Morris Minor Owners Club

Coil-Over Damper Conversion Kit-Front has anyone done this?

does it make it better throw the bends?

is it easy to fit?

http://morrisminorspares.co.uk/shop/pro ... 36d65d233a

thanks

I'm afraid you may say that I'm biased in my view, but I can see no good reason to do this. A good gas damper kit will do you just as well and save you money.

For one thing - it's Out of Stock - and it's really not necessary. Better damping , yes - but the torsion bar suspension is strong enough as is. You can considerably improve the damping by simply filling the dampers with more viscous oil - and you can add on telescopic dampers to give even more damping control!
If you want to go the whole hog - you can replace the front suspension with a wishbone system. Not cheap - but I understand it works well! Ask Jonathon about it via PM.

In the middle of the picture on the link. What do the big plates of metal do, the bits with oval type holes in? can't see a possible use.

I've no idea !! Strange shape indeed.

The ones with the oval holes the same shape as the ones in the inner wing, with strange bits that would make the area the damper attaches to thicker? If I didn't know better, I'd say that they were to reinforce that area, but that can't be right, surely...
;)

Probably is that Andrew - don't fancy it myself!!

It does look that way now you mention it. But there isn't room for reinforcement panels. The top of the shock is a VERY tight fit against the body if I remember rightly. The instructions don't mention that part either.

they are out of stock anyway

like most things

According to the Owen Burton book it was designed to allow lowering beyond the usual 'safe' 1 1/2 splines. Like most of the Owen Burton stuff its cheap and cheerful and of course bolt on. Don't fancy it myself!

If you lower it that much - the bottom arm smacks the tie-plate anyway.

BM, you have it in one, no where does it say that its 'safe' to lower the car 'beyond the usual 'safe' 11/2 splines.
Plus , why , if the torsion bar is an approximate 220lbs, does the kit have 120lbs springs on it. I'm afraid someone here is guilty of good if not misguided PR for a rather dubious product. There is no mention of the fact that this kit uses the Mini coil over, which even at the std ride height will bottom out on itself before reaching the standard bump stops on the car. So if lowering beyond the accepted max torsion bar drop, there will be no damping at all and I'd imagine the coil to be coil bound.
Still, you pay's yer money..............., but do not expect a well engineered product FFP.

I have this kit fitted to my Minor and the handling is excellent. It also has an anti-roll bar, 5.5 x 14 minilights etc fitted but the kit was already fitted when i bought the car so cannot say how effective it is in its own right. The car has only been lowered by 1 spline on the torsion bar and i have had NO problems with bottoming out or fouling of the bodywork.
The shocker is mounted close to the inner wing rather than the wheel which would make it travel less (and make it less effective in my opinion!) but would overcome the bottoming out of the travel on the damper. I will try and get a picture of it installed later if that would help anyone?

jonathon wrote:BM, you have it in one, no where does it say that its 'safe' to lower the car 'beyond the usual 'safe' 11/2 splines.
Plus , why , if the torsion bar is an approximate 220lbs, does the kit have 120lbs springs on it. I'm afraid someone here is guilty of good if not misguided PR for a rather dubious product. There is no mention of the fact that this kit uses the Mini coil over, which even at the std ride height will bottom out on itself before reaching the standard bump stops on the car. So if lowering beyond the accepted max torsion bar drop, there will be no damping at all and I'd imagine the coil to be coil bound.
Still, you pay's yer money..............., but do not expect a well engineered product FFP.

Well I'm sure that was aimed at me. What I said just re-iterates the intended use of the product from the Owen Burton book, to stiffen the suspension for lowering. As people had asked what's the point in this kit, and I simply stated its supposed purpose.

It was by no means PR for the product, especially as I said I don't fancy it myself. Who wants cheap and cheerful bolt on products for suspension. Obviously some people, but the idea is somewhat cringe worthy to me, that these kits can be designed to be as simple to fit as possible rather than as strong, safe and well performing as possible.

As usual what I post represent my views. Not PR for other poeple and I resent any implications otherwise.

Hey MH, no way was I infering your promotion of this kit

no where does it say that its 'safe' to lower the car 'beyond the usual 'safe' 11/2 splines.

This was directed at the instructions not your comment


I'm afraid someone here is guilty of good if not misguided PR for a rather dubious product.


This comment was aimed at O Burton.

I fully understood your previous post, and appologize if you felt that my comments were aimed at yourself.

Sorry Jonathon, I do apologise about jumping to conclusions. I think these Owen Burton kits have had their day TBH.

What I cannot find out is the purpose of the rear coilover kit. No where in the modification manual does it state one! It would certainly be an expensive way to beef up sagging springs!

no probs.

Don't know about the rear kit either. We have removed both front and rears from a customers car []and I can see no great benefit over a standard gas damper and the original torsion bar and leaf spring. Like I say just good marketing.

From an engineering perspective, a torsion bar is a better method than outboard coil over. With torsion bar you don't have the weight of spring affecting the unsprung mass. Lower unsprung mass is a benefit that should not be overlooked, (although with today's fashion for bigger wider wheels things are going the wrong way)
In principle, an uprated torsion bar would be preffered over an additional coil over.

As for dampers - the rate required depends on the travel scaling, which depends where on the arm they are fixed to. If the damper is at the outer end of lower arm it gets the maximum travel scaling and can give the same damping with a lower rate - which in turn reduces the loading on to the body mounting point.
Telescopic dampers therefore offer more scope to give a good damping rate (without extreme stresses) than cantilever ones, however if they get fitted only part way out on the supension arm, the principle works less well.

Hello all,

I know the discussion of front spring rate was discussed before some time ago, and I am surprised that the suggested standard rate of 200lbs? My other car is a Triumph 2000 and it's front spring rate is 129lbs/inch and as you know this has a large heavy six cylinder engine. (The later models had a softer spring rate at 90lbs/inch but with an anti roll bar)

I have fitted 400lb/inch springs and find them much better.

To get to the point of my post, I don't believe that the damper should act as a secondary spring, i.e stiffening the suspension by damping rather than spring rate. My feeling is that the damper should just control the spring and no more.

I do agree with the comments regarding a bolt on conversion and would prefer to go the uprated torsion bar route if i wanted to stiffen the suspension.

Alec

Alec wrote

To get to the point of my post, I don't believe that the damper should act as a secondary spring, i.e stiffening the suspension by damping rather than spring rate. My feeling is that the damper should just control the spring and no more.

Has this been suggested ? I think like you that only good dampers should be used to control the spring.

I agree with Ray on the suitability of the torsion bar, but we have experienced both uprated after market bars upto 100% and the old Ital upgrade. However we felt that these tended to pitch the car quite badly over anything less than a good surface, which is why we decided to do away with the torsion bars altogether and re do the front with a wide arm coil over kit. This will be superceeded soon by a full double wishbone for much better location and saying goodbye to the old lever arms.