Morris Minor Owners Club

6th September 2016

Well, the Big Guy has been busy tinkering with my bits again. (Isn't there a law against this sort of thing?)

He had read up on some of the threads here about upgrading to Intermittent Wipers and decided to have a go at building and fitting one of the timer kits from Maplin (Order Code:VT27E). (HUGE THANKS to everyone who contributed to those threads by the way! He would NEVER have been able to even think about doing this job without all of the helpful posts therein.)

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/velleman-adju ... -kit-vt27e

The kit was only £6! and required very basic soldering to put it together.

The original Wiper toggle switch only has 2 positions (off-on) so he bought a new 3 position (6-pin DPDT) switch so that he could have off-Intermittent-on.

The original wiper switch basically "connects" the 2 wires from the wiper circuit together when the switch is on, so the big fella spent a couple of minutes (More like hours!!) working out how to achieve the same result from his new circuit board and switch....
Eventually, he opted to make "extensions" for the two existing wiper wires, but wired them with 2 wires each (giving 2 pairs of wiper connections - one for the wipers ON setting and one for the INTERMITTENT setting).

He wired the first pair of wiper wires directly to one side of the new switch, so that when it was moved to the ON position, the wipers came on as before.
The other set of wires from the wiper circuit were connected to the output terminals of the new timer circuit, to be activated by the circuit switching on and off.

New +12V and Earth wires were wired in to provide power for the timer circuit, with the +12V wire being connected via the other side of the new DPDT switch, so that it only gave power to the circuit when the switch was in the "Intermittent" position.

It WORKS!

The timer circuit board has 2 adjustable resistors for varying the pulse (ON) time and pause (OFF) time, so you can precisely set the length of time the wiper motor is on (so that it returns to rest after one wipe) AND you can set the gap between wipes to something sensible.
The big guy seems quite chuffed with himself (even though it turned out to be quite a simple job) and the intermittent wiper really does work great.

I'm just a bit worried now because I'm sure I heard him mumbling about my headlights not being up to scratch....

9th September 2016

Apparently, when the big fella was poking about my wiring, trying to suss out the wiper switch wiring, he noticed a drip from the T-piece which joins my washer tubes together.
So, he ordered a new one, and that arrived yesterday along with a Brand New Set of Halogen headlights!! MY EYES! MY EYES!!

My old lights were dim at best! and seemed to have gotten worse over the last few days???
So, a quick pop off of my chrome headlight surrounds, and quicker than you can say.... well, quite a long sentence really.... he's got my new peepers in place!

But... they were still not quite right... "Bad Earth?" he mumbled to himself... as he wiggled about with the wiring under my front wings and bonnet.

I flickered my lights at him every time he wiggled a certain set of 4 wires and since they were botched together by rubber bullet connectors which had bare wires jammed in and wrapped around them... (I know... I KNOW!!) he decided it would be best to replace all 4 connectors.
Luckily, he had some brand new connectors to hand and set about crimping them on there and then.

"Sorted!" he said triumphantly! before switching my lights back on.... only to discover that they were exactly the same as before!!!
"What the...?"

Another wiggle of the wires revealed that a 5th wire (with no connector) was also attached to this part of the wiring, and it led to an Earthing point on my inner wing...
"Bad Earth! I knew It!" came the big guys sigh, and 30 seconds later the world was brightly illuminated by my shiny new halogens.

What a Difference!!!
And... I no longer need to eat loads of carrots because I can see in the dark - no bother!

A quick removal of the screws which keep my passenger glove box lining in place and the big fella then replaced the leaky T-Piece in my windscreen washer tubes too!

I think he's actually beginning to get the hang of this...... maybe!

16th September 2016

What is it with our humans? Mine is never happy for long...
He'd fitted the new condenser previously (to cure my tummy troubles) but wasn't entirely convinced that I was running as I should do.
He insisted that there was still a slight "miss" or "hesitation", especially on acceleration and he thought that my tickover was uneven??

Cheeky sod - If he'd done as many miles as me he'd be a bit uneven too... although looking at him.... I reckon he's probably done more miles than me anyway!

Long story short, after looking at the various threads and posts on the Interweb thingummyjig he decided to go down the route of upgrading my ingition with an Accuspark Electronic Ignition System.
It seemed to be very cheap (£34?) as a means of swapping my old points/condenser out for a new electronic circuit, but everyone seemed to agree that it was a good option, so an order was placed and the package arrived this morning.

The big fella reminisces every time he sees our postie arrive in their red van.
You see his mum used to run a small village sub-post office when he was a boy, and he still remembers hearing the whine of the Morris Minor van's 1st gear as the Postie moved from one address to the next!
I think it's one of the reasons that he gets that stupid grin on when he pulls away in me.

So, the Electronic Ignition module is very simple; it has 2 wires and a backplate which screws into the distributor, where the points/condenser usually go.
The big fella looked hesitant to remove the new condenser he'd just recently fitted, but he reckoned that he'd keep it along with the points as a back-up plan should anything go wrong in the future.
A couple of crimped wires and small screws later and I've gone all robotronic!

First turn of the key and brrrrrrrmm! I'm off and running, very smooth indeed!
The big guy looked really pleased as he revved my engine slightly... "Didn't even have to tweak the timing" he muttered.

One quick test drive later and the big goon is grinning like a Cheshire Cat!
I'm idling better (although I suspect that he's better at being Idle!), my pick-up from standstill is better and smoother, acceleration is improved and he reckons that it feels like there must be an extra 10bhp to play with now?
We accelerated all the way up the big hill to the rear of his house in top gear where my speed usually starts to drop off a bit...
All round, he says that I'm faster, smoother and will hopefully be more reliable! (Have I got news for him!!!)

I suspect that he may have a wee libation tonight to celebrate...
Mines a 20W50 thanks!

You must be feeling very pleased with your new found smoothness - don't tell him but Ted the traveller said he could have got a complete new electronic dizzy for about twice that price

panky wrote:You must be feeling very pleased with your new found smoothness - don't tell him but Ted the traveller said he could have got a complete new electronic dizzy for about twice that price

Yeah, but he's tight as a ducks..... LOL

PS - What's the benefit of full electronic dizzy rather than just the module?

They're not worn out

panky wrote:They're not worn out

Is there an Electronic Gordi by any chance???

19th April 2017

Well, it's been a LONG winter!
I spent most of it freezing my Imperial nuts off on an uncovered driveway while the big man was sitting feet-up by the fire inside the house.
I'm seriously thinking of starting my own protest group... MACTAM (Moggies Against Cruelty To All Moggies!)

My poor brakes are seizing slightly and will need a "good seeing-to" apparently... although he was looking down the road in the direction of number 44 when he said that, so who knows?

To be fair, he did try and cover me when the weather was really bad, and started me up every couple of weeks or so... but it's just not the same as running free on the open road!

Hopefully he'll get some time over the next couple of weeks to check my undercarriage and hidden nooks & crannies for any nasties... then sort out my brakes!

Until then.... I'll be here waiting patiently for his Skoda to let him down... again.

T

This is brilliant, I have read it start to finish and i will be telling all to Neddy when she gets back from Bristol. Happy motoring and you will still be around when the skoda (or skips as they are known loud 'ere) is scrap!

Lovely car