Morris Minor Owners Club

A friend came to me few weeks ago asking if i would look at his grans 1966 morris 1000 to get up and running before she moves house. i went to see it and fell in love with it as i love old classics and wanted one for a daily driver.

she has sold the house and the car was offered to me for a very small amount .. and the car is coming on saturday..

it has been sat in the garage for almost 30 years!!!!! i will be servcing and doing repairs over the weekend, but can any one advise me on anything i may need to do after a car has been sat for so long as i normally repair modern cars not sat arounf for this length of time.

any info would be great. many thanks, karl..[frame][/frame]

Number one has to be the brakes, if the handbrake was left on you may not be able to move the car!
The best bet is to replace all the cylinders and pipes.

Then see what else is seized up, if the engine wont turn over take the plugs out and dribble some diesel, say an egg cup full into each plug hole.

yes i have checked and the handbrake was off and jacked up and left on bricks all this time.

i thin k brakes will be siezed after this length of time, but the engine does turn. this i have checked.

just didnt want to service engine and try starting it up if i could do it damage??

Leave the car and just take the bricks, they'll be more use.

very good !!!

i will take both to make sure...

Great news!
It wasn't just left but "laid up" .
If the engine oil looks clean it was probably changed before the lay up.

Drain the old petrol and keep it, put some fresh in.

Get a good battery take the spark plugs out and take the thin lead off the distributor to stop it starting.
Now spin it over on the starter until the oil light goes out, replace the plugs and wire and it will probably run.

will do.. thank you for that. they had the intention of using it again, but unfortunately the owner passed away and his wife never did anything with it, and just left it until i saw it..

hopefully, she will go without too much effort

Mine hadn't moved for 25 years either. I started with a compression test. It failed miserably. One valve stuck down, rings stuck in the grooves and rusty valve seats. So I rebuilt the engine. Hopefully you won't have this problem.
After that change EVERYTHING made of rubber, it perishes and goes soft. So that means renew all hydraulic brake seals and flexi pipes (as a minimum) all water hoses, don't forget the bypass, engine and gearbox mounts, tie rod bushes, all suspension bushes and tyres of course.
Oh, and welcome to the forum!

thank you.

starting to strip down and many plates rivetted in the floors, arches totall gone etc.[frame][/frame]

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