Morris Minor meeting
at Classic Cars (Pvt.) Ltd.
3rd of June 2001
14 participated - a good day - many subjects discussed - must do it again - much needed - most of the time spent on practical problems with the Morris Minor.
It was a pleasure for Mr. Ravindra and myself, as it was possible to discuss the problems with everybody individually and it was possible to find a few solutions.
It seems that information about how to service, maintain and repair the Morris Minor is lost over the years. It is also a major problem that a lot of good quality parts are not available.
It is not possible to deal with all problems at once, but at least we can get started and solve the problems one by one.
One problem was
High fuel consumption
There can be many reasons for this. This car was generally in very good condition. Engine, distributor and carburettor looked o.k. We discussed the matter and I was told, that a new set of jet and needle of unknown brand was fitted. As these items are extremely precise dimensioned and machined, I do not believe that it is possible for anyone but SU to produce the right quality. However I will have a set of this local jet and needle to Denmark and test it in my own car in order to find out whether I did right in recommending the original SU jet and needle to be fitted.
We found one more problem with the carburettor. The damper piston was not functioning well. There was too little oil in the damper cylinder and the piston seemed to be worn. Unfortunately we did not have a new one to compare with. This fault gives poor performance and increased fuel consumption, but not to the level in this case.
The spindle for the butterfly was in good order. Often this part is worn so much, that it is impossible to adjust the carburettor properly.
I have never seen a fuel pump like the one fitted to the car and we do not know which pressure it delivers. If the pressure is too high, the petrol level in the float chamber will be too high, resulting in poor performance and increased fuel consumption.
The small tag with the carburettor number attached to the float chamber lid was missing. This number is needed for finding the correct needle for the carburettor and for finding out if it is the correct carburettor for the engine.
Over the years a lot of things is mixed up on the Morris Minor and it is often difficult to find out if the carburettor or distributor is correct for the engine.