Morris Minor Owners Club

Deviation my fault so to get back on track - I have the engine and box back together and ready to go in the car.

Next job to prepare the engine bay.

Looking good - well done

A slight variance to later 'A' Series engines is that your front engine plate has a large hole in it positioned under the dynamo.
The hole was deleted on later models.

After all that work I would recommend that you fit the restrictor to the oil filter. The restrictor should be available from Declan Burns.

Hi Phil, is the large hole in the engine front plate for for the lower heater hose to radiator routing?

I have previously read Declan’s post on the oil restrictor but I’m not sure exactly how to implement it. Is it placed in the block? And I wasn’t sure about how his metric inset was made and held in place, but I will have another looks the thread.

I have seen the lower heater hose put through the hole in the O/S engine mount tower but never through the large hole in the Ser 2 front engine plate.

I would PM Declan for details of and the availability of the restrictor.
Phil

With apologies to the OP: His restoration thread seems to have gone off on a tangent rather!

Just a bit.
We could argue about the practicalities of enforcing draconian measures to tie a general public, who are used to complete freedom of movement (and expect it to be completely reinstated once this has passed), down to one spot all day but this isn't the right forum for that and I'd prefer to hear / see more about Ian's Minor.
Have you ventured back to the garage yet Ian?
Best wishes,
Mike.

Finished a large part of my jigsaw puzzle today so can’t put off preparing the engine bay anymore.

Great stuff! Looking good. Going from memory (many years ago) the engine in my old Series11 was a very similar colour to yours. I would think the starter motor would also have been grey originally? The engines - with gearbox already attached - were painted after assembly so everything got covered in paint!

You are probably right with the engine and gearbox being painted whilst together on the production line. I have seen overspray on gearboxes before as if the painter was concentrating on the engine only. My gearbox didn’t have any paint on at all so I left it.

If you look back through this thread you will see that the starter motor is dated Feb 53 and and may be original to this car. It only had black paint on it so again I’ve just repainted black.

Couldn’t have done it without your help Mike!

beautiful job ian

dave

Getting back on track again and the engine bay is now stripped of items and cleaned from top down to crossmember.

However, I want to remove the front shock absorbers for a better paint finish, rather than mask them off.

So, I am going to remove the front suspension next. I have to look at the front brakes/hubs/brake master cylinder/steering rack so it makes sense to me to work on these at a bench rather than on the floor under the car.

Shock absorbers do not appear to be leaking, so they are either empty of oil or sound or could be seized?

I won't know until they are on the bench.

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I’ve taken the steering column out of the car and I’m just wondering if the column bush has come apart in the process as there is a metal ‘sleeve’ stuck on the column?

Also the gold colour to the column is a more drab shade than I have seen on many restored Minors, is there a reference for this particular shade?

Thanks in anticipation.


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Thanks Mike. I looked on the ESM website and they have the gold paint and recommend you also buy a clear lacquer.

It would be good to see what that looks like if anyone has photos?

Here’s a pic of my heater painted with gold from ESM, plus laquer.

Thanks for the photo Ian. I’ve added a picture of my heater for comparison. Obviously not in the sunshine, and I wasn’t going to paint mine. just the dashboard/glovebox panels above and the steering column.

The last few days I have been working to dismantle the front suspension. WD40 was applied many times in anticipation of the coming struggle but today I have got most of parts on the bench for a clean down and inspection.

I think many of the nuts and bolts haven't been disturbed for 67 years! They were all pretty rusty on the outside but nice and clean on the inside.

I've also taken off the torsion bars - a process which has proved a little more problematic than I expected as the engine and gearbox are still out of the car so there has been no 'weight' on the torsion bars to gradually release the torsional stresses in them.

The attached photo shows my attempt at adding a 'load' to the front suspension. I added a spare engine block, two cylinder heads, a crank and two heavy boxes of parts to the engine bay which helped but didn't quite have enough pressure to release the torsion bars in a completely controlled manner.

Second photo shows most parts on the bench awaiting a clean. Trunnions don't feel bad at the moment in that they turn smoothly. And the shock absorbers also move smoothly and have a a good resistance.

Brake cylinders are in a cleaning/decreasing tub for a few days when I will know if I can use them again.


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Here’s a pic of my heater painted with gold from ESM, plus laquer.

It doesn't look completely dissimilar to the Solar Gold I have used, especially now I have relented and given them a blast of lacquer.
I decided to lacquer the handbrake in an effort to protect the fresh paint, as it is the one painted item that I will handle quite a bit and I was concerned that sweat etc. transferred from my hands would wear through the unlacquered paint faster.
So having done one item I had to do the rest to match......
Still not as 'high gloss' as some I've seen though......
Best wishes,
Mike.

I managed to dismantle the remaining parts of the front suspension and removed the steering rack today so I will have full access to the engine bay for painting.

The rack has split rubbers and I am going to replace the track rod ends before refitting. On first examination the steering rack does feel a little 'notchy' but I won't know what the internal condition is like until it is stripped down.

Now that the shock absorbers are off and cleaned I can clearly read the date codes stamped into them. One is 10/52 and the other is 12/52 so they could also be original items to the car. They both operate smoothly so I am going to check the oil levels before I refit them.

I know the lever arms are painted gloss black and have previously seen the bodies of the shock absorbers painted silver but mine aren't painted at all as I don't think they have ever been reconditioned. I would like to leave them 'bare' so is there any product I should be using on them like a period wipe down with WD40?

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