Morris Minor Owners Club

I have been reading through as time allows, I have just acquired a 63 2 door on an A plate, its in a sorry state right now and I plan to start on the body in the next 6 weeks. Obviously this is a long term project, my last contact with a moggy was a van I rebuilt in 1980 (it came to me with a break in the chassis legs above the rear axle) so I am working from rather hazy memories from my youth in the 70's.

I want to build a car with a little more "go" in it, I am torn between a tuned 1275 and going the whole hog and trying my hand at a 1340 (or was it 1370?) A series. I was thinking of the David Vizard book on tuning the A series, and noticed that ESM have stock of this, but I am not sure if this is the best edition for my needs.

I'd be interested in hearing any views on my ideas, I was thinking of trying to locate a Marina pedal box and servo unit, however I am stuck for the best disc brake set up to use on the front, along with a rear axle unit of decent strength, I seem to recall the A series cars suffering broken half shafts on occasion.

I hope to end up with a daily driver capable of being used in todays traffic both locally and for regular 50 mile drives to my local race track at weekends

You'll get the Vizard book a lot cheaper S/H off ebay.

I Looked earlier, there is only one under £30, and thats a "collect in person only" deal.. way too far from me. Typical of my luck

Theres one on click and collect from Argos at £32 but that takes a week....

ESM also have a Minor Modification Manual (Owen Burton) @ £7.50 and the 3rd edition Vizard book @ £18.75. so for a few quid more than the ebay/argos item I can have 2 books, question is how useful is Minor Modification Manual?

So many questions lol

You could try your local library, and if they don't have it in stock, ask them to order it in.

There's quite a few on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_nos ... id+v%2Caps

I fitted a 1275cc MG Midget engine to my Traveller back in the early 1990s, still going strong to this day (my first ever engine rebuild). It has snapped one halfshaft, and broken two standard Minor 1098cc gearboxes - I currently have a matching MG Midget close-ratio gearbox fitted, which seems up to the job.

I fitted Ford Sierra/Escort ventilated disc brakes up front, which work very well, with the standard Minor master cylinder, and no servo.

Rear axle on mine is the standard 1098cc one (4.22:1), albeit with a fairly recent diff change after the old one got rather whiney. Seems to be holding out fairly well, after 154,000 miles...

The Minor Mod book is well out of date - and not always accurate. The extra cost and hassle to make 1275 into 1340 is really really NOT worth the extra 65cc....unless the block is desperately worn anyway. Just go to whatever oversize is necessary when remanufacturing the engine. The engine mods are all there in Vizard - just the usual stuff - large valve gasflowed head and a larger single carb - camshaft change of course and a decent exhaust, but if you plan more than 6000 rpm then you will need expensive lightening and balancing of the rotating assembly.

You can buy mine if you like.It reminded me of 50 years ago when I tried to read War and Peace.Too hard going for me.Mind you thats me and mechanics.Its not reading I have a problem with,I'm just reading a book about the Crimean War which I'm loving,its just the subject matter.Sorry.
Mick

And I couldn't put it down when I first got hold of it! Mind you - much of it was 'pinched' from Clive Trickey - whose original articles in Cars and Car Conversions were eagerly read every month!

Them were the days!!

Not in any particular order:
The Owen Burton book 'Marina To Minor may have older information contained within it and I realise that there are alternative modifications now available but I am not aware that it has incorrect information within its content. For anyone wanting to start modifying their Minor it has good basic information and I would consider it a good place to start.
As regards suitable disc brakes the Marina/Ital conversion is cheap and cheerful and whilst parts are not as plentiful as they used to be they are still available to find with a bit of effort. The Marina/Ital brake set up is good and will cope with all that you would be able to throw at it. You do not have to change the Minor master cylinder when you fit disc brakes just remove the recuperation valve. You can fit the Marina pedal box and have the brake master cylinder under the bonnet with the incorporated servo but having a servo with disc brakes is not essential. Having the Marina/Ital pedal box you can fit a hydraulic clutch system but again not absolutely necessary.
As regards the Minor rear axle yes the half shafts are fragile but changing the axle to say a Ford one is not cheap. I would invest in a pair of uprated half shafts and leave the Minor axle in place and which is the way I have gone.
Regarding the Vizard book - full of useful information but you do need a mechanical bent to be able to read, understand and apply the information/detail contained with in it.
The Clive Trickey Mini tuning books from the Cars and Car conversion source are rather basic in output/detail (and yes I have a set) but the one certain thing about Vizard is that he took it all to a higher level.

Of course it does - but Trickey was a man of his time - leading the way in Mini racing modifications on a budget. Sadly he was not a well man - and died at an early age. I too still have the books (but unfortunately not the CCC mags) and I do sometimes cast a nostalgic eye over them!

See the attached link to article:-

http://www.imps4ever.info/tech/tuners_b ... tment.html

(Whilst I can bring up the article on my computer the above link will not connect direct Maybe someone on here can find a better link and if you can thanks in anticipation - Now resolved )

In the above article there is a picture of the ever dapper Mr Clive Trickey in the obligatory Car and Car Conversions car coat dated 1971. Every self respecting car driver of that period wore one as indeed I did

Clive Tricky was also into Hillman imps in a big way as can be found in his Car and Car Conversion articles which can be found on the 'imps4ever' web site.

Also attached my spare and never used 1970s Car and Car Conversions sew on badge as worn by the aforesaid Mr Tricky.

Whilst I do not have the Car and Car Conversions magazines any more I did save several relevant articles from the magazine (mostly engine tuning) and put them away for future reference. [frame][/frame]

Is this the link Phil?

http://www.imps4ever.info/library/library.html

Richard
Thanks
Right web site and have found the article titled:-

COVENTRY CAVERN - Clive Tricky, CC&C May 1971 - pages 521 - 523.

Revised link above.

Phil

Phil et al
Are there any links/downloads we could look at re Clive Trickey A series engine tuning
Thanks

A bit of DYOR gave me this link Tuning SU Carburetors, Including Full Needle Charts
mgaguru.com/mgtech/books/pdf/Tuning_SU_Carburetors.pdf

I am not aware of any direct links to Clive Tricky and his tuning of the 'A' Series but no doubt someone on here will come up with some thing
Most of the information is contained in his books relating to tuning of the Mini such as:
Tuning The Mini.
More Mini Tuning.
Tuning A Mini.
Tuning The Classic Mini
Building & Racing A 850 Mini.
The above titles are available in various editions and are for sale on 'e' bay and other sources.
Clive Tricky was also involved in the tuning of various other marques including Roots Group vehicles and produced various tuning information for their cars.
As I said in my post above most of the information in the Clive Tricky books is quite basic and whilst easily understood is usurped in quality and detail by the Vizard book.
A companion book to Tuning The 'A' Series by Vizard is How To Modify Your Mini by Vizard ISBN: 0-863343 0414.
There is quite a lot of 'A' series tuning information on the web especially from the BMC/BL Special Tuning Department.
For example:-

http://www.spridgetguru.com/TA0012_file ... 8_1098.pdf

http://www.delius.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ ... efault.htm

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23809120/Spec ... g-for-1275

http://mk1-performance-conversions.co.u ... t-1961.pdf

I hope the above is of help.

When I first started tuning my 'A' series engines there was hardly any information available and I had to work from first principles. Gleaned a lot of information from American Hot Rod magazines and adapted that information to the 'A' series. We are absolutely spoilt for information now.

Also thanks for the link relating to SU Carbs.


Phil

Phil, thanks for links

Just noticed this on 'e' bay:-

Item No: 121363831802
Tuning BMC Sports Cars by Mike Garton.
Extracts from Car & Car Conversions 1979.
Published on CD.