Morris Minor Owners Club

Dear friends,

Anna's MM Tourer is on the road again (in fact locked in the garage, but at least it works) and I am beginning to look for some parts that I am missing and that the usual retailers do not have for sale. The most important would be the original MM air cleaner, as our MM now has a crudely modified 1000 cleaner. Researches since weeks on eBay didn't produce any result, only one guy was selling this type of cleaner but would ship only to UK (!) . Does anyone know where it would be possible to find one of those cleaners?

I must also fit new tires. I looked around but I don't know if a standard 165/70 14" tire would be ok for the standard steel rims or I have to look for some special rubbers. Any idea? Thank you very much for your help!

Cheers

Stefano

Hi Stefano,
If you have any problems with shipping let me know. Get them sent to me and I can send them on to you.
There were two different air cleaners, the air silencer, Original Morris Minor P. 29, and an oil bath export air cleaner with alloy trunking. The 1st type may be found at the national rally autojumble.
The correct size tyres are 145 or 155 x 14. Anything wider will be too wide for the rim. They are available from suppliers.

Hello Mike,

I'll keep on looking for the cleaner, as the Auojumble would be some time from now.

I looked for the tyres but the usual sources like Longstone can supply only a Nankang in that size. I would not want to sound too picky, but I wouldn't like to see the script 'Nankang' on the tires of my MM, I would prefer something like Dunlop or Michelin or Avon....

Cheers

Stefano

All the major manufacturers, Goodyear, Firestone etc have stopped making tyres in Morris Minor sizes, so you will have to fit what you can get, Toyo, Nankang and one or two others.
Try Bull Motif, they usually stock tyres. I bought mine from my local tyre dealer.
You could always buff the name off the sidewalls.

I have Bridgestone Premium 145 x 14 Radial tyres on my car. Bought by Bull Motif. They looks good.

Hello,

I asked BullMotif (I have bought many parts from them and they are always very helpful) and quoted £305,15 for the set of 5 tires. It is a good price but I am looking if it would be possible to find something similar in Italy to save the shipping (£34) Do you think that 165x14 would surely be too large? I could have a good offer for a set of excellent Vredestein Classic Sprints, wonderful classic tyres, but this is the smaller size that they are offering.

BTW Mike, I probably did never tell you that my MM has a Negative earth electrical system. My service/ workshop manuals say that all MMs have a Positive earth circuit. I think that some previous owner converted the system, that's (maybe) why I have a different distributor. Or was it possible to order a MM with this system? I never saw this possibility mentioned in the books.

Thank you,

Stefano

Hi Stefanop
Are you the same person that is looking for a wiper motor, on the wanted list ???
As i have replied to that one
Regards

Barry

Hello Barry,

I just replied to your other kind message on the 'wanted' board. I am really not sure if it is OK to buy electrical parts now that it occurred to me that my MM has a Negative earth electrical system instead of the normal Positive earth. What do you think, would the wiper motor work anyway? I would think so but I am never sure.

Cheers

Stefano

165's do just about fit on standard minor rims, just dont push it too hard around the corners, and they do look rather ballooned so you may not like the look. I do, but each to their own.

Hello,

your advice about the 165 tires being too 'fat' made me discard this idea for the moment; meanwhile, I have found some NOS Michelin 155x14 in a local garage and I have bought them....sadly, they had only 3 tires! I'm looking now for 1 or 2 more Michelins.

Thank you

Stefano

There is no problem with the car being neg earth, I have converted mine so that I can use modern eletrical equipment, radio, sat nav etc. There is less corrosion from electrolitic action on the terminals and connections with neg earth.
I really think that 165 tyres are too wide for a 3in wide Series MM wheel, they are the correct size for the 8cwt van with wide wheels.

If you're still looking for a air cleaner let me know - I have a couple if you need one.
cheers, Pete

Hello,

we are preparing the MM for spring (assuming that it will come some day....Italy is not as warm as we are used to these days, and more rain is expected over the next week-end. ) The car starts quite well now but it needed a stop at the body shop to fix several annoying rattles.

Whilst the guys were looking for some noise in the dashboard, they found that the oil gauge is not connected to the engine (no surprise, as it didn't work at all). I shall order the tube and joints from ESM but I wonder where I can find the pick-up point for the tube that has to be connected to the oil gauge; if someone would be so kind to show a picture of this connecting point it would be very much welcome, as I couldn't find this detail in any book/picture I looked at.

Another question is about the windscreen rail. The white vinyl hood of my MM was bought 20 yrs ago and, to be honest, it's quite nasty; it leaves an opening of one half inch between its bar and the windscreen rail. I will have to order a new, better quality hood if I ever decide to use the car when there is the slightest possibility of rain (for now, it will be only a fair-weather car) but I don't know if there is also a rubber strip or seal over that rail as well and, if there has to be one, what kind of rubber is used. Strange, but also mr Newell's exceptionally detailed books do not show any picture of the top of the rail....

Thank you, as always, for your help,

Stefano

The connection for the oil pressure gauge pipe is on the block at the rear of the tappet chest. There is a bracket on the end of the tappet chest cover which should have a nut and bolt and small clamp to secure the pipe to stop it vibrating at the connection. You must have a blanking plug in the oil feed hole, my guess is that the original pipe broke and a previous owner blanked of the feed connection otherwise there would be oil spurting out at 60 psi. A modern plastic pipe will fit OK and will be more flexible than the original copper pipe. You need the gauge to work, especially with a rebuilt engine as there is no low pressure warning light. A couple of my friends have had oil pressure problems with the oil pump which showed on the gauge.
With a rebuilt engine you should get 60 psi on tickover and almost 80 psi at speed.
Don Hoods in Birmingham are supposed to be good quality, they make them in "Double Duck" canvas. Normally they fit them to the car but obviously not practical in your case. See oliver morrisminor's thread on his hood.

I bought a mini oil pipe to replace my rusted original, I think it was only about £5.00 posted and all!

Today I tested the MM after the guys at the body shop made some changes to remove some annoying rattle under the dashboard (that is when they dicovered that probably the gauge does not work because it is simply disconnected from the engine). As the car was there, I asked them to put a electronic distributor (Accu-Spark with its coil, bought on eBay for £45.) Being Italian they couldn't say 'no' to a mechanical job, even if they are not mechanics, and fitted them immediately on the Minor.

The difference with the previous conventional (rebuilt) distributor is amazing. The MM starts much better, idles quietly, has apparently more torque abd I'd swear that it goes faster as well! Brilliant!

http://www.stefanopasini.it/Morris_Minor_Accu-Spark.htm

I'll have to make some aesthetic changes as the red coils and HT wires are a bit flashy, but it was a nice surprise.

Now I need to find this pipe and all the nuts and bolts.....

http://www.stefanopasini.it/Morris_Minor_Oil_Gauge.htm

I have contacted 2 major MM specialists and am waiting for their answers. Thanks for your attention!

Stefano

Heres a link to the plastic pipe I was talking about, if you need pictures of were it routed let me know and I can take a few. I also tried a few Minor specailist when mine was broken but no one stocked them. Frost do a copper oil pipe set theat comes with a selection of ends but it was about £80 and then you have to put it together......


http://www.minispares.com/Product.aspx? ... &title=OIL

Are you sure that is an SU H2 carb? Normal carb is H1. If it is an H2 I would be interested to know how you fitted it.
The H1 carb on the Series 2 engine has a vacuum pipe take off on the barrel behind the dash pot. I have tried a vacuum pipe on my engine but I did not notice the difference. I may try it on the new engine.

Hello David,

thank you for your very kind offer, a picture or two of the place on the engine where the tube of he oil gauge has to be connected would be very, very useful. Thanks!

Stefano

Hello Mike,

I don't know but I remember that a guy running one of the MM spare parts suppliers' sites looked at the pics of my engine and told me that this one is a non-original H2. I just found it on the car, non-original filter and all. In this carb we didn't find any vacuum take off but we'll look at it again. Cheers

Stefano

mike.perry wrote:Are you sure that is an SU H2 carb? Normal carb is H1. If it is an H2 I would be interested to know how you fitted it.
The H1 carb on the Series 2 engine has a vacuum pipe take off on the barrel behind the dash pot. I have tried a vacuum pipe on my engine but I did not notice the difference. I may try it on the new engine.