Morris Minor Owners Club

MarkyB is right ... it isnt all that complex to do, have a read and a play ... there is no 'magic' involved in working on the minor, it's just nuts, bolts & wires ... just breathe deeply and tell yourself that if someone with 2 GCSE's can do this then so can you ;)

Re that little wire........I asked Dad today, as he told me the name of it a while ago and I'd forgotten.

He calls it the Litz wire. I shall Google it now, and come back....

......yep, looks like he's right. I entered 'litz wire lucas distributor'......"multistrand cable" etc etc.

He's a good old boy!

Not entirely sure that 'skin effect' is too relevant in the dizzy! But 'litz' does seem to come from the German for 'bundled' - so fair enough. I'll try it in Hellfrauds tomorow - ask for a Litz wire - and see how I get on!

According to Pops, it is critical to the correct functioning of the ignition system, and should not be replaced with any other kind of wire. I didn't spend too long on the phone at international rates , so perhaps someone has the technical nouse on this and could let us know? I'll Google in more depth tomorrow.

According to Wiki (I claim nothing for this!) a Litz wire is a bundle of small individually insulated wires all carrying the same current - to minimise 'skin' effect. In the dizzy - our little wire is a bundle of small wires all right - but they are not insulated from each other - just overall insulated to prevent contact with the body of the dizzy. It is thus highly flexible - to allow un-hindered movement of the base plate by the vacuum advance mechanism.

bmcecosse wrote:According to Wiki (I claim nothing for this!) a Litz wire is a bundle of small individually insulated wires all carrying the same current - to minimise 'skin' effect. In the dizzy - our little wire is a bundle of small wires all right - but they are not insulated from each other - just overall insulated to prevent contact with the body of the dizzy. It is thus highly flexible - to allow un-hindered movement of the base plate by the vacuum advance mechanism.

Should help clean up the seperation of higher frequencies from the bass end of the scale, but may not be immediately noticeable to the untrained ear

Well, we're passing the time nicely as we wait for the compression test results.

This Litz business.......I have a suspicion that the special wire in the distributor does consist of individually-insulated strands, but so far it's hard to find anything about Litz specifically relating to its use in distributors.
Perhaps this should be in a thread in 'Electrical'?

I read this at Litz.com:

"Litz wire may be quoted as served or unserved. "Served" simply means that the entire Litz construction is wrapped with a nylon textile, yarn or silk for added strength and protection". That sounds like our little wire, so perhaps the strands are individually insulated, albeit invisibly, like something sprayed on to the strands.
I know nothing really about the properties of this little length of wire, even though I've had lots of Austins and Morrisses.

Like a black hole in the Morris pool of knowledge.

I would doubt very much whether the surface effect is the reason why a highly-stranded wire has been used, I suspect that it has a lot more to do with the flexibility/durability of the wire.

If however you are talking about speaker cables, then the more strands & larger CSA you have the better ... the CSA will help the transmission of low frequencies, the number of strands will help the transmission of the higher frequencies.

Having large numbers of strands may also help cut down on RF interference - a single solid strand makes a better aerial than lots of individual strands.

That said, nothing beats some decent shielding - I'm using the channels on the inside of my roof for routing the cables between the front speakers and the amps. I'm hoping that the channel will act as a shield since it is 'earthed' (well, at a single voltage at least)

I've not quite worked out where I'm going to run my power cables yet though, possibly along the floor down the middle.

Our little dizzy wire is all about flexibility - and nothing to do with high frequencies! The strands are NOT individually insulated - not even 'invisibly' !

Does anyone remember the original question, or even who the poster was
I think she may have given up and sold the car by now!

How about excessive wear on the butterfly spindle?
This can cause rough running at idle and sometimes can be rectified by just changing the brass spindle

Well - spindle bush wear causes a small ingress of air at idle, and the owner generally compensates by closing down the butterfly stop slightly, and slightly richening the mix - so it tends to make for a slightly rich running engine - which shows up as brown spark plugs - but generally the idle can still be set quite easily.

It's OK I haven't sold the car yet!
Am feeling rather stupid because I didn't ask for the readings of the compression test - meant to, but I seem to be having more and more "senior moments" lately!
Anyway the test was apparently fine, and the only other thing the garage could think of was to overhaul the carburettor.
My husband says I am making a mountain out of a molehill (which I tend to do sometimes ), he has a 1957 Panther motorbike which has always sounded rough when idling and it doesn't bother him at all! He may have a point!
Tonight I took her for a 20+ mile run and by the time I got back I have to admit that the engine sounded much better. And when we are " on the move" she runs fine and starts every time.
I must take the plunge and start doing things myself, I intended to do this but haven't had the confidence so far - thanks to everyone for advice and support.

Hi Geraldine!

Just get the Haynes manual and a pair of gloves. I do most of my work with gloves on...I can't understand why many people don't. A lot of pro mechanics buy those thin white latex gloves, but I prefer those chunky 'lumberjack' leather ones with the stripes. Watch for the leather polishing up your knuckles though!
Doing cars requires the understanding of very few basic principles.

The right tool for the job is very important - different screwdrivers for the varying types of screw head, for example.

Torque - the turning force applied to nuts and bolts. Important nuts and bolts have torque settings, usually in the manual. It goes like this......if you do up a nut tightly, it has a certain torque. If you then tighten further, maybe by only another 1/16 of an inch rotation, you double that torque. Something like that. You have to get the feel of this. You could buy a torque wrench - you can preset the torque, and it clicks when you reach that.

Other than that, you just dive in and learn as you go. Brake fluid is evil stuff - try your utmost not to get it on your skin. Petrol? Not as nasty as brake fluid. Used diesel oil? Like a dye....hard to get your hands clean, especially if you have any cracking to the skin.

I had a sneaky method of learning when I was around twenty or so. Say I wanted to change the clutch, and had never done it. I'd go to the scrapyard pretending to be a potential customer (before these days of safety rules) and work on a car till I got the clutch in my hands.
So, I'd done the job once, backwards. By the time I did the same on my own car, I'd done the job twice, backwards. Reversing the procedure, I had a new clutch on the car!

Doing your own means you know what's going on everywhere on the car when you're driving. Then if you get trouble, it's easier to trace the source.

Pink marigolds!
Don't get into 'overhauling the carb' - it's rarely necessary, and if it IS - it's easier/cheaper to just get a good second-hand one and stick that on!

Have got my Haynes manual, also found a brilliant book in a charity shop yesterday called "You and your car" printed in 1988, explains everything really clearly for novices like me.
Just need the pink marigolds, and I'm ready to go!

Can't believe you didn't get the compression test results ! Go back and ask for the numbers.

I still reckon it's ignition related. Why not replace

Plugs
Plug Leads & Lead from coil
Dizzy Cap
Rotor

And see if that cures it? A good way to "get your hands dirty" without spending too much. The entire parts should be under 25 pounds.

Well done, Geraldine - that's the spirit. As they say, it ain't rocket science.
Be prepared to find out that many problems are caused by dirt. On the electrical side, you'll find that brass and aluminium connecters oxidise over time, and develop a whitish powder on their surfaces. Eventually the connection deteriorates to the point of failure. Just scratching them until they are shiny again solves many problems. A cheapo multimeter is a good investment.
Old cotton tee shirts makes the best rags. Old cotton towels for oily and greasy wiping. Polyester and nylon rags just don't work!

Most of the important elements of car maintenance is stuff like this. Big things like an engine rebuild are not difficult - cleanliness and good organisation are the keywords here. And the most powerful factor - patience!

Good luck!

Thanks for your tips, my first job will be to sort out my headlight, it's a loose wire so not a dirty task! Was going to start today but ended up ferrying teenagers about in the car instead.
Incidentally, for some reason the engine ran perfectly OK, the problem with cutting out at traffic lights had gone and it sounded much better at tickover, quite smooth in fact.
Can't understand it! Perhaps my resolve to look after myself in future has made her behave.