Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi can someone explain how to lower the front on my moggy,I know the torsion bars are under stress and dont want to end up losing my head.Also how far will one spline lower the car,I dont want it stupidly low.
Regards Si

One spline at the front (wheel end) of the torsion bar equates to 1.5 inches lowering. There should be a vernier plate (5 different holes) at the other end of the torsion bar which you can finely tune the ride height with. Each hole being worth about 1/4 of an inch.

You are correct, the spring is still under load even when the car is in the air. The rebound stop (that the top arm sits on) stops the spring unwinding fully.

With the front of the car supported on axle stands:

To release the spring load, you need to disconnect the top trunnion from the damper arm. This requires removal of the nut, washers and bush, from the rearward facing side of the trunnion. The nut is secured by a tab washer (if you've got a split pin and castellated nut, you're at the wrong end of the pin).

Once you've got those parts off, you need to put a jack under the bottom trunnion (securely, so it can't ping out) and jack up until the chassis rail just starts to lift off your axle stand. This means the tension in the spring is now under your control, and you can lever the top trunnion off its pin. This will require a soft-faced mallet, and a long stout screwdriver for working it along the pin.

After the top trunnion is clear of the pin, you can release the jack and the bottom arm will now drop further than before, until the torsion bar is completely relaxed.

Cheers Chris,so i dont need to touch the bottom trunion then?.

you will need to split the lower 'wishbone' (which sandwiches the eyebolt at one end, and the lower trunnion at the other) to drift the cast half backwards off the splines.

a top tip for making sure you only go one spline is to measure between the floor, and the end of the lower arm before sliding it off the splines. then when you move it around, make sure it's only moved by 1.5 inches, not 3!

Certainly NO need to loosen the top trunnion to drop the suspension by one spline....... Been covered many many times. Just support the rear arm of the front suspension lower link on a jack, remove the front half of the link, and then move the complete kingpin away from that arm. Then wind the jack down till the T bar is unloaded, tap the arm to the rear until it comes off the splines, move it up one spline, tap it forwards, crank the jack up again and refit the kingpin and front half arm. It's a 10 minute job - the wheel doesn't even need to be taken off - although doing so certainly can make life easier as you learn how to do the job.
Make sure on lowering that there is still adequate clearance from the bump stop - and indeed make sure the bump stop is present and correct!