Morris Minor Owners Club

Removed the seats and carpets today in preparation for new carpets. Pleased to find only two previous repairs no rust and very solid. Another layer of underseal on repairs and sound insulation next. Replacing handbrake cables while in there nearside has bolts while offside has studs and nuts, which I believe it should be?

Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Wed Dec 10, 2025 7:58 pm Removed the seats and carpets today in preparation for new carpets. Pleased to find only two previous repairs no rust and very solid. Another layer of underseal on repairs and sound insulation next. Replacing handbrake cables while in there nearside has bolts while offside has studs and nuts, which I believe it should be?
20251210_151135.jpg

Are you referring to the handbrake cable, or the handbrake itself?

Handbrake cables fixing point where it comes through the floor

The handbrake cable fairway guides are held in place with two bolts, nuts and spring washers.
The front outer cable fixing is a stud which has the handbrake cable passing through it.

philthehill wrote: ↑Wed Dec 10, 2025 9:01 pm The handbrake cable fairway guides are held in place with two bolts, nuts and spring washers.
The front outer cable fixing is a stud which has the handbrake cable passing through it.

Thanks Phil, it is the guides, it appears then that the bolts have been fitted in opposite directions. The nuts just unscrewed on offside but the bolts are just turning on nearside so will need to be held underneath to undo.
Longer arms or an assistant needed

Yes, I needed help to do this job - one in the car and one underneath.........

Retracted question found answer
Thanks to Phil info in this post.
https://board.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... al#p679956

2 new seals ordered

Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 01, 2026 1:47 pm Retracted question found answer
Thanks to Phil info in this post.
https://board.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... al#p679956

2 new seals ordered

Referring back to that 2022 discussion, I appreciate that I only have experience of my own single example of a Minor, and Basil's is not in accordance with anything that's documented.... BMC clearly felt it was self-explanatory to any worthwhile vehicle mechanic...
Of course what happens in such circumstances is that mechanics start to make up their own ways of doing things (I'll come back to that in a moment).

According to the relevant parts documentation, the Minor did not have a 'seal', but the Mini did.
What hasn't been noted by some of the longer served Owners is that the Mini only had 1 plate, plus seal, but the Minor had 4 plates.
Therefore an entirely different arrangement.
Perhaps they felt the 2 plates each side, mounted in opposite directions, provided sufficient protection from water ingress...

This is the Minor arrangement from the BMC parts list:
. This is the Mini arrangement from the BMC parts list:
. .
This is the explanatory diagram for the Mini arrangement, taken from a certain popular library of vehicle DIY manuals. Compare with the orientation in the original BMC parts list... .
.
Back to Basil's arrangement, I have no idea if the SII was any different from latter designs, but he only has 1 plate each side, mounted underneath....
Someone has made a little guide channel in the tunnel floor....
.

Interesting Berni, the variations but not surprising given the age of some of our cars. Do you think yours has inside the car plates missing? Or is your parts illustration for later cars.
Mine had the two plates inside and outside but the outers(under the car) had seals which looks like the remains of a strip of possibly leather. I have ordered the mini seals as i don't think it will be any disadvantage to have additional sealing.
My passenger side had nuts and bolts but the drivers side bolts welded to the underside plate, which is why the nuts unscrewed unassisted
Plates now have welded bolts removed, cleaned and painted and will be refitted with new fixings and mini seals, to accompany the new cables.

My car (69 Traveller) seems to have a kind of slotted plate arrangement for the handbrake cables on the underside. One appears to have broken.
Incidentally, how is the handbrake secured to the transmission tunnel? Is it by 2 bolts into captive nuts on the inside of the tunnel?
Mine has been rather crudely welded on with no sign of bolts, and it's not straight and inline with the transmission tunnel.

They look like the leather type seals someone has fitted under the original metal plates as shown in Berni parts illustration. That looks to have split or worn through. Or is that a metal welded patch to repair the floor and the guide is bolted to it, as two nuts are visible. If you lift the carpet what does it look like inside?
The parts list shows nuts and bolts but like I said its a two man job, so someone welded the bolts to the plate on mine but one side only.
Likely yours has had some mods as well.

There are no patches, the "plates" are separate items. What looks like weld is actually over-zealous application of underseal. Not sure what they are made of.
I was wrong, there is one bolt holding the handbrake to the floor, but it is definitely misaligned. No repairs have been made to the tunnel itself so I'm not sure why it is like this.

Duplicated

I thought your first picture is of the cable guide(fare lead) but are you talking about the handbrake itself mounting to the floor?

The first pictures were of the handbrake cableguides (fairleads in the manual), but the second posting refers to how the handbrake lever is mounted. Mine has the bolt at the front into the floor and at the rear appears to be mounted in a sort of metal slot that is welded to the floor. The whole is misaligned wrt the transmission tunnel, it points to the ns, meaning the passengers leg gets a brush from my hand as I use the handbrake.

Unfortunately it is just too cold for me to go taking pictures under my car. From memory (going back some considerable years) my car has the cable guides pictured but also a sort of nylon or perhaps hard rubber piece under the guide plate on the underside of the car. That piece is not illustrated in the parts diagrams nor could I find a replacement at the time I was doing the work so I just reused what was there.

Stephen

Welded pivot bracket at rear bolted through floor at front. Is the handbrake itself bent?
Slacken front bolt hook a ratchet strap around lever and seat frame and gently pull it over and maybe you can realign it

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Jan 03, 2026 11:15 am Unfortunately it is just too cold for me to go taking pictures under my car. From memory (going back some considerable years) my car has the cable guides pictured but also a sort of nylon or perhaps hard rubber piece under the guide plate on the underside of the car. That piece is not illustrated in the parts diagrams nor could I find a replacement at the time I was doing the work so I just reused what was there.

Stephen

Stephen, read further back in post and its explained. Seals appear non standard but mini one can be used

Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Sat Jan 03, 2026 11:18 am

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Jan 03, 2026 11:15 am Unfortunately it is just too cold for me to go taking pictures under my car. From memory (going back some considerable years) my car has the cable guides pictured but also a sort of nylon or perhaps hard rubber piece under the guide plate on the underside of the car. That piece is not illustrated in the parts diagrams nor could I find a replacement at the time I was doing the work so I just reused what was there.

Stephen

Stephen, read further back in post and its explained. Seals appear non standard but mini one can be used

Ok. Mine does have those seals and they were factory fitted.

Stephen

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Jan 03, 2026 11:21 am

Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Sat Jan 03, 2026 11:18 am

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Jan 03, 2026 11:15 am Unfortunately it is just too cold for me to go taking pictures under my car. From memory (going back some considerable years) my car has the cable guides pictured but also a sort of nylon or perhaps hard rubber piece under the guide plate on the underside of the car. That piece is not illustrated in the parts diagrams nor could I find a replacement at the time I was doing the work so I just reused what was there.

Stephen

Stephen, read further back in post and its explained. Seals appear non standard but mini one can be used

Ok. Mine does have those seals and they were factory fitted.

Stephen

Yes mine had the remnant as well but the more knowledgeable have said they were never fitted x factory.
I've ordered the mini ones for reassembly