Maggie the Morris in CANADA
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:42 am
Here is a fairly succinct summary of what we have found so far and what we have done on Maggie the Morris, my 1976 Minor two door. We are waiting now for the arrival of additional parts that did not at first seem to be needed.
When I bought the car and took it for a safety inspection the technician pointed out a soft section on the left side chassis leg and suggested I might want to have this welded before too long. Had he been doing his job as he should I'd have had to take the car away without a certificate and return it for further inspection after repair. The previous owner of the car had spent a great deal of money restoring the body including the replacement of all four wings and fitting repair panels to the doors and quarter panels. Beneath the car the centre crossmember as well as the right side chassis leg had been replaced and there had been repairs to where the rear springs attach. I don't know why the left side chassis leg had not also been replaced, it was certainly quite rusty.
Having obtained a new left chassis leg as well as a floor section and tie plate (engine bay floor) and sundry smaller pieces that seem cheaper to replace than to try to save, We began to take the car apart. I should mention here that I had also purchased new complete suspension legs and everything needed to renew the brakes, I want this car to be a good one when its finished. Bad repairs began to appear as disassembly began. The grille surround was pop-riveted to the wings. The radiator support had been broken apart into two pieces and then screwed back together with a handful of little hardware store bolts. Attempting to remove it proved difficult because it had also been brazed to the frame of the car. Once that was out of the way a very large lump of body filler was found in the front of the right hand chassis leg where the tie plate had rusted away leaving the top of the chassis leg exposed. Removing the wheels and suspension parts revealed that the threads of the right side eyebolt were mangled almost to the point of uselessness. The right hand eyebolt had also been filed down to fit into a support tube that is not completely round all the way through. I don't know how this could have happened to a new chassis leg. Each of the eyebolts had been fitted with a shim washer ⅛" thick; there is some question as to whether this was from the factory or had been added later but these washers appeared to have been there for a long time.
Let me say here that nearly all of this work has been/will be done by Chris, my wife's son who is an expert body repairman licensed mechanic and the kind of tradesman one wants to know if a job is to be done well. Working alone I would be taking shortcuts because of lack of the proper tools or the lack of patience. I know how to do these things but discipline is not my long suit.
Chris then began cutting to remove rusty metal. One more bad repair turned up at this time. He discovered that the right side chassis leg had been welded to the gearbox cover assembly. It was not enough to struggle with the chewed and rusted-in screws to release it, the welding had also to be cut away. When the old leg, front floor and the tie plate had been removed Chris offered up the new leg, holding it in place with clamps to see how it would fit. It wouldn't. There is nothing wrong with the new part but, with the gearbox support in place the leg pivots on the end of it so that only one end or the other of the chassis leg can go where it must. Remove the gearbox support and everything is OK but … At this point there were a lot of questions asked on the Morris forums and a lot of suggestions put forth. I struggled, based on my Scottish heritage, to find a way to work around this problem but had to face the fact, put to me quite plainly by others, that the "good leg" has to be replaced too. It is in the wrong place. This raises a new problem. Had we known at the outset that the previous repair had put the leg in wrong we could have used the original leg, rusty as it was, for a reference point. Since it has now been removed, and the other leg is wrong we have to go back to basic principles to put this thing back together so that it will run and steer as it should.
The second phase is to learn how to align and position the new parts. Some of this may seem obvious to old Morris hands but it was not apparent to the repairman who fitted the previous chassis leg and my own knowledge has grown over the past few weeks as we tackle the problems caused first by rust and then by faulty or careless repairs.
The help available from Morris forums has been invaluable and has arrived from places as far away as New Zealand, which is far away from nearly everywhere
.
Bear with me while I state the obvious. The front suspension of a Morris Minor is mounted in four places, the two eyebolts which fasten through the chassis legs, and the two shock absorbers which bolt to a transverse frame member at the toe-board below the battery box. All of the wheel alignment except the toe setting is determined by these. No tuning or adjustment was provided for by Morris although enthusiasts have learned to add spacers to the eyebolts to provide negative camber for improved cornering. Only the toe setting of the front wheels is officially adjustable. The problem for my car is to restore the chassis legs to their correct position with reference to the rest of the body of the car. The fixed points available are: the toe-board crossmember and the centre crossmember and even the centre crossmember may be suspect as it has been replaced. We will be checking it carefully. The centre crossmember locates the back end of the new chassis legs so that the eyebolts will be in the right place fore-and-aft, it also anchors the back end of the torsion bars and spaces them correctly. The toe-board crossmember on this car has not previously been repaired, replaced or moved that we can see, so that will become the part of the body that we will rely on most. To find an exact centre point we can only measure carefully on the crossmember between the shock absorbers. Our measurements will be projected to the floor of the shop using a plumb bob as described in the shop manual. Now for a bit of high tech wizardry, we will use a self-levelling laser that just happens to be available. If someone reading this needs to make a similar repair such lasers are available at building supply stores and places like Canadian Tire Corporation here in Canada. At less than $100 I would buy one just for this job if I had to. Then I could also straighten all the pictures in the house. With the laser adjusted to display both vertical and horizontal reference lines I plan to use a simple guide made of threaded rod, washers and nuts to centre the legs and hold them at the right distance apart. Once we have checked and double checked all the measurements and clamped the legs in place we will proceed to welding.
Here is some very useful information that was provided to me by another forum member who took the trouble to go and measure an actual Minor Body:
1 - The distance between the chassis legs at the eyebolt holes is 415mm which leaves 8mm extra space for the gearbox crossmember to fit easily.
2 - The outside distance across the chassis legs at the eyebolt holes is 535mm. This is the more critical measurement as it will determine the basic camber.
The next two values I have taken from the shop manual or by actually measuring new parts that I have in hand.
3 - The shop manual specification for the distance between the torsion bar centres is 581mm.
4 - The distance from the centre of an eyebolt hole to the shoulder that abuts the chassis leg is 22mm.
Subtract 44mm from 581mm and the difference is 537, therefore there will be a variance of 1mm on each eyebolt, inboard or positive camber.
I look forward to having an alignment specialty shop with a handful of washers for the eyebolts get this to an ideal camber value once the car is back on the road. If we have done our welding correctly the camber will be adjustable by using washers, the caster will be 3 degrees if the centre crossmember is correct and the new chassis legs are the right length between the crossmember and the eyebolt holes.
Darrell McDonald
When I bought the car and took it for a safety inspection the technician pointed out a soft section on the left side chassis leg and suggested I might want to have this welded before too long. Had he been doing his job as he should I'd have had to take the car away without a certificate and return it for further inspection after repair. The previous owner of the car had spent a great deal of money restoring the body including the replacement of all four wings and fitting repair panels to the doors and quarter panels. Beneath the car the centre crossmember as well as the right side chassis leg had been replaced and there had been repairs to where the rear springs attach. I don't know why the left side chassis leg had not also been replaced, it was certainly quite rusty.
Having obtained a new left chassis leg as well as a floor section and tie plate (engine bay floor) and sundry smaller pieces that seem cheaper to replace than to try to save, We began to take the car apart. I should mention here that I had also purchased new complete suspension legs and everything needed to renew the brakes, I want this car to be a good one when its finished. Bad repairs began to appear as disassembly began. The grille surround was pop-riveted to the wings. The radiator support had been broken apart into two pieces and then screwed back together with a handful of little hardware store bolts. Attempting to remove it proved difficult because it had also been brazed to the frame of the car. Once that was out of the way a very large lump of body filler was found in the front of the right hand chassis leg where the tie plate had rusted away leaving the top of the chassis leg exposed. Removing the wheels and suspension parts revealed that the threads of the right side eyebolt were mangled almost to the point of uselessness. The right hand eyebolt had also been filed down to fit into a support tube that is not completely round all the way through. I don't know how this could have happened to a new chassis leg. Each of the eyebolts had been fitted with a shim washer ⅛" thick; there is some question as to whether this was from the factory or had been added later but these washers appeared to have been there for a long time.
Let me say here that nearly all of this work has been/will be done by Chris, my wife's son who is an expert body repairman licensed mechanic and the kind of tradesman one wants to know if a job is to be done well. Working alone I would be taking shortcuts because of lack of the proper tools or the lack of patience. I know how to do these things but discipline is not my long suit.
Chris then began cutting to remove rusty metal. One more bad repair turned up at this time. He discovered that the right side chassis leg had been welded to the gearbox cover assembly. It was not enough to struggle with the chewed and rusted-in screws to release it, the welding had also to be cut away. When the old leg, front floor and the tie plate had been removed Chris offered up the new leg, holding it in place with clamps to see how it would fit. It wouldn't. There is nothing wrong with the new part but, with the gearbox support in place the leg pivots on the end of it so that only one end or the other of the chassis leg can go where it must. Remove the gearbox support and everything is OK but … At this point there were a lot of questions asked on the Morris forums and a lot of suggestions put forth. I struggled, based on my Scottish heritage, to find a way to work around this problem but had to face the fact, put to me quite plainly by others, that the "good leg" has to be replaced too. It is in the wrong place. This raises a new problem. Had we known at the outset that the previous repair had put the leg in wrong we could have used the original leg, rusty as it was, for a reference point. Since it has now been removed, and the other leg is wrong we have to go back to basic principles to put this thing back together so that it will run and steer as it should.
The second phase is to learn how to align and position the new parts. Some of this may seem obvious to old Morris hands but it was not apparent to the repairman who fitted the previous chassis leg and my own knowledge has grown over the past few weeks as we tackle the problems caused first by rust and then by faulty or careless repairs.
The help available from Morris forums has been invaluable and has arrived from places as far away as New Zealand, which is far away from nearly everywhere
.Bear with me while I state the obvious. The front suspension of a Morris Minor is mounted in four places, the two eyebolts which fasten through the chassis legs, and the two shock absorbers which bolt to a transverse frame member at the toe-board below the battery box. All of the wheel alignment except the toe setting is determined by these. No tuning or adjustment was provided for by Morris although enthusiasts have learned to add spacers to the eyebolts to provide negative camber for improved cornering. Only the toe setting of the front wheels is officially adjustable. The problem for my car is to restore the chassis legs to their correct position with reference to the rest of the body of the car. The fixed points available are: the toe-board crossmember and the centre crossmember and even the centre crossmember may be suspect as it has been replaced. We will be checking it carefully. The centre crossmember locates the back end of the new chassis legs so that the eyebolts will be in the right place fore-and-aft, it also anchors the back end of the torsion bars and spaces them correctly. The toe-board crossmember on this car has not previously been repaired, replaced or moved that we can see, so that will become the part of the body that we will rely on most. To find an exact centre point we can only measure carefully on the crossmember between the shock absorbers. Our measurements will be projected to the floor of the shop using a plumb bob as described in the shop manual. Now for a bit of high tech wizardry, we will use a self-levelling laser that just happens to be available. If someone reading this needs to make a similar repair such lasers are available at building supply stores and places like Canadian Tire Corporation here in Canada. At less than $100 I would buy one just for this job if I had to. Then I could also straighten all the pictures in the house.
With the laser adjusted to display both vertical and horizontal reference lines I plan to use a simple guide made of threaded rod, washers and nuts to centre the legs and hold them at the right distance apart. Once we have checked and double checked all the measurements and clamped the legs in place we will proceed to welding.Here is some very useful information that was provided to me by another forum member who took the trouble to go and measure an actual Minor Body:
1 - The distance between the chassis legs at the eyebolt holes is 415mm which leaves 8mm extra space for the gearbox crossmember to fit easily.
2 - The outside distance across the chassis legs at the eyebolt holes is 535mm. This is the more critical measurement as it will determine the basic camber.
The next two values I have taken from the shop manual or by actually measuring new parts that I have in hand.
3 - The shop manual specification for the distance between the torsion bar centres is 581mm.
4 - The distance from the centre of an eyebolt hole to the shoulder that abuts the chassis leg is 22mm.
Subtract 44mm from 581mm and the difference is 537, therefore there will be a variance of 1mm on each eyebolt, inboard or positive camber.
I look forward to having an alignment specialty shop with a handful of washers for the eyebolts get this to an ideal camber value once the car is back on the road. If we have done our welding correctly the camber will be adjustable by using washers, the caster will be 3 degrees if the centre crossmember is correct and the new chassis legs are the right length between the crossmember and the eyebolt holes.
Darrell McDonald
She's a '67 of course.