Morris Minor Owners Club

Gosh, that is expensive!

Yes, I'm not in any rush however so I'm sure I'll be able to find a more affordable option. Besides, I pay less than half of what you guys in the UK do for petrol and insurance so I guess it all evens out.

Carb cleanup has begun, these were the contents of the float bowl.[frame][/frame]
Just a little bit of dust.[frame][/frame]
About an hour later.[frame][/frame]
Looking much better now just after a bit of cleaning. The throttle spindle holes are badly worn so they'll have to be sleeved, but I'm still waiting for the parts to arrive.[frame][/frame]I'm not going to polish it too much, just get it shiny with a bit of Autosol so that the cast marks are still visible.

I haven't yet been able to remove the jet tube from the float bowl. Is there any special trick to this or is it just stuck? I removed the screw and I can see a small rubber hose underneath but it still won't come out. I hope a night in WD-40 persuades the two parts to come apart after 42 years together.

On the topic of tires -- I ordered one of Coker's 145s as a spare for my Minor, and it's an excellent tire, just the quality you'd expect. Worth the $75 apiece, but I heartily agree that five aren't worth $500 in shipping!

I'm very impressed by what you've done! Keep up the good work! Perhaps someday I can drive down the Inter-American Highway and see you and your Minor in person...

The hose is typically plastic but there is a rubber O ring on the float chamber end.
Make sure you wash it through with petrol or something similar, some will have settled in it from that silty float bowl.
You can replace the O ring with a valve stem one.

Thanks for the info on the tires Fin, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find some more reasonable shipping.

Otherwise when you drive down here maybe you can bring me a set .

Just kidding, but a meetup would be great! All remaining Morris' in Guatemala are Travelers, Tourers, a van and my pick-up so I haven't ever seen in person a 2dr or a 4dr saloon.

I'm also working on the car with my father, it's my first but he does have a bit more experience as you can see.

Mark, I finally managed to get the jet hose out. I left it for 24 hours soaking in WD-40 and then since I have a new jet on the way decided to pull as hard as I could. That little plastic hose sure is strong, it didn't even stretch!

The process I'm following with the carb pieces is to clean them thoroughly with paint thinner, then place them for 30 minutes in a zinc/tin plating bath my father has and then use a stainless steel brush or gauze to make the parts shine.

I'm doing this also with most of the screws since the plating protects them from rust. It's not an expensive setup and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to restore their parts to as new condition.

Here's a close-up of the float bowl cap after the treatment.[frame][/frame]And here's the link for the system; this one is from Eastwood but I'm sure there are similar ones from other suppliers. http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-s-tin- ... ystem.html

Lovely job! Not sure we have the exact same plating system here, Frost restoration supply a big range of various plating systems - but they much more expensive than the one in your link. I think the cheapest one is around £70, going up to £150 or more. Most Eastwood products seem to be around the same price in pounds here than they are in dollars in the US - and often even more.

Doing a brilliant job a credit to you

Mark, finally found the o-ring you were talking about. It was very stuck in the bowl but my dad managed to get it out.

Roger, irmscher, thanks a lot for the compliments!

You're right, those kits from Frost are very expensive but then again think of all the things you could get nice and shiny and never rusty again with it.
The electrolyte typically lasts a very long time and you only need to buy replacement anodes. I would try, however, to get a better power supply than the one Frost has for sale. (The one in the Eastwood kit is also VERY basic)

On the topic of coils, I found out my dad had quite a stash I didn't know about.[frame][/frame]
The car had a japanese coil when it was bought, but I found a good Lucas one dated 1971 that has a few knocks but works perfectly.[frame][/frame]
And the carb is finally done, I still haven't recieved the parts so it still needs gaskets but it's looking very tidy.[frame][/frame]
Couldn't resist trying it on![frame][/frame]
Tires are on their way also, found a freighter that will import them from Miami and pay all the taxes for WAY WAAAY less than just the shipping I was quoted earlier.

Good news about the tyre shipping and the coilection of coils! Carb looks brilliant, I didn't realise that you can plate aluminium - learnt something there, but kits are even more expensive than I had thought.

irmscher wrote:Doing a brilliant job a credit to you

you deserve all of our praise's
well done

Yes indeed! It is looking fantastic Gabriel, you are going to have a very nice pickup indeed!

Thanks again!

Roger, you're right the instructions on the plating kit say that you can't plate aluminum but from experience if the part is clean enough whatever is on Eastwood's tin/zinc kit does stick and so far there haven't been any problems with it peeling or flaking off. Of course this discovery was made by accident and now that I've got the bug I'd like to try the "proper" copper and zinc plating systems but for the moment that'll have to wait.

Neil, how's the engine rebuild going? I read your thread on crankcase breathing and now I'm unsure of how to connect the hoses in my car (still far off though). Everything in my engine is original and it only has one vent on the tappet cover, so should I connect it to the carb vaccuum or the hole in the air filter? And what do I do with the extra hole?

No new pictures today but still good news, the gearbox appears to be in very good shape and even the synchros still have plenty of meat in them so there's only cleaning and fitting to be done and then after a VERY long wait my pick-up should have it's engine back in.

The joints for the propshaft, however, are both worn (something to do probably with the previous owners of the car apparently greasing random spots throughout the car instead of the proper grease nipples). Are they a standard size or will I also need to get them shipped all the way from the UK?

You should connect your breather outlet to the carb so that the crankcase gases are drawn into the inlet manifold and used in the combustion process. The air filter connection is a filtered air supply. In your case you have no rocker cover connection and so that can be capped or left open, it makes no difference. The filtered air into the engine will be through the oil filler cap, which must be the correct filtered breather type.

My question was easily resolved in the end, thanks to the Midget guys. It is common to leave the breather outlet open when using Webber carbs and the engine breathes fine. Quite simply the engine crankcase needs an outlet and a filtered inlet.

Thanks Neil, that was what I thought but you've just confirmed it.

Hope the vaccuum is enough to keep all the oil in the engine since I didn't upgrade the crankshaft oil seal.

Did you upgrade to Weber carbs? I think I have an HS4 lying around which would be a nice modification but first I want to have the car complete and running to see if it's worth it.

No I didn't upgrade the carb and I don't have an inlet for the crankcase fumes, which is why I will just use the draft tube, as with most UK Minors.

No need to worry about the rear seal, regarding crankcase pressure. It would have to be pretty high to force the oil out and a hell of a vacuum to suck it back in! So long as your breather is not blocked you will be fine. There will always be some oil leaking past the rear scroll, which is why the bellhousing has a drain hole with a "wiggle pin" in! I think that the amount of oil leaking depends on the condition of the scroll, rather than crankcase pressure (unless you have a real blow by and breather problem). If the engine has been used a lot with severely worn main bearings, then the scroll could be pretty worn. Otherwise everything should be ok (with a few drops of oil on the road after a run, which is quite normal.)

Neil MG wrote:There will always be some oil leaking past the rear scroll, which is why the bellhousing has a drain hole with a "wiggle pin" in!

So that's what it is!

Not knowing what it was and how it works I didn't check much the condition of the scroll. The main bearings were indeed worn but not severely so I think I'm going to be fine. The inside of the bellhousing was not too dirty either.

Gearbox open, oil looks old.[frame][/frame]
But other than that inside everything looks OK![frame][/frame]

Haven't posted in a while, the daily driver needed an oil change and I needed a weekend out so progress lately has consisted only of cleaning the gearbox and sandblasting the wheels to get them ready for when the tyres arrive (one done, four to go). With the car on its wheels and tyres the gearbox and engine will be able to be fitted and then there's just the finishing details to do.

Steve asked me about the measurements for the Austin badge; my bonnet is still hanging from a wall in the shop so for the moment this crappy cell phone picture is the best I can offer:[frame][/frame]Between the holes there's a distance of 62mm and roughly the same (diagonally) to the bottom hole.

Will try and take a better picture tomorrow.

Forgot the hole measurements, writing a post-it right now to remember tomorrow.

Didn't have too much time today but I did manage to fit the parcel shelf to the crash bar. Took quite a lot more time than I expected.

First step was gluing the nylon onto the rubber for the crash bar, then the cardboard parcel tray and then the rivets.

Making the holes for the rivets.[frame][/frame]
Edge of the bar before trimming.[frame][/frame]
The rivets.[frame][/frame]
And finally the finished product![frame][/frame]To anyone thinking of making your own parcel shelf, -DON'T-. Buy one instead, making it was very time consuming and they're not expensive but unfortunately shipping all the way to Guatemala would have been because of the size of it.

Powdercoating the wheels is scheduled for saturday so I'll probably spend the rest of the week sandblasting.

excellent cleanup on that Carburettor Gabe, this is coming along. Like the fact you've made your own shelf, you can spend more of the project's budget on other bits you can't make yourself.

Thanks David, making the shelf was harder than I thought but as you say, anything that can help with the budget is important. Fortunately the "spending" part of the project is almost over now with the tyres and carpet already on the way.

I see you're already planning another project, is it another Morris or have you not decided yet?