Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello all

We had a flat rear tyre, so we used the original jack in the boot and my husband placed it under the jacking point and proceeded to jack up the car but all of a sudden there was a loud noise and the jacking point snapped off from the floor of the car. I understand that this is the strongest point of the car, should we get it repaired asap? it is the left hand passenger side jacking point could someone please advise.

Many thanks

Rule 1: NEVER use the jacking point. This is the weakest point of the car, you are lifting half the weight of the car on one small bracket. You may have done major damage to the chassis cross member and floor pan. For garage use get yourself a trolley jack and for portable use a good scissor jack. Jack the car under the front of the chassis leg using a block of wood to spread the load or under the rear spring. I would strongly advise a careful inspection of the complete underneath of the car, this may just be a warning.
Maybe it was not such a good idea to tell you to follow the workshop manual

As above, deffo never use a jacking point to raise the car. When fresh from the factory they were probably OK (just)

They are to be viewed as a nice original curiosity and nothing more.

Get it checked, see what's happened but don't worry, anything can be fixed and with luck, it just failed quickly and the bang was the weld breaking on the jacking point to crossmember joint. It's almost certainly not the original jacking point so will have been added for aesthetic appeal, probably just with tack welds.



Al

Al and Mike thanks so much for your advice. I will take her down to our trusted welder this week. Al I think you could be right it does look as though the weld has snapped no holes in the floor at least!

Thanks again both.

Maddie.

dont bother to have another welded on they are also horrid mud traps

Although if you do want to keep it,to retain the 'original ' look, quite effective bungs are available that keep the mud out.

As others have said - never ever use the jacking points - or the jack. A small trolley jack can easily be carried in the car - I would never use a scissor jack - and only lift under the rear axle at the spring pan (or under the final drive if you want both wheels up at the same time) - or under the front lower suspension arms - or as mentioned above, the chassis leg with a large wooden spreader.

Ok thanks aupickup.

Interesting about the bungs I will look into that I would certainly rather avoid more welding. I didn't realise that they were more for aesthetics than actual practicality.

Bmcecosse we are going to purchase a trolly jack this weekend thanks for the advice on where to actually place it.

Aesthetics or practicality? I think they were intended for practicality but in those days that could be pretty short term. As long as they were OK for a quick wheel change for the first owner they didn't worry about later years. I remember my father being very upset when a jacking point collapsed on a five year old Austin Cambridge.

Not just Austin's and Morris either, I had an Escort MK1 with two jack points per side and one of those collapsed taking the sill with it. Same jacking system as ours and same problems too.

It seems like others have suffered the same fate then I don't feel quite as dumb as I did now.

Update,

It was just a tack weld failure no damage done to the floor so our welder is going to tack weld it back on again on Wednesday as I would rather have it there than not as it's an original feature. All's well that ends well. Have purchased a trolley jack too!!