Starting her up after 40+ years

[MsRose]

Hi all. I'm so pleased to be back on this board and owning another Morris Minor. My two had to go some years ago due to divorce. Anyway........... I'm now the proud owner of Muriel, dated between 1956 to 1958. Can't provide an exact date for her, but there's another thing I'll be asking for help with shortly. She does have a registration, however it's not live with the DVLA anymore.

The first thing I want to do before anything else is to check that the engine runs. I'm no mechanic and I want to make sure I don't cause any damage when trying to start her. All I want to find out is if the engine runs and sounds ok, so this will just be a very short amount of time.

Before I try, I shall empty any oil in the engine and refill.
Check the plugs and points.
Refill the coolant
Check the water pump isn't seized.
Empty any fuel which may be left and the float bowl.
Make sure it's drawing fuel from a can, rather than the tank in case it's full of rust and rubbish.

Is there anything I'm forgetting, or should do other than the above? I did see that someone took off the rocker cover from their vehicle and primed the parts with fresh oil. Is this advisable?

Any advise is gratefully received.

[philthehill]

Welcome back.
Just below the rear tappet cover should be a hexagon headed plug.
If you remove that and put some oil down the hole (several squirts from a oil can) that will prime the oil pump. Replace the plug.
I would remove the spark plugs and turn the engine over on the battery to get oil around the engine. Once you have oil pressure you can refit the spark plugs and start the engine.
It will not do any harm to remove the rocker cover and coat the rockers and valve stems in oil before starting.

[Myrtles Man]

The starting handle is your friend! Try easing it over with that before you even think about operating the starter motor. A drop of oil down the bores via the spark plug holes isn't a bad idea either. Good luck with it.

[simmitc]

I agree with Phil about priming the pump and with Myrtles Man about oiling the bores and using the handle.

[svenedin]

So this car has not been started in 40 years?

If so,........I agree that you should drain and change the oil and filter. Take out the spark plugs, squirt some oil in each cylinder (or diesel) and try to turn the engine over with the starting handle. Then prime the oil pump as Phil says.

Clean points, adjust points gap.

Assuming the engine will turn over freely you must assume that absolutely everything made of rubber will have perished. Assuming the fuel pump works (clean the points) it is likely that the flexible fuel hose has perished and you could have a very dangerous situation of fuel everywhere. Replace the fuel hose!

I would also suggest fitting a battery isolator or at the least having the means to disconnect the battery very quickly. A simple isolator with a turn screw that can be connected to a battery post is a cheap way to do this. The reason I suggest this is that the loom is very old and untested. Old solenoids can jam on resulting in a starter motor that will not stop (this happened to me) and old looms can be riddled with unknown faults (risk of electrical fire).

If you intend to run the engine for more than a minute or two you also need to sort out the radiator and hoses (both may be full of holes). Also fan belt and check water pump not seized.

If the car has the very old high tension leads with bare metal spark plug caps be careful not to touch them or you can get a very unpleasant and potentially dangerous shock (I did this 35 years ago......).

Best of Luck. Don't rush. Slow and methodical preparation even though there will be the temptation to hear your new toy running.

Stephen

[myoldjalopy]

Agree with the above except, after 40 years, I'd be more confident of the engine starting up after fitting a new set of points and plugs, rather than trying to clean up/re-gap the old ones