Morris Minor Owners Club

What a fantastic looking car! Well done..

Thank you all for yur kind comments!!!

The traveller has been put back into use, I started moving house today and its been full to the roof several times today!

Just to blow my own trumpet, the traveller got 2nd best Series 11 traveller at the national!!![frame][/frame]

Well done, it does look sweet

some shiney group shots[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

A year passes very quickly...... I was getting it ready for MOT today, booked for tomorrow and thought I would just quickly check over the brakes as it hasnt been in use over the winter. 2 brakes stuck, not fully seized so I was able to free them and clean the pistons up. I also noticed how bad all the front suspension busheds looked, this was a job Ive never done in my almost 10 years of ownership so I got stuck in and fitted eyebolt, top suspension and tie bars rubbers today.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow

Good luck, should fly through. Are you taking it on monday ?

Passed! The examiner at Lisburn was also a Minor owner and gave it a very thorough going over. He says the car he has only has 6000 miles on the clock and has been off the road about 30 years.

Yes Andrew taking the traveller on Monday which was why I was in a rush to get it MOTed and ended up going to Lisburn!

Why not !! Great place, God's own part of the country !! What was the examiners name?

Dont know his name but he was one of the older guys in the test centre, says he has a Delorean as well.

Lisburn is a lovely town,full of the nicest folk.

Congrats on the new MOT David.

So Mot time once again, checked all the brakes and greased up, lights etc and got an MOT booked. Went to Larne station on Saturday at 18.30. Drove in and did normal light checks then passed the brake roller and imbalance test ok which is normally the point were I relax and think that all is ok. The tester asks you to then sit on the seats at the side and puts the car up on a ramp. After a minute he calls me over and says that I have a brake fluid leak and that I will be getting a taxi home.......

There was minimal fluid, it must have burst the clyinder when it was doing the roller test. He checked over the rest of the suspension and tyres etc and then I had to sign a form that prohibited me from driving it. It had to be recovered, trailered or towed with a solid bar only to a place of repair. Obviously I wasnt very pleased at this.

Im a member of the AA so I contacted them and explained the problem, I was told that I was already somewere that it could be repaired. It took several minutes to explain to the call taker that we have government run MOT stations in Northern Ireland, not done in garages. Anyway after speaking to a manager they said sorry they couldnt help. I then asked to speak to the manager myself. In the end I never did speak to them but got it sorted, an agent for AA came out and recovered the traveller home. So top marks for the AA even though it took a bit of time to sort it out.

I took the cylinder off to do a post mortem on Sunday. Other than a couple of very small scores on the inner piston rubber (which didnt look big enough to cause a leak) the rest was still perfect so I fitted a set of new seals to the same piston and put it back together. I bled both rear cylinders to be sure.

Anyway, booked a re test online this morning and it passed

Glad to hear you got it sorted, good job your in the AA.

Ive been asked to show my traveller at an indoor show in The Slieve Donard Hotel on Newcastle Co. Down on the weekend of 25, 26 and 27th January. A show is held there in the ballroom ( yes on carpet in the ballroom .....) every year and money collected at the door goes to Action Cancer. So I think I better do a bit of varnishing as its been 3 years since it was done and there are a few places were it gone a bit thin. I think it also deserves a polish as it only ever got the roof polished this year before we went on MOT UK.

Thanks to Cam for having my pictures reinstated on this post! Hadnt looked at it in a while. Travellers been used a lot, last summer it was used in Stevies wedding to take the bride to the church, and we did get there on time!

Its due some engine work soon as its burning a drop of oil and also leaving a bigger spot than Id like on the garage floor, timing chain is also rattly. Hop to get this started before too long.

Fantastic job you have done David a credit to you the car is lovely

And a massive thank you for doing chauffeur!

So roll on several years and about 20,000 miles in my ownership and the engine has never had anything more than servicing done. Its now burning a bit too much oil, smokey on the overrun and timing chain making lots of noise. A quick compression rest shows them all fairly even at about 120.

So off with its head today!

Theres quite a bit of carbon there but I suppose if its been pulling oil down the guides there would be. Only one valve stem oil seal was still in place! The valves have been clean up and Stevey started the job of grinding them in. Discovered there has been no thermostat in place, I never did check even though I though of it a few times! Engine bores have very little wear, which Im very pleased about.

Other jobs planned are a new duplex timing chain, the starting handle bolt woudlnt shift so this has been left soaking in plus gas which hopefully will help.

the bores look ok as do the pistons lets hope its just the head that needs some tlc did make me laugh about no thermostat ive modded mine a little , hope to see you both at mot/uk missed you both last year , but you did have an important job to do all the best dale .