Morris Minor Owners Club

enjoy!!

weirdly i replaced the head separately last year, along with the rocker assembly, push rods and followers and it's been a little rattly ever since (about 1 year now, albeit with minimal miles), especially when cold

i'm also loving not having leaks and, when i take it on the first long run, hopefully not seeing it idle at 15psi....!!!

aaah, nice - good to hear yours runs fine too.

btw - where are you in surrey? (im in bethnal green) planning on going to Waterloo Classics this weekend - contrary to popular belief, our cars are exempt from both ULEZ and congestion charge. have been driving for years through central, with autopay enabled, and never had a charge.

https://waterlooclassics.com/

I'm in South Croydon. I knew about ULEZ exemption but I had always thought I would get charged for the congestion charge so in all the years since it was introduced I have never ventured into the congestion charge zone. It definitely detects the Morris on the Dartford Crossing. There's a very good car show near me at Warlingham 20th July and I will be there with my local branch (Surrey Hills Branch). There are also less formal meets on a regular basis at The Bull, Chelsham and Four Counties Classic at The Bletchingley Arms. My MMOC branch might be a bit far out for you but it is a lovely part of the world with lots to see and do.

Stephen

it's a really strange one - on all the online exemption checkers both my Morris' show as ULEZ exempt but required to pay congestion - never had a charge for either.

will check out the Warlingham show - always up for finding ones closer to London - although getting to that part of south london normally takes quite some time!

dudload wrote: ↑Tue Apr 15, 2025 12:10 pm it's a really strange one - on all the online exemption checkers both my Morris' show as ULEZ exempt but required to pay congestion - never had a charge for either.

will check out the Warlingham show - always up for finding ones closer to London - although getting to that part of south london normally takes quite some time!

That is strange! The Warlingham show is a big show with a great variety of classic cars. There's beer, music etc but no Autojumble. Last few years we have been very lucky with the weather. It's so close to me that I really have no excuse at all not to attend.

Stephen

These new too hard engine mounts are beginning to irritate quite a lot. Last night I was driving the car in the dark which seemed to make me hyper-aware of all the rattles and vibrations. This morning I discovered a high pitched squeak which is the gearstick vibrating at high frequency. It will stop providing you hold the gearstick while the car is in neutral! Then there's the rear view mirror vibrating, the sun visors and on and on......I'll definitely be scouring the auto jumbles for some decent old mounts.

Stephen

You could try drilling some holes through the rubber until you find some.

Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Wed Apr 16, 2025 10:00 pm You could try drilling some holes through the rubber until you find some.

Yes it might come to that!

I'm currently pickling the hard esm ones whilst I have the nice second hand ones installed in case I ever need another set in future. Pet posts above, I got them to 55-60 shore, but was worried that was just outer rubber and needs longer to get to the core.

We should all contact esm though, as their cousin that is correct softness now it's simply incorrect

I spoke to the workshop at ESM about the engine mounts yesterday as I was down there with my car. They said they had moaned endlessly to the parts department about the mounts being too hard. The workshop themselves will not use them any more and only use the stock of decent second hand ones they have saved. I said I just don't understand why the parts department can't be honest. Surely the website should say something like "these are harder than the originals but are all that are currently available". ESM parts are very good with speed of delivery, at taking parts back when they are not right and of being very pleasant to deal with but in my experience they never change their website when a part is not correct. This happened previously with the wiper wheel box saga. It seems that a big batch of these mounts were made wrong and so I suppose the company can't afford to bin them and start again. The mistake was to make the engine rubbers to the same shore as the gearbox mounts so I am told.......The same kind of thing goes on with other parts like the brake light switch. They're rubbish but sold by numerous suppliers at different prices and apparently with different brands but they're mostly all the same!

I think I might just have a serviceable mount in a box I haven't checked so the hunt continues.......It isn't absolutely awful with the new mounts but on a really long trip like MoT 2025 in a few weeks the vibration will get wearing.

Stephen

Stephen, as an experiment, I’m wondering as a temporary measure, would any improvement be made by removing the engine steady. It is only there to stop clutch judder, which may not be an issue with harder engine mounts.

Regards John

StillGotMy1stCar wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 10:49 am Stephen, as an experiment, I’m wondering as a temporary measure, would any improvement be made by removing the engine steady. It is only there to stop clutch judder, which may not be an issue with harder engine mounts.

Regards John

I could make it slacker and also experiment with the gearbox steady cable which I need to check. It's worth a go but I think part of this is the new engine being rather tight as well. As the engine runs in I think it will smooth out. The guys at ESM workshop drove my car yesterday and they said the slightly lumpy idle is a new engine thing as well as the rubbers that will improve pretty rapidly. In fact the engine is smoothing out after only 150 miles or so. They said the car feels extremely "solid and sorted" which was a nice compliment.

Stephen

What ho, chums!
Re drilling the rubbers on the engine mounts, thought you might like to read viewtopic.php?p=606467&hilit=engine+mount+MikeN#p606467
Regards from MikeN.