Suspension

Bushes

Nolathane/Polyurathane Bushes

Nolathane is available at most suspension shops and even some service stations, and Morris Minor-spec parts are usually available off-the-shelf. The only problem with Nolathane is that it is a fairly hard material, and will stiffen the ride of your Minor quite considerably if you replace all of the rubber bushes in the Minor suspension system with it. If this is what you want, (maybe you're happy to sacrifice ride for handling), then Nolathane will do the job brilliantly.

A happy compromise can be reached by replacing only some of the standard rubber bushes. The combination is up to you, but I recommend fitting Nolathane bushes at the front to the lower swivel pin (where the wheel upright meets the wishbone), the front of the torsion bar (where it fits into the chassis eye-bolt), and in the leaf-spring hangers at the back of the car. With this set-up, you will notice the difference in handling but will still have a fairly forgiving ride.

Telescopic Shocks

Telescopic shocks fitted to the front and rear of your Minor can transform the handling from nervous and jittery into cool, calm & collected corner-taking. There are a number of kits available as bolt-on modifications, and as such are generally very good value and are recommended for most modifiers out there. Full instructions should be provided with these kits and should only take a few hours to fit, even for the novice.

For most applications, standard gas filled shocks will be sufficient, but for those of you who may want to do a bit of rallying, sprint work or towing with your Minor you may want to look at adjustable shocks such as Spax Adjustables. These allow you to simply turn a screw and instantly either harden or soften the ride. Although more expensive, they are definitely useful.

Front

The general idea for front shock kits is to retain the standard Armstrong lever-arm shocks only as a top locator for the king-pin. All oil is drained from the old shock, and in some cases the valve mechanism is disabled, although this is not strictly necessary.

The telescopic shock is located at the bottom end by a bracket or bolt on the outer end of the lower wishbone. Some kits bolt to the side of the wishbone, others use a clamp arrangement to provide a locator on top of the wishbone.

At the top end the tried and trusted method is to bolt the shock to a thick steel plate that bolts to the outer face of the lever arm shock absorber. A vertical slot is cut in the inner guard to accept the plate and the telescopic shock bolts to it under the guard. Longer bolts are required for the lever-arm shock since the steel plate should be at least 4-5mm thick.

The shock should be oriented with the top end close in to the inner guard and the lower end as far out on the wishbone as possible. This is because of the arc the outer end of the wishbone travels through when the wheel hits a bump in the road. The telescopic shock will therefore provide more resistance for bigger bumps and less for smaller bumps, therefore smoothing out the small bumps and damping the big ones.

Rear

Kits are also available for the rear end of the car, although they are probably less common.

The lower end of the shock bolts to a bracket off the leaf spring where the axle attaches, and the upper end bolts to a bracket off the floor panel. The floor panel bracket should be a thick steel plate or bar which spans the width of the car. This provides extra stiffness and location for the top shock mountings.

In this case the lever-arm shock absorbers can and should be removed completely.