Morris Minor Owners Club

Classiccars wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 9:03 am Cracking job and great car.Dont worry something generally goes wrong or comes apart.Something to look forward to.

Yes. inevitably. Great to be out on the road though. Old oily, greasy runs again. A friend came round yesterday morning to help get the car on ramps. I like front ramps but I'm nervous I'll drive off the end of them (impossible? no somebody I know did do that and damaged his car very badly). I was greasing the clutch linkages and adjusting pedal travel. It just runs on grease and oil. The whole garage reeks of the very characteristic diff oil having done the back axle work. There are good cars and there are bad cars. We used to call them Friday afternoon cars. They were terrible in every respect. This is not one of them and I'm lucky. I don't understand that thread about not getting the car to get up to speed. My car is very slow to get going, always has been. Great care is required at junctions and roundabouts because it's like something pre-war. Once we're going we can go too quickly quite easily. I find myself using restraint, not the whip.

Stephen

svenedin wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 10:15 am I like front ramps but I'm nervous I'll drive off the end of them (impossible? no somebody I know did do that and damaged his car very badly).

I sold my ramps after my first use of them, the car I was in wouldn't go up in reverse at the speed I was doing so I revved a bit higher - and took out my sills as I went up and over the ramp with a crunch.

Chief wrote: ↑Mon Apr 14, 2025 2:53 pm

svenedin wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 10:15 am I like front ramps but I'm nervous I'll drive off the end of them (impossible? no somebody I know did do that and damaged his car very badly).

I sold my ramps after my first use of them, the car I was in wouldn't go up in reverse at the speed I was doing so I revved a bit higher - and took out my sills as I went up and over the ramp with a crunch.

I find ramps useful and I started using them on my modern car because it is very low to the ground and it is hard to use a trolley jack. Chief, your story is exactly why I won't use the ramps without an assistant to tell me when to stop! For certain jobs I find that axle stands get in my way.

Stephen

My assistant couldn't tell me to stop because by the time the car finally started ascending the ramps, it suddenly found power and in a split-second had gone from the ground, back to the ground, no time to react.

Chief wrote: ↑Tue Apr 15, 2025 9:12 am My assistant couldn't tell me to stop because by the time the car finally started ascending the ramps, it suddenly found power and in a split-second had gone from the ground, back to the ground, no time to react.

Yikes!!! All methods of getting a car off the ground need great care. Reverse gear is an even lower gear than first and if a Minor refuses a slope in first it will often go up in reverse. I remember reading that the reverse technique had to be used on a Minor expedition over the Himalayas.

Stephen

Took the car to a classic car meet this morning. Somebody noticed that the replacement Lucas indicator assembly has the wrong colour of green for the lens on the end of indicator stalk. This is quite true. The green is much too pale. I kept the original lens and will refit it! Part number 47H5200 Lucas 54331222

Stephen

Wrong colour green ! Potential Mot fail !!!!!

les wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 8:54 pm Wrong colour green ! Potential Mot fail !!!!!

Haha!

Mine is orange. Could be because it is an Austin, or am I a rebel

I have found the old lens and actually there is genuinely a drastic colour difference in terms of shade of green. The old lens is so old that it is practically opaque. I have a new old stock one somewhere......

I wasn't just fussing over this, I was mucking around trying to get the indicator self-cancel correct after the tracking was set last week.

ESM workshop chaps told me that they are having nightmares with new so-called Lucas made in England indicator assemblies. The tedium of new parts that are not right never ends.........

I also had the joy of a brand new "Lucas Classic" (in the older red and black Lucas colours box) flasher can that is faulty straight of the box. That's on its way back to the vendor......

Stephen

No longer must I hang my head in shame for the wrong shade of green. Behold! The finest green (a parody on Blackadder when Lord Percy proclaimed that his alchemy experiments had created "green" rather than gold).

Stephen

Just tweaked the ignition timing with the help of an assistant. Despite wearing disposable gloves I managed to get a whacking shock from the king lead. New insulator fitted. Yikes! All good now though.

Also made a small clutch adjustment and a tiny tweak of fuel mixture.

Now for a run out in the countryside!

Stephen

svenedin wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 8:32 pm No longer must I hang my head in shame for the wrong shade of green. Behold! The finest green.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZFuKH ... QJAYcqIYzv

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 12:52 pm Despite wearing disposable gloves I managed to get a whacking shock from the king lead. New insulator fitted. Yikes! All good now though.

Does this make your car an EV?

Slightly off topic but on the subject of electrical work, when working on an EV you're meant to wear two pairs of gloves, the outer pair protect you from the electricty, the inner pair is to stop your fingernails over time cutting their way through the outer gloves until one day you zap yourself.

Chief wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 2:44 pm

svenedin wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 8:32 pm No longer must I hang my head in shame for the wrong shade of green. Behold! The finest green.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkZFuKH ... QJAYcqIYzv

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 12:52 pm Despite wearing disposable gloves I managed to get a whacking shock from the king lead. New insulator fitted. Yikes! All good now though.

Does this make your car an EV?

Slightly off topic but on the subject of electrical work, when working on an EV you're meant to wear two pairs of gloves, the outer pair protect you from the electricty, the inner pair is to stop your fingernails over time cutting their way through the outer gloves until one day you zap yourself.

No it makes my car a shocking, spiteful little s**t.

Seriously though, I thought disposable nitrile gloves would be sufficient but they are not thick enough to protect from HT voltages. I presume that the gloves did moderate the shock though as it wasn't that bad. Many years ago my car had HT leads with the copper spark plug connectors and no insulating boots. My uncle got a big shock and that is why I am careful but clearly not careful enough!

Stephen

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 4:24 pm Many years ago my car had HT leads with the copper spark plug connectors and no insulating boots.

My Mothers car still has three of those (the fourth is a modern replacement with boot), I always wondered about the risk of them not having the boots so I guess from your message now I know.

Chief wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 6:33 pm

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 4:24 pm Many years ago my car had HT leads with the copper spark plug connectors and no insulating boots.

My Mothers car still has three of those (the fourth is a modern replacement with boot), I always wondered about the risk of them not having the boots so I guess from your message now I know.

Yes they are a shock hazard but they look nice and original!

Stephen

I have a set of those old type leads, together with dizzy cap and king lead, in my spares

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 12:52 pm Despite wearing disposable gloves I managed to get a whacking shock from the king lead. New insulator fitted. Yikes! All good now though.

I'm really not surprised. the electrical insulation value of disposable work gloves is quite negligable.
Just using a standard Multimeter, rather than an Insulation Tester (very different devices) it's easy to breach the resistance of a disposable work glove with just gentle pressure between the sides of the meter probes, not the pointed ends.
In my training as an aircraft electrician in the mid 70s, we still did the electrics of piston engines, including the Ignition systems; if memory serves correct, the Voltage 'stress' applied with a Ign harness tester was around 15,000v, compared to 250v or 500v of a general use insulation tester.

geoberni wrote: ↑Sun Apr 27, 2025 12:05 pm

svenedin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 12:52 pm Despite wearing disposable gloves I managed to get a whacking shock from the king lead. New insulator fitted. Yikes! All good now though.

I'm really not surprised. the electrical insulation value of disposable work gloves is quite negligable.
Just using a standard Multimeter, rather than an Insulation Tester (very different devices) it's easy to breach the resistance of a disposable work glove with just gentle pressure between the sides of the meter probes, not the pointed ends.
In my training as an aircraft electrician in the mid 70s, we still did the electrics of piston engines, including the Ignition systems; if memory serves correct, the Voltage 'stress' applied with a Ign harness tester was around 15,000v, compared to 250v or 500v of a general use insulation tester.

Absolutely!

Just tidying up in the garage. Here is a curiosity. This is the distributor rotor after the enormous backfire when I hadn't realised the distributor drive spindle was 180 degrees out.