spider wrote:I'm not familar with the suspension setup on the 'moggy' , I'm going to assume it is not that curious hydrolastic system they seemed to fit to Metro's as its too old for that, before they designed such a system. Was it king/link pin on the moggy ?.
Sort of. There was the dreaded bottom trunnion which, if not kept greased, would seize and then break away leaving the Moggy stranded by the side of the road with the wheel splayed out at a alarming angle.
Definitely not hydrolastic. But it did have torsion bars at the front. And rack and pinion steering when most cars had cam and peg steering boxes.
spider wrote:I'm only really aware of little things like the fluid reservoir being in the chassis rail or suchlike (near the drivers seat?)
Just like an A35, my first car.
spider wrote:The A series did seem quite a sensible unit, later A+ (Metro?) a bit more sturdy I guess. I do remember vaguely being told to keep away from the 1.1 long stroke units (only fitted to mini's?) as they could knock the bottom end out with alarming ease if tuned. Apart from the tappet cover being removable on the 1275 but not on the 998 (?) unit, that is as far as I know, excluding the interesting clutch design on the FWD versions of this engine. At least the transmission oil was kept clean I guess being shared with the engine...
1275 engines did away with the tappet chest covers except possibly true Cooper S engines and Marina engines. Smaller engines retained the covers The 1098 was a long stroke version of the 948/998 engines and was not built for revving. Mk3 Sprite/Mk2 Midgets had a special version with stronger 2" main bearings (like the 1275), all other 1098 engines had the whippier 1-3/4" main bearings.