Morris Minor Owners Club

Some years ago I was on a 50 mile trip in my Minor when it started running roughly, and hunting up and down.
I looked under the bonnet at the usual suspects, but could see nothing wrong.
As I only had a few miles to go, I decided to try to get to my destination. The car ran very strangely to the destination, but did not cut out. When I got out and checked under the bonnet again, half of the coolant was gone, and I was concerned that I might have damaged the fairly newly fitted unleaded head.
What do you think the problem was?

I had recently fitted a new vacuum unit to the distributor. The part with the diaphragm in it was badly knurled on manufacture and pushed into the part with the screw thread and spring going through it. This part had pulled out, so the advance and retard was sometimes working, and sometimes not.

I superglued the diaphragm part back in and it gave no more trouble, until I replaced it recently. It lasted about 12 years.

Tip. Always carry super glue in your Minor.
And if you get a fault, stay calm and try to think outside the box. It was only by looking in detail at each component that I noticed the diaphragm unit sticking out a bit, and than wobbling it showed that it was loose.

What caused the coolant loss ?

jimmy167 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:17 am What caused the coolant loss ?

I suspect the fact that the timing was all over the place. The engine got very hot.

The last part of the journey was down the A1. The car was occasionally reaching speeds that I had not achieved before with everything working OK.

I was probably foolish to carry on with the journey, but I did not want to wait for the AA man.
I probably would wait now!

After gluing the diaphragm part back in there were no more problems with coolant loss, so the distributor fault must have caused it.

many moons ago i was asked to do plugs and points on a ford anglia, job done would,nt start.after much checking cursing swearing i came across another timing mark on front pulley,the real one.everything reset vroom vroom.never came across this ever again. re,john

The strangest fault I ever came across was with a Marshal Gainsborough wheeled loading shovel.
It would not steer in what ever mode/arrangements the valves/controls were set. It should have been able to steer in two wheeled mode, crab mode and four wheel steer mode. I was asked to investigate & sort it out. I eventually found that the the face shovel had been fitted with two R/H steering boxes. The steering boxes fitted should have been one R/H steering box and one L/H steering box.
Obtained the correct steering box. fitted it which was a real b--ch to do and it worked ok after that.
https://tractors.fandom.com/wiki/Marsha ... ing_Shovel