Morris Minor Owners Club

posted in the sadmog thread but some of you might pass over that due to its size!!

I just got home on the worst bodge ever!

driving in the new forest in the mini, suddenly a horrible scream from under the bonnet and the charge light comes on. So I stop and take a look..... the dynamo has seized solid and i cant free it, no phone signal so I go for the only thing i can do...

I loosen the belt enough to let it slip the dynamo pulley but still keep the fan and everything else running, start him up with a constant squeal and drive on. watch the temperature gauge and when it starts to rise, assume the belt has worn down, so stop, nudge out the dynamo a fraction and then drive on (not stopping the engine while i do this as starts are expensive and no lights but did not need them) got home and there is not much of the belt left!


anyone got any other stories of how they have got their car home under pressure?

read the thread about they cars coming back from the MOT where one dynamo/regulator failed so they kept swapping the battery with another car to keep charging it up as the drove!

read the thread about they cars coming back from the MOT where one dynamo/regulator failed so they kept swapping the battery with another car to keep charging it up as the drove!

they could have just joined a few sets of jump leads together and driven close to each other... ;-)

As for bodges to keep going, I've done my fair share!

I once made it 120 miles with no exhaust (Essex to Staffordshire) and arrived on time for work with a bad headache from fumes and noise.

Another time I had a failing fuel pump on a Minor I'd just bought and trailered home. I was on the first trip out and had no tools and was 5 miles from home with no AA card and an important meeting to get to... The car stalled every 400 metres and I had to whack the fuel pump to get it going. Within a few miles the battery died but by then I was walking distance from a spares shop. There were jump leads in the boot so I bought a new battery put it on the passenger seat (didn't have any tools to fit it properly), connected it up and continued on my multiple 400 metre dash.
I was happy to arrive for my meeting but wasn't looking forward to the trip back home!


One the Gambia trip, I broke the exhaust manifold when landing after some accidental airborne adventures. That was repaired with bake bean tin and steel wire. The steel wire lasted ok but the baked bean tin vapourised through Mauretania. On arrival in Senegal I got someone to braze it back together which worked better than I expected (welding was attempted but the cast iron just popped and spattered).

most of my other bodges involve strapping things back on with wire or cable ties or tape. Wire can usually be found in an emergency (i.e. when you forget to carry some) - I've raided skips or just found stuff lying around.

On a Montego I had a gear linkage fall off so I couldn't select gears (on the M5). on the embankment I found a roll of tape which was used to repair things and get us down to Cornwall and back.

I once refilled my radiator with Diet Coke after boiling over on the A19.

Thats your excuse Alex ;) you just wanted to flush the cooling system!

I can't think of any real get home bodges I have done but cable ties are definately my friend!

I once refilled my radiator with Diet Coke after boiling over on the A19.

oh yes - thanks for the reminder! On Riley's first day out (71 Traffy blue saloon) he boiled dry on the M1 on the way to a rally. I used all my water and then regular Coke - I'm not sure if diet coke would be better or worse!

Maybe the Minor prototype was on diet coke, hence it being 4 inches narrower.

I remember about 12 years ago having a gold Metro and the brake master cyclinder failed as I arrived at work. I thought no problem as I had a metro I was breaking at home. So during lunch I stripped out the old master cyclinder and drove the 10 miles home pressing a useless brake pedal to show brake lights and gently pulling up the handbrake!

I have used cable ties in place of the fan belt on a fiesta van i used to drive for work. you could do about 3 miles before they snapped and needed replacing.
also used them in place of exhaust mountings several times.

I was on my way to work one morning in an old mini. Whilst going round a roundabout the steering went. I had to stop at a strange angle at the side of quite a busy roundabout. I hurriedly unscrewed the steering column-fixing bracket and dropped the steering wheel so it sat resting on my knees. This allowed the splines to grip at the bottom and off I drove. I drove it like that for a week until I had time to fixed it.

Have filled the old works van with Orange squash when the radiator boiled dry.
Used coat hangers to hold exhausts up.
Cleaned and reset points at the roadside with a swiss army knife , a pavement (to clean the points) and a15thou (ish) piece of packaging strap.
Oh and this doesn't count the times I've changed starter motors in Halfrauds and other motor factors Car parks. In fact I can't remember ever changing a starter anywhere other than at the side of the road or in a car park

I had the accelerator cable snap on a Beetle. A piece of cardboard was slipped under tickover screw to raise the revs so I could drive home.
The same happened on an Imp so I attached the choke cable to accelerator linkage and came back on a "hand throttle".
Puncture patches are a great way of sealing a leaking water hose - bind with tape to reinforce.
I had the exhaust downpipe shear on a Land Rover at the manifold flange in France. A piece of rolled up tin can to sleeve the inside of the pipe and loads of jublilee clips held it together for several thousand miles until back in UK.
Again whilst in France another time I had the voltage regulator burn out on my A35. The battery was fully charged, a brand new (cheap) battery bought and I came the 1000 miles back home just on battery power - with starting on the handle

Paul Humphries

A bit of a theme here - two that spring to mind are crimpimg/clamping a rear brake pipe on a Bedford van using Mole grips, and using the same after snapping a gear lever on a Landrover...

On the way back from the Nationals on Sunday I drove all the way to Newbury 'without a problem' then spotted a Minor with the bonnet up in a layby. I stopped to give assistance (but help was on the way) and he noticed that my exhaust was haging off! I think it had probably happened at the rally cos the clamp was quite new and the journey home was bump-free. We fixed it with a bit of copper brake pipe.
BTW, thanks mate whoever you are - I only know you weren't at the rally!

I've had the usual bodges... coathangers to hold exhausts etc.

The most ingenious I think was on a trip to Cornwall in the Landy. The exhaust manifold gasket blew so the turbo wouldn't get upto speed properly and the cab filled with exhaust fumes (because of missing gaskets in the bulkhead). With no tools we picked up some hylamar gasket sealant but it didn't work because I couldn't get the manifold off to get it in (no tools). While at a tin mine we pulled up in a gravel carpark in a clay patch... lightbulb moment! Ended up pushing clay into the gap and a good lump of clay over the top, no real expectation of it holding because of the pressures. Left the engine on tick over at lunch to 'bake the clay'. We spent the rest of the week and about 1600 miles with it in fine. Got home, cleaned the manifold and replaced the gasket.

I drove about 60 miles with the top leaf spring broken on the traveller, fully loaded with 3 people and all the camping gear to last years national. eventually got it fixed with the top leaf of a saloon spring and a selection of leaves!

When I bought the blue saloon the drivers side suspension had collasped, this was tied in with abig rope and tensioned with a chisel.... The previous owner had been driving it like that for a while!!

Once had to disconnect a rear shock that seized, and working wipers that failed with 2 lenghts of string!

Not so much a get me home bodge but,before i re-built the minor i had a little race with another minor at thorny island air field. Whilst doing a little donut there was a terrible noise from under the car. In typical car mechanic fashion i ignored it and continued to abuse the car for the rest of the weekend and several weeks after. I eventual took a look after the passenger door popped open going round a roundabout and i had to grab a hold of the then woman to stop her falling out.
The gearbox x member had broken on the right hand side and was held up by the heads of the master cylinder bolts twisting the N/S chassis leg and braking the A and B post at there bases and splitting the B post at the rear quarter window.
All sorted now!

Rod

PS i did win the race though.

Late one frosty night I peed on my door lock to defrost it! Sorry ladies not so easy for you.

I hope you don't use the same method for defrosting your fridge / freezer

On the way to Weston Park rally years ago in the MM the view through the rear view mirror was suddenly filled with white smoke. I stopped quickly, lifted the bonnet to see that the oil gauge pipe had broken and was spraying oil onto the exhaust pipe. I undid the clamping nut, removed the broken pipe, hunted around in the tool box and found one of those festoon bulbs with a brass cap on each end. I broke one cap off fitted it into the nut, pointed end in and replaced the nut onto the oil pipe outlet. It fitted perfectly and sealed the oil feed for the rest of the weekend and until I replaced the pipe.
I now keep a brass cap in my spares.

I came home from work years ago in an old Viva which was runninig very rough and noisy. After tea I had a look to find a pushrod had gone right through the rocker! and wasn't operating it at all. As I needed the car next day I removed it and welded the hole up - which lasted for several days!