Got a classic car?

[John Williamson]

The problem was caused by the threads on the bottom of the king pins not getting lubricated, aggravated by loss of grease through poor seals and wear stripping them. This normally only caused the problem at large steering angles, which were only ever used at low speed. I have seen a Moggie with both front wheels collapsed, but only once in all the time I drove one or took an interest in them. It really wasn't his day...

The method of prevention was to pump fresh grease into the system every thousand miles or every month from when new kingpins and trunnions were fitted. The Marina had better seals on the joints so the grease didn't escape. If you own a moggie, the Marina parts are easily fitted.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Only when turning, too. Luckily the worn threads on the trunnion never pulled out when in the straight-on position else there would have been a lot of fatalities caused by this stupid piece of design. Really it was a bit of ingenuity suited for a farm cart and not something that should ever have been put on a car.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Yes, and to take the weight off the trunnion when greasing and also replace grease nipples every year or two. It's surprising how many got blocked up and even the regular greasing didn't put any grease into the bits. Garages didn't give a shit, though.

[Muddymike]

Thankfully :-)

Mike

[Muddymike]

I owned two, and would much rather drive the Audi I have today.

Mike

[geoff]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Turning the wheel far enough at higher speeds would be suicidal ...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

A front wheel drive car with pure steering? Never been made. And every Audi I've ever driven has over servo'd everything. Especially brakes.

[<me9]

Possibly, but the very slightly later rack and pinion steering as on a mini was far better.

Only prior to the introduction of the MOT over half a century ago.

(the only times I've seen that was about 1956 in England (before MOT for MMs but it may have just been introduced for 25YO vehicles reducing over the years to 10YO), and 1970 in Northern Ireland (no mot or equivalent there then*.)

• Colleague used to import MOT failures from Glagow auctions, until one collapsed in a heap of rust as he drove it off the ferry!

[<me9]

But lasted long enough to be spotted on (non-fiddled) MOTs.

[Davey]

Fastest manual gearbox I drove was a Singer Chamois (Hillman Imp). Again, as fast as I could move it, and with minimal motion needed. And that was with having to move the action from middle to rear of the car.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yerrs.. that was a fast box allright.

No rubberised feel to that or sloppy links

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not in my opinion. Front wheel drive. Admittedly in the first Mini, there was so little power torque steer didn't much happen - but still not as good as the Minor.

[Jules Richardson]

I just checked the manual for my truck and it's every thousand[1] for things like suspension and steering - and that's mid-60's; the Moggy was considerably earlier. I suspect that a lot of owners couldn't be bothered to do it themselves and/or didn't want to pay someone else to do it for them.

[1] although a thousand mile interval lasted a lot longer in them days, I expect :)

cheers

Jules

[The Natural Philosopher]

Minor was a tail happy bitch when pushed hard. Mini wasn't. Didn't see minors winning any Rallies.

[charles]

surely the original Mini? I don't remember power steering on that

[charles]

most interesting rally car in the early 70s was an Imp with a Lotus Cortina engine which took up much of the back seat.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

WTF has tail happy got to do with steering feel?

Oh - you should do some research on the Minor in competition. Not that I'm saying it has the same success as the Mini - but then it was designed a generation earlier.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Front wheel drive never gives the same steering feel as RWD. You have the extra friction of the driveshafts etc even before any reaction fed through the steering due to the wheels being driven.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I know of half a dozen.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

I think they did reasonably well in class, but outright winners, no. In the heyday of the Moggy, rallying was a bit less frenetic anyway. Otoh, there was an A35 that slaughtered the opposition in historic rallying in the 80s - mind you, it had a Toyota TC in it.

I knew of that one and saw another being built - gobshite racing. In a similar vein, a Beetle with a reversed t/axle and a Twink inside - but the ultimate was a Rover V8 shoehorned in the back seat.