Morris Minor Owners Club

I am in the process of fitting new rear springs. I have managed to take the rear of the springs off, but i cannot get the front of the spring off. I cant find a list / process in the haynes or on here. All I have done is remove the nut from the front locating pin, but the pin will not seem to push through. I have cleaned all the cr** out of the way and even tried heating around the pin. Is there something i am missing? Have others had this problem and how did they manage it? Do i need to somehow remove the locating front plate bolted to the inside of the spring hangar?

Heat lump hammer and a drift. they are a pig but come out eventually

You'll find the bolt will get damaged getting it out, best to buy a new nut, bolt, locating plate and those irritatingly tiny nut and bolts that hold the plate in place. Grease up so when you do the job again..... it's easier.

I spent two days hacksawing the head off the bolt on my Traveller. I only did one side!

mike.perry wrote:I spent two days hacksawing the head off the bolt on my Traveller. I only did one side!

Oh dear, so can be rather challenging. I cant even see how you would get at the bolt head..

There is no bolt head, it is just a plain sphere. This sphere sits inside and is pressed inside the plate, therefore the process I would approach.

-Cut off the two small bolts holding the plate onto the spring hanger. Undo and take off the large nut.
-Get yourself a chisel or sharp screwdriver and a lump hammer.
-Hammer the screw driver or chisel inbetween the plate and the hanger.
-Smack the bolt thread and at the same time wiggle the chisel.
-Keep smacking and keep wiggling.
-When the bolt starts to shift, you will see the plate start to come away from the hanger.
-keep hitting and wiggling until the bolt and plate come free.


Fit new plate and bolt.

The bolt:



The plate:



The hanger on the car:

You can see from this picture where the plate bolts to.

Thanks, i undid one of the nuts and bolts holding the plate on, then ground off the other one, and the plate came away with the bolt still attached to it. Now to fit lovely new poly bushes and a new pin/plate with lots of copper slip.

Putting back together can be just as fiddly. Probably best to secure the plate to the hanger first as one of the bolts holding the plate on can be very fiddly. Tightening the larger bolt will pull it into the plate. Unless of course you have thin fingers and can get the fiddly little bolt in after you have fitted the spring.

Defo plate first, then spring up and bolt through, tighten up. with lots of grease!

Apparently white grease should be used with poly bushes. Halfords sell it in squirty cans (like WD40).

I replaced the springs on Jethro last month. to avoid damaging the front bolts keep a nut on the end and tap it out, eventually you will need the nut right off to get it out fully and will probably damage the thread a little. Place the bolt in a vice and recut the thread with a nut if you don't have a tap n die set.
This is meant to be a simple job that takes about 1 hour per side, I ended up spending and afternoon on each side lol.
the hardest part I fuond was getting new bushes in the springs, lots of lubrication required here. I spent hours on this bit and after lots of swearing and a phone call to JLH to confirm I was doing it correctly, (john advised putting the bushes in the freezer for a bit) it helped but I still struggled.
I ended up making a kinda press, using along bolt with large washer on the end I tightened nut and squeezed them in.

2nd side was so much easier to do since I now had a decent method from the previous day.

Thanks, have managed to do it now, just ground the nuts off and the plate just came out with the pin still firmly attached. Just going to fit new bolts and pins with lots of copper slip/grease. I managed to fit the new poly bushes into the new springs ok bit of fiddling to get at right angle and a lil tap with the soft hammer