Morris Minor Owners Club

Katy is absolutely right. On the flat face inside of the failed rotor arm, right next to the metal spring, there is a rough pit about 3mm in diameter. The spring next to it has been blackened either by high temperature or carbon burning off from the pit. It looks as though there has been tracking fr...

I replaced the rotor arm with the one I didn't throw away at last year's service. It started! I put the "new" one back in. It didn't. Both rotor arms have a rivet. Both look the same. I can see nothing wrong with the new one. How can you tell if a rotor arm has failed? What's to fail? Anyw...

Thanks for your help - especially with the oil pressure switch wire. I have replaced the condenser and cleaned the points and rotor arm. How can I check a condenser with a cheap digital voltmeter ? (Both condensers may be failed, although the replacement was new.) I'll have another look today, but f...

On my first drive of the season, the car started to misfire after a 3 mile drive. Within 2 minutes, there had been a complete loss of power and I parked up, unable to restart the engine. I checked that there was fuel in the float chamber and concluded that I had an electrical problem. During the tow...

No blue smoke, but small bits of soot blown out whilst warming up in the garage. I was concerned that in addition to #2 problem with valves, I had problems with every set of piston rings. Thanks for your advice. Note that I started this whole escapade because the acceleration seemed poor. I should h...

I've just tried again with a different gauge. Results for 1to 4 are 178, 148,162,172 psi. With oil added to cylinders, these inceased to 218,178,195,210. I think this gauge must be reading high ( I had assumed that 150-170 psi would be great for a petrol engine.) This confirms I have a problem with ...

Absolutely right! I'll get on with it and look forward to buying a bag of spare parts. Many thanks for your advice.

The compression when hand cranked is reasonable and is pretty much the same for each cylinder (perhaps "equally poor for each" might be a better description.) I've repeated yesterday's tests this morning with the same results, so something is amiss. But on looking carefully at my compressi...

It's a 1098 cc engine. I'm not sure what cranking by hand will do that cranking on the motor will not. The good news is that the engine still works! If I hadn't done the test, I'd not be too concerned. I'll check tomorrow with a brick on the throttle, but I'm not too hopeful. Perhaps it wouldn't sta...

Many thanks. I did it with a warm engine (sorry for not answering your previous question fully) and assumed that lifting the carb piston would ensure a good airflow into the engine. Like you, I don't think there will be a great improvement, so yes.... "Off with its head".

I tested by taking all plugs out, air filter off and with my right hand lifting the carb piston, pressed the red starter button. I gave each one a good ten or fifteen seconds cranking until the gauge pressure stopped increasing. Thanks for your advice so far. I think I'll take a look at the valves o...

I thought the readings were desparately low too, which is why I did a check on the gauge. There is no smoke from the exhaust and the plugs look quite good - a sandy colour, not black and oily. You are probably right about another engine, but I'd quite like to have a look at this one. I assume that b...

My son and I have just completed compression testing all four cylinders. Results in PSI were 30,15,25,27. With oil injected into each cylinder these rose to 75,45,67,60. I then checked the pressure gauge against a high pressure bicycle pump and up to about 85 psi, there was agreement. The engine act...

My teenage son and I have done a service of our 1969 1098cc Minor and have put it through the MoT. This may be crazy, given that "it aint bust", but I intend to take the head off to show him how the valves work and do a decoke. My question is whether it would be difficult to change the tim...

Many thanks. I bought a 1968 saloon last year and have spent a little time on the mechanics and the structure, so it now has an MOT for a year. The original colour was, I think, smoke-grey, but a previous owner has given it a quick blow-over with a lighter blue (close, but not close enough). In the ...

I brush painted an old Morris many years ago, after replacing a door and a bonnet reclaimed from a scrapyard. I seem to remember buying "brushing cellulose". Is it still possible to buy the stuff ? (The finish wasn't perfect, but it was ok from ten feet away and at least got the thing to t...