Morris Minor Owners Club

I'm not loving the roads at the moment, all these pot holes are killing my moggie!

my latest adventure (i've had a few and only been here 2 months!) is a new knocking sound from the front passanger side.

I get a clunk/knocking when going over uneven roads, and when i'm reversing and break i get another clunk. The passanger can feel the clunk in the footwell, so there is something deffinatly wrong.

The trunnions have been replaced around 2 years ago and looked after so they should be fine. I checked all other nuts/bolts around the suspension and i cant find anything loose. When i push the front suspension down manually i dont get the noise, so i'm finding it hard to locate where its comming from. I have checked the wheel bearings which seem ok and the tie bar, again ok.

any suggestions (again) please

Check for a cracked or rotton chassis leg. Particularly check closely where the leg is joined to the tie bar area....

all good round there, underside is 100% solid thanks to previous owner

Then exhaust cluncking on crossmember....?
Problem with knocks and clunks is that they can travel around the body and may end up been no where near where you think they are

yer, its a custom made stainless steel exhaust, and its not knocking anywhere (previously checked for knocoking at rear as well). could it be a steering rack problems?

Would be the next thing to look at - running out of things to check

check your eyebolt bushes and see if they need replacing.

check any damper bolts etc on the front
also check the kingpin
check the tie bar bolt is done up

Don't know if it is a valid point but just cos the trunnions were replaced don't rule them out as there maybe wear on the threads in the suspension upright? Also things like engine mounts and engine steady bars can give odd knocks if they are worn/loose.

I wonder how many hours are spent by classic car owners chasing odd knocking noises? A friend had one on his morris, Sometimes (not everytime) he would get this odd knocking noise from the engine bay. Turned out to be the wiper motor mounting plate (for a mini 2 speed motor) hitting the carb took him ages to work it out.

Thats half the fun of owning a 50 year old car, always something to fix or improve!

Even today i found a new problem, the nut holding the clutch pedal has worked off! Leaving me a lose pedal and at risk of comming of in gear! Will get the bag of old nuts out tomorrow morning.

As for this knocking, could it be steering related? Tightened the engine mounts 2 weeks ago, tie bar is tight too.

i'm expecting a few more hours looking for this one! if all else fails will get esm to advise next saturday.

Is one of your bushes wearing out \ gone allowing 2 bits of metal to come together?

Can you get it to knock by lifting/pushing the front of the car when stationary?
It's much easier to trace these things when stationary with the help of a fit assistant .

It's very probably the eye-bolt bushes.

G'day All;

I think that the only way to find out what is Knocking, you will have to remove the upright from the shocker arm and take the suspension out of tension.

That way you will probably find there will be movement from side to side on the lower trunion ( the knocking when breaking forwards and backwards) and a worn lower pin, we have had a batch of pins in Aust. that wern't hardened just made from mild steel and the symptoms are as described here.

Just my 2 cents worth or as you like to describe it 2 Bobs worth

Regards Mark

Found it!

I got my dad to rock the wheel while i watched underneath. Its the tie bar, where it attaches to the hub, its moving, though nuts are tight. I thing the hole has worn at the end of the bar and is allowing movement with knoocks when the wheel is moving up and down.

Hi Danny,
You could also check the bolts that hold on your front shocks?
They could be the wrong thickness.
The joys of driving a Morris
Steven

morrisfixer wrote:Hi Danny,
You could also check the bolts that hold on your front shocks?
They could be the wrong thickness.
The joys of driving a Morris
Steven

When did you come across that Steven that's a new one to me

It happened on one of minors, the chap
that I had bought it off used the wrong
size of bolts for the shocks. He had made
the brackets himself
cheers Steven

So how did you overcome that because normally if the threaded section goes its a nightmare to resolve.

Perhaps we are talking of telescopic dampers (not 'shocks' !!) here ? Held on with bolts that are too thin ??