A nasty shock

[Napoleon Boot]

Just been out and jacked up the rear of my Traveller to adjust the back brakes, and found that on my last outing, I came back with less car than I set out with...

The car was loaded down with bags of compost and clonked itself on a bump in the track to my allotment. I noticed it was a bit of a lively drive home and now I can see why:

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The U bolt on the driver's side rear axle is no longer attached to anything! There's no visible damage to the threads of the U bolt so perhaps they were loose, and this was the final straw? I had noticed that more of the piston of the damper was showing when I cleaned the drums earlier in the week, so it may have been "flying low" then.

"Oh fiddle sticks" I said to myself (or words to that effect), and after taking some quick photos, I came in for a cup of tea and a read of the manual.
I suppose the next step is to go and see what exactly has been lost. The shock absorber bracket is still visible, though I can't see if the shock absorber is still attached to it. I can't see any bolts coming out of the bottom of the bracket so I think the dowel bolt nut may have vanished too.
The drawing in the manual isn't very clear. The locating plate and bracket have five holes in - I assume that one in the centre is for the dowel bolt and the two on the outside edge are for the u bolt. But what goes through the other two?

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Here are a couple more photos for reference. Assuming that it's just the nuts that have fallen off, would I be able to remove the wheel, reattach the u bolt to the bracket and tighten up the nuts? If so, what's the best jacking point - on the axle?

Sorry for all the questions, this car just keeps throwing up problems and the support I've received on this forum is all that's keeping me sane!

Seb

PS - I'm aware that the dampers should be more vertical - it's on the list of things to sort out once the car is running reliably...

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The other side:

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[Napoleon Boot]

The drawing in the manual isn't very clear. The locating plate and bracket have five holes in - I assume that one in the centre is for the dowel bolt and the two on the outside edge are for the u bolt. But what goes through the other two?

Hang on a moment - are there two u bolts per side? That would make sense to my not very mechanical mind...

Seb

[philthehill]

The after market damper mount brackets attached to the original damper mount brackets have been fitted the wrong way round.
This is how they should be fitted.

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It appears to be a Leadbetters of Lancashire damper kit which is what I have on my Minor and they work well even though the rear suspension has been lowered 2".
I suspect that the 'U' bolts did not have the lock nuts as can be seen in my picture above. Either plain nuts with locking nut or self-locking nuts can be fitted

[geoberni]

The drawing in the manual isn't very clear. The locating plate and bracket have five holes in - I assume that one in the centre is for the dowel bolt and the two on the outside edge are for the u bolt. But what goes through the other two?

I guess the obvious thing is to compare to the other side, assuming that's all there still....

Hang on a moment - are there two u bolts per side? That would make sense to my not very mechanical mind...

Yes
Here's a couple of images I've just taken of Basil out in the garage....
Did you realise you have non standard Shockers? I assume the front may be the same?

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[les]

There are two U bolts per side, why not check the other side to identify the missing parts?
Oops, just noticed that’s been mentioned!

[Napoleon Boot]

Hang on a moment - are there two u bolts per side? That would make sense to my not very mechanical mind...

Yes
Here's a couple of images I've just taken of Basil out in the garage....
Did you realise you have non standard Shockers? I assume the front may be the same?
20200716_174116.jpg20200716_174306.jpg

Ah, that's brilliant, thanks Geoberni! Yep, I knew they were aftermarket shockers - the front ones are original though.

The after market damper mount brackets attached to the original damper mount brackets have been fitted the wrong way round.
This is how they should be fitted.

Cheers Phil, that's great - really helpful to be able to identify them. When you say "the wrong way round" - should they be facing the rear of the car, but on a bracket mounted to the rear of the axle? I'm just struggling to tell which way your photo is pointing!

Many thanks,
Seb

[Napoleon Boot]

There are two U bolts per side, why not check the other side to identify the missing parts?
Oops, just noticed that’s been mentioned!

Yep, I did think of that - I took a quick photo but didn't want to crawl underneath without the car on axle stands, and didn't want to rest it on axlestands without working out what was going on with the droopy spring!

[philthehill]

My hand is at the rear of the tire.
The tele damper bracket utilizes the two original lever damper mounts. So the bracket faces the rear pointing down.

[Napoleon Boot]

My hand is at the rear of the tire.
The tele damper bracket utilizes the two original lever damper mounts. So the bracket faces the rear pointing down.

Brilliant - thanks Phil, I get it now. Thanks to you and Geoberni for the photos, they help so much. I'll go and see what's dropped off and what I need to replace.

Many thanks,
Seb

[Chipper]

Napolean Boot wrote:
"I noticed it was a bit of a lively drive home..."

It's remarkable that you were able to drive home in it at all!

[Napoleon Boot]

Napolean Boot wrote:
"I noticed it was a bit of a lively drive home..."

It's remarkable that you were able to drive home in it at all!

It's 30 mph and 20mph limits the whole way (luckily!)

[Chipper]

Out of interest, what is the bar between the offside rear chassis rail and offside rear wing? Is it for a mudflap, or a stay to prevent the rear wing flapping about?

[Napoleon Boot]

Out of interest, what is the bar between the offside rear chassis rail and offside rear wing? Is it for a mudflap, or a stay to prevent the rear wing flapping about?

Yep, it's to keep the wing in place - is it not standard? I'm going to have to remove one of the wings at some point to remove a dent so I'd better work out how it's attached!

Seb

[Chipper]

Not standard AFAIK, though I stand to be corrected...

Certainly, my 1970 Traveller didn't come with any fitted, and I don't think I've seen them on any other Travellers, including a 1960s model I owned a few years ago.

[Napoleon Boot]

Not standard AFAIK, though I stand to be corrected...

Certainly, my 1970 Traveller didn't come with any fitted, and I don't think I've seen them on any other Travellers, including a 1960s model I owned a few years ago.

I'm sure it's a modification, quite a useful one though. It attaches at the other end with a screw through the flanged edge of the wing.

Well, I got it all back together! The other U bolt was still in position, though a bit bent and mangled. A good thing really as it's all that was keeping the right end of the axle attached to the car

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I extracted it with some brute force and a long screwdriver, then installed two new u bolts and got everything aligned with the help of a couple of jacks. The new nyloc nuts are as tight as I could get them using a long armed ratchet. The odd thing is that the remaining nut on the old u bolt was also a nyloc nut, and they don't usually come undone. I'd been under that side of the car recently doing the brakes, and all four nuts were still in place then. All I can think is that they'd worked loose, and then the bump on the allotment track knocked them off.
Naturally I checked the other side, and all those nuts are tight, I nipped them up a bit just in case.

The finished article:

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I tried re-orientating the piston bracket as you suggested Phil, but unfortunately the holes only line up one way - I'd hoped that the third hole was the same distance apart and I could just flip it around. So I've left that as a job for the future.

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As always, it's one step forward and two steps back. Having fixed the suspension, I returned to investigating the weak handbrake, and found what I think is the cause. One of the two new brake cylinders which I installed recently has some of the casting missing at the bottom, which means that instead of fitting in the slot in the backplate, it's floating and the handbrake cable isn't having any effect. It's not a new fracture - there's no evidence of any broken metal inside the rubber boot which makes me think that it's a casting fault. I installed that side first and so probably didn't notice the problem.

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It's too late to send it back now so I've ordered a replacement and will check more carefully in future.

To cap off the day, I noticed that one of my tyres is looking a bit cracked, so that'll need replacing soon. On the plus side, two people stopped to tell me how beautiful the car is, so at least it's all worthwhile.

Seb

[pgp001]

Do you think it is possible that the right angled brackets have been installed on the wrong sides of the car.
If you were to swap them over you might get the shocks into the intended position that way.

Phil

[Napoleon Boot]

Do you think it is possible that the right angled brackets have been installed on the wrong sides of the car.
If you were to swap them over you might get the shocks into the intended position that way.

Phil

I don't think so - I just had a look at a RH bracket on one of the spares sites and it looks the same as mine:

https://www.morrisminorspares.com/rear- ... -h-p831358

I think maybe the extra bracket has been made bespoke rather than coming with a kit, as it doesn't have the same curves as Phil's Leadbetters of Lancaster bracket.

Seb

[philthehill]

From what I can see the 'right angle brackets' are fitted to the correct sides.
If necessary drill an additional hole in the damper 'right angle bracket' using the top hole as the reference point. The way the original damper mounts were fitted is totally wrong. Try and get your mounts in the same orientation as those fitted to my Minor.

[les]

That wheel cylinder you mentioned, not a casting fault, it’s been broken at some point, and a while ago looking at the general condition.

[Napoleon Boot]

From what I can see the 'right angle brackets' are fitted to the correct sides.
If necessary drill an additional hole in the damper 'right angle bracket' using the top hole as the reference point. The way the original damper mounts were fitted is totally wrong. Try and get your mounts in the same orientation as those fitted to my Minor.

Thanks Phil, that's what I was thinking.

That wheel cylinder you mentioned, not a casting fault, it’s been broken at some point, and a while ago looking at the general condition.

That's really weird Les - I've checked and I only fitted it on 8th June! I've found a photo from when I installed it, you can see it's sagging a bit in its slot, as it was the first cylinder I'd installed on the rear I guess I didn't notice at the time.

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