Morris Minor Owners Club

Yesterday morning I began my first service of my MM, a standard 1969 saloon.

All going / gone fine except for oil filter. Cannot get a seal seal when reaffixing & thus dripping when I do start engine.

I have looked in all the books and am certain washer etc. below paper oil filter all fine. However, when I took filter off, everything fell down (into bowl of oil obviously!) & I have a "spare" washer and large lipped washer type thing (with Champion X101 written on it) that I do not know what to do with.

There is no mention (as far as I can see) of this Champion washer & having now tried again, the oil is gushing rather than just dripping out.

I suspect the oil washer remins in the lid & will have to take it off & try again with a new washer ... my 4th attempt.

Any ideas / advise would be much appreciated. Many thanks, Richard

from the outside the order is bolt, collar, sealing ring, then on the inside it is spring, plain washer,seal and then the large pressure plate. then oil filter and then the large rubber seal.
make sure you get the large washer that is round part upper most the right way round.
and if you are using a new rubber seal ( the large one) on the head of the unit, it goes in equally, i all ways leave the original one on, and found no problems.

that is since i changed to a spin off oil filter, less messy and goes first time.

Is that 'extra' large washer actually the top tin plate from the old paper
filter?? I agree, I never once changed the top rubber
oil seal ring and never had any problems ( I've now changed to the
modern spin off cannisters).

yes that is right the largest washer is from the paper oil filter

but willie like you i now use a spin off folter
i also have had no problems with the mr grumpy anti roll bar and it has been on for 6 months now, and i do drive my pick up hard

Many thanks for replies ... fear more rather than less confused !!

from the outside the order is bolt, collar, sealing ring, then on the inside it is spring, plain washer,seal and then the large pressure plate. then oil filter and then the large rubber seal.

I only have the bolt head on the outside of the casing & am sure this is all there was when I started. Is this wrong ? Am sure oil leak is from top of casing & not through bolt at the bottom. No sign of collar or sealing ring & am sure this didn't fall into bowl of oil at the beginning (have checked again!)

I am fine with the washer, steel washer, felt washer & sealing plate inside below the oil filter, but don't have the circlip shown on pg23 of the Pearsons Car Service Guide (I am using this, Haynes, the workshop manual & a few notes from the chat board I printed before I started!)

Am I right in thinking that nothing goes above the oil filter itself, only the rubber seal around the top of the cannister.

Is it difficult to swap to spin of oil filter to which you refer....?

Also, I cannot fit much else onto the bolt & screw on, it is not easy pushing oil filter case up against spring & begin to thread bolt.

Sorry for my stupidity & making what I am sure is a simple matter very complicated.

Thank you. Richard

Forgot to say, think all ok except for top rubber seal as leak was only slight the first time (yesterday am) I changed oil filter. However, I was aiming for perfection & so decided to take off & redo in order to improve ....!
Richard

the info i gave is from the original mechanical parts list.
the top oil seal is probably the most difficult to do, it needs to go in equally.

my tip change to a spin off, and it is very easy mod to do, i did mine in abouit 45 mins

do not worry about perfection, for everyday use it will be fine, for concourse a different thing, but parts must go back correctly or you have problems

i do more and more on my 3 commercials now than ever i dreamed off, so take your time and it will get there in the end, and you know also it will be done right.
my next thing is to learn welding,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Thanks for help. Have just tried tightening bolt in case all fine but simply not tight enough; no change. How tight should bolt be? Presumably you can overtighten & damage seal this way?
Have given up for day & just packed up.
Whilst tidying up found another washer & felt washer ... wonder if these go on top of oil filter? (think I may put them (with a large brick) through windscreen instead!)
Am certain oil is leaking from top, have seen it very clearly. Therefore think must be top seal ?
Am now going to have a look in newsletter for spin off oil filters. 45mins to swap ... I must have spent a few hours just trying to change one so far!
Will be using my 1949 Land Rover to commute to work tomorrow !
Many thanks.

hi
the worst bit on the spin off oil filter mod might be getting the 2 studs out of the block for the longer oil filter housing.

you can use the 2 nut method for extracting the studs and then its nearly done
a well worth while mod

Have just been "surfing" for spin off oil kits. Found 2 (from different companies) with slightly different part nos.: 10M130K & 10M281A, assume the same part?
Fortunately didn't commit to spending £25 ish & returned to chat board to see your talk of "worst bit" and "2 bolt methods" ... am now worried!
Two bolt method rings a slight bell, but I cannot remember either thory or how to do in practice, sorry but would you mind explaining please.

If you buy the spin-off kit then it includes two shorter studs which
replace the longer originals screwed in to the engine block. to remove
the original studs you put two nuts onto the thread and lock them
together it should be easy to extract the studs then. If not, then use
Molegrips etc as you will not be needing the studs again. Use gasket
goo on the new paper gasket and bingo, it's done......about £25 well
spent. You are correct, there is nothing above the top of the filter
except the rubber ring which is fitted into the top housing. When you
convert to the spin off filter the rubber ring is no longer necessary
as the new filters have the sealing rings built in.

nothing above the top of the filter
except the rubber ring which is fitted into the top housing

But make sure you use the right one. I had two supplied with my filter, and the right one wasn't obviously 'the right one'. I started the negine when it was all back together and checked for leaks. Drove it down the road for 10 mins and still dry.
Next morning it was down to the local garage for MOT. An oil leak had started the moment the engine fired and a hideous line of oil was traceable all the way from the garage back to my house!!!

Instead of buying a spin off kit, why not go to your friendly neighbourhood scrapyard and get one off a Mini.I got mine for a fiver.

if you want a diagram of the oil filter and how it fits check this out:-http://www.morrisminor.org.uk/catalogue/eng07.htm

Pete, what was different about the other 'wrong' filter??

The reason I ask is that our branch secretary knackered his engine by all the oil leaking out. He just fitted a filter in the same way as he had been doing for years........ maybe it was one like your 'wrong' one?? He could not understand it at all.

If you follow the links in the parts catalogue and then engine and lastly oil filter drawings are shown of all the parts of the filter housings.
http://www.morrisminor.org.uk/

Thanks for help, Charles Ware diagram very good & helpful.
Have now taken oil filter head off block as lip didn't seem clean - found remains of very old & damaged rubber seal inside so have taken this of.
Everything clearer now off car & I can look into onto head on workbench.
Neither of the seals that came with filter seem to be very good fit at all & paper oil filter just seems too big - too tall when in casing.
Indeed filter fitted yesterday is quite badly squashed having been in casing. I suspect paper filter is wrong type, yet came from a well known MM parts supplier - am confused!
Anyway, with oil filter head removed I can clearly see the 2 bolts to which you have referred & so decided to commit & have ordered spin on oil filter. Purchasing new, am now tired of oil filters & cannot face going to a scrap yard & finding one; please excuse wanton extravagance!
Hopefully I shall soon be returning to MM motoring!

Pete, what was different about the other 'wrong' filter??

Not the filter Cam, the rubber seal. The filter was supplied with two, only one of which dropped out of the box with the filter - the other 'correct one' was gamely hanging on to the cardboard and I discovered it only after I was told there should have been two in the box. The wrong seal clearly did the job for a while (and certainly seemed to be the right size when I offered it up to the mounting boss) as the short drive and standing overnight didn't cause it to leak because there wasn't a puddle on the road in the morning - only a long trail leading to the MOT tester when I had started Denzil up and driven off.

so decided to commit & have ordered spin on oil filter. Purchasing new, am now tired of oil filters & cannot face going to a scrap yard & finding one; please excuse wanton extravagance!

Many owners find this the easiest way to do it especially as the number of scrap yards is reducing all the time and the £25 for the kit is not bad with the time and effort it will save you in the future thats why so many owners have them fitted.

paper oil filter just seems too big - too tall when in casing.
Indeed filter fitted yesterday is quite badly squashed having been in casing. I suspect paper filter is wrong type, yet came from a well known MM parts supplier - am confused!

The filter element is meant to stick up out of the canister as it is sitting on top of a spring. (The paper element is the same thing you get inside a disposable canister). Down the centre of the element should be a steel tube (with lots of holes in) and therefore the element should not become squashed. The spring force is required to seal the top and bottom of the element.
If it has started to collapse it seems either the inner steel tube is missing or defective!