Morris Minor Owners Club

So does anyone have any experience of these? Front or rear. Tbh i know i should be getting the jlh kit, however budget is going to be tight after fitting the new little zetec, and although the engine is lighter than the a-series i still feel the front and rear could do with some better suspension/ damping to handle the extra power and speed. I am looking at probably this kit http://morrisminorspares.co.uk/shop/pro ... 73e4083536 for the front and similar rear. I know the stories about the boot floor cracking already...

You've missed off part of the link - Page not found!

I have Koni telescopics front and rear - bought at an autojumble during the restoration about 15 years ago, and date stamped 09/69, so very period for a Minor! Sent them off to Koni for overhaul and after discussion with them, uprating the bump valve in 2 of them by 30% for the front.

The fronts are mounted using the standard Koni kit, which means they pick up on the lower arm and are near vertical. After removing the lever arm valve and trying various settings, have ended up with them set 'full hard'. This is in conjunction with Marina van torsion bars and poly bushes everywhere. The suspension has been lowered by about 2" on the torsion bars (bump stop reprofiled). The result is very firm, but not harsh on any road surface.

The rears came with a mounting kit that connected up to the original lever arm bracket on the body, but they would have been a long way from vertical. I didn't want to turret them, as I want the boot space, so have mounted them up to a transverse crossmember (here come the howls!!). They are set at full soft, sometimes a maximum of 1/4 hard, and control the rear very well. The springs are the original 1958 7-leaf, with the bottom leaf removed, turned upside down and replaced on the top of the spring - softens and lowers all at the same time (bump stop reprofiled)! Again poly bushes everywhere.

To finish off it has anti-roll bars front (Owen Burton) and rear (Marina/Ital) and anti-tramp bars as well. I am constantly amazed how well it handles, and being a road car, with the odd track day excurison, how stable it is, no matter what type of road surface, cross winds etc. This was the bit that concerned me during the restoration, as I had to make all the suspension choices during the process, with no opportunity to road test anything until the restoration was completed, and hope they would work in practice!

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Best to avoid kits that use brackets attached to the original front suspension damper bolts - only use damper that fixes to a new bracket welded onto the inner wing - so the damper is vertical. Believe the stories about cracking rear frames and /or rear floors. However a PROPERLY designed/manufactured rear frame structure - that mounts the damper vertically - should be fine !

Does anyone have a picture of the front dampers installed on a car? would be interested to see the angle and quite how they mount. Thanks.

Futher to the mounting points, that BMC mentioned, the quality of the dampers can make ALL the difference.
ISLIP mentioned adjusting the dampers, on some they need to be removed from the car and "messed with", others have an adjuster knob on the outside, these are MUCH easer to adjust.

Damper angle is also important, the closer to vertical, the more efficent the energy transfer into the damper.

The finish of the damper is more important that you would think, Most Konis have a steel dust cover, once the paint starts to chip away, the cover rots and then the damper rod is exposed (which shortens the dampers life massively!)

Its a lot more complicated that it seems at first, if you have any questions then just ask.

Im sure all the SPAX dampers (like the ones in your link) come with an adjuster knob these days, so its a tool less adjustment.

I had a set of excellent Konis on the back of my road Mini for years and years. Yes - the outer cover cover eventually rotted away - BUT - the exposed shaft remained perfectly smooth, not a drop of oil escaped, and the dampers continued to function as well as ever. However - it should be noted that Koni dampers (certainly back-in-the-day) only damped on the rebound stroke and not at all on the bump stroke. Some thought this caused a car like the Mini (with limited ground clearance) to 'hammer down' on the suspension - and start to drag on the 3 -ply white roads - although can't say I ever noticed this !

only damped on the rebound stroke and not at all on the bump stroke

The late 60's Koni's we have certainly damp on both bump and rebound, but only adjust the rebound. This is why we had the bump valving uprated by Koni themselves.

The Koni kit top front mounting is a new bracket on the body and the lower mounts on to the suspension arm.

Yes, ideally the rears should be mounted vertically, but in practice, how do you achieve this? There are kits that mount the damper inside the wheel arch; not possible with wider wheels, or turreted, which uses up valuable boot space. So a compromise, which in practice works very well indeed. If you are ever in the Oxfordshire area, Roy, come and try ours! You will be surprised.

I'm sure it works well Richard - looks great in that picture. The Mini Konis could be closed very easily by hand - but were almost impossible to pull open - even with a bar through the lower eye, standing on that and pulling like mad on a bar through the top mount - it would take 'for ever' to pull them open. I liked them !!

IslipMinor wrote:

only damped on the rebound stroke and not at all on the bump stroke

The late 60's Koni's we have certainly damp on both bump and rebound, but only adjust the rebound. This is why we had the bump valving uprated by Koni themselves.

The Koni kit top front mounting is a new bracket on the body and the lower mounts on to the suspension arm.

Yes, ideally the rears should be mounted vertically, but in practice, how do you achieve this? There are kits that mount the damper inside the wheel arch; not possible with wider wheels, or turreted, which uses up valuable boot space. So a compromise, which in practice works very well indeed. If you are ever in the Oxfordshire area, Roy, come and try ours! You will be surprised.

Im actually up there a fair bit, if your going on the next oxon club meeting I might be there with mona Would be good to see.

At the rear what is the minimum/maximum distance between the tele bracket under the springs, and the highest possible mounting point on the chassis leg. From memory there is a reasonable amount of room. saying that, the car Ive been working on recently barely has a boot floor so I might be wrong

I have adjustable spax on the front. The top bracket (triangular shape) bolts on to your existing damper (3x bolts), however, you have to cut a thin rectangular hole in the wheel-arch, so that the new bracket 'pokes' into the wheel-arch area, to enable you to attach new damper.

Also, to add strength, I suppose, there is a small 90' bracket that attaches to the top of the new damper and the triangular bracket, basically, 'sandwiching' the damper either side. This 90' bracket is in turn bolted to the inner wing. Thus, presumably, spreading the load.

My Moggy can corner better than alot of cars now. It is a bit stiff on my bumpy street though. I have mine set on the almost lowest setting. The kit was an oil damped version but I fitted spax from a mini, instead. All second hand. Never tried the thicker oil and just the roll bar alone. Some say this is very effective.
I also fitted a spax to the rear but it was so stiff by the time I got to work I was 'sea-sick', bouncing me up and down in my seat. I turned the adjuster to the very minimum, therafter.

Thanks for that, i have acquired a set of the cheap bolt on ones second hand locally, so will fit these for the moment then see how it goes. They however don't come with mounting instructions, so i was wondering/ hoping someone had some pictures of these installed? And or the instructions they could possibly scan in for me?

What sort are they? If they're the same as mine I could take some pics

The same as the ones from esm and bull motif, the =100 set. I think anyway..

I can't find them on there Got a link?

After all it is for you I'm not going all the work here