Morris Minor Owners Club

Hiya,

I've heard discussion of the Mr Grumpy's engine steady - is this the "less prone to disintegration, mounts in a different place" steady I remember from years ago? And does it actually work (in the less prone to disintegration way)?

Only my third engine steady mount has now sheared (it started to go half way home from Donington but managed to last (well, the weld was intact on one side) until I had to pull out from a deep dip on a friends driveway this morning) - and I'm loath to pay to yet have yet another mount put in the same place. It already looks like an accident in a welding factory over there...

If it's not, is there any modification to the positioning or design of the standard one which can be done to make it less prone to snapping?

I've just bought a Mr Grumpy's one, the only problem I've had is one of the bolts rounded off while I was fitting it. It's easy to fit and extremely sturdy. No more grinding noises for me (the fan kept hitting the radiator ).

Hi Kate we have a couple of branch members with them fitted with no problems and as it locates next to the shocker it is fixed to a stronger part of the bulhead, + another friend has just fitted one as she had the same problem as you, dont forget to get some new rubbers at the same time.

Right, I'll order that in a second so. (done!)

If anyone wants to wish me luck, I still have to drive 60 miles a day in my poor mog, with or without an engine stay.

Cheers for your input guys.

Of course, this is just Rebecca's way of reminding me that she choses where I spend the money not me, and that I should have put up with a broken indicator stalk and sagging seat straps ('cos I bought replacements for both of them at t' show. That drivers seat is *so* much better. Even if my competence at upholstering is rather questionable).

the fan kept hitting the radiator

Did you check the gearbox steady cable is fitted and not broken?
The purpose of the cable is to stop the engine/geabox moving forwards and therefore if it is fitted properly the fan cannot hit the radiator.

The engine steady was a modification fitted to reduce engine wobble when engaging clutch in, predominantly, reverse gear. As Ray states the gearbox steady cable is to prevent front to back movement only.
That's my understanding anyway.
For the fan to be hitting the radiator there's surely something amiss elsewhere, there's 25-30mm clearance on both my cars at the nearest point.

Surely if a car keeps snapping steadies then there is too much movement elsewhere over stressing the steady??

Might be a good idea to check the gearbox steady cable (I didn't know there was one either....)

Surely if a car keeps snapping steadies then there is too much movement elsewhere over stressing the steady??

My first Minor broke a couple of the normal mounts but ran fine for years after I fitted a Grumpy's top steady kit - there is something else wrong that causes the extra strain, but most of that is likely to have been my hard driving style.

As for the fan hitting the rad - 30mm is plenty of claeance but on most cars it is probablly a lot less than that. I had this happen once (during a heavy emergecy stop) and after fitting the cable it never happened again.
I've always made sure all my Minors have had a steady cable ever since then.
On one car the threads in the gearbox for the 3 fastening screws were unserviceable so I had to fabricate a long extension to the cable and mounted the gearbox end through one of the bellhousing bolt holes. It wasn't the prettiest conversion to have a long piece of all thread bar running the length of the gearbox but it certainly did the job.

Might be an obvious question but where abouts is the gearbox steady cable? (Any photo's Cam? ).

It sits below the gearbox and one end fits through the gearbox crossmember and the other end fits to the gearbox at the flange where the gearbox extension fits on right below the filler plug. You can't see it well until you are under the car (eg with the car up on ramps or using an inspection pit.

The cable looks like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... eName=WDVW

and if you look hard enough you might just see the cable under the rear of the gearbox on this pic:

Here is a picture with the gearbox crossmember removed (showing the cable attached to the gearbox):



And here is a picture of the crossmember off the car:



You can see the little bracket above on the front of the crossmember where the cable fits to.

Don't you just love these "Cinemascope" pictures.

Hmmm, not sure we have one of them... best check!

SALTY...yes there is something wrong with the engine steady design,
it sits at an angle thus increasing the 'bending' action on the end which
is fitted to the battery box, so it eventually breaks off. Mr Grumpy's
fitment decreases the angle so is an improvement straight away.

I've used a Grumpy's steady for 3 or 4 years - it works fine. My car has evidence of previous
welds on the battery box so I didn't trust the strength of the new weld.

Untill about half a year ago, when I fitted one, my car had run with the standard steady and no cable... ...and it still has it's standard steady on it. Me, and the previous driver, are not exactly 'slow' drivers either.

One thought is the softness of the engine mount rubbers. With the rubber getting softer as the years go on, more movement is likely to arise from this area. Only thing is that you'd then have to forfit soft rubber mounts for the way-too-hard repo ones, but then again if your soft mounts are to soft and are the reason for extra movement of the engine, then the harder ones would cure it.

The engine mounts normally look perished and split if they are past their sell by date, and they will also cause sideways movement when they are bad and will often cause the exhaust to knock as well, if the engine can be rocked from side to side by hand this is a sign that they are going home, also in a worse case situation they actually start to pull away from the metal and this type of movement does not help the original type of engine steady either.

yes there is something wrong with the engine steady design

Got my grandad to blame for that. He designed it!