Morris Minor Owners Club

Well i had a mixed feeling last night - decided to take the morris to work, and on the way home the spring off the accelorator cable decided to come off, so my car was doing 70 - 80+mph, and i had to over take a few cars before i could find a safe place to pull off the M4 (as this happend smack on Junction 32 - so could pull off as there was queing on the inner lanes)

What i found amusing that there was my morris (with a standard engine) screaming past BMW's, Mondeo's etc. having funny looks of disgust, smoke coming out of my brakes (where i was trying to limit my speed)

Anyway, burnt out my brake shoes and had to wait 1hour 45 mins to be collected. But all home safe. This has mae me want an engine, brake, etc upgrade though

I had to giggle. My car happily does 80 overtaking them. It's when they put their foot down as well that I have the problem .
Did you not move the car out of gear to limit the brakes being burnt?

After i got past the tricky junction (if you have been past Junctionn 32 in rush hour, you would know what i mean), i pulled ot of gear and turned off the engine.

Ah I see what you mean, no point totally slowing down to get into a gap that doesn't exist. Were you towed or fixed at the side of the road?

When my acceleraror cable broke I connected the choke cable to the accelerator on the carb and continued with a hand control

is jct 32 the one for merthyr / cardiff with no hard sholder for about 3/4 of a mile? if so,... yes you really do not want to be stopping at that point.

thats the junction. I was ging to do a "job" to get me home, then thought, sod it, i have full breakdown recovery.

Yes - I had similar happen to me - I was doing well into the fuel gauge before I got a gap and pulled onto the hard shoulder. 2 minutes to bend a new loop in the spring end - and off I went again. And - I never touched the brakes - just let it rip! I urge everyone to have a good look at the return spring on their carb - because the exhaust bracket does cut into the spring...... and when it goes - you will be amazed how well your Minor accelerates when you don't want it to!

i had the same thing happen to me a few months ago, thankfully i was on a country road, so i turned off the engine and gently coasted to a halt. being miles away from anywhere, i just whipped off the bonnet stay spring, connected that in place of the throttle spring and that got me home. though it did make my throttle very very heavy, but it did for an emergency bodge

A spare spring is only a matter of pence and should be in every boot!

better still fit a new spring and keep the old one as a spare

I've heard of some people who worked on the carb or exhaust and then started the engine having forgotten to reconnect the spring causing the engine to rev at top speed...

GDL wrote:Well i had a mixed feeling last night - decided to take the morris to work, and on the way home the spring off the accelorator cable decided to come off, so my car was doing 70 - 80+mph, and i had to over take a few cars before i could find a safe place to pull off the M4 (as this happend smack on Junction 32 - so could pull off as there was queing on the inner lanes)

What i found amusing that there was my morris (with a standard engine) screaming past BMW's, Mondeo's etc. having funny looks of disgust, smoke coming out of my brakes (where i was trying to limit my speed)

Anyway, burnt out my brake shoes and had to wait 1hour 45 mins to be collected. But all home safe. This has mae me want an engine, brake, etc upgrade though

You had a very lucky escape.

I've heard of some people who worked on the carb or exhaust and then started the engine having forgotten to reconnect the spring causing the engine to rev at top speed

"Eh-hem".

Mine went on a busy dual carriageway with both lanes doing about 50, not alot of room for manouver apart from the laybay that was just coming up.
Just like BMC says, a quick bend of the spring end and off you go although I made the mistake of using a spare spring. It was actually a clutch return spring and boy did it make the throttle heavy.
Maybe a bolt fitted in the exhaust clamp spring hole and the spring popped around that would mean for less abrupt wear?

Or you could carefully file the hole in the bracket till it was perfectly smooth and round....... Actually - the spring does that over time - just before it snaps!! Or fit a protective ferrule over the spring..... Or just upgrade to an HIF carb with the return spring on the shaft!

Been there, done that. On the A1 heading south passing eveything in sight! Don't knock it out of gear. There's no resistance & the engine revs scream. I turned the ignition off but then realised I had no indicators

Luckily, a van driver realised this wasn't normal & slowed to hold up the traffic to allow me to pass through the inside lane on to the hard shoulder.

The AA man took us to a nearby garage. By chance, they had a moggy in for service, so 'borrowed' a spring. Total cost....50p

Buy 2 and put "spare" in the toolkit in the boot

Bought 2 yesterday.

With these cars it's always the little bits that are the "lifesavers" spare sparkplugs. condensers,coils etc. The odd paperclip can also come in handy at times!