Morris Minor Owners Club

davidmiles wrote:thanks for that Dennis. The top of the heater matrix, the pipe looks blocked up with crud you would see in the bottom of a kettle.[frame][/frame]

My heater ( round type ) was like this when I took the heater to bits for restoration. I connected a hose to one end and flushed it through without any difficulty. When it was all dry, I gave the outside a quick blasting inside my clarke shot blast cabinet ( thats was my best investment bit of kit ever ) just to clean up the outside and get rid of any grime. Then I used a can of matt black spray paint ( the left overs of high tempertaure paint that i used on the manifold ) to paint it up. It looked fabulous with the matt black.

My theory was that any tiny amounts of remaining crud coating the inside of the heater would clean off naturally when the heater was reinstalled and the system filled with proper coolant mixture. Seems to be OK and everything works a treat.

Just a thought....would it be worth trying some off that kettle cleaner liquid stuff used to treat kettles that are coated in limescale ? I didnt try it, but it might also work.

thats great advice swifty thanks. I'll try the limescale remover idea. The front break shoes arrived today so I started with the drivers side front wheel pistons, the hub needs to be adjusted slightly and moved forward, at the moment it catches the piston as it rotates.[frame][/frame]

looking at this image of the original strip down I can see there's very little clearance between the hub and the cylinders, the backing plate may be mounted wrongly of course, but that won't change the clearance.[frame][/frame]

the spare hubs from the bin, I don't have two pairs of everything, but I do regret having thrown anything out. Looking at the back of these there looks to be the inner and outer bearings and what I think is the spacer. These need a bit of a clean up but they might provide the clearance needed for the cylinders.[frame][/frame]

davidmiles wrote:the spare hubs from the bin, I don't have two pairs of everything, but I do regret having thrown anything out. Looking at the back of these there looks to be the inner and outer bearings and what I think is the spacer. These need a bit of a clean up but they might provide the clearance needed for the cylinders.[frame][/frame]

David, have you compared the old cylinders against the new to see if they are the same size ? Seems strange that the old ones didnt catch but the new ones do. How much do the new ones catch by ? Is it catching just on the alloy body of the cylinder or on steel plates on the cylinder ?

How did you get on with dipping all those parts ? Did they come up rust free ?

Panic over, my mistake, Id marked up the packaging of the cylinders wrongly, its amazing that the nearside and offside are so different. No wonder the hub was catching, once I'd swapped them over they fitted in an instant.[frame][/frame]

Now for the shoes, just need to look up the original pictures and leaf through the manual, it mentioned how the coils of the springs should face inward. Swifty, the electrolysis worked up to a point, its been so cold the progress was dead slow, I'll continue after the thaw, but in the meantime I have got bits de rusted I can use, the brake adjusters are a case in point.[frame][/frame]

fitted the brake shoes without a hitch, the proof of correct fitting will be in the first brake test, thats a while off yet. Ive still got the system to connect up. That will be right after Ive finished spraying the body.That hub needs a new lick of black paint, the red primer is peeking through. [frame][/frame]

Looking great. Dont forget the bee hive springs that hold the shoes in. My rear brakes are missing those and I need to buy some and get fitted asap although they dont appear to affect the performance.

I read somewhere that BMC did away with the hive springs on the brake shoes. Maybe they were there for a reason then. I wonder if Lord Nuffield (our Mr Morris) did away with them when Alec went to work for Alvis.
My rear offside wheel station is missing a wheel stud. Ive been put off this job because I didn't have the massive 47mm size socket spanner to remove the rear hub nut. Bit the bullet today and got one from Halfords.[frame][/frame]

Hub came free after a bit of argy bargy,after removing the half shaft, piece of cake when you've had it out recently like I have.
Here are the parts to go back on, four new wheel nut studs, new seal and gasket. The bearings look to be in good shape.[frame][/frame]

amazed how much welly and how large a hammer was needed to get the studs replaced. You have to keep hamering away untill they are dead flush..[frame][/frame]

Finally the hub went back on after some grief locating the tab washer, here is the half shaft nice and clean and dry, waiting to go back in.[frame][/frame]

wheel back on, but it's all coming off again next year so I can clean up the brake backing plates, and I'll be installing the new shoes and cylinder. Hopefully in better lighting conditions too.[frame][/frame]

last year I had the rear axle on the bench for a clean up and inspection. The backing plate condition can be seen here, it needs removing and wire brushing, rust treating, acid etch primer, red oxide primer and a splash of gloss black.[frame][/frame]

I would agree with your sentiments about the back plates. They do need a serious dipping !! One thing, when you put the back plates back on the axle, use some silicone sealant on the joint because you will get a small leak after a good run on the joint. I used grease on the paper halfshaft gasket ( like you have done ) and have had no problems there.

Were your original studs jiggered ? I suppose if the new studs are not perfectluy flush, then there is the risk of the wheel nuts coming loose over time as the studs eventually bed in ?

See you have some decent tires. Are they all new ?

davidmiles wrote:I read somewhere that BMC did away with the hive springs on the brake shoes. Maybe they were there for a reason then. I wonder if Lord Nuffield (our Mr Morris) did away with them when Alec went to work for Alvis.
My rear offside wheel station is missing a wheel stud. Ive been put off this job because I didn't have the massive 47mm size socket spanner to remove the rear hub nut. Bit the bullet today and got one from Halfords.[frame][/frame]

In that case, I wont bother putting new hive springs in then. Although....I do have them on order. I managed to get my hub nuts on and off using an adjustable water pump spanner. I initially forgot the nearside undoes the other way and was cursing myself for hours after I realised why the nut would not come undone !!

Instead of hammering the studs in use a pile of washers to clear the plain section then a wheel nut upside down and pull them in with a spanner, much easier and less chance of clobbering bits you didn't mean to hit

Pleased to see you got the correct spanner for this job. When having work done on my van during the summer, this is what we discovered. Obviously done by someone with absolutely no idea of what they were about or prepared to pay for the spanner.[frame][/frame]