Wheel and hubcap ID

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My Trav was featured in Minor Monthly March 2007. The article states the wheels are from an Ital and the rear axle is from a Marina. Dave Glen of Dundee was the owner. I just took my Trav in for a repair, (LA area British car specialist shop) and the mechanic tells me the wheels are from a Nissan and the rear differential is also Nissan. He also says the hubcaps are bespoke. Anyway, can anybody confirm that my wheels are indeed Ital and what about the hubcaps? Also, would a Nissan differential be an option? Thanks in advance for any light anyone can shed on this.

[philthehill]

The wheels look to be Morris Ital.
The PCD of a Morris Ital is 3.75".
I suspect that the PCD of a Nissan is 100mm.
Fitting a Morris Ital rear axle is a common modification. I had a Marina/Ital rear axle fitted to my Ser 2.
A photo of the axle currently fitted would be appreciated.
The hub caps look to be off another Morris vehicle.

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Thanks, Phil. Very helpful. The car is in for some rust repair and won’t be back to me for a couple of weeks. I’ll post a photo of the axle when I get it back.

[Steve Phillips]

Marina / ital wheels would be 13" diameter, and should have 8 slots in, all cars, coupes and estates had 3 ¾” pcd,

Some vans had 4 ½” pcd from memory and some of the wheels were solid with no slots in, I think this was on the higher load rated vans,

Triumph Dolomite had 9 slot wheels but look very similar to a marina and I seem to remember they were also 13" and 3 ¾” pcd

Your hub caps do look like marina caps with “M" centre’s, poss Minor hub cap centre’s let in, Google images “marina hub caps"

A couple of photos would help with identification and measure your pcd,

Regards a Nissan axle, lots of Japanese cars in the 1970s to very early 80s were rear wheel drive and many used 4 ½” pcd including Datsun/Nissan, Toyota,

Mazda used 110mm, 120mm as well as 114.3 (4 ½”) Honda used 120mm in the 70s before going to 100mm in the late 70s onwards, although they used 41/2” again in the 90s on some models,

You say would a Nissan Differential be a benefit, you won’t put a Nissan diff in your axle case if it is Marina, but if you can find one it could be swapped, having said all of that I can’t see much point in changing the axle if what you already have is working OK, Marina axles work well if you don’t want to put huge power through them.

Remember most axles can be re-drilled to change the stud pattern to suit your requirements/ wheel choice.

Hope that helps

Steve

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Steve, the wheels are 13 inch, and I believe they are Marina and the hubcaps too, but the mechanic telling me he thought they were Nissan threw me for a loop. I had taken it to him to repair a broken clutch bracket, which he did, and he told me the differential sounded like it was on its way out, so I told him to fix it. Again, the PO said it was a Marina rear end, so I was dismayed to hear the mechanic say it wasn’t, that it is Nissan (The tranny is a Nissan 5 speed) and he can’t repair that. His shop does Austin Healeys, Triumph, Morris, MG, really nice stuff, so I’m not sure what to think. The car is at the body shop for a repair so I can’t post any pictures at the moment. Thanks for the info.

[philthehill]

Wait till you get the car back and then post some photos of the axle on here.
Measure and post the wheel stud PCD on here.
The Marina rear axle is a tough old beast and any wear would have to be bad to be discernible. Is the rear axle noisy?

[don58van]

Hi
Nissan/Datsun Sunny (B310) rear axles/diffs are very commonly used in Australia and New Zealand. The width is an excellent match for the original Morris. Replacement diffs should not be too hard to find in Oz, NZ or USA.

Indeed, it is common in Oz to replace all the running gear with 60s and 70s Nissan/Datsun. The Nissan/Datsun components are well suited to our long distances and high (for a Minor) speeds.

Regards
Don

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Phil, I didn’t perceive any noise that I would have said, oh oh the diff has an issue, but I was hearing noise that I thought was just road noise.
Don, I did not know about the B310. Good to know. Thanks!