Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi I have a 64 Traveller and I was travelling to work this morning at just before 08:00 and I was half a mile into my journey when I came to a junction and it died on me! It was struggling abit as if not fully warmed up! I had the choke out full, could I have flooded it? The battery is brand new and it started first time, no struggle!
I pushed it to the side of the road walked to work and returned two hours later, I checked the oil which was on minimal and topped it up, could this be the reason. I then started it up and it struggled to begin with I had to keep pushing the accelerater and I had the choke out half way after a minute I drove it back home, it seemed normal again, how strange! Any ideas?

Full choke shouldn't be needed yet, it isn't even cold.
After half a mile I'd have gone from a starting point of half choke to no choke at all.

The oil being so low suggests you are driving it like something more modern where you don't need to open the bonnet from one month to the next.

Give it a good service before the weather gets properly cold is my advice.

Obviously could be many things (but not the low oil level for sure!), but normally engine running problems that seem to fix themselves (at least temporarily) are usually either electrical or fuel related.

So I'd take the distributor cover off and give the contacts and inside of the cover a spray with WD40, check the HT leads, and replace them if they look anything but perfect, replace the condenser, and recheck the points gap. Take the plugs out and dry them out in the house, and check the gap on them as well. Replace them as well if you've had them in for more than a year.

Could also be some cr*p in the fuel getting into the carb - unlikely to be the problem if you have an SU carburettor as they have needles and do not have the small jet holes that Weber/Solex and others have that block much more easily - but take off the float chamber and clean it will fresh petrol. There is also a little mesh filter inside the inlet to the fuel pump - undo the union and check this isn't full of bits,
Could also be your fuel pump itself, but you can normally hear it clicking away, and hence you'll know if it stopped just before your engine packed up. A sharp tap with a small hammer will often get them going again, but if it keeps happenning you need to replace the points inside the top cover - a fiddly but not complicated job detailed in the Haynes manual and other places online.

Bottom line - you need to keep looking until you find the culprit, because in my experience problems that 'just go away' always 'just come back', but usually at a much less convenient time!
As the man above says - give it a good service!

I would say you flooded it if you had the choke out full. After half a mile you may need a little choke when you stop at a junction just to keep the revs up, but not full choke.

It's just been the 'full choke' - only use choke (it's not really a 'choke' - it's a 'mixture enrichment' device!) Only use that to start the car on cold mornings - and virtually immediately put it half way in - then very soon push it almost all the way in - so it's just giving you a fast idle - and then after a mile or so - all the way in.

ive only had to use my choke once so far, and that was 5:30 on a very cold icy sunday morning, even then it was only half out and i pushed it in as soon as the car fired.

though i suspect mines running abit rich anyway as my mpg is pretty low.... but thats another matter.