Morris Minor Owners Club

I have been shopping (not buying yet) at Bull Motif and I have a question about their swivel pin kits.

They offer SUS133C and SUS134C which they describe as:
" Swivel Pin complete with Top and Bottom Trunions*GENUINE NEW MOWOG*The original genuine part*** "

The price is such that it seems to me to be not worth the labour to replace individual parts like trunnions and bushes.

Question - If these are NOS parts would the rubbers not now be pretty hard or possibly dried and cracked?

Second question - Considering that I don't know what I will find until I take things apart, is that a good way to go so the car is not laid up waiting for trans-atlantic parts shipment?

Darrell McDonald

I have just replaced both of my swivel pins with new ones from Bull Motif and have found them to be excellent quality. They are not NOS but newly manufactured, presumably using NOS ones as patterns as they appear absolutely identical to the originals. All rubber parts are new and fit well.

I decided to buy and replace entire swivel pins on both sides so that I would be sure of when they were replaced and knowing that they will always have had the proper and regular maintenance, having experienced a collapsed one a couple of months ago which had clearly been poorly maintained (not by me)!

Fit the complete units - we went through a period of not having ANY available - and BM went to great pains to have a supply of new ones produced exactly as per the originals. Fit them - grease them often - and forget for the next 20 years!

Remove top and bottom trunnions and pack them with grease, remove the grease nipple when you refit them until grease comes out of the hole, then replace the nipples. That way you can be sure that the grease has reached everywhere including your hands, tools and garage floor!

Thanks all, good advice!

Mike, I presume you mean packing the trunions on the new kit not just to fit new ones on the old legs.

Darrell

I imagine so! And - I use Moly grease in these swivels. They probably don't come with steering arms - so you will have the 'fun' of extracting the old ones from your old swivels.

bmcecosse wrote:They probably don't come with steering arms - so you will have the 'fun' of extracting the old ones from your old swivels.

This was much easier to do than I thought! All you need is a vice and a lump hammer; undo the nut on the steering arm so it's level with the end of the thread, place the swivel pin loosely in the vice and give the nut a firm sharp blow. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hits to release it, and no damage to the thread or nut either!

Dryad wrote:

bmcecosse wrote:They probably don't come with steering arms - so you will have the 'fun' of extracting the old ones from your old swivels.

This was much easier to do than I thought! All you need is a vice and a lump hammer; undo the nut on the steering arm so it's level with the end of the thread, place the swivel pin loosely in the vice and give the nut a firm sharp blow. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hits to release it, and no damage to the thread or nut either!

"A kiss of the Hot spanner" (oxy acetylene) would make the job even easier!

You were VERY lucky with the steering arm removal, it's often a thankless task, even with heat.

If fitting new swivels, then invest in the trunnions from Morris Minor Centre Birmingham. They have extra grease nipples to ensure a good distribution of grease around all the threads.