Morris Minor Owners Club

First off, apologies if this has been covered before, but I'm hoping someone can help!
My 1970 saloon which I use daily, had it's lower trunnions replaced recently by my local garage and the front ride height corectly re-set as it was riding too high. I supplied the parts and can see they have been replaced. I've used the garage for years and they are well-versed in older cars. The mechanic that did the work actually trained on Minors, so I'm confident he knows his stuff!
I've covered just short of 1k miles since, and a creaking noise has developed coming from the nearside front. I bounced the suspension and found that if I bounced it hard, it wouldn't creak, but if I bounced it gently, it would creak. Also it immediatley settled after bouncing so assumed the damper was OK. Incidentially, I have greased the front suspension since the work was done.
As the noise seemed to be coming from the bulkhead area, I wondered if it was the top trunnion bushes (as these were not replaced at the time) or the front damper being dry.
So I decided to replace the top trunnions as a matter of course and take the opportunity to inspect the front damper at the same time.
I bought new top trunnions from one of the Minor specialists complete with poly bushes. The damper seems fine, nice smooth but tight operation and it was topped up with oil, so I don't think this is the cause of the creaking. I also checked the swivel pin threads and they seem fine too....the car has only covered 52k from new.
However, when I tried to screw the new trunnion on the swivel pin, it seemed very difficult to turn (yes I did have the correct one on the correct side!!). I used a small amount of grease on the thread but it seemed very tight. It seemed to go on OK about halfway then got almost impossible to turn. As I was concerned about this I unwound it and decided against fitting it. So I used the old trunnion with the new poly bushes, new pivot bolt, washers and nuts.
To my annoyance, the bl**dy thing is still creaking and I've chosen not to drive it until I can get to the bottom of it.
So my questions are, do you know what the possible cause of the creaking is, and is the source of the creaking likely to be the lower bushes or something else? When driving the car it sounds like its coming from higher up ( i.e.bulkhead area).
Also, why won't the new trunnions screw onto the swivel pin easily? Is this poor quality parts and has anyone else had this problem? I thought I'd canvas opinions before going back to my garage about the lower bushes and the Minor specialist about the trunnions.

Trunnion not screwing on - hard to say from here - but I assume the threads were clean - and nothing jammed up inside the new trunnion. Are you sure the trunnions aren't intended for king pins where the threads have been recut to a smaller thread size? Anyway - if the old trunnion fits nicely and doesn't have any 'wobble' when screwed almost right down - it's fine ! Most wear is on bottom trunnions. Creaking - hmmm - is the damper securely fixed to the bulkhead ? Pull the bolts up tight - but don't snap them....... then look at the bottom inner mount of the suspension - where the eyebolt goes through the chassis leg - any cracking there ??? Scrub off any grease/crap/undercoat and look carefully! When the bottom trunnions were replaced - were poly bushes fitted in the eyebolt - and/or in the tie-bar front mounting?? If so - twin poly mounts are too stiff at the front of the tiebar - better with rubber on the inside and poly on the outside. If poly bushes fitted - try squirting them with white grease (or WD40 for a quick fix that won't last) - but don't grease rubber bushes if that's what's in there!

Just got new swivel pins an legs from ESM, and yes, the nearside one has exactlty the same problem

I have found that poly bushes need a smear if grease when fitting and knock the lock tabs back and tighten the damper mountings. They should be captive nuts but it is possible one could have broken free

Make sure you clean out the trunnion of any swarf before you fit it, its a machined part and may have a build up inside. The creaking is probably a dry bush, its a good idea to put a smear of copper grease on the inside of the bush but not the outside to allow it to pivot without creaking.

Obtuse - I assume you have been in touch with ESM about the kingpin problems - what's their response ??