Look before you buy

[rjt1951]

Just a word of advise which I am sure has been said many times before. When looking to buy take someone who KNOWS about Minors with you.
Paid top dollar for mine, looks fab, goes well, told fully restored when top was chopped only a year ago. Had MOT to August.
Failed MOT today because it had front ball joint dust covers split and missing (how after 12 months they could fail I know not) Suffice it to say it will cost a few £££ to strip down and put right.
If dealer were local I would take it back to show him. Thought I had looked with great care but clearly it was not sufficient!!

[MColes]

The covers cost pennies really and not that much time to replace. If that's all you failed on I'd be thankful!

[les]

I'd be more worried about the roof chop and what it's like underneath all the trim! Split dust covers are an every day thing.

[Rasputin]

I have booked my pickup in for an MOT Tomorrow,I will be well pleased if that is all it fails on.

[bmcecosse]

A Minor doesn't have 'ball joints' as such - do they mean the track rod ends?? As above - the rubber seals cost £ 1.45 - the failure is trivial..... http://www.bullmotif.com/maintenance/pr ... STR150.jpg and can be fitted in minutes if you have a taper joint splitter....... You didn't buy a 'new' car.... there are bound to be some items needing replacement on a 40 year old car.

[autolycus]

I think that if you were really being pedantic, a Minor doesn't have a track rod, so can't have track rod ends. ICBA to find the Morris Book of Words, but the Midget wsm refers to "tie rods" and "tie rod ball joints".

The MoT test only incorporated the Reason for Rejection "a ball joint dust cover missing, insecure or excessively damaged or deteriorated to the extent that it would no longer prevent the ingress of dirt etc." from January this year, so you can't complain that it shouldn't have passed last year. As far as I know, it's also one of the changes that shouldn't yet be fully implemented, as they've fouled up bringing in the new regs, so they should still "pass and advise".

But it shouldn't be a difficult job. with a proper joint splitter. I've never yet succeeded with the two hammer method, and probably wouldn't even get a camel across the desert, either.

Kevin

[StaffsMoggie]

This is a 10 minute job each side. The dust covers are consumables really and will need changing now and again. You will soon see them during your monthly round with the grease gun.

[rjt1951]

sorry did not mean to cause so much comment and I take your points one and all.
Just wanted to make the point that people without a great deal of knowledge should take care when buying a car even if it states fully restored.
I know the rubber covers are no big deal. Just don't assume everything is going to be A1.
From an earlier comment- the conversion has been checked and was done very well with all the strengthening that it should have.

[Dominic]

Also worth remembering that modern rubber parts are usually of a fairly dire quality, so may not even last a year round!

[autolycus]

One extra point for anyone encouraged to have a go at changing their own seals: when refitting the joint, it's good practice to fir a new nyloc nut (7/16" UNF) or, if it's a split-pinned castellated nut, a new split pin. I prefer castellated nuts for this application - it saves having to jack the joint together while you run the nut down the thread.

It really is quite unreasonable to expect even a restored car to be so perfect a gaiter won't split in twelve months. After all, it will have been greased a good few times in that period (won't it?) and too much grease may have been pumped in. <ducks, runs>

Glad it's OK apart from that - enjoying owning it?


Kevin

[rjt1951]

Understand, and yes I have greased twice since purchase, and yes I love it. Thank you all.

[MarkyB]

Whatever it's still good advice, I suspect the people who bought cars sight unseen, on Ebay and ended up with complete lemons aren't as fast to admit it as people who got lucky!

[Dominic]

My first Morris I bought on ebay sight unseen after asking the seller loads of questions. I wasn't disappointed despite it needing quite a lot of work. I paid a reasonable price for it, just over £1000 and had 4 years worth of fun, not to mention education as I learnt how to fix it. If you're looking for a car that needs nothing doing then you should take a knowledgeable friend along, and rather than ask yourself "why should I walk away from it?" try looking from the opposite end of the playing field and ask "why should I buy this one, what's so special about it?" Not easy I'm the first to admit!
If you are willing and able to work on it, or to learn how, then just don't overspend (again all too easy to ignore that!)

[bmcecosse]

I think in general the control arms sticking out from the steering rack are known as 'track rods' and have 'track rod ends'. The triangulating rods at the front of the car - steadying the lower suspension arms - are known as tie-bars or perhaps tie-rods..... But my reason for originally querying the 'ball joint' was to establish if it was the little rubber ring around the swivel joints on the trunnions - or the cover on the TREs. Anyway - all clear now - the wretched things could have been renewed by now!

[rjt1951]

Let's close this one now ( wish I had never started) To be clear it is the rubber rings top and bottom of the trunnions on both sides. Being sorted on Saturday just in time for a friends wedding where next to the bride of course she will be the best girl there!!