Reminds me of when l was a teen tackling these old type motors... We had no training just a little bit of nouse and learn as you go.. Those engines were so simple compared to the modern day engines .. Today ' you lift the bonnet take one look then shut it up again... l once pulled a motor out of a Holden Gemini ' reconditioned it and put it back in again , thats how user friendly they were back then.. im now 78 years old..
My first car was a 1959 Morris Minor. At age 16 I learned a lot about cars with that model. Required vegetable-based brake fluid, proper installation of front wheel bearings, desirability of synchromesh in 1st gear, necessity of damping oil in SU carbs, proper centering of jets in SU carbs, desirability of decent oil cooler in California and/or cross-country trips, ineffectiveness of low-compression pistons, downside of shaving the flywheel (ring gear eats a hole in the oil pump), non-necessity of turn signals as standard equipment . . . I could go on, but I think I’ll stop here, I think you get the picture.
Love old cars like this with the old style engines and S.U Carbs they are such a pleasure to work on just like the vw bug so easy to pop the engines out ,thanks for the upload it was a pleasure to watch.
OH WOW!!!! I am so happy to see this kind of video!!!! This reminds me of when I first got my 1960 Morris Mini!!! I had so much fun getting that tiny car Road worthy again!!! My neighbors even asked if they could ride along on test drives!!! ❤😊😁
Did everything in a Morris minor .would pull the car over onto a square bale and change the clutch. I think I did it all with a 1/2 inch And 9/16 spanner. Owned 5 in the day still wish I had the traveller. Brakes were terrible the shaft would seize under the floor Matt and the cylinders would seize. But the engine would always start with the starting handle. Simple car. No fancy electronics. Loved them.
Thanks, It won’t be anytime soon but I’m confident we’ll get it on the road again. I do think I need to hurry up and buy the replacement metal while it is still available.
Those engines, not actually Morris, but Austin, 3-bearing crankshaft, pushrod valve operation were still in production until the year 2000, although unrefined, "tappity" they had a hard to beat combination of drivability in a wide torque curve and low fuel-consumption, Harry Weslake was the engineer behind the cylinder head which gave these engines those characteristics. Another aspect, even after high mileage, they were good first time starters in all weathers, deep winter or high summer, something which the equivalent engine from Ford could not match
My father had a Seriies V Traveller in which we had a memorable holiday around 1970 camping in France, Switzerland and Italy. Rather later in the '70s we had a 2-door Series III as the family car. Dad bought it for Mum to drive and my brother and I to learn on. The deal was that Dad put up the purchase price and that was it, we had to service and repair it ourselves with Dad's tutelage if required. They had weak 1st/reverse gears and we had to change 2 or 3 gearboxes sourced from the scrap yard. We eventually came across a unused Gold Seal (BMC refurbished) gearbox and that was the last one we fitted. We were pretty adept at whipping out the front seats, taking up the part of the floor covering the gearbox/clutch and swapping the gearbox, a Sunday morning job. The brakes were a pain as the wheel cylinders seemed to seize on a whim and always needed changing for the MOT. Dad's insistence on us maintaining repairing it is principally what has enabled me to maintain my own cars over the years up to and including our current BMW E39s. As teenagers we had ideas about dropping Midget brakes and engine into it but this remained a pipe dream. My first car was Series V Moggie 1000, given to me by my grand-father when he gave up driving. It didn't last long. In common with most BMCs at the time the tin-worm was quietly chewing away at the floor and sills. It was his 2nd Moggie. He had a Series III that he had traded in for an 1100. The 1100 never did find favour with him and with some expensive rust repairs required on what was a nearly new car he got shot of it and bought the Series V. His brother's one and only car was a Series II convertible, it would be worth a bob or two these days.
My high school English teacher had a slightly older convertible (drophead?). I watched him enter the building soaking wet as the top leaked if a passerby spit on the sidewalk. The final straw came while he was proceeding up a small local hill and being passed by a vespa (not the prayer). Narragansett Bay
LOL, as Dan said they are great on Florida flatland, I’m not sure how it would do on a hill as I’ve never driven it up one. This does have the bigger 1098cc engine.
Apparently there are still 30,000 of them on British roads?! Yes- amazing eh? There’s a few places in England that all they do is Morris minor parts & repairs. Any part you want you can get. Other places concentrate on restoring them to pristine condition. Great eh? I’m 53 and I would LOVE one but I can’t afford one, although you can get one running well needing a little weld here and there for £2,000. But restored to better than new with a Morris 1275cc engine in it is up to £30,000!
I have a 1952 Morris minor 4 door side valve Engine with Dashpot front suspension system , leaf spring rear suspension. Not in working condition for over 15 years it gave me excellent service . Now parts availability is problem
You can get nearly every part you need still for the "Moggy" in the UK. And reasonably priced as theres a huge following for them still. As a rare care in the States it would be well worth restoring. They are actually quite a smooth car on the road, fast they isn't by todays standards but a simple piece of car to keep in the road.
I’ll see a Morris at the larger car shows but I haven’t seen one out on the road in years. There are a few parts suppliers here in the States so I’m confident we can save it.
I'm in New Zealand. Morris Minor is a Classic icon. In the '60s there were thousands on the road in NZ. Japan copied this reliable OHV motor for the first Datsuns produced post WW2. Early series were side valve, then moved to OHV (1954??) Humourous watching US car shows repairing old pommy cars. 😂 Great watch. Cheers
well done getting that old thing going, and doubly well done for getting anywhere without a clutch! greetings from a fellow moggie owner in england, best of luck getting that motor sorted 👍
I had two of these in the early seventies. The suspension collapsed on reverse in the police station parking lot ! It is a 'torsion bar' suspension and it whipped the bottle jack up past my ear ...almost killed me.... I had a long history with A type engines...(A35 Van , minis, Farina A40) then B type in a Marina rot box... I LOVE Toyotas nowadays. I have zero nostalgia for those days... British cars and bikes were crap compared today's Jap cars.. ...eg Kawasaki 1000Sx bikes ... I only spent 59 years in England then left
Nice t9 see that you got the Morris Minor Is moving even with some help, nice to see that the Morris still has the manual start up method in the front like most cars had way back in the day.
We owned four of these moris minors at one time they were all great looking cars, ran and drove like champs. Loved them we were told that only 75 of them made it to the USA!! I know where 2 are here one convertible and one is a woodies wagon garage kept and never sold!!
My first car was a 56 Tourer top,driving around I started to morries stopped on the side of road with front wheel at 90 degrees to normal.Jacked mine up to have check.....rusted out frames seemed to a common thing !!!
Lucky the thermostat housing wasn't corroded to the block and the studs ! If I remember correctly, when you get to the master cylinders under the floor you'll find some of the nuts/bolts are 1/4 Whitworth..... does get more old school than that !
@@davebdave1 now you just need to emphasize the w h e e l s and grille bars, by painting them the whitest of white. (I think they ARE white, but getting a bit yellow, like an old tennis shoe! The factory colour is sort of cream, and hideously old fashioned!
I didn't own one of these myself, but, like everyone else in the U.K., I have been IN these cars . After all, they were the first million selling car in the U.K.!
Di takengon aceh tengah di masa aku kecil di tahun 1970 banyak mobil sedan morrys ,chevrolet ,willys ,jeep ,impala, toyoved, jeep, jazz mobil rusia,gmc ,dodge, layland,nissan patrol,disini angkut penumpang dari kampung kedaerah kota lain ,
Grew up with a Morris Minor. We stuffed 11 people into it when visiting relatives, just a bit cramped. My first car was a Morris Oxford. At the time, I didn't appreciate either one of them. Went on to an assortment of British sports cars, including hill climbing a Spitfire. Miss all those relatively crude cars.
This car smartened could be a nice looking car. I once saw the rival to this car, the Austin A30/A35, in exactly the same shade of metallic blue.( silvery metallic blue). A non- factory finish. It occurred to me that METALLIC finishes particularly suit such curvy cars. In the metallic colours, you see a light and shade effect on the curves! Also, the smaller lights under the headlights look particularly nice, because they MATCH the headlights. Unlike in the U.K., where the small lights are ORANGE/WHITE FOR THE TURN signals/ running lights.
CLUTCH SEIZED INFO... Previously the following has worked for me...warm up the engine in neutral. Then switch off. Then select first gear, (or reverse), and start the engine. The car will lurch and start driving forward (or backward). Remember this is decades before those silly new safety laws about "foot on the clutch to activate starter", (none of my cars have EVER had that). Now as you drive the car around the yard in first/reverse accelerate and deccelerate in a jerky fashion. This will often enable a stuck clutch to become free. Job Done !
My long time late Grandfather had two of these, the last from 1959 (The former needed new tires, and he came home with a new car, a new model 1000, a little scared for my Grandmothers reaction!). I think he had to lock it from the passenger side (Denmark)? In its heated store room it had blankets for protection on top, and if rain, my Grandmother had to use a bicycle! My Grandfather himself could laugh from this, but it wasn't used during rain, unless unlucky to happen while driving!!!
I love this story, I would like to have met your Grandfather. This Morris had a different life. It sat outside in Hurricanes and was driven in rain so heavy the windshield wipers couldn’t keep up.
Oil in the dash pot will improve the operation of the SU carburettor. Not sure that red engine is a factory rebuild. Here in the UK at least, factory rebuilds were "Gold Seal" and painted accordingly. From memory, and it is about 50 years ago now, rebuilt units didn't come with ancillaries (manifolds etc) so wouldn't have been painted in the same colour as the block/head.
I don’t remember where my dad found the engine but my memory tells me it might have been silver. I think I painted it red with leftover pint used for a Chevrolet engine. Next time we work on it I’ll scrape off some red and see what’s underneath.
@@davebdave1 if I recall correctly you can tell the origins of the engine (capacity, type of vehicle...) from the prefix of the serial number on the block and a factory remanufactured engine will have its own prefix. I think I've got some documentation around here somewhere. If you let me know what the first 4 characters of the serial number are I can probably check them.
It looks like the colour was originally smoke grey, which eas in reality, a light blue. I have a 1966 4 door in store here in the UK, which comes out in the summer.
Thanks Rob! I’ve got project cars spread all over, just not enough spare time to finish them. It’s fun working with my nephew Dan although he’s got even less free time to work on his stuff, LOL.
Made by the British Motor Corporation ( which included Austin, Morris & MG) in the year before they merged with Leyland ( which included Rover, Triumph & Jaguar) to become British Leyland. One of the major problems was that the marques continued to see each other as rivals every time there was a merger - even though they were part of the same company. This could lead to bad decisions being made eg the Triumph Stag engine could have had a much better Rover engine, but Triumph went for a poorer modification of one of their engines. Sad, because some of the products such as the Morris Minor were fantastic!
LOL, I mounted it to a wood panel to isolate from the Chasis which is Positive ground. I spent some time making sure everything was isolated from the car’s metal but that was before the internet. I now know that I could have just switched the battery to negative ground and re-polarized the generator in a matter of minutes.
LOL, I’ve heard that but I never had any electric issues in the Morris except for the SU fuel pump randomly quitting until I rapped on it with a screwdriver.
My first Car, Paid $70.00 for it. Drove it aroun,d, illegally of course cos I didn't have a license, The I got my call up and it sat outside my mum's house for about eleven months while i was away. Came home on leave, got my license, then traded it for a red Escort, got $200.00 . good car , windows taped up cos the winders didn't work. Rust holes in the floor, but you couldn,t stop it.
RADIATOR CAP info..., yes be sure to use the correct Pressure rating. The oldest Morris Minors, the Sidevalve engine models from the late 1940's and early 1950's were ZERO pounds pressure rated, ie it was just a Steam Venting cap. It had no spring, just some zigzag sorta holes to stop water sloshing out on corners. It worked without a waterpump but the radiator had a large top tank and contained from memory 14 litres, about 14 US quarts of coolant. Later British cars, such as the later Overhead valve Morris Minors, 850cc, 1,000cc and 1100cc had either 4 psi or perhaps 7psi radiator caps. Yes you are better using the original old Radiator cap at first. Find out what that model was supposed to have and buy a new correct one if needed. Over the years, cars' cooling systems have run at increasingly higher pressures. I saw a neighbour blow the radiator up is his Morris Minor (sidevalve, unpressurised) and then complain that Morris-es had bad radiators and always blew up their radiators. He was running a pressure cap on it ! LOL Great to see a Morris Minor on the other side of the world, even if your steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. cheerio xx
@@davebdave1 Yes the cooling system operated totally by "thermosyphon" only whereby the hotter water rose and cooler water sank. So no heater option was available on the (918cc) sidevalve engined cars. Heaters became available, (often on British cars of the era as an "extra cost option") on later Morris Minor cars with overhead valve engines (850cc, 1,000cc and 1,100cc etc), and, crucially, that engine design always had a waterpump. Without a typical waterpump to bolt the radiator fan blade onto, I seem to recall the fan blade being bolted directly to the generator pulley, (on the sidevalve early model Morris Minors). New Zealand had primarily British made cars (before the later Japanese car invasion, 1970's onwards) I'm of the generation that Morris Minors were getting old enough and therefore cheap enough, that for many of us, it was the cars we learned to drive in, or buy as affordable to a teenager or first car, and subsequently learnt to repair.
Thanks, next time I’m in Florida Dan and I are going to inspect the underside of the car and come up with a plan. The car has been in our family since 1970 so we want to save it.
