Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi, I am thinking about replacing my rear springs and bushes on my 1957 2 door saloon. The car has I suspect its original 7 leaf springs fitted and after 60yrs of use are a bit on the flat side. There is at most a 1cm of clearance between the bump stop and the body.#

It seems that a few years ago the replacements weren't up to much.

The car has I suspect its original 7 leaf springs fitted and after 60yrs of use are a bit on the flat side. There is at most a 1cm of clearance between the bump stop and the body.

Is that still the case? I was thinking of getting one of the kits from ESM with poly bushes, has anyone fitted these recently and have you had any issues?

Is there any problems replacing the thinner 7 leaf springs with the newer 5 leaf design?

I'm a bit fed up of inferior replacement parts at the moment. Have just fitted a Borg and Beck clutch kit, which was useless, and kept falling apart as I tried to fit it to the flywheel, not only that the thrust bearing on the clutch release fork fell apart after a couple of days use, so not as happy bunny having to take it all apart again.

I've just recently fitted a direct 7 leaf replacement from esm and all seems good so far! Used the 25% uprated dampers too and much prefer the ride.

On the clutch I read on esms website that they sent a whole load of Borg and beck back due to manufacturing issues. Main problem is that it looks like ap drivel one are no longer being manufactured. As thinking of picking one up from a supplier when I can as a spare part...

I've fitted springs from someone other than ESM and refused to accept them until they finally sent some that were just about useable. I then bought some spring leaf clamps from ESM and the springs are now doing what they are meant to do. The spring clamps from that other main supplier were less than useless and gave awful axle tramp. I'd get the whole lot from ESM and fit it all in one go with poly bushes.

Kevin
Could you please enlarge on your problems with the clutch falling apart.

With an original Borg & Beck clutch cover (both 948cc & 1098cc) (not recently manufactured) there is very little to go wrong with it - at worst a worn and scored pressure plate.
If possible it is nearly always better to re-use the pressure plate and replace the centre plate.

Here is a NOS Borg & Beck 1098cc clutch assy :-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Morris-Minor- ... Swyc1ZmeAF

Phil

Yes, I am watching that clutch kit on eBay.

The problem with my clutch kit was that as the pressure plate cover was tightened down, equally on each nut, the springs holding the centre bearing kept coming of. They did not locate correctly on the cover.

I got fed of this and did indeed reuse the original pressure plate cover and replaced the centre bearing. Having done this no problems at all. That is until the carbon thrust bearing self destructed.

Kevin
Thank you for the explanation.
Phil

Such a shame that 'quality 'names are being used on substandard modern parts