Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi there. Posting about massive problem with my 1970 Morris 1000 saloon.

I drove from Cardiff to Swansea (c. 45 miles) last Saturday to do an evening gig. Ignition light was staying on, indicators had failed, wipers extremely slow etc, so I put it down to it being an alternator failure. Had to be recovered as battery was extremely low and car was towed away. They replaced the alternator (with a new A100 model) on the following monday and all seemed to be working fine.

Went to collect car on tuesday. Topped up oil first, then started engine. Engine started fine, ignition light went off, but whilst driving was constantly sluggish, accelerating so slowly, and making a deep chugging noise, as opposed to the smooth revving noise the car made before the repair. Drive to Cardiff was slow and eventually the ignition light just popped on again, implying the failure of my brand new alternator! Now car is parked outside, have tried to identify the source of the problem but with no luck, and don't yet possess a multimeter to check alternator output etc. Choke seems to be failing, and car is burning oil (blue smoke from exhaust at tick over). Think it could possibly be down to an over-tightened fan belt putting excess strain on engine shafts and alternator, but am really not sure. Any ideas of the source of this major problem?

Cheers, W

could be piston rings if its burning oil

I'm not sure whether an A100 alternator is correct for a Minor? Someone will be along soon to confirm.

Just changing the alternator,would have no effect on the other engine faults you describe,and too tight a fan belt would not cause any problems with the engine.Seeing that you have topped up the oil(how much is it useing by the way) and the oil burning and poor running I would think that there is a serious fault with the engine,could be head gasket,The new alternator fail is probably co incidental.

Check that the oil and water haven't mixed. When you were driving with the ignition light on did you check the fan belt was still driving the water pump? If the water pump wasn't turning then the engine could have overheated leading to cylinder head gasket failure.

If the C.Head Gasket is ok check points and plugs etc

You haven't severely overfilled it have you?

As Jeff has posted above - I suspect in fact the initial fault was a belt failure and the engine has been 'roasted' -certainly that's the symptoms you now present. Almost certainly a new engine required.

You could also have the ignition and oil pressure lights the wrong way round in the speedometer. Hence it was the oil pressure light that was on.

Jefftav wrote:Check that the oil and water haven't mixed. When you were driving with the ignition light on did you check the fan belt was still driving the water pump? If the water pump wasn't turning then the engine could have overheated leading to cylinder head gasket failure.

If the C.Head Gasket is ok check points and plugs etc

+1

Any further news of what went wrong?