Morris Minor Owners Club

Painted the bumper valances this evening and also a radio mount.

Radio in place, needs wiring in and will do heated seats at the same time.
Also replaced oversize VW bus mirror with Beetle one which looks much better.

Not much time lately but I have managed to fit tbe bumpers.
Just painting the number plate and it will be roadworthy.

Been using the minor for the last few days, good news is it didn't break down and generaly drives very well withone exception, the gearshift is terrible, sloppy and difficult to get into 1st or reverse, once it is in gear it is fine, 1st is noisy but it doesent jump out etc.

Reading around the subject, it looks like the 1st steps should be:

1.Check I've got the right 1098 gearstick
2. Check O ring, plastic bush, plunger/spring and retainer plate for wear and prescence.

Any thing else I should check?

There is also a bit of vibration around 50mph which I think is the propshaft, There are no balance weights on the rear, i wonder if they have got knocked off.

Looks like we have the wrong gearstick, looking through the archives this appears to be a 950 one with a shorter distance between the 2 balls, good news is the plastic plunger looked like new once the grease had been cleaned off because the stick has never touched it!
Off to ebay for a replacement now.

Done a few more odds and ends, wired in the heated seats
Wired in the radio and ligter / power socket.
For £15 the bluetooth radio seems to work very well.

Also first time it has been out in the rain and a puddle on the parcel shelf, its coming from the RH bonnet hinge so not too difficult to fix.

New gearstick arrived and fitted, haven't driven it yet but the shift travel and precission feels massively improved.

Driven it today, gearshift is massively improved, then it wouldn't start! It had flooded probably too many cold starts and miving 10 feet. Blowlamp on the plugs got it going though.

A few futher odd jobs now done, firstly I stripped the letters off the front number plate, re-painted the backgound with white paint and put it back together with new clips. As I had the clips and some etch primer a total cost of £1 for the paint from poundland.
Then I decided the 30 odd pounds for a new cardboard glove box liner was too much, so I had a look around for what to make a new one from, My daughter has just finished at uni and had a number of corrugated plastic box files, a hour so with some brass nuts and bolts which I have loads of and we had this:
Next step will be to cover it with some grey vinyl which I bought for the Range Rover but turned out to be too light a colour.

I've also finished the metro electronic distributor conversion, by adding a grub screw to the sleeve, fitting new o rings and making a wiring harness, just need to test it by connecting it up and spinning the shaft, assuming I get a spark then I can fit it, may need a new coil but not sure, all the online experts say you need the low resistance coil but my TR7V8 uses the same amplifier and has used a bosch coil the same as the on on the minor for 12 years so far.

Fitted the A+ electronic distributor today, needed to shorten the sleeve, as there is a slight step in the bore in the block which prevents it going in any further than it originally did, this actually makes the conversion easier you simply need to cut the flange off the top of the original distributor mount and pop it back in. this is the sleeve on the distributor
Next up is the clamp, I choose to enlarge the centre bore of the original clamp and re-drill it to match the one remaing threaded hole in the block.
So all I needed to do now was fit the A+ditributor drive and put it all together.

This is where it went wrong when I dropped the distributor drive into the sump!!!

So the sump had to come off, fortunatelly I had a gasket set so it was not to major an issue.

Put it all back together, fitted the timing light on no1 plug lead and with the engine at tdc on cyl1 turned the distributor body counter clockwise until I had a spark. With this it fired up straight away, set the timing in the normal way and all seems good with a nice even idle. Haven't driven it far yet , next up is a propper test drive and some tinkering to see what is the optimum timing is.

Fitted the beatle mirrors
and lined the glove box i had made out of an old plastic box file with some grey vinyl I had lying around.
Also I have now driven it with the A+ electronic distributor, it seems a vast improvement, smoother and pulls strongly.

Been using it to go to work the last couple of days, tweaked the timing which seems to make it pull even better, only other issue is the new supposedly Lucas washer pump which has packed up, I'll take it off and see if I can fix it. Also got to try the brakes on a test track, the rear wheels lock up before the front which is wrong but not suprising as discs don't have the self servo effect of drums, the plan is too add a servo to the front circuit which should roughly double the braking force on the front only, I have decided to fit it in the front rh side of the engine compartment, just need to make some brackets and move the horn. Then its just a matter of drilling the inlet manifold for a vacuum connection.

Found one of the parts I had lost, the front number plate plinth, painted it and fitted it today.

Only part I still can't find is the starting handle.

Using it in the cold weather I have noticed the screens all mist up as soon as you turn the heater on, to the extent if seeing steam coming out. obviously the heater matrix was leaking. So I ordered a new one to fit, it was actually a mini one which was supposed to be interchangeable.

Removed te speedo dropped the front of the parcel tray and it all came out easily enough.
A few screews later and the matrix was out.
They are not the same, the pipes are in different places. Not the end of the world though, I drilled a pair of extra holes in the heater case.

Fitted the matrix with plenty of foam around it.
Then I decided to take a look at the foam on the control flap, it was already breaking up. I searched around the garage for something more robust and came up with a piece of the carpet I had removed from the TR when I set it on fire, its a short pile with resin bonded weave. Glued a piece on.


Also noticed the screws for the inlet duct were no longer gripping in the plastic so replaced them with nuts and bolts.

All went back easily enough only to find the battery had died and it won't start.

"Using it in the cold weather I have noticed the screens all mist up as soon as you turn the heater on, to the extent if seeing steam coming out."
Crikey, I've often had the screens mist up initially on turning the heater on, but not had steam come out! Sounds rather exciting!
But a good repair done and hopefully the battery issue will be an easy fix

It was more wisps than clouds of steam, though at first I though it was smoke which worried me even more!

Think I have found a battery, the one I took out of my TR7V8 seems Ok it just wasn't man enough for the TR. (only 340 CCA).

Battery worked fine, I have also fitted a filter king filter / pressure regulator, to avoid drilling holes I used 2 which were originally used for the felt on the inside of the bulkhead (now glued on).
Also drilled and tapped the inlet manifold for the servo connection.
I've also made the brackets to mount the servo beside the rh engine mount Just the hydralic connections needed now.

Servo is fitted, plumbed into the front brakes only, this will move the brake balance to the front as with discs at the moment it locks the rears first which is dangerous, seems to work well, not super light like a modern car but more like my wifes mk1 mx5.
Given my range rover has destroyed it's auto trans which is a fairly big job (not to mention expensive) I may have to use the minor for work some days over the next few weeks.

And also since fitting the filter king regulator it has started fist time every time.

Took it for a longer drive today, heater seems to be working well, even a reasonable amount of heat with it close to freezing outside, brakes work well and balance is much better they feel a little spongy so may need another bleed but it does stop very well.
When I got home parked it while I opened the gates only for a gritter to come along and grit it!

Been doing a few more tweaks, took a shim out of the passenger door top hinge to improve the fit, the gaps are almost even now!

Also bought a new filler cap as using it more and filling it up i've noticed the after market locking one leaks.



I also improved the alternator mounting so i can get more tension in the belt which was slipping and tidied up somd of the wiring around there.

Next up is to seal the rear window which i've never got round too doing, fitting a centre rear brake light, and possibly the tacho.

I am using it more now as well which is great, my wife works at asda (close to 3 or 400 people a day with zero protection!) ,the Range Rover and TR7V8 are broken (auto gearbox and water pump), and the kids also work in asda on different shifts and use the fiesta.

A few updates,

I bought a led strip meant for scooters from ebay and re-purposed it into a centre stop light.
Andrew 3D printed a cup holder / power socket console.
I've also bought a rusty bootlid which I am slowly rebuilding to replace the fiberglass one which doesent fit well and is cracking..

Then the range rover destroyed it's transmission which took several weeks to fix so the minor became regular family transport.

Then yesterday it broke down, the new 1 ohm coil bought to match the Metro electronic dizzy failed, its currently got a high output 3 ohm one which has been running fine on my TR7V8 for donkeys years with the same ignition amplifier.