Morris Minor Owners Club

I have an ominous ticking coming from deep in the engine of Albert. There is no smoke or poor running clues to help me diagnose.
It has arrived at more or less the same time as I have noticed that the clutch travel is not ideal. The pedal sits quite close to the floor and the nearly new clutch does disengage fully with no slip under load or judder through it's movement. Could the noise be some load on the crank because the clutch is not set up properly?

Are you sure it's not the petrol pump ticking?
That's not ominous at all.

Very unlikely to be clutch related unless operating the clutch makes the tick.

Very easy to adjust the clutch when it's not snowing, do you have a friendly garage with a ramp?
They could do it in a minute.

Hello Peetee,

it's unlikely that the clutch would be the problem although it sounds as if it's not set up exactly right. Setting the free play will ensure that there is no load onto the crank, however the thrust bearings take care of that anyway.

I take it that the ticking noise is at engine speed, i.e. varies as the engine speeds up and down. How loud is it, can you hear it while driving for instance? The usual trick of a sounding stick or long screwdriver to try and identify the loaction will help.

Alec

a loud tick can be caused by a blown exhaust manifold gasket. See if you can feel the gas escaping from the manifold/ cylinder head join (CARE- running exhaust HOT!)

Unlikely to be crank related noise as that would not be a tick but a grumble or a knock depending which bearing had gone.

The only "tick, tick, tick" I ever had was down to a broken piston ring....