Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,

This is my first post for Morris Minors so be gentle folks, although I have been messing with classic rust since 1984.
My own toy is a GT6 Mk3 but we have restored a 'wet' 69 Morris Mk2 Mini for my son and this current project, "Goucho", is for my daughter who has just started driving lessons.
For the past 3 years I have been stripping and welding in new bits. I've replaced the usual offenders such as inner rear wings, A-posts, sills, lower 10 inches of doors and rear wings and......the chassis rails & crossmember. I could go into the details but the car was given the factory alignment check before and after repairs and it is still straight. The chassis rails were from Charles Ware and although one was 1/4" too long forward of the eyebolt mount they went back in within 1/32" of the originals using the eyebolt holes as a common reference point.

So imagine my horror when reassembling the clutch relay arm to find out that it didn't line up. It's not a chassis leg problem but more something that BMC seems to have messed all those years ago. The pedal arm is fine and needed no repairs. The relay arm was oval on both legs so I welded that on the worn sides and reprofiled the holes to get rid of the slack so they matched the new clevis pins. The old clevis pins were so worn they looked more like camshafts for a model engine. New linkage straps were purchased.
The adjuster from the clutch arm was also worn so that was welded and reprofiled.
In total I took around 3/8" slack out of the mechanism.

I reassembled this lot and although I could get the bits to fit it was obvious that it wasn't lined up. It worked but was very heavy and it wouldn't be long before the pins wore out again. So it all came back out.
I tried removing the distance piece between the bush housing and the chassis. It helped a little bit but now I was paranoid that one good pothole would cause it to dislodge from the gearbox bush end. I couldn't shim out the clutch pedal arm as the amount I needed would have been over the limit for the castellated retaining nut.
I therefore decided to sacrifice a little bit of future adjustment and put a dog leg into the linkage straps. This allowed the whole lot to go back as assembled by BMC but had the benefit of removing most of the mechanical resistance other than the clutch springs themselves and the friction on the pedal shaft retaining nut.

Picture shows the dog leg. The red line is the alignment of the pedal arm. The blue on is the relay arm.

Now if I've made an absolute howler please let me know. If I haven't then this might help you to make your clutch easier in traffic.

All feedback welcome.[frame][/frame]

With the pressure on the ends of the link plates that are now bent IE dog legged, I won't be suprised if they bend, in effect shortening them. It's very easy to bend an already bent bar if you see what I mean

Thinking about it sat in front of pc. reverse that if the link plates are "pulled" but same applies they will stretch IE straighten out under load.

Those link plates look to be much thicker than my new ones

Its possible to put the gearbox mounts on the wrong sides and cause this problem, they will fit but the linkage wont line up. I hope this is whats happened as its a nice easy fix...... See this previous topic.

http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... ts#p504214

As above -the problem lies with your gearbox mounts - not a 'fault with BMC' Sort out the mounts and it will all line up just fine....

And then replace the link plates as they will need to be straight, but be weak where they've been bent; although, as commented above, they're thicker than any that I've ever seen.

Hi, thanks for the feedback. The relay arm is hard up against the bush mount and insert on the chassis side. If I undo the gearbox mounts it still can't go any further. I think i will make up new link strap from 1/4" bar to replace the thin ones.

The mounts are fitted WRONG WAY ROUND !!! It IS the gearbox mounts - you don't need to make anything. Install it correctly and it WILL all fit as intended by BMC.

Hi,

I've checked the various links/threads and from what I can tell from David's picture of his traveller during floor replacement, my mounts are correct.

David/bmcecosse, what's wrong with this setup as it is causing the tail of the gearbox to sit high and therefore must be causing the relay to be high on the gearbox side thereby throwing out the linkage arm to the straps. When I refited the gearbox I did have the mounts up the wrong way and had to turn them over to this position. Either way, it can't go any lower due to the fixed distance of the "V" between the mounts.[frame][/frame]

I haven't worked out how to get multiple pics attached yet.[frame][/frame]

bmcecosse wrote:The mounts are fitted WRONG WAY ROUND !!! It IS the gearbox mounts - you don't need to make anything. Install it correctly and it WILL all fit as intended by BMC.

It is fitted as intended by BMC judging by the workshop manual schematic.[frame][/frame]

do you have the correct gearbox cross member
as saloons and commercials are different

Dennis may be right... also worth trying turning the rubber mountings through 180 deg...

Taupe

Are the rubbers new? If yes, then check the dimensions against the old ones. It is not unknown for new parts to not match the spec of the originals.

The rubber mounts do look thick.

Hi,
The crossmember is the original judging by the matching levels of crud when I took the car apart. It is fitted with 'front' facing forward. The rubbers are new from ESM as the originals had gone soft and were breaking up. I will try rotating them through 180deg but cannot compare as I binned the old ones once the gearbox went back in. I did think they were a bit thicker but put this down to not being creamcrackered.

Thanks for the support and ideas. If anyone can measure the face2face thickness of theirs it would be good to compare.

Rgds,
Barry

You CANNOT rotate the gearbox mounting rubbers (Pt No: AAA3763) (ESM Pt No: 10G267) either in the horizontal or vertical plane as they were and are designed to fit one way and one way only.
If you are able to rotate them and the lugs on the back plate of the rubber mounting do not engage either side of the spigot on the gearbox cross member you have either the WRONG gearbox mounting rubbers or you have fitted them incorrectly
Looking at the photos of your mounting assys above you do not have them fitted upside down but you may have them back to front.

Ive been out and taken a few pics of my 61 that has the gearbox panel out and your pics do look right for the mountings.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Here is a pic of how offset they are, the one on the right is fitted with the short bit to the front.[frame][/frame]
this is how the drivers side should sitright side towards the front of the car.

The only other suggestion I have is the the shaped bit at the bottom of the rubber perhaps hasnt located properly, was the crossmember powder coated or just painted as the thickness of the powder coat may stop it from slipping into place.

Very neat work by the way with even inside the chassis leg done in body colour!

If your gearbox mounts are correct then I am certain that the problem lies with the relay shaft (Pt No: ACA8149). If you enlarge the L/H picture with the red and blue lines and put a parallel rule along the alignment of the pedal and clutch levers mounted on the relay shaft they are not parallel (ignore the manufactured bends). The clutch pedal lever is aligned towards the gearbox and is definably not at right angles to the shaft.
I believe that you have a poorly manufactured relay shaft. Replace it and I am certain that your troubles will be over. Even if the fault lies partly with the gearbox mounts I would still be tempted to replace the relay shaft.