Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi

My Minor has Marina wheels all round and the rear hub as an alloy spacer with a different PCD to allow the Marina wheels to fit.
I have now fitted competition half shafts and the flange on the half shaft is slightly thicker so ideally I could do with wheel studs that were 46 mm in length not 42. I did find a post on this forum suggesting JBW for longer wheel studs but the ones they sell are much longer and would need to be cut down.

Two questions: does any other supplier wheel studs with different lengths ? and if I had to resirt to the longer JBW studs is it easy / practical to cut them donw in size ?

Thanks


Stuart

The spacers sound very dodgy. Minispares sell all different lengths of studs.....

BMC Ecosse I agree that the wheel spacer isn't a great idea. However this is a car I bought last September and it has been very carefully restored with lots of new parts. It currently sits on Marina wheels on new Uniroyal tyres with what I take to be Marina front hubs with new discs and calipers. The rear axle is all standard Moggie but with this conversion spacer to accept Marina wheels. I can only think that over the 25 year restoration of the car the spacer was at one point an accepted conversion.

Perhaps the simplest answer is four new alloy wheels - Marina on the front and Minor on the rear. If I retain the Marina steel wheel as the spare and one of the conversions spacers then I have a solution in the event of a puncture.

What do you think ?

Stuart

By far the better idea would be front hubs with the 4" PCD studs - this is the 'usual' way to do the job - someone has taken the cheapskate way out.(check with ESM/Bully etc to see if they do an exchange service). However - if the tyres are new/good, and you don't mind the Marina wheels - you may as well get the life out of them. Are Marina wheels 13" or 14" ?? I think they 'cheapen' the Minor horribly - but you may be happy with them. Another option of course is to fit a Marina axle -and then the MGF alloy wheels which are always cheap on ebay because they fit nothing else ! The axle is stronger too.....so no need for special half shafts etc.

The Marina rear axle was a normal conversion at one time, sold by CWs amongsth others. However, if used in standard form the handbrake operation is different and requires a Marina lever. They may be stronger mechanically, but I found them to have a weak spot in that both hub bearing and seal were prone to failure - I've seen it on 4 casings and both sides, everything measured correctly, no excessive play; just problematic. The bearing has to be oressed onto the shaft, so not as simple a swap as with the Minor axle.

Marina wheels are 13 inch. Which looks best is personal opinion, the great advantage of 13 inch would be greater choice of tyres at more reasonable prices.

Marina front hubs with Minor spacing would defintely be the best way to go from the engineering POV. Ideally, a Marin stub axle in the kingpin so as to avoid the use of bearing spacers.

Hi

Thanks for the feedback and advice folks.


Stuart

If you do go for the MGF wheels you will need to change the wheel studs and nuts.Fit a spacer on the front,i was told 3mm,however in my case i ended up having to use 8mm,also in my case the rear MGF standard 205 50 16 fouled on the arches.So i used 185 55 16 being the same size as the fronts.I was getting stupid quotes for stud and nuts,in exess of £100!
the size is M12 1.5 48mm.(£38 delivered for a set of studs and nuts from Fleabay) i did however cut 4mm off the rear studs to ease installation.

I think the earlier MGF wheels/tyres are 15" and may be more suitable - and probably even less expensive!