Im a 19 year old Morris Minor fanatic,as well as being into classic bikes and anything old! I own a 1968 4 door in Almond Green that ive just put an unleaded head on.Ive been brought up around classics and both me and my dad have very soft spots for Minors.The one i have was bought by my dad in 2001,having been totally restored at stupid expense by the 2 nephews of the original owner about 18 yrs ago.My dad used it for about a year till the brakes needed attending to,because of his laziness it then stood until April this year,my dad having left my mum in January.I passed my test this Feburary,and following a string of awful Reliants and a rotten 2cv,i looked at the Minor,sat on the lawn and thought,i need to save it!why look at other Minors on eBay when this one was here!(bearing in mind that the entire underbelly is new and rustfree)So i swapped my 1957 BSA for it with my dad and then spent every waking hour working on it,replacing the entire braking system except the master cylinder,new headlamp bowl,and various other piddly bits,and it passed its MOT 2nd time!
I used it for about a month till i decided it was time to replace the water pump etc(it always ran hot)On dismantling the tinling noise i had turned out to be the alternator,but i carried on to replace the pump.Well the pump came off ok but the thermostat housing was totally siezed and snapped one of the studs.On closer examination the thermostat seemed to be almost welded to the head!no wonder it got hot!As you can imagine this took me till this week to build up the enthusiasm again to replace the head,which is now done and it runs lovely again!
So i am now well on my way to being a dedicated Minorist and will be trying to go to as many rallies as i can(Im in Worcester btw)I also have a few useful tips that ive picked up that i shall post.
cheers,
Dan
The thermostat cover generally does weld itself to the head - coat the studs with copper grease and use a 'next size up' drill bit to enlarge the holes in the cover a little on the next one,
