Lowering the front - Without marking the torsion bar!

[chrisryder]

Greetings! After assisting in lowering a minor yesterday i tried out something new.

It may be something everybody else in the know does anyway, but it'd never been suggested to me before!

With the car up on axle stands, once the bottom trunnion was disconnected from the bottom arm of the suspension and the torsion bar allowed to relax, i had the good sense to measure the distance between the end of the bottom arm and the ground. Then once the arm had been gently tapped off the splines i rotated the arm and pushed it a little bit onto the splines again. Before going any further i measured the distance between end of arm and ground again. The increase was by 1.5 inches (huzzah!).

I've found the old trick of 'scoring the arm and the torsion bar and use the line as a reference' to be quite awkward, and often resulted in losing the line!

So there you go, lowering the front of a minor? Don't forget your tape measure!

[bmcecosse]

I've never done it any other way!

[Alec]

Hello Chris,

"I've found the old trick of 'scoring the arm and the torsion bar and use the line as a reference' to be quite awkward, and often resulted in losing the line!"

My favourite for temporary marking anything is a bottle of Tippex. East to use, see and it is quick drying. I know that specialist marking pens are available but we always seem to have Tippex around.

Alec

[rayofleamington]

one problem with using the tape measure method is that the measurement changes if you replace worn eyebolt bushes.
Also it relies on a perfectly level floor if you are doing both sides.

To get both sides even, measure the distance between the trunion pin and the hole in the end of the load arm.
Provided both sides have the same bottom suspension lower stop (e.g. both with the rubber pad or both with it missing!) then you stand a good chance to get it close to level on the first attempt. If there is a difference Left to Right despite having assembled with the same 'tension' distance then it may well be one of the torsion bars has weakened.

[bmcecosse]

The difference when getting the arm a spline 'out' is 1 1/2" or so - very obvious! I just used a tool/stick to note the length before taking it apart. Even with new parts fitted - if the arm is fitted one spline out, it's very obvious!

[mrmorrisminor]

I too have always done it this way..... the diffternce one tooth on the spline makes is very noticable, I have found it relatively easy to find the correct possition again. On one occasion I had 'misplaced' my tape measure so used a spanner of approriate length that just touched the floor and the bottom of the lower arm to judge the gap!!

[chrisryder]

well if you all do it, how come nobody suggested it! all the posts about lowering just say 'mark the torsion bar carefully' as far as i've noticed!

[bmcecosse]

Not from me! I thought it was too obvious to mention. And yes - length of spanner is the way I do it! As I have said before - I used to do this at the side of the road - in the dark - at start of Rallies if news of rough roads ahead was in the air. Wheel doesn't even need to come off the hub - and certainly no time to faff about with 'marking' or measuring!

[minormonkey]

Chris,

Thankyou for posting this!

I replaced the front bushes on my car this week and found this thread,which gave me 'the easy way' to lower my Minor.

Cheers,

Chris