Morris Minor Owners Club

Andy Rose wrote:

MarkyB wrote:Barely enough, much better to take the front panel off so you can really see what you are doing.
Start soaking the hockey stick nuts with penetrating oil ASAP.

Great advice, thanks..soaking them as I type. They are covered in anti - rust tar stuff. Also there is a bit of rust starting in the lower part of the radiator cowl. Removing it will give me a chance to put a bit of paint on it.

Got over confident and stripped one of the hockey stick nuts. It's the stud part that has stripped and it looks to be cast into the hockey stick. Will try to tap it down to a smaller size. The poor van must cringe when he sees me coming as I seem to break two things for everything I fix

Only one!
That counts as a good result, sometimes they all break, strip or unscrew from the stick.

bmcecosse wrote:Oh yes - well done - I would double check to make sure you get TDC accurately - but that result does suggest avalve timing problem.

Hi, help please. I have got myself very confused. Today I finally had a chance to remove the timing chain cover and see if the valve timing was correct. Set #1 to TDC on the firing stroke, removed the cover and found the Dot on the camshaft gear 180 degrees out from the position shown in the book.Car was running reasonably well, so can't be thinks me.? Removed the gears and chain, set them up as per the book, but the only way I can get them all to align at TDC is with #1 not on its firing stroke. Double and triple checked TDC, put it all back together and seek advice before trying to fire it up. To sum up, with the gears set up with the dots aligned and the keyways in the correct position, #4 is ready to fire and #1 is on its induction stroke.

You should simply have turned the engine one full rev when you opened it up - the sprockets would then have been correctly aligned........ You were looking for a ONE tooth discrepancy. Back to basics - turn the engine till the valves on #1 are both closed with gaps (#4 will be rocking with both valves slightly open) and then set the crank exactly to TDC. Now move the cam back and forth as necessary and fit the chain. And then do the 'equal lift' check as you did before. It may be that the 'dots' are not correctly placed -and so this is where you must experiment with one tooth forward or backward to get that 'equal lift' when exactly at TDC. When happy - box it all up - with a new seal in the timing cover of course. Of course -at the end of all this - the spark plug leads may need swapping about - they may end up 180 out..........

Thanks for that. I had somehow become convinced that the valve timing and ignition timing all happened with the dots in line. Will set the valve timing accurately , put it back together and then set the ignition timing again..Meantime I'm fixing a bit of rust I discovered when I pulled the radiator cowle off.. Thanks again

I got all confused whilst changing the timing belt on a rover SD 1,took me ages to realise I was the problem ,not the manual the more I thought about it the more convinced I became that I was right ,even tho it was plainly wrong,
good luck

Thanks for that. Now all back together and running well..I am at the very begining of a long learning curve..that's whats so great about this forum, lots of experienced Morrie people willing to share their knowledge..

So - did you find a mis-timing on the cam sprockets? If you do the 'equal lift' test now - are they 'equal' ??

bmcecosse wrote:So - did you find a mis-timing on the cam sprockets? If you do the 'equal lift' test now - are they 'equal' ??

I didn't handle it very well. I was so confused to find the dot on the cam gear 180 out, I removed the chain and gears, cleaned them and then set them up as per the manual. Key way on the crank at 12 and cam at 2, dots in line. I then rotated the engine a few times, each time checking the dots were correct. Convinced all was now well I replaced the seal and gasket and put it all back together. When I was setting up the dizzy timing I checked the equal lift check..I was very disappointed to find that there was still a 30 thou difference..the exhaust valve is the larger gap. Didn't have the heart to start pulling it all appart again.Felt very silly having not checked it before putting the cover back on. .she is running quite well, so I will have another go at a later date..thanks though for the info on how to check.

30 thou doesn't sound like one tooth difference to me though I'd defer to Roy who has more experience, you may be into the realms of off set keys to get it spot on.

Maybe ! I really don't know if 30 thou could be 'one tooth' - but 30 thou is quite a lot of difference and will affect the running.

If it is the exhaust that is the greater gap at TDC, is it indicating retarded timing?

Yes - the inlet has started to open and the exhaust is still quite a bit to go to close. So the cam sprocket probably needs to move forward clockwise one tooth inside the chain. If I had a part stripped engine I would try it out - but unfortunately at the moment - I don't.

Great,thanks for that. Now I know what I need to do next time I pull it apart. I will order a new seal and gasket and have them on hand for when I have some spare time..meantime it is running quite well considering.thanks again for your advice,.