Morris Minor Owners Club

I'm in the process of refitting the offside front suspension after replacing all the bushes and checking the play in the top and bottom trunnions.

All was going fine until I came to refit the torsion bar! Note here - the previous restorer, some 25 years ago, bodged the height adjustment by not using the adjustment plate. Instead they have just welded on a plate with a single hole. This will need further work, in the near future, to rectify.

I've had to replace the torsion bar rear arm as the original was damaged! - I had marked it's position (in the paint) so I'm happy that the replacement is in the same position as the removed unit.

When I've come to fit the bolt, to the rear torsion bar arm, I'm seeing a huge gap (10+mm) between the arm and the chassis! When I removed the original arm it was tight-up against the chassis. On looking at the parts list it doesn't mention that it 'handed', however, It looks symmetrical e.g. it wouldn't matter which way round it was fitted - is my assumption correct?

Thanks - Dave H.

You can download AKD530 workshop manual free. Which will probably give you info you need with illustrations.

Your assumption is not correct - the rear torsion bar reaction arm is handed/offset and must be fitted the correct way round.
The reaction arm has a recess in its rear face into which the horseshoe washer fits. The recess must face the crossmember. It sounds as if you have fitted the reaction arm the wrong way round. Bad luck.

As an aside but relative to the horseshoe washer - I remove the horseshoe washer and fit a second stepped washer in its place with the reduced dia of the stepped washer fitting into the front of the crossmember. The stepped washer is the same as that fitted on the rear face of the crossmember. The O.D. of the second stepped washer may need reducing slightly to fit into the recess of the reaction arm. The reason for fitting the second stepped is that the one stepped washer fitted to the rear of the crossmember does not hold the torsion as positive as it should be. Having a stepped washer either side of the crossmember ensures that the rear of the torsion bar is held tightly in place. Make sure that when fitting the stepped washer the angle of the step is 90 degrees. Some stepped washers do not have a 90 degree angle due to poor machining therefore reducing the effectiveness of the stepped washers fit into the crossmember.

Thank, Phil . . .

Not too big a job to reverse the arm. Interesting re the washer!

Dave H.

The only reason for the horseshoe washer being there is that its removal allows the torsion bar to be removed rearwards through the crossmember.
In all the years I have been working on Minors I have never had to use the rearwards removal method.
I have Marina torsion bars fitted which do not have the spigot bolt on their rear ends. The spigot bolt is replaced with a modified Marina front suspension eye bolt with its head shortened to 9mm. That fits into the rear quarter of the Marina torsion bar reaction arm splines. The reaction arms fitted are from the Marina and have screw adjusters unlike the Minor sector plates. The modified Marina eye bolt clamps the stepped washer to either side of the crossmember. The advantage of fitting the Marina adjusters is that the suspension can be trimmed without having to do any dismantling just slackening off three nuts and screwing the cap headed to suit.