Morris Minor Owners Club

hi everyone
just out of interest how do you lower the front end on a moggy????. is it expensive or is it simpaly turn the torsion bars back a few splines???
i know u can get a lowering kit for the back with blocks.
not that im thinking of doing it just interested thats all

thanks
andrew

you can lower the front slightly by turning the torsion bars back one spline any more than that and they will no longer work.

if you want to retain torsion bars you will need to use uprated ones to lower the car further or go for a completely different set up.

You simply move the rear half of the lower arms round the torsion bar by one spline. But most Minors have sagged slightly anyway - especially at the rear! And too low at the front just smashes the inner wings to pieces. Make SURE the rubber bump stops are present - front and rear. I used to raise mine for rough road rallies!

if i did want to do it i would have to change the torsion bars for uprated ones?????
not that im going to do it on my current moggy, maybe in the future with a differnt moggy

I tried a car recently with uprated torsion bars. For me it was much too stiff. Soft springs and stiff dampers used to the the Chapman method - works for me

ive lowered mine by 2 spline and everything is ok. i did have to make it a bit higher on the adjuster plater because i caught my wing twice. hasnt done it since. i will get some uprated torsion bars sooner or later. it has only hit the inner wing a couple of times but only over big bumps.

As you lower the car at the front - the suspension goes even more +ve camber -and the handling actually gets worse! So only get in to 'lowering' etc as part of an overall suspension upgrade.
Best move really is to drain the dampers and refill with SAE 40 oil ( NOT 10W40! ) . Makes a very worthwhile handling improvement - for very little money.

Andrew,

There is a 'fine' and 'coarse' ride height adjustment at the front. Using the adjuster plate at the rear of the torsion bar gives a 1/4" increment for each hole, and repositioning a whole spline gives about 1 1/4". If you lower it more than 1 or 2 holes, you will need to space out the lower suspension arm to correct the camber angle.

As Roy says, make sure that the bump stops are in really good condition. They will need to be cut back for a lowered car, and need to be re-shaped as well to maintain the 'progressive' action.

I suppose it depends on what each person means by 'harsh'? Ours has Marina van torsion bars, which are about 25% stiffer and uprated Koni dampers on 'full hard' at the front - full soft and standard valving in the Koni's at the rear. Firm, very; harsh not obviously.

What mods need doing to the Marina van bars to make them fit Richard ?

just interested for future projects
im on my first moggy and its 100% standard so it would be ruining a original moggy by modding it.
plus my dad wouldnt agree as its him driving it at the minute until i can drive
would you have to inform the insurance about the mod??????

Roy,

The front of the Marina bar fits as standard, and Owen Burton did an adaptor for the rear of the bar so that it fitted on to the x-mbr as normal. The bar has to be shortened slightly.

Andrew,

Yes, full details of the complete spec are with the insurance company - Heritage - no additional premium payable, which is quite remarkable.

I've also fitted Marina bars
I used a bit of 2" angle iron cut to shape with a large hole in it as the bar location pivots on the adjusting arm rather than a stepped washer as on the Minor. the outer bolt in my pic is the position of the original Minor locator & I fitted the holed plate to the other side of the crossmember.
The inner bolt in my photo covers the oversize hole in the arm to allow for adjustment & hold it all in place this bolt also has a small plate on the other side to stop the bar moving rearwards as there is no thread as on the minor (shortly after this photo was taken I added a few small welds as a belt n braces measure but its all reversible)
Best thing about this mod is I can adjust ride height without dismantling anything
<br><br>

Mogwai,
Many thanks for the pic - very useful to see a DIY marina set up

Roy has suggested using thicker oil, which drastically increases the stress on the damper and its mountings... You can get the correct fluid from most Minor parts suppliers. Draining and refilling is the best solution as you don't know what's in there, and how long it's been there. A failed front damper mounting, would lead to a complete lack of control over the steering. The telescopic shock kits come up on ebay every so often - I've never paid a lot for them.

Thanks for the pic Mogwai! Can't agree with your use of 'drastic' Ray - the spring loaded valves will open and allow any excess pressure to by-pass the little metering holes under severe conditions.
Some of the 'tele' kits are not as good (shall I say!) as others!!

cheers
Out of curiosity as I've never seen one what does the O.B marina set up look like ?

have a look at mine tomorrow Richard... I suspect its an OB one

is that the surprise

The Owen Burton one requires holes drilled horizontally through the chassis legs, to attach the mounting brackets to and then the anti-roll bar front pivot blocks are fixed to the brackets after that.

It is not a good 'engineering' solution, especially as there is no real strength in a 'box section' when relying on it to tighten a bolt through the walls with no internal stiffener. The 'Eye Bolt' for the suspension also goes through the chassis leg, but is significantly reinforced inside the chassis leg to resist crushing of the box section walls.

So, I made up 2 mounting pads, 5/16" thick, drilled and tapped 2 holes in each for pivot blocks and continuously welded them onto the angled end of the chassis leg, in the same position as the mounting bracket would be. Ended up with a nice neat job! Strong, and no possiblity of water getting into the chassis leg through the unsupported drilled holes.

We have suddenly 'jumped' to anti-roll bars!

Opps!! Good job someone's awake - obviously not me!!

Going back to the original topic then; the front of the Marina bar is identical to the Minor, and the x-mbr end, once fitted to the car, the looks exactly as a standard Minor as the adaptor is not visible - it all looks exactly as standard Minor. The standard Minor reaction arm is retained along with the multi-holed adjuster plate. The OB adaptor is used to convert the end of the Marina torsion bar into the equivalent Minor so that it will fit as normal.