Morris Minor Owners Club

About three or four years ago I started a thread on my Traveller restoration. Body shell was welded and rust treated, resprayed and repainted in Old English White. Rear axle, springs and hubs/drums all cleaned, sprayed and fitted and front suspension rebuilt with new brakes, bushes etc. Thought you might be interested in the state of the new track rod ends that were fitted. Source unknown, but they have done zero miles and have not been exposed to weather or water!! Rubbers are totally cabbaged!![frame][/frame]

I believe that rubber components need to be used, stretched (?), otherwise they brittle and crack?

This is certainly what I have been told, at least.

Ian. I just had a quick look on Ebay under "universal track rod boot" and there are some there that might suit you. Cheaper than buying a complete rod end?
How is the rest of the white Trav coming along? Have you started on the Lowlight yet?

Cheers

Rob

I'm not excusing this happening but I had to replace these seals on my Minor recently and Bull Motif had them in stock for about £1,50 each if I remember correctly. Not really a big deal. It does seem that rubber parts in general do not last like they did . I've noticed that tyres on cars perish before they wear out if you don't cover a good annual mileage.

That's because most modern rubbers and plastics are designed to be bio-degradable, so will break down and decompose within a pretty short space of time.

I was clearing out my loft at the weekend, and a pot of B&Q emulsion with some paint left in had dried up completely because the plastic lid had shrunk and was cracking apart at the slightest touch.

Just bought a new throttle cable from moss parts/ the pedal was really had to press and sticking.. was ok before i fitted new cable. removed it and greesed it made no difference.. in fact when driving it was alfull as you couldnt feather the pedal in traffic.. ive just put the original.. tatty green covering back on and its perfect.. lovely smooth pedal action.. finding these parts really poor..

BMC Competition Dept used to use motorcycle clutch cable since they are stronger and have a friction reducing liner in them. Lots of bicycle outers have an inner teflon liner, too. A lot of stuff is now made down to a price rather than up to a quality so some adaptation of other parts often pays dividends in the end.

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Rubber parts in general are of a shocking standard these days. I have replacement suspension parts on my garage wall (not Minor) that have never been fitted to a car with the rubber boots disintegrating like the track rod end pictured. On both my minors, the rubber trim (only a few years old) under the quarterlight is perishing and needs replacing - this on cars that are garaged and never used in winter. As has been said, this is all down the cheap components being used.

Pete

This part was really poor today. They only sent the box![frame][/frame]

Normally I would trust a box of fresh air but not one made by Lucas, it is probably from a tin hut in a far away place

Minor owners are famously tight. Are the manufacturers responding to our reputation? After market parts for other classics seem to be a bit better/more consistent.

amgrave wrote:Normally I would trust a box of fresh air but not one made by Lucas, it is probably from a tin hut in a far away place

It was a wheel bearing for a jag. So hopefully only boxed by lucas.

Us landy owners are tight too we have to buy the cheap one first then the dear part a fortnight later.