Morris Ital Estate

I was recently given (yes given !) a very nice 1980 Morris Ital 1.7 Estate. It's in perfect working order & condition for its age but the only thing I don't like about the car is the amount of body roll on corners.

I have tried rocking the car and the shock all seem to be working o.k.

Have anyone any suggestions for eliminating the roll on corners ?

I thought a set of stiffer shocks might be the answer.

Cheers, Mich

Reply to
^^tHe^MiXeR^^
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  1. There is no such thing as a "very nice Morris Ital," and there never has been.
  2. "I was given" - in other words you saved someone the £25 or whatever disposal charge.
  3. "only thing I don't like" - you need to look harder, or get your eyes tested...
  4. ... unless all the bits to dislike have already fallen off. In which case, there's not much car left.
  5. Victim support group here:
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Only kidding (well, sort of) - springs, shocks and bushes will be very tired by now, so even if not obviously faulty changing these should improve things. Don't expect miracles, we're talking suspension design from the age of the miniskirt here.

Reply to
Bob Davis

Err don't you mean the age of austerity, the Ital (Marina) suspension design really dates back to the late 1940's and the first Morris Minor - Ok, BL fitted a top ball joint and telescopic shock absorbers but that really changed things.... NOT.

Reply to
Jerry.

lol, cheers Bob.

Reply to
^^tHe^MiXeR^^

I had a 1.7 Ital estate as a runaround about 8 years ago and it was a great car. Not much to go wrong. No expensive electronics. Loads of space under the bonnet to get at things for servicing. You can almost climb in and stand next to the engine when you service it. Compare with any modern car where everything is packed in the engine bay like a tin of sardines. Massive load space. Who cares if you carry bricks or other crap which scratches the inside because it's worth nothing in the first place. Very comfy ride, only 4 gears to worry about and lots of torque which makes more gears pointless anyway. Half decent fuel economy. To be honest I found it hard to fault. I went to France in it for a touring holiday and it soldiered round with considerable aplomb. No one's ever going to nick it and if it gets scratched in a supermarket car park you don't give a damn. Zero depreciation. Fuck all insurance costs. Plugs, leads, oil and dizzy cap every now and then and that's all you have to do to keep it mobile. The OHC valve clearances hardly ever need looking at. The engines never go wrong assuming even the basic amount of care. Tyres last for ever because it won't go round corners fast enough to wear them out. I'd have another in the blink of an eye.

Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

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I'm not at all sure why women like men. We're argumentative, childish, unsociable and extremely unappealing naked. I'm quite grateful they do though.

Reply to
Dave Baker

I knew there was an argument *for* cars that don't handle :-)

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Many got bent on quite gentle bends when the rear end suddenly decided it wanted to go first. DaveK.

Reply to
DaveK

Only because the driver let the rear end control the rest of the car.....

Reply to
Jerry.

On an '80 you possibly have the lever arm type shock absorbers which were truly dire. Then they wore... The best thing is to convert to the later telescopic dampers + ARB, possibly of the 575 van spec, though where to get these now I am not sure. People do the same mod when they 'modernise' a Minor / Traveller which has the same suspension, so one of the resto firms that caters for these would be a good start I guess.

We had several Vans on the farm in the 80's which either rotted away in short order or died in some other grusome way, but they were all the same- terrific understeer which then suddenly turned into full opposite lock oversteer without warning! The last '84 575 we had was better due to the better front suspension and stiffer rear springs...

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM.

The Ital and Marina inherited the torsion bar front suspension from the Moggie 1000 - which if I remeber has and adjusting bolt on it.

You might try using this to lower the front suspension a bit, though I don't know aht effect it has on camber etc.

I seem to recollect that you could replace the lever arms front shocks with uprated versins - or even a conversion for a "Proper" damper" - you might try looking at any sites you can find for mosifyng cars. After all there are plenty of Moggies about, and I guess someone still does modify those ...##At the back, the traditional lowered springs and uprated shocks approach should help, and shouldn't be too difficult as a DIY job.

But first make sure the problem isn't cause by coroosion of either the torsion bar mountings at the front (which are in the middle of the car, if you see what I mean), knackered bushes, or corroded spring/shock mounts at the back.

If the car hasn't already had it, give it lots of waxoyl...

Reply to
Richard Murphy

OMG - what an insult, what did you do to deserve that!

Reply to
Geoff

Ital?

Wasn't that a Marina with different door handles?

Reply to
Alan

My 77 Marina had telescopic shocks I believe. Mined ewe I scrapped it in 1987 because the sills were shot but other than that I had no problems to speak of. Apart from a duff gearbox, clutch slave cylinder, headlight dip switch, oil pressure gauge. But v economical to drive and huge inside

Reply to
Malc

Yup - front looked different, back looked different, awful 1.7 OHC engine with self-destruct head gasket and crankshaft seals (travel at more than 60 sir?), different rust spots (compared to Marina was bio-degradable, and that's a challenge!), otherwise same car

Reply to
Richard Murphy

How do I check valve clearance on the single OHC 1.7 engine, I am compete baffled in the Pacific NW

Reply to
bodgerbloke52

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