Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all I'm new so please excuse my ignorance if this has been covered.
I've tried to find the answer but can't find it.
Has anybody fitted the metro subframe and engine to their moggy and if so did they retain the hydrolastic suspension or something else?
am new to moggy ownership so please be gentle with me

Regards
John

Hi john,
Minors are rear wheel drive and of unitary body construction with front chassis legs, torsion bars and a structrual front cross member. }I dont know of anyone who's fitted a metro subframe and think that the huge amount of work which would be required to make it fit (essentially redesigning the entire front end of the car) would far outweigh the potential benefit of such a conversion.
It's not as straight forward as, say, an MGF subframe into a metro.
There are many RWD engine upgrades possible, from marina/midget 1275 a series through Fiat twincams and ford zetec which require far less work.
Suspension upgrades from telescopic or coilover dampers to full coil suspension (JLH kit) are available off the shelf.

I hope this hekps.

Matt

Thanks for the reply Matt
I reckon it is quite a lot of work was just intrigued with the subject as I had heard it mentioned in the pub.
It's one of them things that I think would be done for the sake of doing it.
It's my wife's car and she thinks every car is fwd. I haven't told her yet.
I have a Porsche 911 turbo with front end damage in the yard which I reckon the engine might just squeeze in the boot area with a bit of fettling. Would still be rear wheel drive.
Needs handling mods first I think though

Regards
John

Porker lump in the boot - excellent wheelie potential

I reckon she would need bigger brakes

There are front wheel drive conversions. Seach 'goggle' for morris minor + 'transverse engine' or 'front wheel drive'.

Don't think they used a metro subframe, mind, but could be wrong. Certainly one def did not!

There's one with an Allegro subframe, one with a VW engine up front and also the early FWD car that was developed at the factory and was described in one of the books as being one of the safest cars they ever had for winter driving.

RobThomas wrote:There's one with an Allegro subframe, one with a VW engine up front and also the early FWD car that was developed at the factory and was described in one of the books as being one of the safest cars they ever had for winter driving.

Jack Daniels, one of the original Morris Minor design team, drove a front wheel drive experimental Morris Minor as his daily car in the mid 1950s. A lot of what they learned from it was carried over into the Mini a few years later. I imagine that one problem with using a whole front subframe from a more modern car would be that the front track would be a little too wide to be ideal?
It would be a great deal of work for very little gain I'm thinking.

The jack Daniels one is the one I'd heard about in the pub but I thought the bloke was taking the mick and had made that name up whilst looking at the optics above the bar
I do agree that it would be a hell of a lot of work but it's just something I thought would be fun.
Like I said in an earlier post my wife thinks all cars are front wheel drive and I'm not going to correct her.
It's got a Weber 40 dcoe on it at the moment which is not much cop so I think she will love the driving experience a bit more with standard carburation

this build thread uses a pug 106..
http://morrisminorowners.co.uk/viewtopi ... d5ec03c12a

charlie_morris_minor wrote:this build thread uses a pug 106..
http://morrisminorowners.co.uk/viewtopi ... d5ec03c12a

That's pretty amazing but I wouldn't go through all that trouble to fit that horrible Diesel engine. Couldn't think of a worse lump

I own a fwd 1275gt mini engine one and its for sale cheapish

Forgot to say its an automatic