Morris Minor Owners Club

Unfortunately I seem to have just had 2 projects foisted on me. On Wednesday I took Maggie, my 1969 4dr, for her MOT, which she bombed in mega fashion. More on that in another thread, but suffice to say the bill for having it repaired professionally would run to about £4k, which I do not have. I do, however, need a car, and so following an inspection of the underside have decided to resurrect Sarah, my 1970 2dr.

I bought Sarah in 2004, and used her as my everyday car until summer 2009, when I laid her up in a garage. She's currently being used as a sort of shed . Underneath, she's had a number of repairs carried out over the years, of varying quality. It has the dreaded 'cover sills' on all but 1/4 of the sills, but curiously when I removed the o/s kickplate, the original sill looked reasonably good. Both of the rear chassis legs/spring hangers were replaced about 5 years ago and are still nice and sound. One crossmember end has been plated, the other replaced properly. The floors have a number of patches, but no current holes. Particularly amusing is the 'professional' repair to the o/s tie plate that I had done at a garage in Exeter. They clearly thought that 4 holes was insufficient, and welded in a repair section with 5 holes in it . Both chassis legs appear OK, although one has been plated. Fingers crossed, it's all solid enough to go through an MOT.

So far, so good, but the biggest problems with this car are mechanical. Both the engine and gearbox are shot - the bottom end of the engine is knackered and has very little oil pressure, whilst 2nd gear exhibits a lovely 'clackety clack' sound at the same time as vibrating heavily. The exhaust has rusted beyond repair, and due to sitting, the rear brakes appear to be at least partially seized.

Therefore, my current thinking is to sort the brakes out, then swap the good(ish) engine and box from Maggie into this car. At least I should then have a usable car. All this is not helped in the slightest by the fact I've been ill for almost the past year, including a long period of immobility, so have to be careful I don't strain anything or generally 'over-do it'.

Here's a few photos of the car as things stand:





Not pretty, as you can see. I had planned to do a more leisurely and complete job, but unfortunately needs must at the present time.

Haven't been able to do very much on it due to being continually unwell, but here's my progress so far:

Lights and indicators all working now. A couple of earths were a bit dodgy.


Also had something of a change of mind regarding the engine and gearbox problem. After thinking about it, I've decided not to take the engine and box out of Maggie for now, as that would then render her immobile, unless I was to put the (dodgy) engine and box from this car into her. That would make things very difficult to manage in terms of getting in and out of the garage, so I've instead decided to just install a spare engine and box.

I managed to pick up a spare engine for £25, and upon getting it home, it appears that I've got something of a bargain. The bores look almost unused, with no 'land' at the top that you can feel. It's obviously been rebored 20 thou oversize at some point in the past, as the pistons have "+.020" on them. It turns freely and seems otherwise OK. Haven't decided if I'm going to take a big end cap off to assess the crank yet.




Unfortunately the cylinder head isn't so good, having 2 dodgy looking exhaust valves. The rocker gear is almost unworn though. I'll probably just stick one of my spare heads on this engine for now, rather than bother fixing this one straight away.



Also slightly concerning is the look of the oil in the sump - it's jet black and has a gloopy, almost tarry consistency. I suspect it's got something to do with the engine standing in a garage for quite a number of years. A good flushing required, I think.



Moving on to the gearbox, I've had this one in my garage for a number of years now. It's originally from an A40, so has a hydraulic clutch release mechanism on it. Presumably the Minor one will fit fairly easily. More concerning is that the input shaft appears to have some play in it - probably a bit more than 1/16". Does this spell problems, or is it acceptable? All gears select OK and it rotates smoothly.



So the plan is to use this engine and box in the car. A bit of a gamble, but hopefully they'll be OK. Other than that, the car needs a good greasing up, a brake overhaul and should then be ready for an MOT!

at least you have space and a pool of useable spares , sorry your unwell , been the same myself and now trying to do two cars in no space!

Looks really good

Trouble with a quick 'tart up' is that you have to do it all again at some point! As both cars seem to need a lot of work have you thought about choosing the one you prefer and putting your limited time into that one car? As I see it, you are then not wasting time on a 'temporary' car, only to go through it all again later on the other one. The time you save by not tarting one up can be used to make better job of your chosen vehicle.