Morris Minor Owners Club

hey everyone my name is paul and im living in nz , been fantasising about a morry for a while now and have really enjoyed lurking around this forum for the last couple of weeks.
thanks for all the great photos and info. it really is amazing to have such a great resource

. ended up adopting a dead morry for 150$ . 1953 traveller. striped it out over the last 2 days for some extensive rust patching in the floor and subframe.

anyway i intend to upgrade the running gear and suspension as well. i scored an escort mk11 diff in good nick with cables,hubs drums and dampers and (springs,not needed) for 100$ and the person also has new front discs and hubs, stubs and calipers avaialble for a reasonable price. these are mk 2 parts. the front stub axles on the escort are 28 mm ones
. my morry ones 25.3 and 17mm stubs and the bearings are the old style ball bearings. which leads me to the question. can i put the ford hubs on the morris stub axle using some sort of sleeve or suitable bearing. or would it be best to drill out the stubs and have an engineer weld the ford stubs on the morris uprights..

i have thought to move away from the morris stud pattern as for limited availability of wider wheels. and also because i intend to change the back axle to the escort one.. is this a mistake?
would it be better to keep the morris stubs and hubs etc stud pattern and redrill the ford disc rotors and maybe try and source some minilite alloys perhaps. if this is the case then i would need to change the back axles hubs back to the morris ones.
or perhaps just redrilling the ford hubs is the best bet..

arrrhghh i dont really know to be honest . minilites are expensive here but then again getting an engineer modding upright stubs could be expensive as well.. i think the cheapest option would be to drill the front esort rotors to morris stud pattern and keeping the morris hub
and redrill the back escort hubs and drums to a morris stud pattern. using the ford hubs on the back and the morris one on the front .

if i go this way would it be pertinent to upgrade to the modern taperd bearing as shown on this site

any answers would be greatly appreciated. i dont really intend to keep the car original btw as it is well dead and if im gunna spend money id rather have modern runing gear

cheers paul

i guess im realy hoping i can get the ford hub to fit the morry front stub axel with a suitable bearing . anyone seen anything like this

Welcome to the Forum - yes - some kits sold here use Ford parts. I'm a drum brakes person ( ) - so not really up on exactly how the hubs are fitted - but I believe some form of bearing adapter is used. I wouldn't get into changing the stubs - welding to cast uprights is not likely to be too easy! If using the Ford axle - you may as well go Ford wheels all round. I'm sure someone will be along in afew minutes to explain exactly how the front hubs are fitted.

Hi and welcome to the forum!... I'm sure someone will be along soon to answer your questions, I'm lost when it come to anything away from original. Put some photo's up too, we like being nosey. ;)

This sounds like a split screen traveller, with the clocks behind the steering wheel? If so back in the UK this would be worth a small fortune if done original, not sure about New Zealand values if done the same. If parts are hard to come by over there then putting bits on you can get hold of easily would make sense in my opinion.

Good luck with the project and keep us updated with photo's... please!!!

ah yes thanks bmecosse. a bearing adaptor is that the go.? hopefully someone has an idea. really the ford bits are cheap as chips over here and wheels and tyres as well . i would have gone with the big drums but they dont really seem to be available over here..

gday dean. yep its a slpit screen and basically intact , sills and rails are 85 to 90% good doors and guards good.. floor is well saveable perhaps

i didnt really want to do an original resto for my first one. the morry was sort of a last resort from dreams of muscle cars and then i found out guys were doing morry muscle and they were cheap. after a month of looking at them i fell in love. the muscle idea has gone out the window and im thinking sensible 1600 ford or toyota. i do have the 850morry and gearbox if i run out of cash
my last brit car was an austin 1100 that i loved and kept going

i was made redunant from my job as a jeweller and am doing fiberglassing repairs from home. this project is intented to be on a very tight budget. i have a mig welder. gas axe and a decent arsenal of tools including a rupes sander , grinders. vices. basic spray gear and fiberglassing stuff.. alas no drill press yet.

will post photos as soon as possible
and thanks for the answers

Why not have someone turn you up a copy of the ford stub axle but with the correct end to puh into the Minor kingpin. The Ital conversion we do uses this method, where the kingpin is machined out to fit the larger diameter ital stub. This then accepts the std Ital hub. You will just need to make sure that the Ford disc parts fit without catching or giving you too much offset which in turn would limit wheel width.
You could on the otherhand simply buy a Ford based disc kit from the Minor Specialists here in the UK. More expensive but work.

hi jonathon your kits look great however 500 pounds is 1500 hundred dollars here. just a tad out of my budget lol. that would be ideal but infortunately i have not much of chance there and need to scrounge things as cheaply as possible. or project will not happen at all .

so are you suggesting pressing into the upright. new copies of the ford stubs. that makes sense. i guess that would be the cheapest option

here are my thoughts
1 replace stub with ford stub and press or weld
2 use a bush/sleeve on the hub to make ford bearing fit over
3 drill rotor to fit morris hub

the morris hub has 100mm lenght . not sure what the ford escort hub is although i know the shaft diameter is 3mm thicker

surely id would buy all your kits if i was rich lol
but im umeployed . 50$ escort diffs is my budget

Understood

Hopefully ,making a new stub to the Ford spec plus engineering the kingpin end will allow you to push fit the stuc as with the original Minor. Do not weld it in. If you go this route then you will not need sleeves ,simply the original Ford hub.with Ford PCD

ok that makes sense. no welding. ill just go and get the measurements of a ford stub and thread . do a drawing and give it to the engineer/machinist with the uprights. he can figure that out.

i wont be doing this for a while but wanted to know if it was going to be reasonably do~able so i may as well fork out for the rest of the escort parts while they are available locally and cheaply..

maybe im stupid but the sleeves idea sounds easier and or cheaper to me. but then again im not an engineer so i dont know what it entails?? or if its ok to do. do you have your hubs custom made for your kits?

thanks jonathon. back to bodywork for a few months..
if anyone else has any to add it would be awesome

what about an adaptor plate that bolts to the minor hub? or would i be running out of hub for the wheel to rest on i guess

if i went the sleeve direction, calcs say that i would need a 17mm inside diameter sleeve witha 2 mm wall for the outer bearing and a 25mm inside diameter sleeve with a 3.5 mm wall for the inner bearing . not sure if the morry stub is long enough though

I wouldn't bother with an adapter, it will increase loading on the bearings and the solution I have given is better /more simple engineering.

Risk with an 'adaptor' is that it could start spinning on the stub - and 2mm wall thickness is not really wise. Making new 'Ford' stubs will not be cheap - will need to be good quality steel - and they will need to be a good tight interference fit in the king-pin assembly. Even then - I would have a large thick 'safe-guard' washer mounted at the rear to stop them pulling out!

Stubs would be no problem BM, EN16T would suffice about £20 each plus the VAT and yes, as I alluded too the kingpin end needs to mimick the original Minor system.

Yes EN 16T sounds fine - have to say £20 sounds a bit of a 'bargain' - doubt they will get made in NZ as 'one-offs' (well two-offs!) for that price!
And then - caliper brackets will be required - and don't forget the modifications to the master cylinder - although I suspect a new pre-modified one would be the best way to go. Probably want a servo too - and a remote filler pot, and a complete re-pipe of the system !

I'm with Dean's earlier comment. A Series II Traveller, particularly and early cheesgrater grill model is a very rare car, there are probably only a dozen or so on the road in this country, and as such it would be criminal to butcher it with go faster bits. The car will be worth far more if it was restored to its original condition

And - don't forget - the LH stub must have a Left Hand thread for the retaining nut!

Ideally Mike I'd agree, but if the mods are performed well then much of it would be reversable.
I'd rather the car be used and cherished in its proposed form, rather than be garaged by an owner afraid to use it, on the chance it might be de valued or parts wear out.

or left to rot in a paddock like the other few hundred in NZ. im not doing any chopping of the body although the seats will be updgraded.. i would prefer to use an engine that doesnt require and body chopping. yeah dont want to change it to much!! i have seen a lot of morris lying around. someone is selling a whole stack of them for 5,000 pounds in nelson. you could arrange a few containers...

anyway i would like to know the supplier the mysterious part you listed please . the axle .. excuse my ignorance

im not really doing the resto to make money or anything . the car is for me to own for a long time until i give to someone or daughter gets it