Morris Minor Owners Club

Thank you Stephen,

I went out and adjusted the idle speed and the jet adjusting nut, and tested with the lifting pin. Before I touched anything, lifting the pin caused the engine to slow and stall, after enriching a couple of flats, the tone sounded healthier and the engine note sounded steady (I couldn't really detect a momentary speeding up but I've never been able to when using the lifting pin to be honest). The exhaust is clear and no soot.

Buoyed with confidence I thought I'd drive a few yards down the road, however as soon as I got going, when I lightly touched the accelerator pedal the engine would stutter and misfire, there was very little power and I just managed to limp to another parking space.

I'm going to go out again tonight, check over everything again, and install some new spark plugs that I have here in case that helps. After that, I have a compression tester which I can use at the weekend, so I can check that the head gasket's not blowing between two cylinders.

Seb

With the lifting pin you push the pin feeling take up of the free play and then lift a tiny bit. Is there oil in the carb dashpot?

If it idles nicely try some revs with it still parked. Having sorted the mixture you may now have an ignition issue.

Stephen

Thanks Stephen,

Yes, I topped up the dashpot oil, and checked that the piston drops fully with a clunk. That's how I've been using the lifting pin so it's reassuring to know I'm doing it correctly.

I've been looking back through all the issues I've had over the past seven years and I'm also coming to the conclusion that it may be ignition related. When I had a similar problem back in 2020 it turned out to be the coil and the distributor cap both being past it. I think it's the familiar thing of everything going well and then three things going wrong at once!
Seb