Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi
Has anyone found a way of putting petrol into a minor at a reasonable rate without having it come blasting back out of the filler?
For some reason the filler design seems to defeat the safety stop on most petrol pumps.
bye
MarkyB

Nope...same problem here I'm just slowly filling the tank and keep a cloth under it ( right under there is the hot exaust...)

I've got a feeling that its all due to the very basic nature of the tank breather which only exists in the metal part of the filler neck.
I do wonder if it was extended into the top tank with a pipe of some sort it might work properly.
MarkyB

I think it is because the filling pipe is almost horizontal and rather short...

You just do it slowly - patience is required.

Moved as this is not as useful tip.

Filling the Triumph 200 I had was a nightmare due to blowback, the Dolomite was almost as bad, and the Rover needs the nozzle to be held at a very odd angle to get any fuel in before the cutoff kicks in.

I've noticed different brands/ pumps can be better or worse, best results at present are from number 5 normal unleaded at my local Shell station, but that's not going to be a lot of use to anyone I imagine!

As Pim has said its because of the angle and length of pipe what I have found that helps is to turn the handle to the horizontal position, Mark I assume you have a saloon as its nowhere near as bad with a Traveller.

As Chris says, do it slowly, I think the thing to remember is that when these cars were built things & life were a lot slower and therefore you must act accordingly. I don't have probs; with mine as I'm used to just squeezing the nozle gently and no more than 1/2 way
When filling a modern car it's full on and fills in no time....

Mal

Soaked myself couple of days ago filling the car not the 1st time either!

Ahhh, you young'uns won't listen

Mal

i know i know

"things & life were a lot slower " ...that's true.
I've noticed that I'm driving a lot more laid back when in my Minor (and smiling a lot more while doing it...)

"things & life were a lot slower " ...that's true.
I've noticed that I'm driving a lot more laid back when in my Minor (and smiling a lot more while doing it...)

Great to step back in time, especially plodding along country lanes.. far from the madding crowd

Mal

Although the country lanes are not so nice as your's in England I know what you mean...

I'd still like to find a way to make it work properly.
I realise it is possible to fill the car slowly but it is still difficult not to get petrol blowing back over you shoes, hands paintwork especially on a saloon but on all other models too.
What is it about the Minor filler that stops the auto cut-off working properly?

Car was designed prior to 'self service' at petrol pumps. Then, there were 'highly trained' technicians to cater for your every whim (including filling your tank) at every service station. They would come running when you drove over the bell wire which announced your arrival.
They no doubt attended night classes to attain the necessary qualifications to fill your Minor tank without spilling a drop on your pristine paintwork.
So in conclusion, if you are finding it difficult to fill properly, please apply to your local college to enrol in the 'petrol tank filling course' and you will receive the valuable NVQ (SVQ here) to permit you to perform this function in safety.

Pete

If you fit the filler nozzle right into the filler neck then you will pour the petrol down the inner tube. The expelled air comes ack through the outer sleeve.
Modern pumps have a high flow rate, so as the tank gets full you start to push petrol back up the outer sleeve.

To avoid petrol on your shoes - stand to the side! ;-)
To avoid any petrol spillage - fill the last few litres VERY slowly (painfully slow by modern standards).
To avoid any of that hassle - go to a filling station that isn't self service That way someone else gets to deal with the petrol ejection.

We had this problem in Africa. The fuel stations are not self service, so despite warning the pump attendants in our best (bad) French, they all got a petrol shower. The worst one was the guy who insisted on crouching down to look down the filler spout - he got petrol over his T-shirt.

Removing the sleeve from the filler neck might solve the problem but I've never had the time to try it.

There is another solution - work out (roughly) how much fuel you need to fill up then put slightly less in - for instance when my fuel gauge shows just under a quarter full I always put in 20 litres (about 4.4 gallons).

Another problem with a completely full tank is that fuel may dribble out of the filler neck going round bends or up steep hills.