Morris Minor Owners Club

It's some years now since I completed a full refurbishment on my 1955 2 door saloon and it struck me the other day she was looking a bit low on the back end compared to others I see around. On the refurbishment I re-used the original 7 leaf rear springs and torsion bars, just replaced the bushes and plates. When I checked the road height distances they were more than an inch lower at the rear end, OK at the front, than that shown in the alignment diagram R16 of the workshop manual which tends to suggest that the rear springs may require replacing although it does say that the important aspect is the vertical datum points to each other not the actual ground height.
Of course the other thing which may effect the road height are the tyres and I have radials 155/80R's fitted although as the front road height seems OK then perhaps I can discount this.

Back to the the R16 diagram this is for a Morris Minor Series MM, can anyone tell me if these dimensions are applicable to all years and models or are there further diagrams listed somewhere?

Now if I do need to renew, do I fit 5 leaf which were used later in the production run or 7 leaf as fitted to the traveller, any advice please.

I believe the same diagram is in the BMC workshop manual, I have a 1968 copy, which covers all models up to the 1098's. That implies to me that the same diagram is applicable to all models, though I would expect a slightly different ride height between different models due to differing weights.

That's certainly the only dimensions diagram. I have the 1970, 14th edition manual and nothing changed in that.

If you fit new springs it is advisable to use five leaf ones in a saloon unless you carry extreme weights.

There seems to be a problem at the moment with quality control in replacement springs, a pair I fitted recently being unpleasantly hard, for example. If your car rides ok I wouldn’t replace the springs just for looking low.

The height diagram is relative to all Morris Minors and not any particular model even though the diagram states MM. There was no revised drawing produced by BMC or BL. There were very few differences if any in the floor pan especially suspension anchorage points during production.
Personally If the rear suspension is not bottoming out I would leave well alone.

Maybe we could have a poll ,measuring ground level to top centre of the wheel-arches , unladen ?

Just to start it off...
Front 649mm
Rear 629mm

John

Only if you are measuring factory fitted wings have you any hope of getting the same measurement.

Even then I don't think you'd get all the same measurements. Minors aren't built to the same standards of precision and tolerance as modern cars. Especially Travellers-the rear wings screw into the wood, I suspect a fair bit was done by eye.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions, I may just leave it with upgrading to front discs only at this time, perhaps next