Our 1st Moggy. 1956 Split Screen. WSL 230

[mbo145]

Betty looks like a lovely car and has found a good home with you! I am sure you will have lots of fun with her, may be worth trying to find out what the original registration was? It may have been sold off in the 1980s, or lost when the car was put back on the road in the 80s, good luck and best wishes!

[Steamerpoint]

Thank you for your kind words.
Before we handed over any money, we did an online vehicle check to ensure she hadn't been stolen/written off etc and within the pages of paperwork it stated that the car was first registered on the 1st of July 1956 as KAN863, but changed over to it's current reg of WSL230 on the 8th of March 2001.

She is far from perfect. The recent respray, done in 2014, is pretty poor in places with paint runs and areas which probably needed more paint applied. Nothing that can't be sorted out though.

We absolutely love the Moggies, especially thd split screen models. I had no idea that so many of them are still on the road. My 16yr old son has really become addicted since we bought her. He has been giving me stick for over a year now since we sold our 6 year old Audi A4, saying it was his favourite car ever. That all changed last weekend when we came home with Betty. Now she is the best car we have ever owner and get this, he even puts down his Playstation 4 to drive into town with us in Betty!

[MrIan]

Yes the old mogs certainly turn heads and lots of people point and wave. Only bought my Boris 1000 a few weeks ago and had to smile at a bloke in tesco car park who had to walk the long way round to have a closer look !! He had a smile on his face and obviously had had a moggy in the past. Good choice on the diff, mine has a 1275 engine and 5 speed box but I still feel a diff change coming on in the future when funds/time allows.

[Steamerpoint]

Probably not a good idea changing to the 3.9:1 ratio diff then! The man that sold me the diff has a Moggy with a 1275 engine and a 5-speed gearbox. He has gone back to the 4.2:1 gearbox after trying the 3.9:1 for about a year. He claimed that using 5th was very difficult and spent most of his time having to drive in 4th gear because 5th laboured the engine too much! I should be okay with the 4-speed box and the 1098 engine.

[panky]

Changing the diff is an easy job, do it and judge for yourself. It will be great with a 1098

[MrIan]

Probably not a good idea changing to the 3.9:1 ratio diff then! The man that sold me the diff has a Moggy with a 1275 engine and a 5-speed gearbox. He has gone back to the 4.2:1 gearbox after trying the 3.9:1 for about a year. He claimed that using 5th was very difficult and spent most of his time having to drive in 4th gear because 5th laboured the engine too much! I should be okay with the 4-speed box and the 1098 engine.

But this is exactly what my wife has to do in her modern Renault Clio Diesel, well to be honest she spends most of her time in 3rd to drive at 30mph because it's not happy in 4th at that speed. I feel it's more of a problem in Boris going on 50 / 60 / 70 mph roads and not having another gear to go into than being able to use 5th most of the time.

[dalebrignall]

you are not going to notice that much difference at 30mph it will be fine in 4th its great for crusing on the motorway

[gtt1951]

You will, most likely, have to get a different Speedo as well.
Good luck with the change-over, although I think (with your description of the VERY sluggish engine response) that there may be another basic problem here - like engine timing and/or a faulty Vacuum Advance/Retard mechanism in the distributor.
Regards, George.

[Steamerpoint]

If I had to swap the diff over myself, how do I do this? Can I simply disconnect the prop shaft from the diff by undoing the bolts at the diff end or do I need to remove the entire propshaft including the gearbox end?
Drain the diff oil, check. Loosen and remove diff casing bolts, check. Can the diff be simply pulled out at this point or do I need to do something with the half shafts first?

I understand that my original diff casing may not have an oil filler plug! Wonder how they filled them without one, hmm.. It has been suggested that I need to add one. I can drill into the casing, thread the hole and fit a bolt, but how high should I drill the hole? What level?

Is there a recommended gasket sealant or do people recommended dry fitting, I.e. gasket alone?
Should I buy a torque wrench or does the normal white knuckle plus a bit more apply?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[ianmack]

When you have removed the four bolts at the rear of the shaft it can be folded down for clearance or pulled out from the gearbox as it is on sliding splines. If you remove it you will likely lose some gearbox oil, have a pan handy. The half shafts need to be moved outwards a few inches each side otherwise they will hold the diff in place.

As for the axle oil filler, all cars had one but on early cars it was in the diff nose while later cars had it at the rear of the axle case. A late diff fits an early axle but then as you have found there is no filler. I doubt if the axle case metal is thick enough to tap an effective cap thread. Finding an axle case from a later car (62 - 71, 1098cc) is probably the easiest solution.

[Steamerpoint]

Cheers ianmack.

[Steamerpoint]

Just got back from Minor Services in Whichford nr Ely where they have swapped the original 5.375:1 diff over with the 3.9:1 diff I bought last week. The car drives much nicer and I am no longer limited to 40mph.

While I had considered doing the job myself, I am now glad I took the car to them because it was more involved than I expected and the lift made the job so much easier.

We ended up putting the new oil in through the breather tube, which was straight forward enough using a 1 litre oil bottle and a 2 foot clear plastic tube on the end. A section of welding rod acts as a dipstick to check the level from time to time.[frame][/frame]

[SteveClem]

There are some who would consider you a whimp for using a specialist garage but I agree completely with your reasoning. Some folk prefer spending more time driving their cars than working on them. Each to their own. By the way,the maroon trav in your photo is the spitting image of mine...couldn't make out the reg.

[Steamerpoint]

There were brake drums, shoes, springs, screws nuts and bolts everywhere, I would have got it all apart and forgotten how it all went back together!

That maroon travy made me smile. As I walked up to it from the back, I could see a sheet of paper taped over the speedo with something written on it. As I got closer I could see that it said "No Oil !!"

As I walked round the front, I noticed that it had no engine either!
If anyone needs a 5.375:1 diff, let me know.
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[Steamerpoint]

If a moggie owner needs a cross member replacement and a front nearside leg replacement, both sound like fairly big jobs, is there somewhere or someone in the UK that would do a decent job for a decent price?

Apparently mine would pass an MOT this year and probably next, but the clock is ticking and I need to start thinking about who might do it for me.

What kind of money have people spent in the past for jobs like these? It sounds like I need to start saving for this kind of work.

[bmcecosse]

Why were there brake shoes and springs 'everywhere' ?? No need to touch the shoes for a simple diff swap. You will need a different tpm speedo now...... Check with a Sat Nav meantime.... And yes - fill through the breather is the standard method.

[MrIan]

Depends which crossmember ie gearbox bolt on one or one of the body welded on ones. Front leg must mean trunion wearing I should think. Parts not too expensive, hourly rate at a garage to sort if not doing it yourself is another matter.

[Steamerpoint]

The garage pulled the drums off, shoes off, pulled the half shafts out completely, disconnected the prop shaft and pulled it to one side, pulled the diff out to swap them over.

Here are some photos of the cross member. It's the aft one from memory. As you can see, someone has welded on both cross member ends, rather than replace the whole thing.
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[bmcecosse]

The garage were making a 'meal' of the diff swap - the hshafts only need to be pulled a few inches - and ram a rag in to catch any oil drips.... That Xmember is certainly near end-of -life. It's not a pleasant job to change it. I suggest probably ~ £500 to do it - plus the new Xmember of course... Depends how rotten the floors and sills are...these jobs tend to snowball unfortunately.....

[Steamerpoint]

Hmm.... I did wonder why the half shafts had to come out completely!

The floor and sills have been done at some point.

Does fitting a new front leg, mean engine out?
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