Cure for that annoying squeak from front of engine

[Ruby1970]

I recently bought my first Minor from an elderly gent in Clacton. It had done 30 miles since it's last service/mot a year ago and seemed to have been well cared for. So much so that I paid him, got in it and drove 75 miles down the A120 to Welwyn. Nothing broke!
However, whenever the car was idling there was this really annoying squeak coming,apparently, from the front of the engine. It was intermittent, quite high-pitched, and appeared to be coming from either the dynamo or the water pump. I have been online and read several posts from exasperated Minor owners who have changed dynamos, water pumps and even various engine internals to cure this noise but to no avail. Well I have found the cure! It appears that the engine at idle sets up a vibration that causes the mounting bracket for the driver's side front fender to squeak and for the sound to appear to be coming from the front of the engine.
I found that I could create or stop the sound at will simply by grasping the bumper corner and the mounting bracket and squeezing them together. Variations on this sound can be made simply by pushing down on the wing above the headlight!
The cure is to spray plenty of WD40 or similar onto the bumper bracket and mountings behind the chrome part on the driver's side.
Hopefully this will save a few members some wasted time and money replacing perfectly good pumps and bearings. Now to fix the radiator that gave up the ghost this morning......

[simmitc]

Welcome. A useful piece of advice for your first post. thank you. Hopefully you will enjoy many happy years with the car (and without squeaks).