Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi folks

I had the tracking sorted today, my local Kwikfit actually did a good job, no sign of an air powered tool to tighten up the wheelnuts! They relied on a good old wheelbrace!

I had noticed that since replacing nearside kingpin & trunnions, the braking has a bias to the offside. I removed the drum, and found signs of glazing on the shoes, so as I had a new set of Lockheed's finest, and the old shoes were about 2/3 worn, decided to fit new brakes to the front, assuming that the glazing was grease from my grubby mitts!

The Haynes manual states that one should tie or band the piston in place in the cylinder when the shoes are removed. The nearside front piston that points downwards needed that, but the other three were much stiffer in action, though readily moved when pulled. The underside of the adjuster where in contact with that piston was also very slightly wet, though I put that down to grease from when the entire braking system was replaced a couple of years ago. Could this be indicative of a developing problem with that cylinder? Any comments would be gratefully received!

Dom

They should all be quite free moving - but the wetness indicates the seal is starting to go - so - get a seal kit asap!
And I bet they only used a wheel brace because they had no imperial socket for the windy gun!

Cheers bm, your advice as always is much appreciated

And I bet they only used a wheel brace because they had no imperial socket for the windy gun

18mm fits fine ;-)

When I complimented them on not using the air-gun, he said that the wheel nuts were the same as on the old Minis, for which they always use the wheel brace. Common sense prevails at kwik fit.... at least here in Lancs!

18mm may be close - but it's not right! In fact Mini nuts are NOT the same - slight difference across the flats (it's too wet to go out and get the actual sizes!!) Mini are 11/16 AF - Minor are slightly smaller - maybe 3/8" Whitworth ?? - and on some the nose 'taper' or radius is different too. The actual thread in the nut is the same.

Yep, Minor are 3/8" Whitworth.

[quote="Dominic"]I had the tracking sorted today, my local Kwikfit actually did a good job, no sign of an air powered tool to tighten up the wheelnuts! They relied on a good old wheelbrace![/quote]

When anyone else has tightened the wheelnuts on my car I always check them afterwards by slackening off each one in turn then torqueing up correctly. 39lbf ft or a little less on a Minor 1000. Chances are that even with a wheelbrace they've overdone it and if you're stuck on the road with a puncture it might be virtually impossible to slacken off the nuts with the car's wheelbrace.

I keep one of those extending arm wheelbraces in the car just against that eventuality. I keep the arm at it's shortest setting for tightening, and can almost double the length for increased torque for removal. I gauaged the torque with that implement against my torque wrench, so it is near enough 38lb ft.
By the way, does anyone know if Whitworth sockets are readily available?

Yes, you can get a rail of 1/2" drive Whitworth sockets from ESM (laser brand ones) and these can be bought slightly cheaper from other sources. These cover all the Whit/BSF sizes I've found on the Minor.

I've also been using the Whitworth/BSF tool kit that I ordered- new old stock very good quality stuff, and its much better to use the right sized spanners and sockets for everything! (also good for satisfying my tool fetish! ;))- much cheaper than other sources, eg Frost- or look on Ebay for Whitworth spanners.

18mm is close enough to 3/8" Whit at a push, but best to use the right size tools.

Do a Google for "Whitworth Spanners" and you'll find lots of sources.

Kamasa do a 1/22 drive set with whitworth, AF and metric in the box - Quite handy, and can be had for 20 - 30 quid if you hunt around. Unfortunately the sokets are the 12 sided rather than 6, but still very useful

I bought a 12volt electric wheel gun in Woolys sale after Christmas - all of £12 - and it does a great job of undoing wheel nuts. Use it regularly - also did a great job of undoing 'impossible' bolts holding disc to flanges (Mini discs before anyone gets excited) - worth it's weight in gold so far!

I saw those, but was sceptical, is it the kind that runs of the cigarette lighter?

As for whitworth, I have AF sockets/spanners, a spanner with one side 1/4 whitworth and the other slightly smaller and a 3/8's whitworth and i find they fit everything i've come across so far perfectly. Oh and metric sockets/spanners for things like exhaust clamps and non mog related bolts (the worst kind )