Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,

About 2 months ago I purchase my first britisch car, my pride; a 1953 split window 803cc,
THe car been in a car museum here in the netherlands, but when the owner died they decided to sell off the cars since the family didnt have interest in mainting it, myt morris had been there for at least 10 years...

We fixed a lot but keep having hikkups with the engine and we think we need to reset/setup the valve but cannot find complete instructions how to do this and the best settings so I hoped anyone here could help me out.

Dominick

The valve clearance should be 12 thousands of an inch, although if using unleaded fuel, some set the exhaust valve clearance wider. Do you need actual information on how to adjust the valves, or did you just need the clearances?

You should find all the technical data that you require in the Morris Minor workshop manual. If you don't have a copy I believe that it is available online. Suggest you try a Google search.
The 803cc engine was also used in the Austin A30 and there is lots of technical information on their club forum.

SteveClem wrote:You should find all the technical data that you require in the Morris Minor workshop manual. If you don't have a copy I believe that it is available online. Suggest you try a Google search.
The 803cc engine was also used in the Austin A30 and there is lots of technical information on their club forum.

I have a haynes manual which I read but that was for a minor 1000, tried google search and found tons and tons of info but not the info we needed, talked about degrees and specific technical terms and eventhough I speak and understand english, I am learning the technical terms of a car and combined with reading this in a language which isn't my mother tongue is tricky. I already ordered a workshop manual via the morris club here in the netherlands and I can pick it up when we see eachother again during a meeting but due to the fuel pomp dying on me last week I couldnt make it to last weeks meeting.

liammonty wrote:as also used in the Austin A30 and th

liammonty wrote:The valve clearance should be 12 thousands of an inch, although if using unleaded fuel, some set the exhaust valve clearance wider. Do you need actual information on how to adjust the valves, or did you just need the clearances?

Somebody is helping me with this and he has years and years of experience, but he normally works on old vw's so he asked me to check the clearance (thank you for that) and the order.

So regarding the order, if your friend is used to flat 4 VWs, this is quite different!! For the A-series engine, you use the 'Rule of 9'. Call the valve at the front of the engine (nearest the radiator) number 1, and the one nearest the battery number 8. With the rocker cover off, so you can see the valves and rockers, you turn the engine over by hand until, for example, valve number 1 is fully open (meaning the rocker is pushing it fully down) - at that point, you know that valve number 8 is fully closed, and you can adjust it at that point. Why 'rule of 9'? Because valve 1 plus valve 8 = 9. So when 2 is fully open, you adjust 7 (2+7=9), when 3 is fully open you adjust 6, and so on. you get the idea!

This is all the information you need to set the valve clearances - the gap when cold (12 thou) and the order to do it in. The manual does explain it, but might sound a bit complicated if you're not used to technical English. By the way, your English is very good!

11 thou when hot.
By the way, as a fan of mm's and old air cooled vw's I'd be interested to hear your opinion on which is the better car...

SteveClem wrote:11 thou when hot.
By the way, as a fan of mm's and old air cooled vw's I'd be interested to hear your opinion on which is the better car...

What does the THOU mean?

The better car, well, I am only 24 so don't have a lot experience with oldtimer and my morris is my 3rd car (VW was my first but at a national oldtimer day I got good offer and decided to sell it (was about to leave for the us for several months for an internship, otherwise probably wouldnt have sold it) 2nd was a citroen 2cv '86; liked it a lot but a renault twingo crashed into me on a roundabout which meant the end of my 2cv and via a fiat 500 (oldtimer) dealer/restorer I know called me about the morris which was on sale and he said; 'I think this is the perfect car for you',

The vw was a great car especially because here in the Netherlands it was extremely easy to get parts, within a 30 km radius we had like 2 stores selling parts, downside was that there was a lot of B quality and good parts were pretty expensive, the inner part of for the driver seat would cost around 180 euro's. It also wasn't a cheap car in term of mileage, my '68 1200 vw used 1 litre on every 10/11 km. I like joining a club when I drive a specific oldtimer but with the vw beetle I noticed that hardly were any 'normal' clubs, all clubs I contacted all changed their vw tremendously (lowering them, transforming them into hotrods etc.) and i wasn't really into that.

The 2cv was great, parts were reasonably priced and it did (I am a 'oldtimer-driver') on average around 19-21 km per litre but it wasnt a safe car. I got hit by a clio on a roundabout with around 10 a 15 km/h and the entire frame cracked and bend (or is bent). The 2cv clubs I found , maybe because it's a french car, looked down on non A-grade cars and my 2cv was great but I use my cars as daily drive so it wasn't in a perfect state so they didn't allow me as a member, they suggested I first restored my car and get a taxation report and the value of the car should be higher than (thought it was around) 10,000,-.

Now the morris, I like it a lot, I have the '53 split-window saloon with the red leather interior and I prefer it over any modern car and often choose (when it was still driving) my morris over my company car to go work . Maybe it's different in the UK but parts are also pretty limited here, there are a few places but they charge a lot (center pillar for the split window costs around 99 (excl. 21% vat), the front-window rubber around 240,. So when I order parts I order them from the UK (Bull Motif or GSJones) but due to shipping etc I have to order several items to make it afforable/dueable or for specific/time sensitive parts here and there via classifieds sites. I also joined the morris club here in the netherlands and really like how 'normal' people are; I purchased my car only a few months ago and it still needs quite some work, especially the paint etc, but the club is very open and accepting and really motivated to learn others about the car and I was amazed by the differences between the models. The only downside I could find is the entire inch/cm issue. All the tools I have are in cm so often tools, clamps etc aren't fully compatible which requires me to replace more then I needed compared to a european car which brings along additional costs..
To top it off, really like that the morris community is pretty international, the morris club here also has days for international visitors and I understood germany and the uk also has the same so I am planning on visiting some morris days in the uk and germany soon

Hi Dominick and welcome
A thou is one thousandth of an inch, for the setting you need, 12 thou, that is about 0.3mm.

Dominick,
803 engine!!!
Read through this:
http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... or#p458458
Watch your oil pressure on that 803 engine as it could pose a problem when you come to do an oil change!

Regards
Declan

Hi,

We reset the valve, cleaned out the contact points and replaced the fuel pomp but the car still continues to have hiccups,
I made a small video so you can hear what I mean, does anyone have any idea's, we don't know what's wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy_VXqt ... e=youtu.be

p.s. I also read this forum (http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... 31&start=0) where they talk about an insufficient earth cable, I did notice that when driving during the night the small red light on top of my dashboard (behind the wheel) lights up a bit, so little this isn't visible during the day.

Likely ignition problem - new rotor arm + HT leads/plug caps and dizzy cap strongly recommended. Or just get a complete new dizzy from Accuspark and have no more problems ! I assume the spark plugs are good and gapped to 25 thou. You SURE that's an 803 engine ????

bmcecosse wrote:Likely ignition problem - new rotor arm + HT leads/plug caps and dizzy cap strongly recommended. Or just get a complete new dizzy from Accuspark and have no more problems ! I assume the spark plugs are good and gapped to 25 thou. You SURE that's an 803 engine ????

We literally just discovered the '1100' tag so it's indeed not an 803cc