Morris Minor Owners Club

i was thinking about this has anyone done it

i did read on here that someone has a morris marina automatic gearbox in their moggy, http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... ic#p351535

presumably its easy enough, just a larger engine and probably a different gear stick,

i am thinking of going down this route as it would be quite nice

i have seen a diesel engined conversion and that had an auto box, any thing is possible ;) just depends how much you want it...

rossrox wrote:i have seen a diesel engined conversion and that had an auto box, any thing is possible ;) just depends how much you want it...

Was it a Peugeot engined almond green Traveller, subject of an article in Practical Classics some time last year?

yes, thats the one!!!

i may try this not peugeot though morris marina

A member of this board (paulhumphries i think?) searched for a very long time for a suitable Marina autobox a few years ago. If my memory serves me rightly, there were two different types of autobox fitted to the Marina (BW35 & 65 possibly?), and that the most common type won't fit into a Minor.

There's very little point in retro-fitting an automatic gearbox to a Minor, unless you have a disability. Autoboxes (old ones in particular) are complex, add weight, reduce performance and increase fuel consumption. None of which are particularly desirable characteristics on a simple, lightweight car with limited performance in the first place, at a time of record petrol prices!

i was thinking of doing auto conversion as wife passed her test in an auto and only thinking about it at the moment

My wife's Convertible is automatic. The conversion was done some years ago. long before we bought the car.

It has a Marina 1275 engine & a Borg Warner 65 box. It is a 3 speed box.

It is wonderful in town traffic ( I have been a fan of autos for a while...as I say to people, do you have a remote control for your TV?)
There's no compromise in performance.... It far out- accelerates & has more torque than our 1098 Traveller.

On the down side, the petrol consumption is about 5mpg more & because of the size of the torque converter housing the engine has to be mounted lower than in a standard car. This needed modified mountings to be made, but the most important effect is that the car has 2" lower ground clearance. This is significant with some of the more vicious speed bumps!

I have been told that some if the Minor restoration firms are often asked to do the conversion but the BW boxes are hard to find.
We had our box reconditioned last year & it cost a LOT, but is as smooth as silk.

Happy to answer any more questions.

regards
Chris

Long shot but might be of some use - someone was doing Ford type 9 gearbox conversions for the A series engine. I had a quick look but can't find any info on that conversion but if they still do it, you might be able to use their bellhousing to fit a Ford autobox.

That said, it'll cheaper & less hassl to learn to drive a manual

thanks Chris and DP i would prefer a morris conversion but its only in the pipeline as yet.Ford engines and boxes are hard to get hold of as everybody thinks they have a goldmine i have looked for a borg warner box and they are like unicorn poo .Chris if your wife ever thinks of selling let me know

The firm in Preston who did the re-build, AutoGearbox Repair Services Ltd, had no problems getting hold of the replacement parts so they may know where to get a box from. They already had a reconditioned torque converter in the workshop.
Tel . 01772 202266.

Not that I've had the engine out but I guess there is going to be a difference at the rear of the engine, probably with the backplate & flywheel.
Maybe the propshaft is a different length too, I don't know. Maybe not.
If you were to use a standard carb, you would need to extend the butterfly spindle (not difficult to do) & make a bracket to connect the kickdown cable .

Otherwise it's a case of getting hold of a Marina with auto.

Last time I was down at Millenium Co. at Manchester (where we got the Traveller from), he asked if I would take the Convertible there sometime for him to have a look at as they get asked about auto conversions from time to time.

As for the wife's future intentions...who knows? I'll keep it in mind.

Chris