Morris Minor Owners Club

My Moggie almost went up in flames today. It all started yesterday, when I drove some miles and noticed that the ignition light refused to go out. I got home OK and decided to investigate the matter today. So I drove the car out of the garage and parked it. I then opened the bonnet and tried to start the car. It started OK and I stopped it again and pulled the key from the ignition. Then I noticed a sizzling noise and smoke from the engine bay. It quickly grew worse and I scrambled for my tools and tried to disconnect the battery. I finally succeeded but not before the regulator box caught fire! I extinguished the flames with my T-Shirt and the horror finally stopped. So here's the state of affairs:

- Regulator box innards black and smoking
- Connectors on regulator molten
- Cables to and from regulator box: insulation burnt away
- Dynamo: smoking
- Cables to dynamo (inside wiring loom) - loom blistered
- Posotove battery terminal: cable fused to battery (won't budge)
- Proud Moggie owner: severely shocked and shaken

I am now severely depressed. What could be knackered now: I think the dynamo and the regulator are goners. Possibly the battery as well. What else? Coil? What about the rest of the electricals? I am especially worried about the wiring, it looks very unsafe now! Can I tape it up and use it? Or should I replace the complete loom? If someone could give me a pro's assesment, I would be very grateful.

I am currently looking for a mechanic that can do this for me. Not an easy job here in Germany! I'll try a mechanic that regularly does old Minis - he should be able to do the Moggie as well.

Oh well - old cars, don't you just love em!

Regards
Michael

Well, I've been puzzling about my misfortune and trying to figure out what went wrong. I found that a tiny piece of metal was lodged between the cut-out armature and the fixed contact of the cut-out. But why would that lead to such drastic consequences? While surfing the net, I found this quote:

A design fault of the Morris Minor that can cause the generator to burn out should be mentioned. The 'E' or earth terminal of the control box also connects to the earth terminals of the windscreen wiper motor and the interior lamp. If the earth 'E' on the control box becomes disconnected from the chassis and the interior light or wiper motor is left on (with the engine not running), it is possible for current to pass through the shunt winding of the cut-out in the reverse direction causing the cut-out points to close. This will cause current to flow from the battery through the generator and burn out the armature winding. If you are restoring a Morris Minor it is a good idea to change the wiring so that the interior light and windscreen wiper motor have separate earth's to the control box. Better still, fit an alternator to the engine!

It might very well be that the interior light was on - I'm not 100% sure but I think the door was open when everything happened. But still, could the abovementioned have happened?

Regards
Michael

the notes you found were correct, when this fault occurs the
battery tries to use the dynamo as a starter motor! Since it is
not powerfull enough to turn the engine via the fan belt it quickly
burns out. below the fuse holder on all Minors is a wire from
the loom which is earthed to the bulkhead under a nut head.
THIS MUST BE A GOOD EARTH and I would advise ALL of you
to removed this connection and thoroughly clean the parts so
that they are clean and bright before you replace them
(this connection is about eight inches below the fuse holder and
slightly to the right of it............clean it NOW!!

Cheers, Willie. I did that when I had my burn-out. Is that the nut that secures one of the clamps for the loom, too?

Hi Koestie,
Being a bit nosey - how many Minors are there in Germany??
I'm out there quite often but I've never seen one, however they do have a German website, and whilst I was in a Cologne engineering office I saw a nice Morris Minor calendar!

Nasty - thankfully it was only your T-shirt and not the person wearing it who was fried. You have prompted me to check all terminals now!