Morris Minor Owners Club

Drive down there and have a chat, with any luck they will be very helpful and might do a bit of light tinkering for nothing.

I'll have to walk, but they'll hopefully be helpful at the very least.

Fortunately its not far an all down hill so I can push it if they think they can help : P

If it's kicking against the handle - I don't see why it won't start. Perhaps you should indeed try a 'bump start' down the hill and hopefully that will get it going!

The only problem with bump starting is that, although there are plenty of hills round here, they're all quite steep so if it doesn't work I'm screwed.

You don't think your petrol has lost its power (octane)
Can happen when left in tank over a long period.

Roy

You won't be screwed - you will be at the door of the 'vintage garage' specialist!
So - back to basics - is the battery fully charged and spinning the engine over nice and fast - or is it barely turning and 'kicking back' as each piston comes up for firing? Is the 'choke' control working ok? Have you tried an egg cup of fresh petrol down the carb throat - and then crank it?

petrol's fairly new, filled it just before the HG swap.

haha, true. It'll have to be an early rise though. Its a main(ish) road.

I keep having to charge the battery, but yes I charge it fully.

not 100% about it kicking at all pistons, will check tomorrow.

choke is working, and petrol into the carp makes no difference.

It's something very simple - plug leads wrong order (1342 anti-clock around the dizzy cap) or valve gaps not correctly set (15 thou) - something like that, directly linked to your HG change.

As BMC says, it'll be something easy, you'll kick yourself when you sort it.

Begin with all the basics that have already been suggested, and get a fiend to help. Two heads are better than one, and prevent the sort of silly mistake we've all made at various times (plug leads etc).

If it was doing seventy just the other day it will run!

Tom

plugs are right order, and I've set the valves 12thou in, 15thou for the exhaust.

I know it's got to be something unbelievably minor, which is why it winding me up so much.


Thinking about it, would a messed up gasket change cause a non-start?

No! Do you have a spark at #1plug when both rockers are loose?

Hi,

As you suspect something simple, is the distributor cap or rotor arm flawed ,maybe carbon brush or spring damaged in in the cap.
Just a thought, which you may have already tried.
Whats wrong with using a tow rope to bring the car back if jump start does not work.

Good lock Roy.

SHE STARTED! She died quickly after, but she started! Had her going for about a minute with full choke and occasional throttle.

I tried again straight after, but the battery was having none of it and neither was the weather. Battery now on charge again and heavens have completely opened. So cant do much now anyway :/

BMC, I'm not sure. I tested for spark by taking them out, I don't have a spark tester. I'll see if any of my friends have one.

and Roy, I'm getting a spark at all plugs, surely I wouldn't if any of that was buggered? I think I have spares of all of those if you think it'd help?
True about the tow rope, it's more about doing it when the road is clear now...

If it ran for a minute then stopped
does sound like fuel starvation of a kind. When the engine did run, did it sound ok ish.
Also what can get hot, stop the engine, and flatten battery.

maybe a short in the positive battery lead somewhere.
Have you knocked something near electrical connections when working on the head.

In Scotland we used to drain the water refill with hot water then test without choke, anything is worth a try.

If our " bmcecosse " does not solve your problem soon, nobody can. So have faith and good luck.

If this is driving me mad, how are you coping.

Roy.

I think barely is the word : P

Tom suggested it might be the manifold isn't tight enough, which ties in with your idea about fuel starvation, I believe.

The battery connections seem fine, and are clear of any interfering pieces of metal. How would hot water help, surely it wouldn't be hot enough to trick the engine into thinking it was running hot, would it?

I had fairly similar symptoms to this (well, not to the same extent) and it did indeed turn out to be the carb gasket that was leaking, amazing such a small leak rendered the car useless! This ties in with needing lots of choke to 'make up for' the ingress of air past the gasket. My two pennies worth ;)

Running for a minute and then stopping is indeed likely to be fuel supply problem.... If it ran for a minute - that should nhave charged up the battery quite usefully - so I can't see why it was having 'none of it' ?? Try an egg cup of petrol down the carb - and crank it again - and I was rather assuming that all nuts etc would be tight and no air leaks possible...........

I believe the hot water was just a way to bypass the choke system,if we thought there was something stuck.

Lots of daft things were done in those days.

I can even remember some kind of radio suppressor (I think ) that used to cause havoc with engines.

Also has your minor got a alternator or dynamo. Alternators get quite good at causing problems.

If you live near Northamptonshire I would be more than happy to pop round with a second brain.

All the best

Roy.

I also assumed that I'd tightened the manifold nuts, however, they are one of the few things I haven't triple checked... So chesney gives me hope again!

Some previous owner has fitted an alternator, unfortunately (I know BMC won't like that, but I can't afford to swap it back)

Unfortunately I'm almost the other end of the country, up by Newcastle at the moment.

Alternator is fine - even more reason why in that 'minute' of running it should have topped up the battery for you.