Morris Minor Owners Club

I am in the process of removing my Minor 1000 engine in order to undertake reconditioning. Straightforward enough until I came to remove the bolts securing the crankcase to the engine backplate, ( gearbox is staying in car). Bolts are readily accessible apart from the two at the top of the crankcase. When attempting to remove these all is well until the bolt heads foul the bulkhead making them 'impossibile' to withdraw fully. Any advice/information on how to overcome this problem will be extremely welcome.. I have thought of two possible solutions:, one is to unscrew the bolts as far as possible and then to saw off the bolt heads. Solution two is to release the front engine mounts, (having already supported the gearbox from underneath, and with the engine secured by crane and sling), and then to ease the engine forward to provide more clearance. to the extent of most of the length of the unscrewed bolts. I may well be missing something more obvious and sensible as a solution, though

Thanks, - Telpet

Assuming that you have a jack and a crane, take the weight of the engine on the crane , remove one engine mounting completely, disengage the engine from the remaining mounting, lower the engine. You can now remove the remaining two bolts that you found fouled the bulkhead. Of course that assumes that you have unclamped the exhaust etc, etc. Place and raise the jack under the gearbox bell housing to take the gearbox weight when the engine is removed, slide the engine forward and remove from engine bay. You may have to lift the engine slightly to clear the front cross member. Make sure that the gearbox is supported at all times. An extra pair of hands is of benefit when doing this job!!

Not done it on a standard morris for a while, but to get the Suzuki engine out, I find it's easiest to get in on a winch undo the gearbox cross member and engine mounts and roll the car back. .....crap just burnt me toast and those were the last two bits. This forum is no good to read whilst you need to concentrate!


Oh just realised I also wip the radiator off and grill off for this to work. Yeah there's probably easier ways.

I have thought of two possible solutions:, one is to unscrew the bolts as far as possible and then to saw off the bolt heads.

Then what are you going to do when it comes time to put it all back together?

With everything else disconnected except those two(Slackened as far as they will) slimply slide the engine forwards a few thou and the bolts will then unscrew.But I can't recall having this problem myself or hearing about it anywhere else ,could be the original bolts have been replaced with longer ones.You will have the same problem putting them back of course

I don't remember it being a problem either! But as above - slight edge forward will give plenty of room....

Thanks to everyone for their advice. 'Katy is right of course - yes had realised that cutting off boltheads would then require replacement bolts. Will proceed with the alternative recommendations and will post outcome in due course. May take a little time though as I spent yesterday afternoon in our local A & E having my hands stitched and sutured following a rather nasty fall, nothing to do with my Minor though. Thanks again to you all for your willingness to help. Best Wishes, - Telpet

I've done this many times and always managed to get those 2 bolts out.
They can be really fiddly but with a bit of wiggling they have always come out.

If they are impossible to get out, then your engine is sitting a little higher/nearer to the bulkhead crossmember than usual.

The tips above for removing engine from front mounts and lowering a bit (or similar) should work.

For the engine mounts, one of the better ways is to
1) remove radiator
2) unbolt one mounting tower from the bottom (by chassis leg) and undo the rubber mount from the tower.
3) For the other one, unbolt the rubber mount from the tower and from the engine front plate.
4) Lift the engine a bit and one tower can be completely removed and on the other side, the rubber can be removed.

This frees up the engine to move around e.g. up/down/forwards etc..
You need to slide engine about 3" forwards to disengage the clutch from the gearbox input shaft.