Morris Minor Owners Club

do we have an anti older car brigade out there

That's what I have found, mate! I don't know if it's the region we live in but others don't seem to experience it so bad!

If I see a nova or the such like and can spot a baseball cap in the cabin, then I do be impersonation of a standard Moggy (stealth mode) until I get them in a situation where I can embarras them!

One of the best examples of this was the A34 in between Hanford roundabout and Trentham gardens (heading towards Stafford). Slowed down for the speed camera in the outside lane and let the laughing nova boys gently creep forward in the inside lane. Then when I was out of the marks, dropped to 2nd (at 40) and let the clutch in sharpish!! The tyres squealed and the back end moved sideways a bit as it lost traction, then it gripped and I was off, into 3rd and away! I looked behind me to see their expressions but they were too far behind.

and then your clutch gave up, your exhaustr fell off and they overtook you pointing and laughing??

Not quite!! but it would have been funny if it had happened like that!

The clutch and exhaust happened many months later...... although oddly enough on the same day. Exhaust on the way to work and clutch on the way back....... strange eh?

you were having a bad day.......

The clutch and exhaust happened

Is there a common link there? Are uprated engine mounts needed for a motor with the output of yours?

I don't know. I have never seen any. The exhaust keeps failing in different places. It is not under any major stress, it's just poor design, poor materials and poor workmanship! At the end of the day it should be able to carry out the job it was designed for.

The clutch issue seems to be a problem in the actuator side of things, not the clutch itself. It feels like the arm has bent or the pivot has come off inside the bell-housing. Something like that. I can't investigate it further at the moment as my MG is in my garage and it will be a couple of months before I can get it out, so the Moggy will have to wait until then for further diagnostics!

Point to add about gearboxes, I have a seira type 9 g'box on our 1275, it is a horrible gearbox, used by all sorts of people in the kit car and custom world, but I find gear selection sloppy and it lacks feel, even the Caterham with a short shift kit I had was a bit lacking. however, they are easy to get parts and replacements for, and cheap to run (after purchase!), and this was an overriding factor for me. Having spoken to people with toyota boxes, and tried one, I would say that the toyota box is more satisifying drive, but they are hard to find and parts are nightmare. If you can put up with that it might be a good way to go.

H,

I found the same until I got rid of the standard Sierra gearlever with it's vibration damper. I cut the top off the Sierra one and the bottom off a Moggy one and welded the two together. Not only did it look more original but it VASTLY improved the feel of the box. To be honest mine now feels tighter than a Moggy one and it has a much shorter gearshift.

Yes mine too is cut with a minor shaft so it looks more original, I think the fault is in the internals not the shift coupling, as the caterhams was the same. The only decent shifts in a sierra I have felt (not that I felt many) is where the internals have been fettled like in one with quaife gears added.

OK then, it's just that there is a huge difference between the 1.6 Sierra I drive sometimes and my Moggy's Sierra 'box in terms of feel and tight gear selection. Mind you my Sierra box was rebuilt by a kit car supplier. I wonder if they fettled the internals then? or just rebuilt it to a higher standard?