Series 2 rear end

[54woody]

Here in Ontario, a vehicle has to pass a comprehensive road safety check on change of ownership before the car can be licensed for use on the road. After spending the winter fixing various things, I took Woody for his road safety check yesterday. He passed with no trouble and is now properly licensed. Hooray!

So this is the first chance I've had to drive him any more than just around the block. A previous owner had replaced the original engine with a 948 and matching smooth case gearbox. However, I believe that the original rear end was left in place. Driving at 70 kph (~45 mph) in suburban traffic, the engine was working quite noticably. Although I haven't tried yet, I suspect 80 kph (50 mph) would be pushing it.

Does this sound about right for a series 2 car? I seem to recall reading somewhere that top speed was 52 mph but I don't remember if that was for series 2 or series MM.

I'm thinking that I'll probably change the rear end to give the car longer legs. Midget/Sprite 4.22 units seem to be fairly readily available here in North America. Am I correct in thinking that one of these units would be a bolt in replacement?

[bmcecosse]

Well done with the 'pass' - it will depend what axle casing is in the car for the FD swap.

[54woody]

I believe the switch over from early MM type axle was made in Jan '54. Woody was built May '54 so it should have the later type axle. How do I tell for sure?

Re top speed: I just did a bit of digging and it found it was a top speed of 62 mph that I was incorrectly remembering. That's got me wondering why the engine seemed to be working pretty hard at 45 mph.

[mike.perry]

The Series 2 Traveller never had the early back axle, it was the first Minor to have the later axle but it still had the same diff ratio, 5.375:1. I suspect that the engine and box were changed to 948 but the diff was not, it should have a 4.55:1 diff.
Also the speedo is the small 1000TPM unit but the drive pinion ratios are differrent between the 803 and 948 boxes, 948 = 5/13, 803 = ? The correct speedo for a 4.55:1 diff would be a 1504 TPM and the nearest small speedo would be the Series MM = 1600TPM. You will need to check with a sat nav.
I would not advise fitting a 4.22:1 diff to a 948 engine, it will do very little for your top speed and reduce the acceleration

[bmcecosse]

I would go for the 4.22 final drive - as long as not too many steep hills around ? It will make for easier cruising -especially if you 'improve' the 948 engine slightly! Speedo for that will be 1408 tpm. Maybe hard to find a small one with that ratio.

[54woody]

The car had a 1000 tpm speedo in it when purchased - wildly inaccurate! I had access to and have since fitted a 1600 tpm speedo from a series MM. It's close, but not perfect. The speeds I mentioned are from my sat nav (gps on this side of the pond). Although I don't live in the flat lands, there aren't alot of terribly steep hills around here. I do have longer range plans to replace the engine, probably with a 1275 Midget engine as I know of one for sale locally. However, that is likely some time off.

[bmcecosse]

Grab the 1275 anyway while it's available - and the final drive from that car too.......

[54woody]

Final drive from that car isn't for sale, just the engine. It's a friend who's selling it and I've already told him that I want it. The engine is in need of some work which I probably won't have time for before next winter. In the mean-time, I'd like to do something to make Woody a bit more drivable for this summer. Replacing the rear end seems like it should be quite straight forward to do. I haven't seen 4.55 units for sale very often, but 4.22 units seem to be quite easy to find.

[bmcecosse]

Go for it! A 'racer' may want your 5.3 for a track Spridget.......