Morris Minor Owners Club

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Got a bit more done today, in-between providing a "while you wait Landrover engine rebuilding service"...

Been shopping today, and now have a gearbox...





I still need some other bits, (does anyone know if a 405 car starter works with the LDV bellhousing, or if I need an LDV starter?), but it's enough for me to be able to loosely bolt the engine and box up and try and work out what I need to do to make them fit in the gap.

Incidentally, the Pug box I've got has a four bolt output flange for the propshaft, which turns out to match the propshaft flange on all Landrover propshafts... guess what I'm now intending to use for the minor's propshaft... Landrover propshafts are dead easy to shorten, and have a sliding joint on the propshaft (which is why I can't use the minor's original propshaft).

Having experimentally bolted it all together, it looks like a 405 starter and flywheel are the same as an LDV - rather to my suprise, both an LDV clutch cover and the 405 starter bolt up, (although I may yet discover the starter doesn't actually mesh!).

Here be some photos summarizing tonight's activities...

Take an empty looking minor engine bay:


Crane a rather large looking engine (I've discovered a minor's engine bay is like a magnifying glass - really quite small things look terribly big in there!) towards the gap.


Lower it in, and find it doesn't fit.


The cycle is then reversed, further bits are unbolted from the engine or car (car is now minus the gearbox crossmember, and original propshaft, engine has lost the power steering pump, vacuum pump, inlet manifold and turbocharger) and the cycle is repeated.

At some point in the near future, it look like it will probably fit , then I just need to work out how to get round all the stuff I've removed.

No pictures I'm afraid (and to be honest, it doesn't look like anything much has changed!), but a load more progress has been made.

Engine and gearbox now fit in the gap (and I've not had to do anything naughty to the bulkhead, although I have had to make a heavy duty repair to the front cross-member). There will be room for a radiator, although I'm a little concerned that the air-flow through the radiator may not be brilliant.

Talking of radiators, I've bought one (well two actually, one as a spare!), for £17 each inc P&P.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350608741702

The plan is to cut and shut the front grill panel assembly to hold the radiator to win me an extra couple of inches of engine bay space, and to use either a VW golf Mk4 intercooler (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171385412084, although I already had one kicking around), or a tdi landrover intercooler mounted to one side of the front of the engine bay (I've loads of room at either side of the engine bay!).

I've got a little more fabrication work round the engine and gearbox (I need to make a new gearbox cross-member), then it will be back to boring bodywork again for a while I think.

In other news, the A40 clocked round a significant number on the odometer on the way to work this morning...

It's new again!

Just read this topic from start to finish, must say, cracking job you're doing and very jealous of the access you have to all that gear....huge workshop, welding gear etc etc.

Your photos have provided inspiration to a few rot spots I should probably look closer at on my Moggy !!

Really would love to know how to weld too, looks very useful !!

Been a while since I updated this thread, but progress has been being made slowly but surely, to the point that I've started putting real proper paint on things, rather than just holding coats of cheap primer to stop new metal going rusty on me...

On it's side for the final few bits of welding, and to clean as much underseal as possible off...




Look! Slighty less old underseal (I now own three different shapes of grinder mounted wire wheel - between them you can get to most of the underbody of a morris minor!)


High build zinc phosphate primer everwhere! (Literally 5L of the stuff was used in creating this scene. Fortunately I work for the kind of place where we buy it in 20L drums, and they don't mind me using a bit!)





I had the bonnet, bootlid and rear wings shot-blasted a couple of weeks back, while we had shotblasters in at work. I could get quite sold on this grey colour...


...but I've gone for this grey instead, as we've loads of it kicking about at work, after one of our customers changed their minds about the colour of a large job after we'd ordered the paint.


I'n other news, I've had the engine test fitted in, and have started doing all the little modifications required - between coats of paint tonight I made a blanking plate to cover the end of the cam shaft where the vacuum pump used to live, (the vacuum pump hangs off the back of the engine and would clash with the bulkhead if I left it there).

Next big job is making a new fuel tank - I've a offcut of 300mm dia stainless steel pipe has a basis for building the ultimate fuel tank -it will be quite a complex thing, as my plan is to run the engine on vegetable oil with a twin tank system - the idea is to internally divide my main tank to avoid needing two separate tanks...

This weekend has seen the outside of the main shell painted... (the doors weren't intended to be painted, it's not that I just "forgot" and missed a bit!)

















Still another rub down and layer of topcoat to come, but I might leave that for the minute (it's bound to get marked while I'm working on it).

Not got a lot done over the last month as I've been doing loads of overtime at work, and had to straighten out my 1972 109" Landrover after in idot pulled out of a junction into it (they came off worst, with a very written off car, I drove the Landrover home - a 109" Landrover traveling at 60mph takes no prisoners!)

Anyway, I'm now back on working on the minor - did the XUD's cam belt this weekend (not before time - the one that came off looked rather sad), then got rather involved in trying to use the LDV engine block mounts in a minor engine bay - it doesn't really work the way I've set things up, as the engine is too low in the bay for them not to hit the chassis rails, and thus I'm now halfway through cutting and welding them till they are suitable...

A few piccys...

Engine is now sat on some new engine mounts - I've used some of the LDV mount on the drivers side, and made one from scratch in the end for the passenger side.

Having the engine suspended where it belonged, I thought it was time to see if the engine ran, so borrowed the Landrover's battery, rigged up a fuel pump and a few bits of wire for the glowplugs and stop solenoid, and gave it a go... a video of the results is linked...
http://youtu.be/oOLEfmehijo

Im just loving this restoration,and all the effort going into it...well done