Morris Minor Owners Club

Firstly, The minor transmission is an 80 year old design. It is never going to be as smooth and slick as a modern car. With some relatively straightforward maintenance (anti rattle kit, clutch mechanism repair, gearbox mount replacement) you can probably make some improvements to your car and get it...

You can easily replace the bushes and springs on the gear lever and this should remove some of the slop from the gear change. ESM and Moss both sell all the part in an anti-rattle kit. It is certainly possible to drop the gearbox under the car and to leave the engine in place. Removing the transmiss...

I suspect someone thought that foam would seal out moisture but it seems it actually trapped it.
I have only explored one side so far but I will tackle the other later.

I took off the kick panel on my Traveller to investigate corrosion in the lower sill and discovered that a previous owner has filled the sill with expanding foam. It appears that the foam has prevented drainage and held water against the sill causing the corrosion. What a mess! https://imgbox.com/LP...

Check the tubing from the remote reservoir. The plastic tube supplied with some kits is really not up to the job. After installing a kit on my Traveller I had continual leaks caused by fluid sweating through the tubing. I solved this by replacing it with proper brake fluid grade EPDM. This is quite ...

I replaced my noisy dynamo with an alternator as this was significantly cheaper than a new dynamo. The instructions supplied with the alternator were quite clear and fitting it was straightforward. There are few changes required to the wiring and the control box can be retained (if you wish) as a co...

A higher diff ratio such as the 3.9 or 3.7 increases the road versus engine speed, so if you had one of those fitted you would expect the speedo to under record your speed. eg Indicating 56mph at a road speed of 60mph. I checked my traveller with the standard diff and found that, like yours, it over...

All safely back together and working properly. I will make some further adjustments to the clutch once the rain stops.
Thanks to Phil and others for their advice and suggestions.

Phil, thanks again for your input. Your knowledge and experience is helpful. When you mention elongating the pivot hole do you mean the hole where the release arm pivots on the gearbox casing or where the bearing carrier pivots on the arm? I don't know whether PME supply the wire clips because they ...

I have now worked out how to include photos.

Update: I have removed the clutch and have found no obvious problems: the carbon release bearing is intact, there is no sign of damage to the pressure pad or clutch cover. When I removed the pressure pad in preparation for fitting the roller release bearing there is sign of heating on the fingers (s...

I spoke to a technician at Peter May Engineering. His opinion was that the pressure pad is probably damaged through excessive throw on the clutch mechanism. He recommends replacing the carbon release bearing with their roller bearing. This involves removing the pressure pad and allowing the roller b...

Now that is interesting! My engine is a 12CE. It was fitted with a bush when I bought it and I replaced this with a new bush when I replaced the clutch. Presumably the dimensions are the same as the needle roller bearing but clearly the needle bearing was fitted for a reason! I'll add this to my lis...

Thanks for your suggestion, Oliver. I did fit a new pilot bearing from ESM which I assume is the correct one. I will bear this in mind and check once I dismantle the clutch (again!).

Cheers, Phil
I am not sure that the carbon bearing is the root of my problem. I suspect that there must be other factors.
I will certainly contact Peter May for advice.

Thanks again, Phil.
All suppliers seem to sell the same Borg and Beck clutch kit. I haven't been able so far to identify any available kits which don't have a pressure pad on the cover. Can you remeber which clutch you used?
Jim

Thanks for your comments, Phil. I am not sure that the ball race would help - carbon bearing is used on the midget, the ball race is intended for a hydraulic clutch and I doubt that that ball race would work directly on the diaphragm. Having said that, removing the pressure pad and using the ball ra...

I have a recurring major problem with the clutch in my Traveller which is puzzling me and would appreciate suggestions on possible causes and solutions. The car is a ’65 model which has been fitted with an MG Midget 1275cc engine by a previous owner. I believe this is the complete engine, flywheel, ...

The clear tubing provided with the remote reservoir is not fit for purpose - it will react with brake fluid and will weep. I had lots of problems getting this to seal and had to replace it after only a few months. I suggest that you discard it and buy some proper EPDM brake hose.

Thank you Bob. I was going to reinstall, switch the motor on and off with no wipers attached and then assumed that this would be the park position and I could just install the wipers? In other words just fit the wipers at the correct alignment to whatever park position the spindles happen to be at....