Morris Minor Owners Club

Greetings all,
I have begun the "simple" task of replacing a rusted chassis leg on my 1967 Minor. Well, not so simple!

Here's the problem:
The RH leg and centre crossmember had been replaced by the former owner but the LH leg was also quite rusty. I have the parts, the cutting and welding can be done by my expert young friend but positioning the leg has presented an unexpected challenge. The RH leg seems not to be positioned properly and this now prevents the correct setup of the new leg for the left side.
(Note, I am using RH & LH to be clear because Nearside and Offside would be different on a LHD car)
We have almost reached the conclusion that the RH leg will have to be replaced as well to get a good repair. To confirm this conclusion I need a way to find the absolute co-ordinates for the position of the legs. Is there an instruction sheet available with exact measurements shown? The shop manual gives the correct position for the torsion bars but this is inconvenient as it requires that the eyebolts be in place for measurement. We can establish a centre line quite accurately with reference to the bulkhead crossmember where the steering rack is fitted. This, in fact, is the only "unmolested" part of the frame we believe can be trusted as extensive other body work has been done and there are some bodges evident.[frame][/frame]
This picture shows that the body is precisely horizontal (we measured from the frame crossmember not the wings) and you can also see the laser projected vertical line which is exactly on centre between the shock absorbers. On the floor you can see the black centre line that we hope to use to establish the lateral position of the chassis leg with the aid of a plumb bob as illustrated in the shop manual.

All this is working from first principles. There must be a practical way to do it. Surely collision repair shops had diagrams in their day. That is what I would like to find.

PLEASE!

Darrell McDonald

In what way is the already fitted leg wrong?

Try sending alainmoran a PM. I believe he has a rare manual on the subject which includes drawings for an alignment jig.

Yes theres an alignment jig for this.

Ive made one for my traveller.

Try JLH as I believe they were getting some made for purchase or hire

I removed the front suspension eyebolts which go through the chassis legs on both sides and fitted a length of steel piping of the same diameter through both holes.

taupe wrote:Yes theres an alignment jig for this.

Ive made one for my traveller.

Try JLH as I believe they were getting some made for purchase or hire

Aha! That is what I want to know about. Can you describe it please or, better yet provide a picture? To what part of the car does it attach? I have been in touch with JLH but he did not mention a jig. Of course he knows I'm over here in Canada so it's not likely I could have one mailed to me.

newagetraveller wrote:I removed the front suspension eyebolts which go through the chassis legs on both sides and fitted a length of steel piping of the same diameter through both holes.

Thank you! This is a good practical suggestion, why didn't I think of that? My frustration with the whole situation must be evident in my message, it has certainly clouded my imagination not to mention my opinion of whoever did the earlier work.

MarkyB wrote:In what way is the already fitted leg wrong?

I'm not certain yet how "wrong" it is but when we line up the front end of the leg and put the gearbox support in place the back end interferes just a couple of millimetres with the hole in the crossmember for the torsion bar on that side. This suggests that the other leg is positioned too far inboard.

[frame][/frame]
In support of this conclusion is that the RH leg also obscures the seat mounting holes and that seat mounting plate for was left off.[frame][/frame]

My fear is that the leg was not just welded too far inboard but was pivoted on the end of the gearbox support thus moving the front end outboard. If this is true then the right side must have considerable negative camber. There's no way to fix that.

Am I making sense? I'm still upset with this as I was counting on the nice new chassis leg (Right side) to make life easier for fitting a new Left side leg.

I did suggest putting the bar through ............ I wouldn't worry too much about that slight flange overlap - the flange may be wider than original. Just open it up when finished welding.

Here are some details of the alignment fixture the key item I guess is to ensure that the eyebolt holes are in line and parallel to the upper suspension damper mounting points so you could do this quite simply by using a tube through the eyebolt bushes as suggested above and taking equal measurements from there?

taupe wrote:Hi

Ive nearly finished making my heavy duty front end alignment jig - Im itching to get the car rolled over now. Ive used ground flat steel for the main reference members as I want to ensure accuracy and bright steel plate is often a bit out of true. Its been quite challenging marking out, drilling etc to the accuracy required with dimensions such as 12.437" , 13.312" etc required to be attained - so its been out with the vernier calipers etc. I guess its not actually that critical as long as its all nice and square and I dont allow multiple measurements each out by a fraction to add up to say as much as 0.5mm out.! There is some tolerence built into the fixture any way.

I guess theres no point having an alignment jig if its out of alignment before you start.

Ive turned up the lower suspension eye checking bushes in bronze and pressed them in to the lower jig tube and now have a good fit with the steel checking pins - these check the eyebolt holes in the main chassis legs and are critical to the steering geometry. Normally you would ensure this by carefully marking and taking check dimensions before removing the old chassis leg but if the front end has been bashed or the eye rotted right out then its just guesswork without a jig.

The main sides of the jig are detailed to be 1/4 plate but cutting this to the required accuracy was going to be very difficult and time consuming so Ive opted for 1.5mm steel and reinforced with 2x2x1/4 angle. It should end up a lot stronger than the 1/4 plate anyway. Ill be posting some pics as soon as its finished. This is what im aiming for:

Right on Taupe! That's what I need; If only I wasn't so far away. I wonder if I can find an old Morris dealership here with some of those tools left over. It's been a long time ...

Do you have a sketch with dimensions on your computer? That might provide all the data I need.

Darrell

Darrell:

Have you gotten any further in solving your dimension problem? I am encountering a similar problem with a front chassis leg.

I have the dimensions of the original Morris front end jig.

Don

I have the dimensions of the original Morris front end jig.

Cool!

The only dimensions I've seen for the body (and LCV chassis) use the centre point of the eyebolt.

Welcome to the forum - and do please share the dimensions with us Don!

buchan wrote:Darrell:

Have you gotten any further in solving your dimension problem? I am encountering a similar problem with a front chassis leg.

I have the dimensions of the original Morris front end jig.

Don

Hey! that would be great to have. Is it a digital drawing? Can it be shared on this forum?

I have made a simple device to set the legs at the right distance apart and the right distance from true centre. Will add to this thread later this evening with another picture or two.

Arrrgh! I had a message and pictures almost complete when the site went down! This has happened before around 9:00 - 9:30 EST. I think it's a UK middle-of-the-night-maintenance routine. Now I can start over.

We had a delay of a few weeks waiting for parts to arrive and spent most of it shovelling snow so wouldn't have done much work anyway. The second chassis leg is here now as well as the engine bay floor and another front floor section. Here's the gaping void with both chassis legs cut out. My concern at this point is to locate the new legs properly with very little to use as reference points.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
With the new legs and the engine bay floor pieces clamped in place but not welded we popped in the spacer I have made to establish the right width and the exact centre. After very carefully setting up our laser device, a standard builders tool, we switched it on and tapped things this way and that to get them straight.[frame][/frame] I'm proud and happy to say that we have the target perfectly in our sights.

For fore and aft location the centre crossmember braces the ends of the legs. Vertically we have a few remaining body parts and the front bumper supports for reference. The threaded rod and washers establishes the eyebolt location and common sense will have to serve for the rest. The measurements of the factory jig specs will be nice to see but welding should commence by the weekend.

Darrell

Sorry I haven't pasted the drawing yet. So far it is too big of a jpeg image for posting. Still working on it!

buchan wrote:Sorry I haven't pasted the drawing yet. So far it is too big of a jpeg image for posting. Still working on it!

Nothing is too big for gmail, PM sent.