Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello everyone here.
My name is Dave and I live in Torquay ,Devon.
I have been restoring a 1968 Morris Minor and am now in need of changing the engine to a 5 speed and also upgrading the brakes so I feel safe.Could anyone point me in the right direction to where maybe locally within Devon I could get these things done?
Thanks very much.
Dave

Hi Dave,

I thought I'd say WELCOME as a newbie, sadly I don't know any one in devon, but someone will on here, if not goto JLH,recommended

James

JLH always comes highly reccomended for mods.

How Handy are you with a set of Spanners? And whats your Budget?

Firstly, a 5 speeder. Even as a home fit job you will be lucky to get a full setup for under £300, more if you need to get someone else to fit it. The Most common method of doing this is using a Ford type9 box with a specially cast bellhousing. Although there are alternatives out there but much less documented.

Brake Upgrade. Firstly, try them as there are and see what you think. A set of sorted minor brakes are pretty good. especially with a 8" setup from the later model - as yours should. Make sure they are all working and fully adjusted. You might be suprised.

If you decide you do need to upgrade the 9" Wolsely 1500 drums are a popular upgrade, or Marina Discs are common.

If you are looking for a professional job doing again don't expect it to be cheap.

I agree, get the original brakes working properly. They were fine for the car when new so they should be now. On my traveller the original brakes can lock the wheels under heavy braking, just need to push hard!

They were fine for the car when new so they should be now.

Um, when the last minors were rolling off the production line other cars available could stop an awful lot better. I'd say they were adequate for the car when new, and can be adequate for the car today, depending on your driving style and what you do with it.

Personally, as I'm traversing mountains on my hols, I like disk brakes - but then since my dad's A40's drums gave out while the family was traversing the same mountains, my opinions on drum brakes are probably somewhat skewed.

Personally, my experience of the 'correctly set up' drum brakes is that they're okayish, but heavy and no-where near a modern set of brakes. If you do a lot of motorway miles, or a lot of start stop driving, or live in a hilly area, disk brakes and a servo are somewhat nice.

If drum brakes fail whilst on a mountain road, its either down to hydraulic failure (can happen to disc brakes as well) or down to driving to fast causing brake fade.

I stand by my comment, properly maintained drum brakes and sympathetic driving style and the original equipment is fine. Use engine braking when descending a steep hill to help the drums out and they will be fine.

cheers
John

I'm sure you do; and I stand by mine. Trying to engine brake down a 1-in-3 pass over a couple of miles long leads to a screaming engine and going rather more rapidly than I'd enjoy. I know, I tried. And I know that even with engine braking my disk brakes were beginning to show signs of getting very, very hot by the time I got to the bottom of some of those passes.

I personally would not use an all drum braked car as my every day transport. That's my opinion, and above is my experience. Whilst it probably would be fine here on the M4 corridor, where I used to live in Bristol 'n' Bath there're enough steep hills that personally, I'd not want to do it.

Apart from that there's the sheer tedium of adjusting brakes every service which I also have no particular desire to do ;)

The 5 speed box conversion is way more that £300 unless you find some decent 2nd hand bits. The conversion kit (Bellhousing/Tranny Cover etc) is close to £400+VAT A known good refurbed Sierra T9 Box is £300.

The handbrake needs moving back 2 inches as it fouls 4th gear.

Disc brakes fade less and are self adjusting and dry quicker in the wet, but that is all. Plus the increased initial stopping power means the rear end goes very light, so to restore brake balance, you really need to fit one of the front damper kits. Some people find the pedal is too hard with discs unless you fit a servo, so add another £120 plus total brake replumbing to the rears.

If you have all this work done by a Pro it's about 2 to 3 days labour at anything up to £80 and hour.

The 1098 struggles to drive a 5th gear on anything other than moderate speed motorway driving, so a diff change might be a better and cheaper solution, or you fit a 1275 lump.

If you do go for the Ford Type 9 box, make sure you get one with the correct length input shaft.

You will also need to check with your insurance company for premium adjutsments. Some will refuse to insure you with these mods or hike the premiums. Firebond is the one company I have found, that seems to consider such mods a safety advantage, and the premium doesn't change.

Some people find the pedal is too hard with discs

I've never found it to be an issue.
Despite being a cast iron fan of decent 8" drums, when driving round Bath area with 4 big people in a Traveller I'd much rather have disks! When a passenger announces 'turn right here' when you're half way down a steep hill fully loaded, no amount of engine braking will stop you quick enough.

Rember, this is 1960ish technology here.

8009STEVE wrote:Rember, this is 1960ish technology here.

They should be good enough to send a man to the moon then...

Yes, the standard brakes were fine for the period of manufacture but todays cars all have far superior systems which are not nearly so susceptible to fade so if you use the Minor mainly in quite dense traffic you are at a disadvantage. It is no good saying that you can leave
a suitable gap between you and car in front because some wally will always overtake and fill that gap.

Samsons Garage Exmouth.

100% reccomend, knows his stuff loves his minors!