Morris Minor Owners Club

the entire tie bar eyebolt bracket on the front passengers side is slowly making a bid fro freedom and i need to replace it.
should i
-take off the old one, weld a nice new bit of metal over the resulting hole (not sure what thickness the metal should be mind you) and then weld a new eyebolt bracket on the top
-weld up the old one where it has cracked
-new chassis leg on the side of the car?

Hi Cadetchris

Do you mean the tie bar mount right at the front of the chassis?

You need to cut back to sound metal for this. The chassis leg is 1.5mm (16swg)

If the rot is only local, then cutting out and welding in a repair and a new tie bar plate would be fine.....but be prepared for finding further rot in the chassis leg in which case a half or full leg may be required.

If its the bottom suspension eyebolt mounting then the metal is double thickness here and really the best way to repair is a full or half chassis leg replacement.

Taupe

i think thats the bit i mean,
http://morrisminorspares.co.uk/shop/pro ... 7ca9e46e0e

it appears the rot is local, but i suppose its one of those areas you cannot tell really

If the rest of the chassis leg has patches then it is probably time to bite the bullet and replace it all. The job is far from quick or simple!
If the leg looks solid then a local repair may be much less intrusive - however unless the leg is pretty solid the tie bar bracket will only be a temporary repair.

thankfully the chassis leg hasnt been welded at all in its life time, so a local repair should suffice i hope

the chassis leg hasn't been welded at all in its life time

This is no guarantee of it's soundness, where the eye bolt goes is the lowest part and double skinned to boot.

Unless the car has hit a curb or something with plenty of force I wouldn't expect issues in the eyebolt bracket area.

Any new tie-bar mount must be welded in very accurately - and strongly! This bracket controls the position of the bottom arm - and therefore the kingpin - so it directly controls both the steering and the braking. It MUST be properly repaired - and maybe you should check the other side too........

the other side was replaced about 7 years ago, so it should be good, but ill check.

as for the slightly knackered side, ill get have to take a good hard look at it and get it professionally done, my welding isnt that good.

if you can get the gearbox floor out, it's possible to see some of the inner structure of the chassis legs - if they are full up of rot flakes then they are on borrowed time.

by sheer utter chance, i did that on saturday when i was replacing the gearbox, all sound and clean.

Sounds like it's had a a good whack, maybe a nasty pothole?

now that sounds probable, the roads around here are like ploughed fields,

If you decide to do a welded repair its quite easy to align the new bracket as it shares two engine mount holes with the chassis leg and the engine bay tie plate. Assuming as you say that its the original chassis leg you can be quite confident youll get it in the right place

are people sure that the metal thickness is only 1.5mm? that seems very very thin for such a valuable area of the car

Hello Chris,

that is a reasonable thickness, it is the shape rather than metal thickness that gives the strength.

Alec

ah, should of thought about that really.

1.5mm is quite thick for a car structure. Modern cars have chassis members much thinner than that and general body structure of much less than 1mm.
The inner sill steps are the thickest metal on the Minor at 1.8/2mm thick.

Hello john,

I believe they use a tougher steel also which is not easily welded by the average DIY person.

Alec

Yes the bracket is 3mm thick and the chassis leg is 1.5mm thick.

You could increase the thickness on the chassis repair but I wouldnt go thicker than 2mm.

Most of the rest of the car is 1mm thick!

Taupe

just got my new bracket and its stuck me, that the metal on its 3mm thick.

i thought that you couldn't really weld thick metal to thin or vise versa as you would blow holes in the thinner metals or am i wrong about that?