Morris Minor Owners Club

Whilst fixing the broken plastic tube inside the top of my steering wheel which isolates the wiring today, I noticed
that my indicators look like they should be self cancelling.
There appears to be a stud fitted to the inner column which I believe should be between the cancelling mechanism
for it to work correctly.

Unfortunately, mine is approximately 90 degrres too far around to do this.
What do I need to do to rotate the column around to its correct position please?

If it requires the steering rack to come out I'll probably just continue pretending it doesn't have self cancelling, but
I know that will drive me to distraction at some point.
Many thanks for your time as ever.

Graham.

Yes that little stud is part of the self-cancelling mechanism. It contacts the levers/cams on the indicator switch and with the road wheels pointing dead ahead that little stud should be exactly midway between the left and right self cancelling cams of the indicator switch.

In order to set it up correctly the outer column is rotated by loosening the pinch bolt on the outer column. This will alter where the whole indicator switch assembly sits relative to the little stud. Before doing any of this you need to make sure that the indicator switch assembly is clamped in the right place on the outer column. There is a small metal peg on the indicator switch assembly that locates in a small hole in the outer column.

If this is unclear just in words I will try to find some pictures.

Stephen

First check that the indicator switch is clamped on the outer column in the correct place. The peg arrowed fits in a hole in the outer column

Ensure the road wheels are pointing dead ahead before adjusting the outer column by loosening the pinch bolt bracket under the dash.

Thank you Stephen for your quick reply.

If I have understood you correctly, you mean to rotate the outer column to line the cancelling mechanism
up with the peg in between.
However, my peg is at the top of the inner column and so would that not mean that the indicator stalk is pointing
up in the air?
I apologise if I'm being a bit thick here, but I think the inner column needs to rotate.

Thanks again

Graham.

cswagon1 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 04, 2025 7:32 pm Thank you Stephen for your quick reply.

If I have understood you correctly, you mean to rotate the outer column to line the cancelling mechanism
up with the peg in between.
However, my peg is at the top of the inner column and so would that not mean that the indicator stalk is pointing
up in the air?
I apologise if I'm being a bit thick here, but I think the inner column needs to rotate.

Thanks again

Graham.

Yes that is what I mean. Are you sure the road wheels were pointing dead ahead when you checked this?

Stephen

Yes, they were definitely straight ahead as I set this up beforehand as the reason for taking off the steering
wheel was because it was about 2 splines out when driving in a straight line and that was annoying me.
That's when I noticed the horn wiring shield was broken, and then I noticed the self cancelling stud was wrongly
positioned.
It's always the same when you do just one job isn't it.
Anyway, the wheels were straight ahead and the stud was at about 11 o'clock on the inner column.

Thanks again

Graham.

OK. I'm afraid the only way to get the self-cancelling stud in the right place is going to involve disconnecting the inner column and moving it the required number of splines.

Stephen

That's what I thought would be the answer so I'll just carry on with my list of all the other jobs and save that until last.

Thanks again Stephen.

Just out of interest... When I drove the Mrs's modern car I would often activate the wipers in error. To stop me from doing that out of habit I turned the steering column around and reset the steering wheel. Now the Minor's indicator stalk is on the left like every other car.

Many thanks for your reply and extra thought.
Unfortunately my stud is at the top of the inner column so changing the
sides over won't help in this case.

Thank you anyway

Graham.

No need to remove the rack,just remove pinch bolt at bottom of inner column and pull of the splines

Is it as simple as that, Bill? You don't have to loosen anything else? Just remove the pinch bolt and the whole inner column, together with steering wheel, will lift up out of the outer column?

Not sure maybe easier to undo both get everything alingned and refit.Remove your wheel first while column is secured.

SII. The manual talks about removing the steering column assembly, which involves disconnecting the horn wire and slackening the two bolts securing the column bracket to the fascia panel before the pinch bolt is moved to enable the whole column to be lifted out. It doesn't mention removing the steering wheel. The reason I am asking is that I want to reposition things so that my steering wheel is aligned properly and this would be dead easy if it is only loosen the pinch bolt, grab hold of the wheel, pull the column off the splines and reposition as required. But that might break the horn wire and the column might not even come away unless the column bracket bolts are loosened. I don't know.
The later cars have a different arrangement. In fact, it seems that they alone have an outer and inner column and the earlier cars only have a single column assembly. Maybe I need an answer from the owner of an earlier (MM/SII) car.........

The only reason I mentioned removing the wheel is because it will be back to misaligned if you move the column on its splines.

But with the SII, the steering wheel is fixed to the column by a woodruff key in the column which fits into a slot in the steering wheel, so there is no advantage to me removing the steering wheel. I want to move the whole lot around on the splines of the pinion so the steering wheel is aligned properly. I am hoping to see a retired mechanic who specialised in Minors at an event tomorrow, and he has a SII traveller, so if we are both there I will ask him....

Maybe when you see him you could also ask him about doing the job on a '69 van please!

So if your steering wheel is in the correct position keyed to the column and the road wheels are straight. I don't understand how the indicator cancel can be in a different position? Unless the orientation of the steering wheel spokes are wrong and the top is not the top, if you follow what I mean. On my series 5 the horn push is held by a screw so having the M the correct way sets the wheel position. Is it the same on your earlier model or does it clip in?
Do you have the workshop manual, is the extract below correct for your series 2

Yes, but there is no indicator arrangement on the column with the MM/SII cars and the horn push has no M or anything else on it, so it is a matter of setting the column on the splines so that the wheel spokes are symmetrically correct. My manual does not have fig J4 which suggests the two column bracket bolts need to be removed, rather than just slackened. The picture and the instructions make it quite clear now. Thank you

Sorry I've just realised two enquiries in same post myoldallopy asking about aligning steering wheel and the original post about indicator cancellation
Oh well hopefully you have both found what you need.
Good luck to both of you