Morris Minor Owners Club

Giday All from New Zealand, I have this 2door lowlite, just wanting to confirm what I have , the following is the number ect on the bulk head plate,an anyone shed some light on what I have , Im sure its a 1950 , : type mnr/syn , car type : smm/72011,engine # 70938, it has had an engine change to a ohv, 10wA-0-L21604 is this a 998 ?. thanks for your help. cheers Muzz

Hi Muzz,
Looking at an old series MM register car list the chassis number is in the chassis number range of 1950 manufacture. It would have had a USHM sidevalve engine originally, as you said the engine has been swapped out for an OHV engine.
Hope this helps

Hi Muzzman
It never ceases to amaze me how many people seem to mention 998cc engines with regard Minors; because as far as I'm aware, the A Series 970, 997 and 998cc engines were only ever used on the Transverse gearbox of the Mini etc. Unless Au/NZ production was different.

But typos aside, back to your questions.
MM1949 has answered almost everything, except to say that a 10WA prefix indicates that it is a 1098cc, intended for Wolseley, type A (whatever that means, type could be anything A to Z)and the O is for Overdrive fitted.
The L is for Low Compression.

This engine number decoding info is available on a few car websites, but often has gaps because they only list the info relative to their car, ie, Mini Engines.
I find this list to be the most comprehensive, from The MGA Guru.

https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/engine/be100.htm

For decoding the bulkhead plate, and other useful info, see this website: http://potteries.mmoc.org.uk/Identification.htm
The Caveat being that Australian assembled cars have a different plate and added an extra bit to the car number.
I don't know if NZ had anything similar.

thank you for your help , I can now advertise it with confidence .

Its not hard to see that he is from the antipodes

D

Apologies for the pic upside-down the satellite must have been late in picking it up lol

Muzzman wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2024 7:29 pm Apologies for the pic upside-down the satellite must have been late in picking it up lol

I couldn't cope with that....