Morris Minor Owners Club

Wilberforce started singing to me while at tickover today.

He sounds like the flower in Moschops:


or a flying saucer:


or someone playing the saw:


I wonder what it could be?

Does it stop if you remove the fan belt and try again? If so I'd suspect the water pump or dynamo/alternator bearings.

That was sharp! Yes I got a new alternator from Halfrauds at the weekend to replace the old one that had died (not having much luck with alternators...)
So you reckon its bearings are dodgy?

You should be able to feel if the bearings are OK from turning the shaft without the belt in place.

There have been threads on here in the past about the reconditioned Lucas LRA alternators possibly not being very reliable.

More likely it's just not lined up properly with the crank pulley and the water pump pulley. The belt must run dead straight between all three. Often the alternator needs a washer between the water pump and the alternator front mounting lug to bring them into line.

If its not the above the bottom pulley can polish up in the groove causing odd noises if thats the case just get a strip of emery cloth 2" wide-ish fold it to a vee and then use that to remove the polished area which is usually bits of dirt built up over the years.

Neighbour thinks its the load the alternator is putting on my engine but he hasnt actually heard the noise and the alternator is the same size as the one I took off, although I suppose it does have the added characteristic of 'working'... I'm with the belt I think - its a very strange noise and alternator does look a bit skee-wiff, although same fixing point etc as before...will look at the weekend, thanks for the top tips!