Morris Minor Owners Club

Just want to know whats in store
More to the point is anything likely to break that I'll need to get before starting?
Should have ordered new track rod ends too but forgot, so anything else i ought to get when order them later?

Replacing the lot with new rubber - decided against poly as the ride is hard enough on most of the roads and bumpy tracks as it is.
The existing ones are very deteriorated so its bound to be an improvement.

Do you lubricate the new ones when fitting?

I use a smear of red rubber grease. With practise, its possible to strip the front suspension in under 40mins per side. You will need Whitworth sockets and spanners as thats what size the nuts and bolts are (Whit head, BSF threads). May need to also buy a new eyebolt and pin if they have been squeaking for a while and metal to metal contact has ovalled both.

Hmm dont like the sound of that already - will earmark saturday for one side front suspension and sunday for the other !
better get onto fleabay a bit sharpish and order a whitworth socket set too as sadly lacking in them.

Getting the front leaf spring mount off can be fun, you'll probably need four small nuts & bolts to replace the rusted old ones. The pins themselves will probably be OK after a bit of cleaning -if they've got surface rust then they don't slide into the bushes very easily. I used to use a bit of car shampoo (fairy liquid etc. has salt in it) to help them go in but it's still a pain. Poly was just sooo much easier to fit and not all poly bushes are harder than the rubber ones. Dunno if there's an approved grease for rubber bushes, I used white grease on the poly but more to stop them squeaking than anything else.

Oh yes, and don't fully tighten the nuts until there's weight back on the suspension or the bushes will get a permanent twist and deteriorate even more quickly.

That's all I can think of for now.

Cheers Stig, i do have silicone type sprays for drysuits etc - which as they are for diving shouldnt be harmful to rubber so that might do for getting the new ones in.
Failing that have lots of lithium grease for tractors which is good & slippery.

Thought the rubber over poly would suffice as guess whats on there will all be original & as such it'll be a drastic improvement. Oh not to mention the complete rubber kits are cheap as chips

I'll remember that about the weight, good tip cheers !

Yes, leave plenty of time to re-bush the suspension. Its not such a bad job really, although rusty nuts/ bolts may need penetrating fluid. Don't use lithium grease on rubber as that will rot it.

Cheers CJ couldnt remember which grease did for rubber.
Already got a tin of penetrant spray - begrudgingly at that as it was a third of the price of the bush set LOL

if the eyebolts are badly worn (from metal to metal contact) then it's worth replacing them, however if they are only a little worn, you can turn them upsidedown! The load is transferred to the top surface so that won't make much difference at all - however if the wear is big, the bush won't fit well and that will affect the roadholding (not as much as a completely shot bush!!).

For the rear spring front hanger, don't spend too much time trying to get the pin out of the location plate. Normally they rust in solid so just remove the pin and plate together (normally by cutting off the nuts/bolts). The pin can be a real pain to remove from the bushes so a lot of brute force can be required. I have a spare pin and plate at hand just in case when doing this job - it's not often needed but if the old one refuses to come out or if the plate has rusted too much, then it saves having to worry about it.

The good bit is the rear shackle bushes - compared to the other bushes these are pretty simple (not always 'easy' but at least simple to get at, and no special tricks needed).

Make sure you fit the rear spring front mounting first - doing it the other way round can make the job more difficult. Sometimes you need to load a leaf spring before the shackles will reach - which is far easier to achieve when fitting the rear mounts and nearly impossible when doing the front mount.

The trouble with the cheap rubber bushes is that you get what you pay for- in otherwords - they may only last 5 minutes.It's much better to fit poly bushes on the top link kingpin to damper - this makes the biggest improvement without any harshness. And don't forget the link rod for the rear dampers!

I'll stick with cheap rubber would consider poly only come the day the suspension gets uprated which wont be any time soon.
OK they may not last a long time but £15 is a pretty cheap fix to overhaul something so old and dilapidated.

More useful tips there ta Ray, will get replacement bolts before i start it then

Aye - but you do all that hard work - and the new bush falls apart almost immediately - so you have to do it all over again!

It's true, you know
a

A full set of Superflex should be around 80 quid, and should outlast cheapo rubber by a long way - Far enough to justify the cost IMO. The road (blue usually, at least on my cars) ones aren't all that much harder than rubber, but of course they stay hard and complete for a long time where rubber will soften and make things sloppy in a pretty short time, even if they're not collapsed.

Of course, if you only have 15 quid spare then new rubber is better than rotten rubber!

Of course, if you only have 15 quid spare then new rubber is better than rotten rubber!

My wallet couldnt agree more
and as its a relatively new project not going to throw silly money at it initially, pretty sure the improvement will be very noticeable.
Probably only do 30 miles a week so the rubber ones should last a while.

Not fitted many modern rubber parts then...

Thanks for the confidence booster BG ive heard they can be a bit problematic and also a good reason for fitting polly's.
Expect if i started a swear box when i fit them would have been cheaper to spend the 80 quid

Sorry, but I've given up on the rubber ones, since sometimes they don't even last the putting in process without tearing and I'm EVERY bit as broke as you...

If you intend doing it this weekend give the penetrating fluid a chance and put some on tonight and for the next couple of nights with a bit of luck it will have got through the worst.
And sorry to say I also agree with the use of polybushes.

I also agree that the cost of the cheap ones makes them attractive...
UK consumer law states that a part has to be "fit for purpose" but I guess most people, like myself, just switch to poly bushes rather than argue their case individually.

If given he choice I'd use poly bushes for the eyebolts as these take more load than the others and are usually the first to fail if the new rubber turns out to be useless. They are also one of the harder parts to change (unlike top trunnion rubbers which can be done much quicker).
On the Minor I took through Africa, I did them all with cheap bushes except for the eyebolt bushes (done in poly) and despite the severe pounding they stood up ok.

Orkney - you can't be hard up - you just bought an uber expensive 'overhaul kit' for your carb !! It would never ever cross my mind to do that!!