Morris Minor Owners Club

Poppey has just been for her MOT today.
She failed on one point:
Offside front(trunnion lower) steering pivot point has excessive play.
Can you tell me if this is going to be a big job please? Can we do it ourselves or is it best dealt with in a garage?
Thanks
Liz

It's very DIYable. if rather tricky, since the brake backplate needs to come off, along with a lot of the susension, to do the job. You may find (will find...) that the swivel pin is worn too, and replacing that is even more involved, though still DIYable.

about 90mins work i would say
i did mine in about that time, that was changing the leg as well

Although not a very pleasant job, the lower trunnion can be done quite easily DIY if you have a manual to follow. Thing is, it doesn't stop there. As mentioned above, the threads on the Kingpin are likely to be worn, as are the suspension rubber bushes. Replaceing the bushes is straight-forward enough, but if you need to replace the kingpin, then order up a steering arm at the same time, as sometimes the old steering arms just will not come out of the old kingpin. So it all adds up. One thing about DIY, at least you know the job is done right!

aupickup wrote:about 90mins work i would say
i did mine in about that time, that was changing the leg as well

Did you hit your knee with a hammer? I'm impressed, front suspension done and a new 'leg'.

did not find it to bad, new leg on its way

luckily all nuts and bolts came out first time , and i did have spare arms

about 90mins work i would say

maybe if your experienced, youve done it before and not faced with nuts that havnt been undone in 3 decades and your doing it for a bet perhaps.
Dont know about 90 mins, a day perhaps if youve never done it before but perfectly doable as a DIY repair.
As MoggyTech says there are other factors if you care. You might as well make a job of it and replace the top one too and the rubbers whilst your at it and of course do teh other side too. Not a great outlay in parts but lots of time & when done will be like driving a very different and much newer car.
I know people keep going on about polybushes but the rubber whole car set i got recently from bull motif were ab fab when fitted (only done the front so far) parts cost peanuts, time to fit lots but result fantastic!

that was the 2nd time i did it, so would not say experienced in it

it really is a simple job and any one can do it, lets not put people off

It is pretty simple, but can take a LOT longer than 90 mins if the nuts and bolts are corroded solid
a

not if u have got a spanner that works like a grinding wheel
seriously a valid point, but must admit i did not have a problem with any of the nuts or bolts, and i did have spare steering arms at hand

if they lived nearer i would do it for them on sunday morn

Liz ,You need to take the trunnion OFF to look at the leg threads before you can decide if you need to renew the trunnion only or the whole system. If the threads on the leg are sharply pointed(They should be flat at the tips) then the leg is shot and you need to replace it along with new trunnions. If you can get the leg off,take it to tom roys at battersby junction near stokesly and chris will have a look at it and advise you what you need to buy. As others will say,a common maintenace job,nothing complicated.just a bit fiddly if you havent done this sort of job before.

Remember to:

a) take the pin out BEFORE you try to unscrew the trunnion.

b) count the number of turns it takes to unscrew the trunnion so that you can EASILY get it back on and the pin back in without having to keep fiddling about screwing and unscrewing!

When I did mine I put a jack under the arm to take the load of the suspension.
I then undid the bolts that hold both pieces of arm together and the trunnion in place, removed the small tie bar and popped the front 'arm piece' off.

I had enough movement in the upright leg to be able to pull it away from the arm still attached and then remove the pin (tap it out) and unscrew the trunnion collar.

It was actually very easy. The biggest issue I faced was finding sockets the right size to fit the various nuts. The nuts themselves were chunky enough not to have been killled by corrosion, all I did was brush them up a bit with a a wire brush to remove any road crud and grease.

As Dunketh says - it's easy enough - but to be safe just fit a whole new (NOT recon) upright - doesn't cost a fortune and you then KNOW it's all ok. Only small (!) problem is getting the steering arm (as mentioned already above) out of the old upright - heat and/or grinder are usually required.

Thanks for all the responses
Kit has been purchased so here goes!

Best of luck!
a