Morris Minor Owners Club

As a club thats all thats ask of members is to enjoy there cars and look after them. Welcome by the way and enjoy your time with bad betty.

customjob wrote:As a club thats all thats ask of members is to enjoy there cars and look after them. Welcome by the way and enjoy your time with bad betty.

cheers mate, I will!
right, I'm off to experience my first crank handle start... wish my wrist luck! (she doesnt want to start in the slightest bit cold, battery seems to give up after 2 or 3 short attempts and sounds like its 'bubbling' whenever its used... im guessing it has dead cells / is knackard??)

Sounds like it's a problem with the battery - how old is it? And when was the engine last running?

If you haven't started a car using a handle before there are some tips here: http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... ter+handle Good luck!

no idea how old the battery is, but def wouldnt say anywhere near new.
Car was last properly running 2 weeks ago (and running well). Changed the fuel pump on thurs night, fuel pump was working but she wouldnt fire.

Briefly Fired & ran yesterday after using a jump starter but she gave up after about 10 secs. couldnt get her going again due to flat battery & flat jump starter (what a waste of time they are...)

fast forward to 5mins ago - turns out I dont have a crank handle. (thought I spotted one among the bits that came with the car, but was just a fancy shaped wheel brace... doh!)
Tried the jump starter on her again but no joy, jump starter now dead after 4 turnover attempts.

Will double check the fuelpump is drawing petrol & knick my dads battery charger tonight. Got plenty to keep me occupied today without her running!

You may have a later starting handle which did actually double as a wheelbrace.

Hi and welcome. You may find a more sympathetic ear here with regard to modded minors: http://mog.myfreeforum.org/index.php?si ... a0a6824b62

It's your car and please feel free to do as you please. I'm not a fan of roof chops as I've never seen a Minor done to my taste.
My 55 isn't exactly standard

Pete

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote:You may have a later starting handle which did actually double as a wheelbrace.

quite probably, just doesnt fit through the hole in the bumper... is it still the same fitting or are they different?

plastic_orange wrote:Hi and welcome. You may find a more sympathetic ear here with regard to modded minors: http://mog.myfreeforum.org/index.php?si ... a0a6824b62

It's your car and please feel free to do as you please. I'm not a fan of roof chops as I've never seen a Minor done to my taste.
My 55 isn't exactly standard

Pete

cheers Pete, will swing by that site too your's is lookin very nice


Well, I spent a few hours on the glovebox today, filled up the original handle holes, drilled a single center one for a custom knob planned.
painted black, waiting a couple days then will be masking off to paint the checkerboard... then sand back through for an aged look

That's one way to start a discussion

mike.perry wrote:That's one way to start a discussion

... which bit in particular

I was refering to my original posting which started off the controversy

mike.perry wrote:I was refering to my original posting which started off the controversy

I seeeee... it certainly did that!

in other news, I got myself some trafficators. anyone wanna help think of what to put on them (not using them as indicators, want them to be just for shows).

just read your posts and are you doing the glovebox lids like this see my restoration thread http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=46872

mmjosh wrote:just read your posts and are you doing the glovebox lids like this see my restoration thread http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=46872

nice one man

sorry for lack of updates / activity, other than a flooding patio & manflu to contend with, things have not all been well with Betty...

Cold starting has been a real issue. Choke seems to make things worse, reset Carb to 'neutral' (although wasnt bad), having to floor the throttle to turn over, even at full revs she only just turns over then splutters & pops for 10secs at very low revs untill bursting into life. (all while at full throttle)
Also when cranking it seems to be 'kicking back' possibly through the carb?? but I could be wrong/

I've adjusted the timing as she was running a bit crap when warm (was out a bit), also dizzy cap was mucky and sticking so cleaned up.
Cleaned up sparkplugs again (and set gaps) as were sooted up badly after a couple weeks, but it hasnt had a proper run yet so I expected that.
She's got a slight miss-fire still but its random, and not very limiting.

I've ordered some new points, dizzy cap, leads, condenser, rotor arm, & coil (always good to have a spare or two ive been told) so hopefully a good service should sort out some of her issues.

I still get the feeling she's running very rich, I know all old cars ive had smelt rich, but this one stinks of rich burning petrol.

Anyways, more to tinker with I guess! gunna try backing off the mixture a bit, fit all the new parts / general service, see how she goes!


*EDIT*
general update, my dad came over & gave me a hand fitting new parts & tinkering, she's now running sweet as a nut. Coil seemed to be the main culprit.
Just gotta sort out the brakelights now, seems to be a dodgy power source so propably just going to run a fresh one.

painted the glovebox & drivers side one. Gloss & matt black checks.
Just gotta make & add the flying eyeball handle now

A lot of coils seem to have been failing recently

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote:A lot of coils seem to have been failing recently

One of the first things my local branch members told me was "stock up on coils, they like to break". they werent wrong!

If you put "low quality built down to to the lowest possible price" in that sentence I'd be tempted to agree.
Coils have no moving parts and just rely on the laws of physics to work, as Roy will admit, if pressed, the very rarely fail.
The main reason they get changed so often is that they are very obvious and clearly simple to replace.

I must say I've never had one fail, on some cars I have they are still running the original 40 year old coil. If a winding goes you're snookered, but what are the chances of that?

Bad betty is very rock n roll . Love her , I reckon rather than chop her roof ,fit an external sunvisor tipped down a bit, gives that 50s look without the butchery tho even a roof chop could be reversed .
A lot of old and now rare cars are still on the road due to people customising them . Most things can be put back to standard. How about some side exit slash cut pipes