairs.
I think an area for the MMOC to concentrate on ,if they are indeed to 'set up shop' is that of panels, monopolised by Heritage and Hadrian, [moderated - although I agree with the comment it's not allowed within the forum rules, sorry - Ray]
There is also the chrome issues, and difficulty of tyre supply,fuel pumps, alternators,dynamos etc, etc, is the club going to address all of the issues that we have with the parts producers ?

I would hope that in line with what I have already said, the MMOC too would not monopolise the market. However I think we are getting ahead of ourselves here.

In the meantime just consider what you have said, and put it in the context of your personal life, what for example, would you think if you could only purchase your daily shopping from one shop, at their prices?

Where there is a large market and also a large stock of items then competition is a good thing. However if a company has risked a financial outlay on a limited production run to satisfy a small market then it is only fair that the company should be able to recoup its production costs as the sole provider.

How about you consider 'niche' market, low volume production runs, lack of UK based engineering, underpriced foreign imports, lack of investment etc etc.
If the market were 'open' and supplied by the MMOC and not just available to those who are MMOC members as has been suggested, then 'fair point' but the monopoly by the current supplier has been so for many years, without complaint, so why jepordise his legitimate return on his investment.
As you say this is speculative and a bit of a pointless debate, until we have either a supply or need to consider options.

OK, hypothesis - Someone starts to produce parts previously supplied by a number of companies. These parts are then sold through one outlet instead of a number of them. Finally a number of other parts are produced, and the same scenario follows.

Eventually this supplier becomes the sole supplier, charges what he likes, and all other suppliers go to the wall. Finally this ONE supplier goes to the wall. What then?

All eggs in one basket?

Sorry , your sceptical logic is beyond me. Are we talking supplier or manufacturer, or benefactor.

Scepticism often comes from experience We are talking as I have already explained.