Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi there, thanks to all who responded to my previous question, for thoses who arn't aware i am a complete beginner in the world of morris minors (or any other cars for that matter!) and have a question to ask regarding a pretty stupid mistake i have made performing my first oil change! Having drained the oil on the car (a 1967 morris traveller), and removed the oil filter i set about cleaning the filter housing, and made my first blunder. While cleaning, a spring, two washers (one rubber, one metal) and a little metal ring with a brake in it fell out. Unfortunately i had not paid enough attention to their arrangement and i have since discovered that i have replaced them incorrectly putting the washers at the bottom of the housing (assuming that the rubber one was meant to prevent oil escaping from the bottom). There is no oil leaking so have i got away with this or is it a significant problem?
My second mistake i fear may be more of a problem. After replacing the old filter i failed to notice a thin rubber ring sat in the bottom of the box in which the new one came, as a result there is now no rubber ring in the filter housing. Is this a problem?, i am reluctant to re drain the whole system again but am not driving the car at the moment for fear of doing damage, the oil pressure light is not showing any signs of a problem.
I realise that these must both seem like pretty stupid mistakes and questions but would really appreciate some advice!!! Thanks WB.

did you remember to put the large washer with the spring under it below the filter otherwise the filter will be sitting to low to work correctly.

After replacing the old filter i failed to notice a thin rubber ring sat in the bottom of the box in which the new one came, as a result there is now no rubber ring in the filter housing. Is this a problem?,

Did you remove the old rubber ring from where the filter housing goes home as this is where the new one goes, but as you can leave the old one in place as it does no harm unless the old one has been damaged, and if you had left it out you would have a nice leak so the original must still be in place ?

Hi wb,

Firstly, head on over to Charlie Ware's web site, and use the parts catalogue. It has exploded views of all the oil filters (and lots of other components as well), so you can see how it goes back together...

Secondly, see Nikki's thread (6000 mile service Multiphonikks) on oil filter changing. You will need to have the oil filter seal in place (or you'll lose all the oil - well the car will).

The good news is that it is not necessary to drain the sump to remove the oil filter.
Get a volunteer, undo the filter housing keeping the bolt head tight to the body to stop the oil dribble. Climb out from under the car, and get the volunteer to hold the filter housing and keep the bolt tight to the housing.
Now, sort out the various springs, rigns and filter. Crawl back under the car, insert the new filter seal, get the filter & housing from the dummy (oops volunteer), and refit!

Note that the old seal doesn't just fall out - you have to remove it. So if you didn't pull it out, it's probably still there.

Alternatively, you can just lose the 3/4 pint or so of the oil in the filter.

Colin

When doing the filter without a complete oild change you need to keep the housing pressed onto the bolt head to stop the dribbles as mentioned. It helps to have lots of old newspaper under the car!

I'm sure that a whole load of cars have the filter housing not correctly asembled. There are various combinations of springs and washers and the big dished washer will be fitted any way up.

The parts need to be fitted correctlly otherwise you get no filtering of the oil (thats a bad thing). The most common mistake - even by people who know what they are doing is not to use a backing washer with the big dished washer. The big dished washer is normally loose to the bolt so unless you use a backing washer that fits tight to the bolt shaft all the oil will just flow through the clearance hole and pass right round the outside of the filter without passing through it!

These things are pretty difficult to explain by words so chase up that exploded view - or get hold of a workshop manual that has an exploded view.

Basically the thin seal sits in the manifold end in the thin groove - as has already been explained these usually stay in place until you pursuade it out to fit a new one. The new one will have a tendency not to stay in place so a bit of grease helps (if it partly comes out it can get damaged when assembling and be chopped up)

Under the bolt head there should be some kind of seal which stiops oil leaking past the bolt head.

The spring, plates and washers push the filter up against the manifold and the big dished washer transfers the load from the spring to the filter
The backing washer should seal off the inside of the filter from the outside.

When you get to know what you are doing you should also 3/4 fill the filter housing (leave room for the filter to be pushed in!) before putting it back together. This way the engine oil pressure will come back quickly. Without priming the filter you will run your engine for 30 seconds with no oil pressure (you should avoid doing that too often)

Have fun!

hi!

You don't have to completely drain the system to re-fit the oil filter.

Provided the system is COLD (you really don't want to take the filter off with hot oil), it's not a problem.

Make sure you have the oil bucket under the filter, and slowly undo the bolt. You'll find you will loose some oil, but not too much.

when you put it all back together, make sure that you get the seal right. It was me not putting the seal back correctly which caused me to loose so much oil. (Because when I turned the car on the oil was pumped through the gap in the rubber)

Just take your time - I know I was frustrated when I did mine!

Nikki

To assist WB go to
http://www.morrisminor.org.uk/
Go to Parts department, Then parts Catalogue, then Engine, Then Oil filter, and all parts will be revealed