My mate Iain has sorted me out with a new wiper motor (thanks Iain!) but I've now decided that the front panel, bumper and left wing are to come off so the left hand side bumpstop and strengthener can be repaired properly. Winter welding - I'm looking forward to it!

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Well yesterday saw the first blat around the lanes for a few months, and what jolly good fun it was! Except for the rain... and lack of wipers... the usual wiggling of wires and reving of the engine gave no joy, so I investigated further and found that the motor was completly dead - not nothing - even when connected straight up to the battery. So I took it off for further investigation.

After a few hours of playing and cleaning and working out that the later motor I had some bits for would not fit, I gave up and turned my attention to the inner wing that had been revealed by taking the motor off. What a mess! It had been repaired very badly in the past (OK I admit it - it was me - I was young and foolish and needed a daily driver) and the inner wing to flitch strengther was badly bent and rusty too (ok me again - mental note - don't lower your minor on standard torsion bars)

Well at least I won't be bored this winter


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I took the day off work today to get a service done on the Golf, which was pretty cool as I had to stay at the house all day - and the garage is close enough isn't it!

I got the brakes back on and bled, and the hand brake on. The exhaust was a seroius pain in the bum, it never really fit properly so I had an extra go at it. I took a couple of inches off the centre section so I could get the over axle part up a little more. It seems to have done the trick.


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I managed to get the axle in place this evening and carefully tighen it all up. I'm keen to make sure that it is tightened up evenly - it was a bit of a pain tightening up all the U bolts, anti-tramp bars and tele shocks, but I got it done! Just the brakes now!

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Its been a while since I was in the garage, what with the new job and babysitting duties, I finally managed to get myself out there though!

Once both mounts were taken off, I carefully welded on the first one and made a rather good job of it if I do say so myself :o) In order to make sure that the two mounts were mouted properly in relation to each other I carefully put the axle onto the springs and clamped it all up and tack welded the second clamp on. Once the second was on properly I finished up the cleanup and painted it all up nice again!

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Had fun with the grinder last night =) I took off the worst of the spring mounts and cleaned up the surrounding area. In the process I found a small rust hole under it which actually perforated the axle casing - Not so big that it would warrant a re-think of the project (i.e. a new casing), but big enough for me to feel good about finding it before it became a problem!

This evening I dusted off the welder (not used since some panic bodging before Molly's MOT - when I was trying to get her ready for the national) cranked up the power and started welding a patch onto the hole I'd found. As it wasn't too big I wasn't worried about using the same thickness material, it just has to keep the oil in (the casing isn't / shouldn't be presurised).

I really enjoy welding! (thats lucky isn't it?) Within a few minutes I had the patch on and was aligning the mount. It may not be pretty, but the lump hammer test seems to have worked. Can't wait to do the other side over the weekend!

I was thinking this week that having owned the car for erm... 13 years, I've done amost all the jobs that can be done and most of them more than once. Its quite nice when I get to do some of the more obscure stuff like this - I'm not looking forward to a chassis leg though! Am I a glutton for punishment? I think so...


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Well the new parts have arrived and they look very good. They are generic spring mounts, i.e. designed to be fitted to any axle, or as a replacement for the standard minor ones. I also managed to get the axle off the car (after bouncing it off my head!).

the next challenges are to get the old mounts off, clean up the whole area (to a state that can be welded to), align the new mounts properly and weld them on very well indeed.

I'm also going to attempt this with minimal stripping of axle, i.e. keeping the brakes, halfshafts and diff in place. I think the brake pipes will have to be removed for their own safety.

I'm also going to have to be careful not to damage the new paintwork on the rest of the car as I want to work in the garage (where its warm and light) but theres a car with only 2 wheels taking up all the room!

On a different note, I've been having a strange conversation with a very well known morris minor centre. They are on a mailing list I'm on and whenever a need for a product is mentioned, they mail the mail the peson off the list. They have done this to me a few times, however they never offer any advice. Now that just isn't right is it?


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Got back into the garage last night in order to investigate the mysterious sounds from the rear axle under accelereation and managed to strip down the ubolts etc on the offside. If all came apart quite easliy (and so it should - I only just built it!) but I found 3 problems
1) the thread on the u bolts was very badly worn as were the nuts - time for a new set I think.
2) the diff casing had been fouling on the new telescopic shock mounting bar - which implies that the axle was coming up too high - so I'm going to fit full bumpstops this time!
3) last and definatly worst - the axle mounting plate was found to be rusty and had collapsed, which allowed the axle to move and probably start all these issues in the first place.

The mounting plates don't seem to be listed by any of the on-line retailers, but I gave the Bath morris minor centre a call and they put me in touch with
Charles Ware's morris minor centre who have some in stock and they should be here in the next couple of days!
It's really annoying that I had the axle off last winter, cleaned it up and painted it. Well it just goes to show - if a jobs worth doing...

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In the garage last night to investigate the issues at the back end. First up was the U-bolt noise and sure enough the off side one could be tightened a little, however after tightening it suddenly gave way - not a good sign. Plan now is for a new set of U bolts (hope I don't have to buy a new kit) and to get it as tight as I can. Whilst I was under there I took a look at the exhaust mounting, which isn't quite right. It seems to slope towards the rear of the car from the front silencerso I loosened it all off and tried moving things around to get it better adjusted... took the shocker off to get more room - to no avail. As the car is up against the garage wall on the exhaust side, I think I'll leave it a little while. At that point I decided it was too cold and went in ... I this what its going to be like all winter? Hope not!

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Rallys - like busses - all come at the same time. They also (like busses) seem to go by very quickly. This weekend I took the family off to the Classic Car Show in Selkirk, which is the last in the season for the Morris Minor Owners Club Scottish Branch. I had planned to take molly down, but I was grateful I didn't what with the 120 mile round trip. All in all it was a really good show, a lot of the same exhibitors as last weekend (Scone), but in a much smaller field which seemed to make for a cosier feel. The highlight (for me and Daria - if not Meg) was the steam engines - woah those things are great! Big, stinky and noisy. Meg liked them up to the point when the all sounded their hooters and then she decided that they were horrible.

I've still not made contact with the Scottish Branch guys, their stand looked pretty cool with a Gazebo and 6 or 7 cars - maybe next year eh?

I did manage to get out in Molly this weekend, and she seems to go like stink! A few of the old hiccups have come back, like a minor mis-fire at full blast and when going up hill, also the fuel consumption seems to be way up, there are also a few nasty clunks from the back end, one which feels like a loose U bolt which ain't good. I think I'll probably ditch the HS4 infavour of a HIF some time this winter as the thing has caused me nothing but bother.

Now armed with this long to-do list, I need to spend some time in the garage!

Now we're back I can go through some of the work which has been done to get that MOTed car back on the road.

Once the brakes were sorted, the rear wing came off for a re-spray (during which time I had to redecorated the bathroom and get married). Once it was finally painted and re-fitted and the lights were working again it was time for a test drive ... what a load of rubbish. I shouldn't have expected too much what with having had the head off, the distributor out, and the carb in bits, but I was hoping to have at least a drivable car. Not one which gave up the ghost at every opportunity. The next few days were fun,

I took the (new) fuel pump to bits to find that the points were in a terrible state - they were duly cleaned.

I replaced the fuel filter for a much larger item (this one actually allowed fuel to flow), it helped but not that much.

I then stripped and cleaned the carb (pulling bits of nastiness out as I went), I also used lots of bits from a HS2 rebuild kit I had lying around - however my nasty waxstat jet looks in a bit of a bad way, the only problem is that the dashpot is on the bulkhead side of the carb so the new jet won't fit - anyone know where I can get a new one?

anyway I now have a car which can even go up hills!

thanks to the wonder of technology the Blog is live again - and so is Molly! So much to tell so it'll take a little while to get it all out :o)

and now the next problem.... On driving to pick up Megan from nursery in the rain - with the radio on, and the lights, and the wipers , and the heater - I was confronted by a smoking dashboard! I quickly managed to pull over and get a mate to give me a lift to pick up Meg - I now have a morris minor sulking in the garage - waiting for some attention!

... and the vice didn't help much at all. Four new cylinders later and we're moving - well stopping.

The next problem is that of the brake pedal hitting the floor. Easily solved as the actuator pin (attached to the pedal) was too short.

Like some women of a certain age, we have a hot and cold problem. I've set up the timing properly so the overheating should be cured.. but no. Off came the thermostat housing and inside was a very battered thermostat (did I stand on it before fitting it?) More cash for the Bull Motif bank account!

Oh and this showed up another problem, the brakes binding on (apparently can cause over heating!) atuator pin too long. As the manual says "Don't adjust the actuator pin length". Must pay more attention

New technology - old car - welcome to the little yellow car blog.
Work done today - FItted rear seatbelts - good quality jobs these, would have prefered grey but at an extra £20 each, no thanks. The brakes also got half bled. Half because the rear bleed nipples were nice and free, but both fronts were rock solid. I'm pretty sure that the cylinders the were ok when she came off the road so its time to get serious with a vice