Morris Minor Owners Club

I'm about to fit a disc brake kit so it made sense to replace the suspension bushes before starting the brake works. I picked up the instructions below (20 mins!!) and everything has gone fine apart from the rear arm will barely move on the splines. As far as I can tell there is no load on the suspension, the only thing I can think is that the torsion bar had been undersealed and perhaps that was causing it to bind so has now been cleaned off..

A couple of pics of where I've got to. Any thoughts on what I may be doing wrong or just need to hit it harder? Cleaning off the underseal has removed the alignment marks I'd made so they need redoing first.

Thanks




Eyebolt bush fitment

Here’s the quick way to do it! (20 minutes per side)

Remove the nut/bolt through the rear of the tie rod.
Tap the tie rod outwards to free it from the clevis.
Remove all nuts/bolts holding the front part of the lower arm on.
Leave the rear nut on the lower trunnion.
Remove the front part of the lower arm.
Support the rear part of the lower arm on a stable jack.
Remove the lower trunnion rear nut and free the trunnion from the arm.
Carefully lower and remove the jack.
Mark the lower arm and torsion bar to allow reassembly in the correct position.
Using a copper faced hammer, drive the arm rearwards along the torsion bar.
When the torsion bar is free, the eyebolt pin can be removed.
Replace the bushes and reverse the proceedure for reassembly.

The arm on one of mine was stuck. I covered it in release oil and left it for awhile. Holding the bottom of the arm with rag and hammering the arm at the top eventually got mine off. Dont know if this was right or not but it worked after abit. The pin was stuck on the arm the splines wernt. The drivers side just tapped apart. I used copper grease when I put it back together. Be patient im sure youll have it apart.

Steven

The spigot Pt No: ACA5263 (item No: 75 in the attached link) gets seized in the recess of the thick arm. The thick arm is usually free on the front splines of the torsion bar but the seized spigot will not allow the thick arm to move rearwards on the splines as the rear of the eye bolt pivot pin is fully butted up against the front of the torsion bar.
As above - soak with penetrating oil overnight and giving a good hard thump to the front of the thick arm as close to the eye bolt as you can should see the spigot and thick arm separate.
Clean up the parts - replace the useless rubber bushes with poly bushes smeared with a thin film of red or white grease - again assemble as suggested above with all threads/splines covered in copperease.
Initially set the suspension arms as per the load free settings which can be found in the BMC wksp manual. Finally fine tune the suspension height to the settings which again can be found in the Minor wksp manual using the rear reaction arm vernier plate.

http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/shop-by-mo ... 93df3.html

Take the eyebolt right out, you will probably have to remove the rear fixings on the cross member as well, but you can lift the whole lot away then and deal with it on the bench.

Its rusted on the splines, when I did mine there was some heat required with freeing oil, clean it all up and a wipe of copper grease as said.

The reason that I suggested the spigot is stuck in the recess of the thick arm is that the OP did state in his original post that "the arm will barely move on the splines" so indicating that there is some movement of the thick arm on the torsion bar splines.
There is very little clearance between the rear end of the pivot pin and the front of the torsion bar.
Also the 2nd photo indicates that the pivot pin has moved rearwards in the eye bolt (so rearwards on the splines). The front face of the pin should be forward of the front face of the eye bolt by at least the thickness of the bush flange (5mm) so as to support the front of the bush.
Unless the OP can separate the pin/spigot from the torsion bar he will be hard pushed to remove the whole torsion bar assy including the front suspension eye bolt in one piece.
Only if the rear torsion bar reaction lever is able to be moved forward on the rear splines can the OP hope to separate the torsion bar eye bolt pivot pin from the eye bolt by moving the torsion bar rearwards through the cross member hole. The horseshoe washer and large washer must be removed to allow the torsion bar to be moved rearwards. Once separated the torsion bar can then be drawn forward out of the cross member and any seizures dealt with.

I cheat. I just tug really hard and the torsion bar and eyebolt will just pull out of the hole. Harder to get it back in on new bushes but still manageable, if the exhaust isn't in the way. Good axle stands required and stuff the wheels under the car as a precaution, also.

As per Phils post yes, I suppose the rear reaction bar is going to stop the front coming away.

One of mine was seized together when I did this last winter, and I ended up with the whole lot in one piece, rear part of the front arm, eyebolt, torsion bar and reaction bar.

I must have gone the just give it a good pull route, after all it is a spring.

Once everything is cleaned up, splines cleaned and greased its amazing how nice it is to put back together.

Mine would not tap off either when I did this. It was actually being held on by a nut, not sure if this was a previous owners "modification". Just had to take the torsion bar off completely.

Interesting comment as regards the nut.
Was the nut at the front of the torsion bar or at the rear.
The only thread & nut on an original torsion bar is at the rear.
Are you getting mixed up with the nut to the rear of the spigot cup which fits inside the thick arm.

As regards pulling on the torsion bar to get the eye bolt free:-
A lot of loading can be placed on the cross member when the front of the torsion bar is pulled sufficiently away from the chassis rail and if the cross member is not in the best of condition it may fail around the torsion bar rear mounting. So only pull if you are confident that the cross member is in good condition.

Got it done today thanks, just needed a heftier thump with a hammer to get it moving and the rear arm shot off the splines. It also took the tipex markings that I'd made with it! Luckily the trolley jack was still at much the correct height for the lower arm so it was a good guide to re-setting the height. Car back on wheel and bounced a couple of times and height looks good, certainly not 1.5" different from one side to the other so must be on the same spline as before.



Onwards to the disc brake conversion and hit anoher snag. The inner bearing will not go down the stub axle, gets stuck on the shoulder. It needed a puller to remove the old hub but came off pretty easily once it started. However, no amount of trying will get the new bearing onto the stub axle.

The markings on the original bearuing are a bit worn but inner looks like ??LJT25 and outer 3MJT17. Think this is standard so why won't ESM Grumpy brake kit bearings fit? They are marked as 30205 and 30203.

The correct bearings for the original Grumpys disc brake fitting kit utilising the top hat spacer are:-

SKF.................30203 J2 (outer)
&
Timkim........... L44649 9940 1 (inner)
L44610 11

I had the Grumpys disc brake kit fitted to my Minor and retained the packaging with the above numbers.

The kit you have purchased does it have the modified hubs which do not require the top hat spacer as it is they are fitted with a different inner bearing?

http://www.morrisminorspares.com/brakes ... ed-p829453

Thanks Phil, I've just posted a new thread but it is the new improved kit without a spacer.

Well done glad you got it off. If your worried about the height you can always set it up afterwards and match the other side as its not much work really to strip it again. I marked abit of wood and done it that way to get it roughly right after losing it one side. Will get them perfect afterwards if I can be bothered. Mines about half an inch higher on the o/s tho don't think that's much to worry about.

Steve