Morris Minor Owners Club

At some stage in the Minors evolution Mr Morris or his entourage took away the grease nipple that resides between the bearings in the water pump and replaced it with a cap head screw.
This makes getting grease in there that little bit more difficult, I can make assumptions as to why they did it,but wondered if anyone knew the thread size, 1/8" bsp perhaps? as it would make sense to put a grease nipple back in there.
Also on the subject of grease points the upper and lower links may be accessed more easily with elbow grease nipples than straights, does anyone know the thread here also?
Thanks.

Never throw grease nipples away, always remove them from scrap components.
Try another grease nipple from the suspension or somewhere and replace it after you have greased the pump.

Good advice and thanks for that, it would be good to affix something permanent as well.

http://www.thenippleshop.co.uk/acatalog ... pples.html

Completely safe at work.....

Pumping grease into the water pump carries high risk of damaging bearing and /or water seals....... Leave well alone is my advice. In 45 years of many many A series I have never greased a water pump - or ever had one give me any trouble !

Thanks Roy, interestingly Ive just picked up some parts for a service and the local Morris dealer said exactly the same.
What set me on the track was the noise from said pump was louder than anything else I could hear, it is worth mentioning though I was (just for fun) using an ultrasonic touch probe complete with headphones to listen to said pump.
Basically if youve not used one It does the same job as a wooden handled screwdriver, overkill I know, but good fun regardless,I wonder then what the small cap head screw on the top of the pump is for?
Regardless, I shall leave well alone.
Cheers, Dick.

an ultrasonic touch probe complete with headphones

Where did you get this? Sounds interesting.

If it's 'ultrasonic' you won't be able to hear anything............

moggiethouable wrote: This makes getting grease in there that little bit more difficult, I can make assumptions as to why they did it,but wondered if anyone knew the thread size, 1/8" bsp perhaps?

Can anyone please answer part of the original question above

What thread size are the grease nipples?

I doubt 1/8" BSP - which would be a very fine thread. Grease nipples tend to be a course thread in my experience.....

bmcecosse wrote:If it's 'ultrasonic' you won't be able to hear anything............

Good point Roy, but what it does is listen for ultrasonic noises only, I forget the exact frequency range but basically all moving parts give off ultrasonic noise, which as you say we cant hear, the unit then heterodynes the noise in to something we can hear through headphones, a worn bearing for instance will give off clicks if there are flats on the balls or rollers, squeals if they need lubricating and the sound of bacon in a frying pan when particularly worn and close to death.
I use them for compressed air leak detection (part of my job) as they also give off ultrasonic hisses that we once again cant hear, the unit just happens to come with a touch probe for condition monitoring bearings, clutches gearboxes etc.
You will find them at www.leak-detector.co.uk

MarkyB wrote:

an ultrasonic touch probe complete with headphones

Where did you get this? Sounds interesting.

www.leak-detector.co.uk the little blue one is used by garages for bearing condition monitoring.

C6Dave wrote:

moggiethouable wrote: This makes getting grease in there that little bit more difficult, I can make assumptions as to why they did it,but wondered if anyone knew the thread size, 1/8" bsp perhaps?

Can anyone please answer part of the original question above

What thread size are the grease nipples?

I shall suss the thread next weekend, you can get them in 1/8" bsp and also metric (unlikely on a mog though?) but if as Roy says the best thing is to leave well alone I suppose the question becomes redundant.
Having said that I was interested when reading about the importance of alignment of said cap screw when reassembling the pump, as if there was a good reason for said orifice being there,ah well.

moggiethouable wrote:

C6Dave wrote:

moggiethouable wrote:
I shall suss the thread next weekend, you can get them in 1/8" bsp and also metric (unlikely on a mog though?) but if as Roy says the best thing is to leave well alone I suppose the question becomes redundant.

Not if the nipples on the trunions/prop shaft/handbrake cable are blocked/damaged so require replacement

I don't understand why no one seems to be prepared to answer a simple question

For my own part I dont yet know the answer, but I feel I should, so will find out.

On ebay I see 1/4 UNF/ 1/4 Whit / 1/4 BSF/ 1/8 BSP - and a whole range of metric fittings............. We don't answer because i guess we don't KNOW. I've never cared - always been able to reuse nipples from old parts (as mentioned earlier) and so the thread has never bothered me !

1/4 bsf, (26 tpi) for the nipples on the upper and lower trunnions.Assuming Tom Roy gave me the right ones saturday gone, which I am pretty sure they did.
The water pump I aint sure yet, but as said may not now be relevant.

There is very little thread to get a gauge on to. The best way to measure the thread would be to find a nut which fits the grease nipple then find a bolt to fit the nut, then measure the bolt thread - somewhat time consuming. Much easier to rummage through the tin of spare nipples or borrow one from somewhere else. In other words I have never bothered measuring a grease nipple thread.

It seems theres not anything else that comes close, I have checked 1/8 bsp, M6, M5 and others besides that Roy mentions,
We have some of those here at work.
Bearing in mind the cars provenance metric was always doubtful and as bsp is measured on the bore size of the fitting not the o.d. and Ive had the vernier on the outer thread which measures 250 thou, then its a fair bet.
There are 4.5 threads showing on the nipple over a length of a fraction under a quarter so Im conviced, or Ive convinced myself.
Just let me get the lid firmly back on this can of worms, there thats it, done.
Close enough for Jazz as they say

Well if 1/4 BSF fit then that's what I'll order

Thanks for clarifying.