Morris Minor Owners Club

My teenage son and I have done a service of our 1969 1098cc Minor and have put it through the MoT. This may be crazy, given that "it aint bust", but I intend to take the head off to show him how the valves work and do a decoke. My question is whether it would be difficult to change the timing chain whilst we're doing this (the engine does seem to rattle a bit!). What tips does anyone have?

You could show him how the valves work without taking the head off, just remove the rocker box. The timing chain replacement involves taking the rad out and disturbing the gaskets and crankshaft oil seal. I'm all for the if it ain't broke philosophy

Unless very worn and stretched the chain will rattle due to the useless tensioning rings. Even replacing them will only last a few thousand miles at best. The fix is to fit a proper tensioner for which kits are available or you could rob parts from a Mini engine...

Leave well alone - head and chain -unless you really know what you are doing. Buy a spare head (very cheaply) and show him/overhaul it if you must........

pull the front timing chain cover off and fit a duplex chain.

goodbye to single noisey chains for good!

Well, it's not rocket science after all... Just follow the book (the original BMC manual -- very good, everyone should have one) and toss a tensioner in there as suggested. If I keep the engine I'm running now I'll be doing that -- new chain and added tensioner. I don't like the noise either. I've had a look at the dual chain kits and there still doesn't seem to be a tensioner.

Yes, you have to pull the grill, radiator, etc. but that's not all that much bother. I just did a timing belt on a Honda for one of my kids -- now that WAS a bother -- you've got to unbolt and move all sorts of stuff out of the way -- including an engine/trans mount -- and even then it's tight to replace the thing. She's got a pal whom she often cons into doing work for her, but he was afraid to do a timing belt -- so she was helping, hovering and terrified that I'd get it wrong. I explained several times that it was just a matter of lining everything up as the book describes, but I don't think she stopped holding her breath until we finished up and it all worked.

dellerie wrote:pull the front timing chain cover off and fit a duplex chain.

goodbye to single noisey chains for good!

Duplex chains rattle too - No proper tensioner in them kits either

Duplex is for high lift cams/fancy (almost always unnecessary) double valve springs - and is NOT rattle free. The Mini tensioner kit is the way to go.