Morris Minor Owners Club

Having fitted Jethro with his new dynamo I decided to replace all the water hoses and flush the radiator at the same time as there seemed to be evidence of leakage in places.
Renewed the hoses and refitted the now clean radiator and having poured in fresh coolant started up.
Guess what? I had forgotten the damn bypass hose lurking between the water pump and cylinder head and of course it was this hose that was perished and leaking!
Another drain down to fit the little perisher in place.
Moral of the story - Check the manual and make sure you know where all the bits are located!

We all make mistrakes.

been there got a whole box of tee shirts

Glad it's not just me!

Did you find the bypass hose easy to fit? On my 803 this was a swine of a job and I unfortunately ended up bodging it.
How did you do it?

You must NOT use the ghastly convoluted bypass hose - only a heavy wall plain rubber hose will do........ And yes - it needs the water pump removed to fit it!!

I used a straight bit of hose which I cut from a length of hose I had knocking about - saved me a few quid instead of paying for the 'specific part' which is just the same bit cut from a longer length.

Why must you not use the concertina hose?

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote:Why must you not use the concertina hose?

They don't last! They seem to fail on nice warm days when you're in a rush.

Also it's very easy to seat them wrongly on the bypass outlet in the head. They have little integral strength either so always seem to let you down when you least want them to.

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote:Did you find the bypass hose easy to fit? On my 803 this was a swine of a job and I unfortunately ended up bodging it.
How did you do it?

You are right, it was a swine of a job to wriggle the little bugger into place but I managed to fit the hose to the lower spigot first then bend it up onto the upper spigot and maneouver it into position with a small blunt screwdriver.
Still came away with skinned knuckles though!

bmcecosse wrote:You must NOT use the ghastly convoluted bypass hose - only a heavy wall plain rubber hose will do........ And yes - it needs the water pump removed to fit it!!

The hose that I fitted has quite a thick wall section and seems as robust as the other hoses on the car but thanks for the warning, I'll keep a close eye on it!

UPDATE..........
Guess what?
Having fitted a complete set of new hoses the B@st#?d radiator drain tap has joined in the fun and started to leak!!
Will this torment ever end!?

you can do away with the drain tap and just put a nut in; evidently the same happened to mine at some point.

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote:you can do away with the drain tap and just put a nut in; evidently the same happened to mine at some point.

I have found an old air compressor brass drain valve with what looks like the same thread as the original tap.
I will fit this and strip down the original tap to see if it has a packing inside which could be the cause of the leak.
I am not going to be beaten!

You should NEVER touch the drain tap....just pull a hose off to drain the system.

Pulling off the bottom hose does not completely drain the radiator as the spigot rises upwards from the rad by two or three inches which is why, i assume, the manufacturer fitted a drain tap at the very bottom of the system.
A tap is much more convenient and a great deal less messy than removing the bottom hose and if I can remedy the leak by stripping and rebuilding the tap then I will keep it as it is an original part of the vehicle.

I'd imagine bmcecosse's dislike of the drain tap, is that if it gets stuck, you can end up ripping a hole in the bottom of your rad trying to open the tap.

If it is used regularly, it doesn't get chance to seize though, and I sorely miss my old radiator as that had a tap, and the new rad doesn't. Because of which, i always have to drain with a hose, and always end up getting water everywhere except for the bottle i was trying to fill!

It is very messy draining without a tap as most of us have found. But it seems that most taps were removed because they leak.
I have to drain mine soon to fit a temperature gauge (803 engine has nowhere to directly fit one).

Just make sure you save your antifreeze mixture to refill later!

I have had quite a few year's experience with compressors and spray equipment and usually a leaking drain tap or valve is caused by its internal packing drying out and just needs lubricating or tightening up to seal it.
The other type is a simple reverse screw type with an internal o ring that you simply undo a couple of turns to drain the water.
This type is still freely available and has a small spigot on the end which can be fitted with a short length of rubber hose to assist draining of antifreeze solution without spillage

I have had quite a few year's experience with compressors and spray equipment

completely off-topic, but if you're referring to paint-spraying equipment here, do you know how much money would it cost to respray the roof, boot and doors of my car in black (the original colour).

The reason is the old boy who owned it all his life wanted to keep it original so only part sprayed it, but now the original black paint is so flat it looks awful. Thanks.