Morris Minor Owners Club

I have a standard two door saloon which due to a dying 1098 engine , is soon to have wolsely 1500 front brakes and a midget 1275 engine and box plus 3.7 diff. I have put sae40 oil in all the dampers. I'm considering replacing the rear springs with 7 leaf traveller ones. Is this a good idea, and is there anything else i should be considering with this cars set-up? Thanks for any help.

I tried 7 leaf springs on my tourer when it had a modified 1275 MG engine in it and it was far too stiff, it would go round sharp corners on three wheels and unless you have a lsd fitted you loose traction. A front anti roll bar is the best bet.

There are 2 types of 7-leaf spring.

The first is the version fitted to the 803 and 948 saloon and convertible Minors, up to the introduction of the 1098 engine - these had 7 leaves of 7/32" thick. The Traveller had 7-leaf springs throughout its life, and they all had leaves of 1/4" thick, so will be stiffer than the early saloon/convertible versions.

Our 1958 Minor still has its 7-leaf springs, but with the shortest, bottom leaf removed, turned upside down and assembled on top of the remaining 6 leaves. That was done 45 years ago, and the result is the car is lowered by around 2", and the rear suspension is softened at the same time. Only works, of course, if you want to lower the car!

The beauty of buying 7 leaf springs is - if you don't like it, you can remove one or two leaves. From what I've seen - a 5 leaf Minor is very softly sprung. To get decent suspension movement you should cut a good inch off the bump stops. Also depends if you intend to carry much weight in the car - or just two up. Front anti-roll bar just adds even MORE understeer. Balance it with a rear arb and/or some negative camber.

Im running 2 of my minor saloons on 6 leaf second hand traveller springs, I think it was the second leaf I removed and I find it very good, the cars not modified in any other way though.

Thanks everyone , much appreciated. I'll give them a go and see how i get on. I'll experiment. I may end up taking some off and decide on 5 or 6 anyway, but it will be interesting to see.

If you want to reduce the number of spring leafs do not reduce by more than one leaf as the spring is not set, designed or manufactured to allow for reducing the spring leaves down to five. You will end up with a spring that bends the other way and will give poor handling and may break.
I have seven leaf springs fitted to my Minor with the bottom (short) spring leaf removed so in fact six leaf. It handles very well with that six leaf spring configuration.
Phil

Ok, thanks Phil, point taken.