Had fun with the grinder last night =) I took off the worst of the spring mounts and cleaned up the surrounding area. In the process I found a small rust hole under it which actually perforated the axle casing - Not so big that it would warrant a re-think of the project (i.e. a new casing), but big enough for me to feel good about finding it before it became a problem!

This evening I dusted off the welder (not used since some panic bodging before Molly's MOT - when I was trying to get her ready for the national) cranked up the power and started welding a patch onto the hole I'd found. As it wasn't too big I wasn't worried about using the same thickness material, it just has to keep the oil in (the casing isn't / shouldn't be presurised).

I really enjoy welding! (thats lucky isn't it?) Within a few minutes I had the patch on and was aligning the mount. It may not be pretty, but the lump hammer test seems to have worked. Can't wait to do the other side over the weekend!

I was thinking this week that having owned the car for erm... 13 years, I've done amost all the jobs that can be done and most of them more than once. Its quite nice when I get to do some of the more obscure stuff like this - I'm not looking forward to a chassis leg though! Am I a glutton for punishment? I think so...


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Well the new parts have arrived and they look very good. They are generic spring mounts, i.e. designed to be fitted to any axle, or as a replacement for the standard minor ones. I also managed to get the axle off the car (after bouncing it off my head!).

the next challenges are to get the old mounts off, clean up the whole area (to a state that can be welded to), align the new mounts properly and weld them on very well indeed.

I'm also going to attempt this with minimal stripping of axle, i.e. keeping the brakes, halfshafts and diff in place. I think the brake pipes will have to be removed for their own safety.

I'm also going to have to be careful not to damage the new paintwork on the rest of the car as I want to work in the garage (where its warm and light) but theres a car with only 2 wheels taking up all the room!

On a different note, I've been having a strange conversation with a very well known morris minor centre. They are on a mailing list I'm on and whenever a need for a product is mentioned, they mail the mail the peson off the list. They have done this to me a few times, however they never offer any advice. Now that just isn't right is it?


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Got back into the garage last night in order to investigate the mysterious sounds from the rear axle under accelereation and managed to strip down the ubolts etc on the offside. If all came apart quite easliy (and so it should - I only just built it!) but I found 3 problems
1) the thread on the u bolts was very badly worn as were the nuts - time for a new set I think.
2) the diff casing had been fouling on the new telescopic shock mounting bar - which implies that the axle was coming up too high - so I'm going to fit full bumpstops this time!
3) last and definatly worst - the axle mounting plate was found to be rusty and had collapsed, which allowed the axle to move and probably start all these issues in the first place.

The mounting plates don't seem to be listed by any of the on-line retailers, but I gave the Bath morris minor centre a call and they put me in touch with
Charles Ware's morris minor centre who have some in stock and they should be here in the next couple of days!
It's really annoying that I had the axle off last winter, cleaned it up and painted it. Well it just goes to show - if a jobs worth doing...

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