Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello all, I have an issue with my 68 saloon leaning to the nearside, going to try torsion bar adjustment to see if can pull this right, just wanted to ask for some advice. I understand the adjuster plate on the centre cross member is much finer than adjusting the spline at the front but this may be worth trying, is it just a case of undoing the bolt and moving to another hole or is it under a lot of tension and likely to ping when you undo it? how does it adjust is it a oversized hole in the crossmember and the plate just sits up againt the floor and the various holes hold the height position? If adjustment at the front is required is it just a case of unbolting the suspension assembly and knocking the arm off the spline moving it a spline and putting it back or is there again any danger of it pinging under load? any advice would be great, cheers

I advise you NOT to touch the rear adjustment - do any movements at the front. Search the forum - it's been covered many times before...... It's an easy job provided the arm slides on the splines. Clean and treat with penetrating oil before you do the job. I used to do this at the side of the road - at the start of rallies if news of 'rough roads ahead' filtered through from the organisers. The wheel doesn't even need to come off - but for a beginner I do advise taking it off for better access.....

Thank you very much for the advice, I won't touch the crossmember end, I will treat the front end of the bar with plenty of penetration spray for a few days then. How much do you have to strip on the front suspension to make the adjustment? Can you just unbolt the frontal arm and swing the trunion assy out of the way and tap the rearer part of the arm back to clear the spline?

Basically - yes. BUT - you must support the T bar load with a jack (or axle stand) - then remove the front arm and kingpin, and then wind the jack down (or jack the car up if the arm is being supported with an axle stand etc) until the T bar is unloaded - it only takes a few inches. Then knock the arm back - ease it off the back edge of the splines (so you don't lose the position) - move it down one spline - and slide it back on. Put the load back into the T bar - refit the kingpin and front arm. Job done - Simples!

What is the height difference from side to side? 1 spline difference, front or rear, changes the ride height by 1.25", whereas 1 hole on the rear slide adjuster changes the ride height by 0.25". Which you use depends on how much adjustment you need to make.

Both front and rear are under load, unless you release it first. If you do decide to release the load, make sure that any jack you use is properly located under the suspension.

My problem with regard to torsion bars is that I have to change the eyebolt rubbers as they are tottally shot and no matter what I try I cannot free the front or back lever arms on their splines , so I have taken the decision and bought some really good secondhand torsion bars and also some new levers from club spares and as much as it will upset me doing it I see no other alternative than after removing all necessary parts but to grind through the existing torsion bars to get all the parts off the car . My question is I keep seeing other posts about the rear vernier set up and as mentioned by the auther of the first post above , how does the vernier set up work please for what I cannot understand is if I have a single hole in the cross member the rear lever will always be in the same position no matter what hole I pick on the vernier plate or indeed use the vernier plate at all , I could understand it possibly if there were a series of holes in the cross member at different heights which would give smaller amount of setting than one complete spline . I am sure there is a simple answer to my question / lack of understanding so please someone answer my question

The crossmember has a slot (or should have) and the 'vernier' plate rests up against the inside of the x-mbr. Selecting one hole 'lower' as you look at the vernier plate from the front of the car pushes the end of the lever arm down and will raise that side by 0.25", selecting one hole 'higher' will allow the end of the lever arm to move up and lower the car by 0.25". Note that there is a pattern of 5 holes (hence 1.25" ÷ 5 = 0.25") and it is the vertical height difference that determines the next hole to use.

Does that explain it OK?

Before you do anything to the existing torsion bar set up, mark the positions of the arms on the bar with some paint so that it can all go back together at the same ride height.

Neither of the arms will move very easily/at all with the suspension loaded, but once the upright has been disconnected from the lower arm, the eye bolt through the chassis leg is loose and the end of the torsion bar through the x-mbr is also loose, you should be able to remove the whole thing without need to move the arms at either end. Once off, soak the splines in WD40 and a combination of heating and hitting carefully should shift the arms. Before reassembly clean the splines (bar and arms) thoroughly and use some copper grease on them to make it easier to fit it all back together and any adjustments as well.

I trust you are going to use polyurethene bushes not rubber? They give much better suspenson control and last longer too!

Thanks I now understand and will have a look tonight at my car cross member again with your info at hand , as I previously said I intend to grind into two pieces the existing torsion bars to enable me to get all the parts off the car as everything is completely solid I cannot even remove the C shaped washers as they are completely rusted into the rear lever locations and the use the replacement parts I have bought to enable the rebuild and yes I will take your advice and use Poly bushes

Just had a look under the car at the rear of the crossmember with a strong light and under all the underseal I can now see the slot reference the vernier plate adjustment so thanks again

Every days a learning day

Don't grind through the torsion bars, that's just butchery.
With the pressure off the suspension, and the car well supported you can undo the nut on the eyebolt then pull or even lever to get the whole bar, both arms and the eyebolt off the car.

Thanks again for your advice I have tried with the weight off and all the suspension stripped to get even a small amount of movement but even trying to move things with various sizes of hammers / a large copper mallet nothing moved I had the eyebolt loose but everything is solid as I said in my first post it will be with great reluctance that I take this action of cutting through the torsion bars and yes it is butchery but I cannot see what else I can do, it has become apparent to me that although a lot of the car is in good condition being an early series 2 , a lot of problems have cropped up including when stripping the brake back plates from the king pins some of the bolts were seized and had to be driiled out of the king pins and other fixings were also seized solid , when I strip things out again I will give it another go but do not hold out much hope of moving things

Seriously - the arms WILL come off the splines. Use proper penetrating oil - not WD40 - and a little heat on the arm won't do any harm. The reason I suggest NOT disturbing the rear adjustment is due to the likely rust / corrosion problems. The plate has to be moved along to the new position each time to raise /lower the car - and frankly 1/4" or so up/down is hardly worth worrying about. The front end is generally well oiled and not rusted up, and adjustments at that end are much easier and usually do the trick.

You can beat all day on the outer end of the arm and get nowhere.
You need to concentrate on the end near the eye bolt.

Honestly I have really tried to shift the suspension arm and yes I only hit the arm at or as near as possible to the spline location with the car well supported on axle stands and with all the weight off the lever with the suspension removed I tried various penetrating fluids including Plus Gas which normally works for me on everything but no success , whilst on the subject on this thread I have just put a spirit level onto my wheel at roughly the hub cap location , the spirit level being vertical and the car on a level concrete base , it showed that the wheel was slanting inwards at the bottom , to bring it to a vertical reading on the spirit level I had to insert approx a 5 mm spacer is this what BMC is calling negative / positive camber and a way of checking what I have on my car.If so and I also follow his advice about a spacer to be fitted onto the eyebolt it also makes sense about the length of the eyebolt reference the amount of thread left , but also will this have a minor effect on the torsion bar as it will be now at a slight angle from front to back because of any spacers fitted to the eyebolt or will it just not matter , if so I now think that I will try to get a secondhand eyebolt and see what is involved in remaking a pair with a longer shaft so when I do replace the eyebolt bushes I will also fit the modified eyebolt

The T bar will easily take the very slight 'offset' of the washers on the eyebolt. You have +ve camber - you need to make the wheel sit vertical , or slightly leaning IN at the top. Good luck with the longer 'negative camber' eyebolts. Let's see a picture if you get some made!

Thanks now I know what I have on my car, my first thought about revised eyebolts is to make them from square/rectangular section bar and offset the central hole by 3mm to start with , also this will allow fine tuning with additional washers that can be added I have obtained a second hand eybolt as a pattern and have a good contact with a fastener company to see if a commercially available bolt can be used with modification to suit the installation

More strength to your arm! The size of the 'head' where the T bar attaches with the poly bushes will probably mean you need square bar - and be sure to make the plain shaft longer so when washers are added, it still engages fully in the chassis leg location - and has sufficient thread to ensure full nut engagement.

Thanks for the info if I can get this right by off setting the large hole by 5 mm from centre outwards and by making the complete thing out of solid bar I will be able to machine the mounting face to the car body by removing metal to get the correct camber angle which means the spindle that goes through the body is the same length as standard I do not think it will take very long in time to machine up a pair as above in my workshop

And then - offer them for sale to others!

Maybe we will see how the first 2 turn out and how long they take to make