Morris Minor Owners Club

Although the pump may be ticking it may not be pumping fuel.
If you take the pipe to the carb off will the pump fill a milk bottle in a minute?

a pint in a minute? is this the amount it should be pumping? honestly i dont think the fuel pump is the problem. but that having been said i really dont no what it is so willing to try anything will try this the next time i work on it.
but surly if the pump is pumping it will first fill the float chamber so there is constantly a suply of fuel and the engine wont use the hole float chambers supply of fuel in under 5 seconds.

As you've tried another carb it has to be something else in the fuel supply system.
If the pump is OK, then the petrol filters will be worth looking at.

I don't like the sound of having an air lock, what could have caused that?
It's definately wrong, so well worth investigating.

currently running fuel from a jerry can as my fuel tank is full of old petrol. as i have to keep taking the pipe out of the can to put the lid on at the end of every work day thats how the air lock got there so not a issue i caused that and was easily fixed. maybe timings an issue. but didn't think it would cause this problem.

Is the fuel fed connected to the correct pipe on the carb ?[frame][/frame]

Should be to point #4 on the carb - #5 is the vent and must be open, and #6 is the breather connection to the rocker cover (or any other breather). #7 is the mixture adjust screw.

Weird..
Running for 5 seconds then conking out seems a bit too quick to have used up a whole float chamber of fuel, so I'd guess it's unlikely to be a sticking fload chamber valve. however next time you try running it, as it starts to splutter, try tapping the bottom of the carb witha spanner (not too hard!) - if it smooths out, maybe the float chamber needle is sticking.

But again if you've replaced the carb (and float chamber with it ?) then this is v unlikely

Any way you can borrow a "known to be good" carb to test that ?

Also . .are you sure it's not a spark problem? I've just bought a traveller which ate two condensers in a day- the symptoms were pretty similar, although a bit more erratic: conking out at random after a while - could be a minute, could be a few seconds.

Not sure how familiar with all this you are, but just to be complete: the condernser is the short tubular thiny (like a 3rd of an AA battery) in the distributor.

Doug
(newbie to moggies and this forum)

Get a spray bottle from under the kitchen sink - empty it/clean it and put some petrol in - spray it into the carb intake and crank the engine. Then keep gently spraying in petrol - does the engine keep running ? This test will check if everything else is ok - and should confirm if the problem really is fuel feed related. You didn't come back on my suggestion about checking the fuel height by looking in the top of the carb ??

sorry bmc. dont wont to sound stupid but i dont understand the looking down the hole part. is the bit you mean the tiny hole that the needle goes into? i dont think id be able to see down inside there. i like the idea of squirting the fuel in to check that its a fuel delivery problem. somone told me the other day that if i can fire it and it runs with the piston completely open then theres a problem with the carb is this true?

melanddoug the carb im using has the float chamber attached and sits directly underneath the carb body. i dont no anyone with the same carb as me. so wont be able to check it that way. could well be somthing other that the carb had spark testers to check for spark. these are small plastic caps that go over the plug and attach to the ht leads. she was sparking like a gooden so not entirely sure theres a problem with the spark. that being said i havn't changed the points myself so is worth checking.
is there a way to check points and condensor?
cheers guys

managed to get my car running sweet today traced it down to a vacuum leak in the inlet manifold must have been preventing fuel being sucked in. but as i have come to accept nothing on this project just works. i now have an issue with not getting oil to the top! took the cap off while running and wasn't a drop of oil splashing about. swipped the rocker arm and it was dry!

when i turn the ignition on the oil light doesn't iluminate. could this mean there is a problem with the switch? or somthing electrical? im in over my head with this don't even no were to locate the oil pump if thats at fault can anyone give me any help on this issue. any way to fault diagnose
thanks everyone!!!

oil can take a while to get to the head. i know it's worrying, and seems scary to leave it running for a minute to wait for it to come up. i've done it myself and thought 'if oil isn't coming up, i might be damaging it more', but then oil starts to dribble and i breathe again!

if you've got an oil can you can squirt that over the rockers while you're waiting. you will see oil coming up from the bottom end as it appears to bubble inbetween rockers.

all this is easiest with the rocker cover off.

'no oil light' is quite often broken oil light switch, or the bulb has gone!

oil pump is way down the back of the engine, and hard work to get to. i'd avoid going that far until you've tried waiting for the oil to come up. have you thought about fitting an oil pressure gauge?

the gauge idea has crossed my mind today. but have ordered a new switch in the mean time thought id change that out and see what happens. the engine was running for a good while wouldn''t go as far as a minute bt certainly more than 30seconds. will try it again and just bide my time and pray.

good luck! i've just read all 8 pages (i'm fairly new here) with interest as i've got a similar project in my garage. Bought a minor a few years ago with a marina pedal box already fitted. i've stripped the whole car down and may have some similar problems to you when i rebuild it all and come to plumb in the brakes! I've also got an MG midget engine waiting to go in and that's fitted with a HIF carb, which i've had no experience of. so all of this has been very interesting to read!

the hydrolics have been by far the biggest head ache! just problems with getting parts. thanks for the help with the oil

engines now running perfect and like chris said just had to let the engine run for a while until oil started flowing to the top. thought id take it for a little spin up and down my ally way however now belive the clutch isn't engaging properly once engine is running wont move out of neutral if i try to start the car with it in gear the starter moves the car so clutch must be ok right? when i press the pedle i can see the slave moving the clutch arm. but obviously just doing it for show. could it be that the pressure in the system isn't enough? however the hole systems new.
any ideas please? think im going to have the gearbox off tomorrow and see if i can work anything out.

i have come to a conclusion that my clutch release arm isn't moving as far as it should. done some rought measuring and looks like its travelling about 1cm which i imagine isn't far enough. is anyone running a marina box with hydrolic clutch that can measure their clutch travel for me to compare to please? im looking to remedy this at the moment by welding a tab to my clutch peddle to move the arm on the master cylinder a little further and maybe extending the push rod on the slave it looks as if all is working inside the bell housing but the peddle never gets heavy as if its moving the clutch.

Certainly sounds like the arm isn't moving enough - bleed the system ? Try to move it further with a lever ?? Could be that the clutch is actually releasing - but the plate is stuck to the flywheel ? Happens if lying unused in damp conditions....

bmc that isn't something that corssed my mind i suppose the only way to find that out is to remove the gearbox and see for myself. i have extended the peddle and arm both by a cm and is moving more but still no joy im intending to add another cm to the push rod which should move the clutch arm to its maximum it can move. if nothing changes i will explore the clutch sticking possibility. does this mean i will need a new clutch if it is stuck on?
thanks for your reply has given me somthing to look at.

bmc great diagnosis with the sticking clutch just had the box off and sure enough 1 stuck friction plate. fair enough it wasn't stuck tight but stuck on all the same.
so im going to change it. just wondering if its ok to emery cloth the rust off the serface of the fly wheel. didn't want to do it and find out your not supposed to.
cheers

i'd give it a light emerying, don't take any metal off!

also, clean any grease off the flywheel and the clutch cover clamping face. a rag with a bit of thinners or petrol will do as a solvent.

thought id emery the hell out of it and claim i had a lightened fly wheel just wanded to make sure that it wouldn't mess up the maiting faces. with any luck clutch and box back togeather tomorrow and driving next week