Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello,
I am looking to buy a morris saloon for my daily commute, which is mostly country driving but will also include some motorways.
I will be travelling 30miles from Crawley to Haslemere, so all in all it will be around 60miles a day.
I have my heart set on it and have done research into what to look for, the main thing I do not have though is real world experience in dealing with a classic such as a morris. I am aware there will be a higher level maintenance, but I do not know if it will be daily/weekly/monthly, will it work well on cold mornings, can i fix it myself with little mechanical knowledge if I do break down on the way to work? The model i would be looking to get is a 1970 1098cc saloon. I will also be looking to rent a garage to store it in. I would appreciate any help offered.

Thank you,
Adrian

I've done it for the past 30 years without any serious problems. Minors ALWAYS start, even when left outside and covered in snow. In the really bad weather two years ago, a colleague commented that our Minor always got through, even when the car park was devoid of other vehicles. You are estimating 15 - 16K per annum (I used to do 18K) so that is greasing trunnions every six weeks and changing points and oil twice. Beyond that, no problem. Disc brakes mean less adjusting, but are not essential. Halogen lights and heated front and rear screens make it much easier to see in the winter; but small improvements like that can be done over time.

I currently use my 1970 minor for my daily commute, and so far have only had the one issue which was a distributor cap; I now carry a spare distributor arm and cap in the glove box as they are a cheep part that is easily changed at the roadside. I personally have converted to electronic ignition, which are maintenance free. I use the accuspark stealth, so the only visible change is an extra wire to the coil.

As simmitc has already said, keep on top of maintenance; also check your body work and chassis regularly. It’s all too easy to forget about the bits we can’t see. The Haynes owner’s manual has a very handy schedule in the first section listing what should be done and when, it’s also a good step by step guide for anything you want to undertake yourself. A Haynes manual is a must for any car in my opinion, and your local owners club is sure to have a wealth of knowledge and experience.

I thoroughly enjoy my minor and wouldn’t change it for the world.
Let us know how it goes!

I have owned a 1970 Traveller since 1989, and have for the most part (except on some occasions when I had use of another vehicle), used it as a daily driver, covering over 70,000 miles to bring the total to well over 150,000 miles.

I don't drive it that gently, and it gets used in all weathers (I live by the coast) on all manner of roads, yet it has proved to be very rugged and reliable.

I did however, swap out the original 1098cc lump when it passed 100,000 miles as it was getting a bit tired, and installed a 1275cc MG Midget engine & close-ratio gearbox, which suits it really well. The original engine sits in the garage awaiting a new set of bearings - I may well drop it back in again someday...

As long as you are reasonably mechanically sympathetic and do the routine servicing (the most important being engine oil changes and trunnion greasing), they go on indefinitely.

And, as said above, they are pretty good in winter, often getting through the snow and ice more efficiently than wide-tyred modern cars. The only downer being the relatively poor heating and demisting, but that can be improved...

You will be fine with it - but it is most important to make sure the underside is well and truly rust free - and rust proofed. Clean the underside regularly. and re-apply rust proofing often. You will come back to ask how to improve the heater - we'll tell you once you find the car!

A very good little booklet is the "Morris Minor Operation Manual"
here are detailed the basic things required to keep a Morris in good condition.
Abe books have some very reasonably priced, see the link, quick before everybody else snatches em
http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Searc ... t&x=86&y=4
Good luck

Thank you all VERY MUCH for the replies, I have a lot more confidence in going ahead with the Minor.
In the coming months I will post pics of the model I get.
Hopefully some point in the future I will come across you guys again
Thanks again

Adrian.

I do 72 miles a day in my Minor (1967 1098cc, bog standard) and it will happily chug along on dual carriageways at 60-65. The biggest problem is other drivers who seem to think they need to get past you as they think you'll be holding them up, then slam their brakes on. So leave plenty of room to stop with your drum brakes!
Also overtaking is marginal as the minor can't be pushed much beyond 70mph so most trucks are doing 60 and it can be stressful tring to get past them with some shark-nosed modern breathing down your neck behind you and driving very close.

Reliability wise they are bulletproof and very reliable. I have had a piston dissolve, (see a recent copy of Minor matters) which was apparently poor fuel and also a valve burn out, but these things can be fixed without removing the engine.
Important to change oil regularly and grease your front suspension regularly.

A good upgrade is to replace the indicator switch with one from an early mini to allow you to flash headlamps. You can get one with a green light on the end which looks almost the same as the standard one but its very useful.
Halogen lamps are sensible and i fitted a pair of 1960's Lucas spots wired up as driving lamps which helps a lot at night.
Standard heaters are good but don't run very fast so demisting takes ages on a damp day. An Austin 1100/1300 one with dual speeds is the same size but much much better. I need one for my Minor!

Apart from that, go for it. its the cheapest car to drive daily you can find as long as you're prepared to spend time servicing it.

Er trucks can't "do 60"??
People always have the misconception about truck speeds.
These days they are STRICTLY limited to 90kph that's 55/56 mph.
They may "roll" down a hill faster than this but on the flat this is all they will do.
Where the misconception arises is your speedo will be reading anything up to 2 or 3mph faster than your actual speed also when people are overtaking it must be remembered what you are actually overtaking at,for example, say you're doing 70 on your speedo(68 real speed) the truck is doing an actual 55 so you are only overtaking at 13 mph!!coupled with the length of the truck it seems to take a long time to get past.
Trucks can still legally do 60mph on motorways but can't reach this speed.
Some trucks are voluntarily limited to 50mph for fuel or (supposedly) safety reasons. Usually supermarket or container trucks are the ones.
Leaving that aside I appreciate that the Minor(as all small classic cars are) is underpowered by todays standard and I currently have a Suzuki Jimny which is really only happy at around 50/60.
As a recently retired class 1 driver of 35 yrs my advice on motorways is stay at 50 if your speedo is accurate or around 52. If you sit at 55 you will always have the trucks up behind you as they can't overtake and they have nothing left.
At 50 they can easily overtake. Check your actual speedo reading by steadily tailing a truck or use a sat nav.
Just to add be friendly,flash your headlights to tell the driver he is safely past and can pull back in. Many drivers are bike or car enthusiasts too

Trucks can easily do 60! That is the speed limit for trucks on Motorways - and all the driver has to do is pull the fuse on the limiter, and he can perfectly legally drive at 60 - and of course - illegally - even faster! He's very unlikely to be 'booked' unless doing over 63/64. It's up to his employer if he is allowed to do this (speed of delivery/fuel consumption) - the speed of course shows up on his chart. But certainly up here - most trucks are doing a good 60 on the flat - and yes - that is 63 mph on my modern car speedo when compared to my GPS. But my Minor is dead accurate thanks to the 1294 tpm speedo fitted with the 3.7 final drive.
@ MN59 - A melted piston - due to 'poor fuel' ????? Errrr - who told you that? It's almost certainly due to over advanced ignition causing detonation. Other slight possibility is a blocked oil hole in the conrod - which is designed to direct cooling oil to the underside of the piston, and if blocked -doesn't! The 1100/1300 heater is much larger than a Minor heater - but is certainly a much better heater provided the engine is revving hard enough to send the hot water through in sufficient quantity. It quickly goes cold in stop-go traffic. I used to have one in my Mini - very toasty! Unfortunately - extremely hard to find these days. The usual upgrade for a Minor is to fit a later Mini heater - which has a better fan, to move more air. If the front plate is changed over - it looks pretty much original too.......

Even the Irish don't run illegally these days. VOSA are the ones to be wary of not the police. Yes anything can be done illegally but it's been stamped on and you'll find most companies now run legally as it's not worth the hassle.
Running at 60mph is ILLEGAL under EU tacho rules. Of course ,as I said,60mph is the UK limit so you won't be pulled for speeding but any truck that is observed doing that on the flat will be pulled by VOSA!!
Charts are no longer used much as most tachos are now all digital and if the tacho senses you are running down a hill at over 90kph(55) you have one minute to reduce your speed or a light comes on and records a faulty tacho on the print out and the drivers card.
As you say it's up to the company to do something about it but as I've virtually always worked for national companies I can assure you that they keep on top of the situation.If caught it was usually instant dismissal and if caught by the police/vosa they throw the keys away
A lot of companies now have devices that record how you actually drive and sense how you accelerate,change gear and brake to monitor safety and fuel consumption.The one we had used satellite technology and could even transmit the details to the transport office when you arrived back before you even got out of the cab!!
Can't say anything about the "one man band" running a couple of trucks but these are getting fewer as the costs involved are astronomic!!

The piston disintegrated and broke up where the rings fit. my local engineer and Rob thomasson both looked at it and the upshot from my very learned engineer friend was that the cause was poor fuel. he chacked this with the signs and symptoms in his books and from his considerable experience.
Just to be on the safe side i checked and rest the timing and mixture with my vacuum meter.
I now fill up with every fourth tankful with a tabk of named fuel rather than the cheap supermarket fuel i used to use all the time. I have heard many people have problems with the quality of supermarket fuel especially in old cars. My neighbour has a jag which hates the stuff.
Trucks certainly CAN do 60. my Minors speedo is 'dead on'; ie there is no error for speed. Its a later one and we have checked it with our satnav on my sons phone. It reads almost exactly right.

Rob who??? How come the 'poor fuel' only affected one piston.... ? Equally of course - why would detonation only affect one piston......possibly because of slightly higher comp ratio in that chamber - due to carbon build up. Usually all the pistons will show signs of pitting on the surface. But if it was 'rings' then most likely is poor assembly - breaking the ring(s) as they are installed - and not showing up as a serious problem till many miles later. The 'poor fuel' idea is nonsense - but believe it if you will! The fuel all comes from one source - just watch the tankers rolling out of the refinery.......

BMC Rob Thomasson is the MMOC Club's Technical Advisor. His details are in Minor Matters. He helps with difficulties registering cars/liaising with DVLA and also and technical problems members encounter with their cars.

Minor drivers need to get out of the way of trucks. Truck drivers have a job to do and get very frustrated with slow car drivers and then the car drivers moan they are getting 'cut up' by truck drivers

AND no, I have not got an HGV licence

That doesn't really answer my question millerman. I have come on here to ask for some advice and hopefully become part of the owners club once I purchase. So if you have just come on here to argue and lecture people about their driving speed could you not.

Adrian Nugent wrote:That doesn't really answer my question millerman. I have come on here to ask for some advice and hopefully become part of the owners club once I purchase. So if you have just come on here to argue and lecture people about their driving speed could you not.

Fair comment, I can see we'd have a long discussion on Minor driving speed

I use both my Morris van and pick up for my work most days. Always reliable and do a 50 mile round trip two or three time a month. Check oil, water and tyres weekly and grease periodically. As said elsewhere, change the oil at least twice a year. Simple improvements can be carried out as and when you have the money/ time to do so. If it were me I would buy a traveller as it's more practical but these are more expensive to buy. Good luck and enjoy it.

I shall be using my forthcoming purchase for a similar commute come 2014. Planning to stick at 50 on motorways. Mine will have disc brakes which makes me feel a little safer. I'll be averaging 15 miles each way, thrice weekly.
Will the underside cope with a jetwash of the kind found at most garages? And how often should I do that?

bmcecosse wrote:Rob who??? How come the 'poor fuel' only affected one piston.... ? Equally of course - why would detonation only affect one piston......possibly because of slightly higher comp ratio in that chamber - due to carbon build up. Usually all the pistons will show signs of pitting on the surface. But if it was 'rings' then most likely is poor assembly - breaking the ring(s) as they are installed - and not showing up as a serious problem till many miles later. The 'poor fuel' idea is nonsense - but believe it if you will! The fuel all comes from one source - just watch the tankers rolling out of the refinery.......

I'm surprised you don't know who Rob Thomasson is given your opinions and Minor knowledge.
I asked all those questions at the time and one possible answer i thought of was that it was piston no 1, which has less of a water jacket surrounding it so may get hotter. I don't suppose we will ever know, but i went into it in some detail and tried to get to the bottom of it. The engine had been built by me two years before and i am well used to building engines; been doing it for 30 years and my workmanship is pretty good thanks.
The timing and mixture had all ben set up 'spot on' at that time but this car does 70 miles a day, sometimes towing a trailer so it works hard.
It is noticeable how much better it runs when i put a named brand of fuel in it every fourth tankful; this is peculiar to this car as my other Minor runs the same whatever i stick in it as does my Austin 1300.
I couldn't explain it then and i can't now but poor fuel was the verdict given by a seasoned engineer who took a lot of time and trouble to answer my query and get to the bottom of it. I didn't particularly want it to happen again.
Modern fuel is NOT the same as it was even ten years ago.
This year on the same car and on my sons Minor we have had burnt out exhaust valves, both on an unleaded head on each car.
Both cars have been set up correctly, and both cars have done long trips.
I have had other people volunteer the same opinion about fuels and i wonder if there is indeed a difference between supermarket fuels and the named brands.
I don't think it should be dismissed as nonsense, and i'll carry on viewing supermarkey fuel with some suspicion even though i still use it.