Morris Minor Owners Club

Brain-fade strikes again. Somewhere recently I read about using string wrapped round the scroll on the back of the crankshaft to stop (or at least reduce) the oil loss which many of us are familiar with at the back of the engine. Can anyone point me in the direction of the article or did I imagine it?

You on the Brandy butter already?!

To be fair, sounds familiar to me too.

Thankyou, Chris - it wasn't you that wrote it, was it?

Was it not in one of the recent Minor Matters.

It's plumbers Hemp not string

I was thinking it would be hemp rather than just string.
Some older boats use hemp and grease in a packing box to keep the water out.

http://coxengineering.sharepoint.com/Pa ... lands.aspx

i have seen it used on tractor front axles when the seal has popped out due to too much greasing .

Found it - Technical Tips in Minor Matters Sept/Oct. Now all I have to do is hope that plumbers hemp has not gone the same way as asbestos string. Thanks, folks!

How about posting a copy of the article for us colonials.

Being a dinosaur I don't know how to do such postings - so I've asked one of the nice moderators to assist - watch this space!

katy - PM sent

That would be me... but I can't help because I haven't got the article to hand

All sorted, thankyou Matt!

Can we all see?

As far as I am concerned I am afraid that is a "sorry, no"! I have posted a copy to katy in Alberta by snail/seagull mail, and to post a copy to all of you isn't so simple! Don't know if Matt could sort it, though the article was on a coloured background so it may not reproduce very well. Then there is the problem of copyright.....
If you know someone who is a member of the MMOC it was on page 25 of the sept/oct issue of Minor Matters.
And you need plumbers hemp which is still available from good hardware shops or no doubt off t'internet. Soak it in oil (engine) and wrap round the scroll with some hmp grease before putting the sump back on. I have spoken to someone who used to do it regularly - his philosophy being that they all leak by the time you need to be worrying about it! Obviously its a job you only want to be doing when the engine has got to come out anyway - until then put a tray under the car to catch it or a bit of carpet or an old cardboard box or........
Or paint the floor of the garage black.
Or replace the concrete drive with a black asphalt one.

Fair enough.
That much was fairly obvious, anything more specific like what length of hemp to use or how tight it should be when fitted together?
It's not going to be a trivial job to make adjustments afterwards.

Good grief.....what a bodge up! Has anyone actually done this - and how long does it last?? Surely simpler to just make sure the crankcase ventilation is correct????

Yes, bmc, this is an unholy bodge and I've been doing a lot of talking about it in the last few days to various engine-builders. The string will stop the leak - but only temporarily - it will also stop the engine (possibly permanently) when it parts company eventually with the crank - plumbers hemp is basically hairs of hemp wound together and in the situation envisaged, it will, sooner or later, just revert to hairs. These no doubt will find nice, narrow oilways, and there they will all congregate to stop an essential oil flow! So I've gone off the idea altogether!
Another good bodge that I HAVE tried is the replacing of a big-end shell that has broken up with a piece of a leather belt cut to size. It got my Morgan from 100 miles south of Le Mans to Assen but I had to replace it before we went racing there! The bodge only works if you take it steady!

Now that is an interesting - if rather 'desperate' - get-you-home idea!! Did you make a hole in the leather to allow the oil to flow through?? The hemp thing though is just ridiculous.....who comes up with these crazy recommendations? Does nobody censor them before publication??

No, you don't HAVE to make a hole. As with any bodge, you have to think it through carefully first. You scrounge someone else's belt (that way your trousers don't fall down) and you cut it to size using the end furthest away from the buckle where someone else has already made holes to do it up! Simples! You then put the rest of the belt in your tool kit for the next bodge. Only leather belts will do (none of this nasty man-made stuff - that wouldn't last five miles (or kilometers if you are on the continent)).
Had you had a copy of the appropriate Minor Matters that started the hemp string bodge, you would probably have come to the conclusion that the bodge had started off in Asia (where they are the masters of bodgery of need rather than any other reason). At the end of the day the bodge might have worked but as I said above, IT'S NOT ONE THAT I WOULD ENDORSE bacause of the potential problemsof the hemp breaking up. The best alternative bodge that I heard in the course of my enquiries was to stuff a sponge up between the sump and the backplate to catch the falling drips of oil. No dismantling and a true bodger would not replace it when it became soaked but would wring it out and re-use the oil for another bodge, replacing the same spong!
As a matter of interest I have bought a set of Indian rear springs for my saloon which I will be fitting over the winter. They are a bit crude, particularly in respect of the clips that hold the leaves together and I realise that there has been some discussion of them elsewhere. Bearing in mind the state of the roads over there I am prepared to take the chance that they will survive British potholes without any problem! (Mind you, there are some good craters around these days). They have a nice finishing touch in that the part-number appears to have been hand-painted, very neatly, on each spring.


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