Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all i know this has been asked some many times in the past but I'm after a simple answer, ok I've got standard suspension all round atm I've fitted 13 inch mini lights obviously it has a massive wheel arch gap, I'm after lowering the front about 3 inch if pos and the rear about 2inch and i will need to fit a arch extender lip to make it about 1 inc wider any help would be greatfull thanks

Your problem is going to be with the amount of suspension travel left if you lower it so much, basically there will be little if any left, the ride will be terrible and the front inner wings will take a right beating
No easy answer I'm afraid, get used to a big gap seems ideal, if you want to drive it.

Thanks for the reply can the internal arch be modified at all so they don't hit so much?

The rubber bump stop can be modified easily enough to cope with less lowering, an inch and a half = one spline on the torsion bar. Easier said than done, but still far from rocket science, look for other threads about suspension work.

Just fit 165/82x13 tyres the rolling radius is just about the same as your 14" and will fit the wheels arch much better

As above - I'm guessing you have too low section tyres fitted. Lowering the suspension is a big mistake on a road car - with potholes and speed bumps to be negotiated. You will just damage the bodyshell, to little advantage with the handling, and terrible ride comfort.

bmcecosse wrote:As above - I'm guessing you have too low section tyres fitted. Lowering the suspension is a big mistake on a road car - with potholes and speed bumps to be negotiated. You will just damage the bodyshell, to little advantage with the handling, and terrible ride comfort.

A person always has a reason for their actions, just because their reasons are not the same as yours does not make it right nor wrong

Always worth warning someone though

Exactly - 'lowering' is something you will do for a track competition vehicle, where the road conditions are (hopefully) smooth. And indeed quite the reverse for a rally car - where the suspension is raised to be able to handle rough conditions. The idea of lowering a road car to make everyone think it is some form of 'competition ' car is delusional..... On today's roads a car needs suspension movement - the 'trick' is to make sure the suspension angles are correct and the movement is well damped.

Do it and make your own decisions . It can all be put back if ya don't like it

A lot of my mates don't think a car is low enough unless it scrapes down a flat road, navigating speed bumps is always hilarious to watch, I totally get the lowered thing, it's a stance thing and I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but not every mod is about making your car handle better (which I'm aware of how daft that might sound) it's like the idiots who used to jack the back axles up in the 70s custom scene. Stance is something I've always felt the morris massively lacks but the standard suspension set up will let you mess about with it to a degree. Lowering blocks on the back, you might want some custom ones made if your going to go more then 1.5 inch, and then as said before I saw a split screen with the torsion bars turned two splines on 13" wheels and that looked fantastic, but as has been pointed out you'll have to learn every single pot hole and speed bump in your Local area, I have a standard height mog, with a engine mod that means my sump sticks out beneath the car an inch or so more then standard and with the suspension set up correct the travel was enough to cause a raised man hole cover to rip the sump off in a car park once! So be warned

Obviously the correct route is get in touch with jlh for the big boy suspensions mods, that are fully ride height adjustable, and mean you can go throw your morris around and it'll actually not go sideways at 26mph. They aren't cheap but as anything in the world you get what you pay for. Ten years into owning my morris, second engine change later I'm going down this route!

Good luck

Don't lower your car, it will only spoil the ride and handling. I have recently raised a few cars to the correct height as requested by customers and in each case the car rode a little better at the correct height.

I like standard cars, and i like modified ones too (said in same tone as Aldi advert).

Hi all i know this has been asked some many times in the past but I'm after a simple answer, ok I've got standard suspension all round atm I've fitted 13 inch mini lights obviously it has a massive wheel arch gap

What year is your car? I'm guessing it's a saloon.
The early cars had 'high cut' rear arches, and these give a massive wheel gap - however on standard wheels "it looks ok", but when changing to alloys (even with the same tyre diameter!!) it just looks totally wrong.

Assuming you have high cut rear arches, change to later arches - don't bin the high cut ones as they are hard to source!

If you are on a later car e.g. minor 1000 (anything after 1956) it should be 'normal' rear arches. then a bit of lowering is possible, with the obvious consequences of reduced travel and more load on bump stops.
Rear lowering blocks used to be available off the shelf and front suspension is adjustable. Best choice for front with a few inches lowering is 50% uprated torsion bars. This limits how much impact you'll get on the stops!

Reducing the bump stops rubbers by 50% and lowering 2" is not that hard, but with the bump stops i wouldn't go that route pointless unless you have REALLY solid bodywork behind them as it'll just get smashed to bits.

Personally ~I'd fix the bodywork first if required, but I guess if you find out the hard way, it'll be easy to find out if the body work was strong enough . the risk is that you'll need to buy more bump stops - I lost a front one when an inner wing gave way! (not from lowering -this was after being 6 foot airborne!!)

Even when lowered 2" the car will not look 'slammed'. The Minor bumpers hide about 6" of bodywork below, so the car looks high (compared to a slammed-look car)even when it's on the stops.
When you look under the car, the sump and middle of centre cross member are the lowest points, so no chance of getting the sills on the ground without digging a trench in the middle of the road.