Morris Minor Owners Club

My 61 truck is a little bit of a hybrid- still figuring out the mods to this car.
Heater seems to be original and functioning, but hot air seeps strongly (not quite blows) out from it.
Can't tell if a fan is on, only that the unit has hot air coming from each side and the unit itself is hot to touch. The original knob is missing. Would the knob the pin, L to R, control the heat? It does rotate, just can't tell if it does anything. Is something frozen in place?



Bodywork comes after the mechanicals. Love this little truck!

hello! right...now without knowing too much, the rod on the right of the heater "duct" would open and close a vent i think, if this is open, then air will be going through the heater without the fan being on, i think! and if you turn the knob counter clockwise it should be off...hope this helps a bit!

by the way...love the pick up, really nice!

callyspoy wrote:hello! right...now without knowing too much, the rod on the right of the heater "duct" would open and close a vent i think, if this is open, then air will be going through the heater without the fan being on, i think! and if you turn the knob counter clockwise it should be off...hope this helps a bit!

Already made sure that that other duct was closed (and it does swivel open and closed easily) , but air still seems to be getting through. Will double check the rotation of the valve.

Thanks! This car was refitted with a Datsun B210 engine and automatic transmission. (1275cc) Front brakes are mid-60s Sprite disk brakes, but everything else is original.

The fan control knob is a bit odd in that when it's fully to the left it's off, turn it slightly to the right (you should feel it go over a bump) and it comes on at full speed, then keep on turning it to the right and it gets gradually slower. The flap controls whether it recirculates the cabin air or draws fresh in from the outside (it actually comes in via the wheel arches so there's not much of a ram air effect).

There should also be a brass water valve on the back of the cylinder head that stops the heater getting hot if you turn it off (assuming it hasn't seized, as they tend to do).

Edit: just noticed you mentioned that it's a non-standard engine, so it might not have a water valve.

Take a look at where the heater pipes connect to the engine.
There should be some kind of control there to stop hot water flowing through the heater.
If you can turn that off it won't matter if some air still flows.

Turns out that heater was just turned on. Because there is no knob, only a bent nail through the shaft, didn't know how it functioned.
All is good now. Car really gets toasty with that heater. They did a good job on that for the folks in colder climes. Engine is different, but all hoses hook up probably same as they did on the Morris motor.

Next project is to tighten up the front end. Higher speeds are thrilling, lots of banging on the bumps - almost like a Top Gear challenge. .

Drain the dampers and refill with thicker oil! Watch you don't lose any springs/washers etc when you take the drain plugs out - and check the tightness of the 4 long bolts that hold the damper to the cross-member.

I'd start by checking the condition of the suspension bushes and making sure the front end hasn't been lowered before thinking about altering anything from standard.

bmcecosse wrote:Drain the dampers and refill with thicker oil! Watch you don't lose any springs/washers etc when you take the drain plugs out - and check the tightness of the 4 long bolts that hold the damper to the cross-member.

What weight oil?

alex_holden wrote:I'd start by checking the condition of the suspension bushes and making sure the front end hasn't been lowered before thinking about altering anything from standard.

Aside from the Sprite disc brake conversion, pretty sure the front end is unmodified. Wanted to drive it around for a week before I brought it back to my buddy's shop to dig into it. Wanted to see if any other problems surfaced.
Meanwhile just driving it a little around town, and won't take it on the freeway yet.
Thanks again to all of you for the help.

As thick as you want - but 20W 50 is a starting point. The more viscous the oil - the better the damping - so straight 30 oil will be harder and 40 more so. (ignore the '50' in 20W 50 - it won't get that hot in a damper - effectively it's 20 grade). I have used EP 90 in my old Rally Minor - but I don't really advocate that for a road car.

alex_holden wrote:The fan control knob is a bit odd in that when it's fully to the left it's off, turn it slightly to the right (you should feel it go over a bump) and it comes on at full speed, then keep on turning it to the right and it gets gradually slower. The flap controls whether it recirculates the cabin air or draws fresh in from the outside (it actually comes in via the wheel arches so there's not much of a ram air effect).
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Mechanic broke my new heater knob and for some reason, no matter how I turn the knob, hot air comes in -Less when all the way counter-clockwise, and more the other. Also see that you can push in the knob. When I do this, it lets me turn the pin beyond the counter-clockwise stop. At this point, you are on high again.
Any thoughts?
TIA

You could just re-route the pipes to miss the heater alltogether or add in a brass valve from a plumbers to control the flow from inside the car.

Older VW's (Golf & Polo) have a neat inline water valve that is easy to adapt.
Even Porsche use the same VW valve !
http://www.924.org/parts/PartsPics/Heat ... 819017.jpg

Paul Humphries

It seems to be the fan control that is your main worry - why not just take that switch out completely and fit a simple on/off switch. Then it will either run at full speed, or not at all!. To stop hot water flowing into the heater - simply close the valve where the water leaves the engine. If I remember it's not an A Series engine is it ? If no valve on the engine - then as PT suggests, get one from the plumber!
Since you are in California and never really going to need that heater (lucky devil) - you could remove it completely!

mrsnak wrote:Mechanic broke my new heater knob and for some reason, no matter how I turn the knob, hot air comes in -Less when all the way counter-clockwise, and more the other. Also see that you can push in the knob. When I do this, it lets me turn the pin beyond the counter-clockwise stop. At this point, you are on high again.

It sounds like someone has replaced the rheostat with the wrong type. It should be off when all the way anticlockwise. Turn it slightly clockwise and it goes to full speed. Turn it further clockwise and it slows down, down to about half speed when it's fully clockwise. You shouldn't be able to push the knob in.

I have a spare rheostat (without the knob) that I could sell you. Send me a PM if interested.

alex_holden wrote:

mrsnak wrote:Mechanic broke my new heater knob and for some reason, no matter how I turn the knob, hot air comes in -Less when all the way counter-clockwise, and more the other. Also see that you can push in the knob. When I do this, it lets me turn the pin beyond the counter-clockwise stop. At this point, you are on high again.

It sounds like someone has replaced the rheostat with the wrong type. It should be off when all the way anticlockwise. Turn it slightly clockwise and it goes to full speed. Turn it further clockwise and it slows down, down to about half speed when it's fully clockwise. You shouldn't be able to push the knob in.

I have a spare rheostat (without the knob) that I could sell you. Send me a PM if interested.

Thanks much for the offer.
Pin does seem to be spring-loaded, so that puzzling. I did have the heater tamed before the mechanic broke the knob (though cracked at base).
Heat only occurs with car moving and engine speed up - there seems to be no heater fan running. Given our warmer climes (even though I live near the beach -foggy and cool often), think best just to re-route the heater hoses. I must say that the Morris heater is quite efficient!

Drain the dampers and refill with thicker oil!

This has been talked about before and I think there are only 2 people in favour of doing this, far more people are concerned about the damaged that can be caused by the incorrect damping action and it has been known for the bolts to shear.

Come on Kevin - it's been discussed over and over again - it WORKS!
Obviously smart to check the bolts are nipped up tight when doing this - i've only ever heard of them breaking when loose and when the damper has obviously been over-travelling due to missing bump stops/rebound stops. I used EP90 in my Rally Minor - over plenty of rough white roads at considerable speed - and never broke a bolt, front or rear. However - I don't suggest EP90 will be ideal for a road car. Standard damper oil is SAE10, so I suggest straight 30 or straight 40 oil will be ideal. 20W50 engine oil does gives some improvemnt, but not a huge difference - only the '20' part of it's rating is important, the '50' rating is when at engine heat, which won't happen in a damper.
The important thing is to drain out the horrible old thin smelly oil that will be in the dampers now - it's ruined ! Just refilling with new oil of almost any grade will show a worthwhile improvement.