Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi, I'm 17 and I've had my Morris minor 1000 for just over a year now and since I've been driving it I've seemed to have nothing but problems with, I know owning a Morris minor or classic car in general wasn't going to be easy so I'd expect some constant maintance. Since I've had my car I've had to replace the distributor, fuel pump and put in a inline fuel filter because my car would conk out fairly regularly while I was driving. I've also had to replace the front two brake cylinders and brake shoes because being able to stop is a great idea but after all that I seem to have issues with my car, while driving every so often I can feel it slightly pull back and from time to time it will conk out, I recently fitted a radio to my car so I don't know wether that's drawing to much electricity but I've got a alternator fitted so I presume it should be able to keep up with it. So any ideas and help will be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you've inherited someone else's lack of maintenance
It wont be the radio more than likely a bit of fuel starvation, take the top off the float chamber and have a look inside for debris and clean it out, then check the needle valve to see if it's partially blocked. Have someone inside the car to turn the ignition on while you hold the fuel line over a container and see how much fuel passes through the needle valve while the float is down - there should be a fair old gush.

I've blown out and cleaned the carburettor a couple of times now and the fuel pump seems to working fine as well.

The maintenance items you list are all perfectly normal for a Minor. Hopefully you got an electronic dizzy (?) - so you won't have any problems in that area. And hopefully you did NOT get an electronic fuel pump...... Throw away the fuel filter - v bad ides. When it stops - is it instantaneous (ie like the Ign switched off) or does it splutter to a halt - indicating a fuel problem. It's nothing to do with a wireless - although how you can hear it is a mystery to me...

Double check the needle valve, use a pair of pliers to gently pull the pin out that holds the float on and drop the needle valve out to check for blockages, I'm suggesting this as I has the exact symptoms and I did find a bit of crud on the valve seat. The filters can also create a problem as they can cause a vapour lock, again I had this and dumped the filter. There is also a mesh on the inlet to the pump, might be worth checking.

I don't have a electronic dizzy but I have put new points and condenser in my dizzy recently and when the car stops it does both so sometimes but fairly rarely it might just splutter to a halt or just like the ignition is switched off. I don't think it is a fuel issue as fair amount of fuel gets pumped through as I have a clear fuel line so I can see the fuel in the line and I don't have an electric fuel pump either.

Hmmm -all Minors use an electric fuel pump..... " new points and condenser"are the likely culprits then - the quality of parts these days is not good. Fit good 'old' parts if you can find them.. Where did the 'new' distributor come from??

I'll try putting the old points and condenser back in and the new distributor was another one my friend had lying around as my old one was just not doing the job

So not really 'new' then.... You should get an electronic 45D from Accuspark/Powerspark - this will eliminate all dizzy worries for you.......

I have been looking in to a electric dizzy but at the minute it's just money issues but as soon as I've got enough that was one of the first things I was planning on getting for my Morris

Have you checked the bleeding obvious? All plugs are tight, HT leads are secure, no cracks in dizzy cap, you have checked for sparks at the points and plugs, carb piston lifts and drops audibly on to the bridge, fuel pump ticks regularly and ticks rapidly if you remove the supply pipe from the carb. There is no need for an inline filter, the carb has a built in filter, one of the caps on the botttom of the carb, and the float chamber has a debris trap.
Run the car in the dark to look for stray sparks from the ignition system

I don't have an electric fuel pump either

Where is this non-electric pump mounted?

My distributor is too far retarded as when trying to start the car it struggles with the starter motor so I think that might be part of the problem, also today after I refuelled at a Tesco fuel station the car started to putter is that because it was cheap fuel and contained some water as it doesn't do this when I use Texaco or Shell station etc. I've also removed the in line fuel filter and I have checked the HT leads, plugs and fuel pump and they seem to be working fine.

Sounds like the timing is too advanced to me if it's struggling against the starter.

Yeah... my bad meant too far advanced

So- turn it slightly anticlockwise.... ! All fuel comes from the same refinery.....

sounds like all normal issues as for electronic ignition get a accuspark system be the best £50 you have ever spent , just get the complete dizzy

A hint of starting up the ' supermarket fuel' debate again!

Just slacken the dizzy and rotate it until you have fastest tickover. That will be close enough for now