Morris Minor Owners Club

There are beehive springs and everything else.
The thread is specifically about beehive springs not everything else.

Hopefully the image will post. The difference between old original and new replacements is quite obvious. It's impossible to fit the spring with the longer "hook".
I junior hacksaw a piece off to make them the same as the originals. No problem fitting using a pair of needle nose pliers. In fact I find them harder to remove than fit!

olonas wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 12:30 pm IMG_20240316_121357783.jpg

Hopefully the image will post. The difference between old original and new replacements is quite obvious. It's impossible to fit the spring with the longer "hook".
I junior hacksaw a piece off to make them the same as the originals. No problem fitting using a pair of needle nose pliers. In fact I find them harder to remove than fit!

Excellent picture showing the problem.

Stephen

les wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 9:47 am You obviously don’t own a Minor, although not a difficult job it can be a bit of a fiddle, that's why some leave them off, I guess.

Yes, I do own a Minor. I’ve owned it for nearly 20 years. So your “obviously” indicates something, but I’m not quite sure what…

My apologies, most owners have discussed some sort of issue here regarding a Minor during ownership but can’t ever recall a post of yours doing so.

olonas wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2024 12:30 pm IMG_20240316_121357783.jpg

Hopefully the image will post. The difference between old original and new replacements is quite obvious. It's impossible to fit the spring with the longer "hook".
I junior hacksaw a piece off to make them the same as the originals. No problem fitting using a pair of needle nose pliers. In fact I find them harder to remove than fit!

Had the rear drums of today, just routine clean out of dust, so decided to try the white springs again after shortening the hook with a hacksaw. They installed easily using long nose pliers.
So definitely poor specification parts supply.
Although the linings showed no uneven wear without them.

Keeping my head down ready for the long post complaint

TBH Bill, I've never had the beehive springs fitted in almost 40 years of continuous Minor driving and have never had any associated brake issues, no uneven wear or any strange noises etc.

Look at all the fun you’ve missed trying to fit them !

les wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 9:10 pm Look at all the fun you’ve missed trying to fit them !

It's been all out war on the FB Group this past few days, just because a guy asked where he could get one from.
It immediately poked the bear with a few saying they aren't needed.
One guy posted:

Not really of any use once the drum is on and adjusted. They are used to keep the shoes aligned on assembly line same with brake drum screws useless once the wheel is on.

My stance is that if they're not needed, why after many decades are Drum Brakes still being designed with them?
Manufacturers don't design extra expense into their products.
Even if the springs only cost 1p each, how many Millions could they save by not having them.
I've been servicing the brakes on my Caravan, an ALKO Chassis of which there are millions worldwide on all sorts of trailers, caravan, horse box, car/boat trailers etc.... They have very similar springs, even now.

As an engineer, I cannot comprehend the people who arbitrarily decide they are not needed and all the designers over all the years, are wrong....
The early MMs didn't have them, therefore Morris obviously found an issue and they had to include them.

As one response said yesterday:

My….how quickly this devolved into a pi**ing match… bottom line they are a needed piece of the brake system and designed for a specific purpose on a critical (if not the most critical) system on the entire vehicle. Been a professional mechanic for 25 years on classic cars and aircraft and it needs to be understood that even the most seemingly useless piece has a function that enables the much larger system in question to work in harmony with itself amd the other subsequent systems. Scary that people think they can simply omit certain items because it doesn’t suit them or because they have done it for “x” amount of years without incident…that’s called being lucky not expertise…but you do you, just don’t hit me or my children on your way by in your jury rigged backyard hodgepodge.