Morris Minor Owners Club

I've just fitted exchange front dampers to the moggy in an attempt to stop a creaking/ squeeking noise, that occures when crossing speed humps etc n/s one monday pm, o/s today pm, each took two hours a bit longer than I thought but cleaning as i went all takes time. Anyway it sounds a little quieter but not cured, i'll check the rear spring pins tomorrow to see if there's metal to metal contact, although i don't think there is, have any of you experienced the actual rear spring leaves creaking?

hi

my back springs creak and squeak all the time, but thats because the floor is rotten, and like you say it probably is metal to metal contact somewhere. make sure theres no holes you didnt know about - hope its ok. also make sure the springs havent collapsed a bit, if you can see between the leaves they need replacing.

if you can change your front dampers yourself youre a better man than me anyway. i got the garage to do mine, but it was worth it, they only took an hour to do both so it only cost me 30 quid. now it handles so much better.

cheers
grainger

I'm going to suggest something now that may have me shot down in flames by the chemical police but as it's a tip from mountain bikers I'm going to try it anyway.
Hairspray is good for fitting rubber handlebar grips that are a bit tight. A few minutes after spraying it drys and they are good and snug. Try spraying each of the suspension bush points and then going for a short drive to see if it stops creaking.

The usual way to check the spring rubber bushes for squeaking is
to apply some brake fluid(doesn't harm rubber) or spray with WD40.
You can also get an annoying squeak from the front suspension
eyebolt rubbers. If you find that any need replacing then do yourself
a favour and fit a set of POLYURETHENE bushes NOT hard plastic.
They are dearer but well worth it.

Watch out when fitting the polyurethene bushes, as there are different hardnesses. Some cause severe creaking!! I fit a full set (whole car) of 'red' types, from the Morris Minor Centre in Birmingham only to have to replace them with a set of 'yellow' types from JLH Minors, which are fine.

They should be stiffer than the original rubber ones, but they should not feel like plastic!! - as Willie says, they are definately worth the extra money.

Thanks for all your replies, regarding the poly bushes, about 3years ago I fitted these to the front eye bolts and think they are still ok but if certain colours can squeek maybe I have the wrong ones; they were bluey black. The o/s top trunnion has red ones and the n/s trunnion has yellow. I've even been sold different colours in the same batch before and told it doesn't matter ( something I doubted) How can a definate answer be found and what colour are plastic ones, or are these available in every colour, confusing isn't it.
Who's going to Brooklands?

Well my polyurethene bushes for the rear springs are a sort of
bluey black but you can certainly feel that they are not hard plastic.
I have just fitted some to the top swivel links and they are Yellow
but again not hard plastic. The ones in the front spring eyes are
orange. Whatever you do do not heavily oil the rear spring leaves,
they are not supposed to be oiled.

The trouble is that different manufacturers use different colours for difference compliance values and the colours are not standardised.

The test usually is:

If you can squash the bush (so that the sides touch each other) with your thumb and forefinger then they should be OK, if you can't then they are the hard type and are too hard and will creak.

This only applies to the polyurethene types, and the rear spring / eyebolt bushes, and assuming normal strength!!

some brake fluid(doesn't harm rubber)

Whoah!!!! Easy there.
Suspension rubbers are very often Nitrile based. This is fine with mineral oils (eg. engine oil) and greases but is completely destroyed by brake fluid. If they are old and hard you may get away with it but it's a big risk.

Only a limited amount of materials are OK with brake fluid. The typical type is EPDM, used for brake hydraulic seals and brake flexi hoses.
If you are sure that a 'rubber' (elastomer) is EPDM then use brake fluid to lubricate it but otherwise I wouldn't.

Moral of the strory - dont put normal grease anywhere near the brakes or hoses and don't put brake fluid on engine seals or the average suspension rubber.
I read once that someone recomended to put brake fluid in engine oil to stop the engine seals leaking! That would make the Nitrile seals swell and may stop leaks in the short term but after not much running at engine temperature time the seals would fail completely....


Hairspray? That's an interesting one. Various lubricants are used in the automotive industry to lubricate elastomers, but an easy one for assembly of seals etc.. is a small wipe of whichever fluid they will be used with, and for 'rubber' mounts - washing up liquid!!
for squeaks I've found WD40 to be close to unbeatable.

As for polyurethane bushes, I've not used them yet, as I tend to do one job at a time and didn't want to fit them without doing a full set.
Having said that, it is ridiculous that a set of 'standard' new eye bolt rubbers can wear through in 1 year! Some suppliers are taking the ####.
Has anyone had trouble with the lifetime of polyurethane? I worked with it in industry (a long time ago) and it was better than many compounds but tear propagation is awful and it would craze and go 'glassy' when heavily stressed.

While we are on the subject of different elastomer bushes has anyone had any problems after fitting this type to the front of the tie bars? I have heard recommendations for this mod but whilst I would be happy to do this to other suspension bushes I personally won't be doing this to either car. If the tie bar was fixed at the front end the path of the other end would have to form an arc. As it is attatched to the lower wishbone it cannot so the bar is allowed to move forward by the compression of the tie bar rubbers. These rubbers can therefore be seen as an integral componant in the correct operation of the suspension. Obviously the substitution of stronger material here will have a knock on effect of a fore-aft strain on the tie bar and potential stress to the eyebolt/eyebolt bushes.
Discuss

Personally i would consider ALL of the original rubber bushes
to be important parts of the original design, it is just that modern
materials can improve on most of them. The Tie-Bar rubbers would
not have crossed my mind I must admit because they do a good job
and last for a very long time unlike the rear spring shackle rubbers
for example. With regard to checking for rubber squeaks by using
brake fluid, I have never had any problems with this method but
since any Minor nowadays could have plastic type bushes the last
thing needed would be mixing plastic with brake fluid(have you seen
what it does to paintwork)

Peetee, I have poly bushes all round EXCEPT the tie bar bushes. I don't think that there will be too much of a problem if they are replaced with poly types as long as they are not too tough for the reasons you stated.

On the basis that a worn tie bar rubber will often show itself as 'brake judder', and that
1) folks like Cam with disk brakes don't have a problem with standard ones
2) Standard ones seem to last better than at the other suspension mounts.

I'd struggle to see a reason not to use standard ones for the tie bar.