Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi Does anyone have a garage or workshop where I could do some welding and/or a pillar drill where I can drill about 6 holes please? East London/West Essex area ideally.

Happy to pay for privelage.

I have a mig welder which I can bring and but don't have somewhere to use it at home. Alternatively can anyone recommend an engineering shop in the area?


On a related note, what I am doing is welding a steel toothed wheel to the fan belt pulley. I'm not sure if the fan belt pulley is cast iron or cast steel.(Not an a series engine and not the original fan belt pulley in any case). I've had conflicting info on the weldability of cast iron so:

a) how can you tell cast iron from cast steel?
b) any tips on welding it or if it is weldable?
c) How critical is the balance of a pulley to the crank? I think crank/pulleys are balanced as one - do I need to re-balance the crank-pulley pair or just the pulley or will it be okay if centred accurately?
d) I'm also planning to bolt on an aluminium/rubber/plastic poly v pulley to the fan belt pulley - as there is a rubber element and the pulley will be under tenson from the belt, how is something like this balanced?

Many thanks

dp

Hello Dp,

my feeling is that you are out of your depth.

However, cast steel is not likely, if it is cast and ferrous it will be cast iron. Cast iron is weldable but not with a MIG set. You could use a dis- similar rod with an MMA set but it will be difficult to get it running true.
The smaller the diameter then the less effect out of balance forces have, however, it should be possible to get that assembly balanced and is probably recommended if you intend to use high revs, just be sure the welds are sound!
I'm not sure what you are trying to do with the other pulley.

The exhaust manifold and the cylinder head and the engine block are probably cast iron or steel but the pulley isn't.

The original pulleys had two sides held together by rivets. Be careful not to grind them off if you weld anything to the pulley.

He said NOT an A series engine

Hi, thanks all.

You're probably right Alec. On the other hand I've welded both with a Mig and arc on mild steel. (But have unfortunately Ebayed the Arc). What I've heard so far on the subject is that:

a) Welds between cast iron and steel will crack over time - dis-similar rod or not - especially in this scenario.
b) Dissimilar rod arc welding will be fine.
c) Brazing would be best bet.
d) Grinding cast iron will give dull sparks, cast steel brighter sparks. (I've got nowhere to grind and my grinder caught fire when I cut up an old bath.)
e) Drill and tap and use studs.

The toothed wheel (more a ring) is for a distributerless ignition so would not be loaded by any belts. Max revs probably 6000.

The other pulley is for a supercharger. I won't be fitting that for a while but while I've got the front of the car off and and the main pulley in my hand I figured it would be economic to do all these things in one hit.

The thing that made me most curious about pulley balancing is that the pulley wheel I have for the supercharger is alloy centre, about 5mm rubber intermediate 'ring' covered by a plastic poly-v. So I imagine, with the rubber sandwich, there has to be some distortion under revs, knocking out any balancing.

Darren, I'd be contacting Guy Croft about the mods relevant to the pulley as its rather a specialist answer you require. I believe him to be the perfect source of the knowledge for you , he also knows your engine well as he built it. No disrespect to anyone else on this forum who have or are about to post an answer.

Good point, cheers Jonathon