'64 Aussie Morris 850

[timmy201]

Thanks Peter, they'll end up in the spares box (along with the original single cylinder front drums).

The disc brake shields will be kept aside or sold, they aren't needed for my car

[Mini Mad Swede]

The disc brake shields will be kept aside or sold, they aren't needed for my car

Dont have any shields on mine, but will fit some!
The noise when some sand or tiny grit makes its way between disc and wherever it gets jammed is incredible

[timmy201]

The disc brake shields will be kept aside or sold, they aren't needed for my car

Dont have any shields on mine, but will fit some!
The noise when some sand or tiny grit makes its way between disc and wherever it gets jammed is incredible

The other thing that happens is small stones can get stuck between the disc and the shields. It’s happened to my Mazda and another guys mini on a drive a few years ago

[roger mcnab]

hi timmy
well disc shields are a pain in the butt the wifes mazda suddenly started making this weird scraping noise and it took ages to isolate it some how the shield got twisted and scraped on the disc and took some time to sort but after some effort it was sorted and has not happened since would like to remove but not yet
cheers roger

[java gt]

Those Minilifes are a really nice looking wheel,I ran them on my Clubman estate for years.Looks good on your MKI.

[timmy201]

Those Minilifes are a really nice looking wheel,I ran them on my Clubman estate for years.Looks good on your MKI.

Yes, I’m so glad they came up when they did! In the future I might get them painted all silver (rather than with the polished lip) but they just fit the car so well - looks wise and also dimensions wise.

I was able to finish off the right front side and get the caliper installed. I didn’t have a helper to bleed the brakes yet, so I did a gravity bleed on both sides and got them mostly functional. I still have a few suggestions to check through first, but the brake pedal is soft on the first application and then firm on the second. I’ll get a helper to bleed the lines again, check the caliper piston seals are working and also double check the rear drum adjustment. Hopefully back on the road soon - I’ve got to get an alignment and registration check by the end of April

[timmy201]

Thanks to the help of a couple of members here I managed to figure out the weird brake situation. The pads on the LH side were loose, which meant the pistons were retracted too far and taking a bit more fluid to make contact with the disc. I took the pads out and pushed the pistons out a little until the pads were a nice firm fit, and this has made the pedal feel firm form the top too. I got to drive around the block and the most obvious problem was the alignment is well out, not surprising as I'd swapped the hubs and steering arms.

After sorting out the brakes I had a couple more jobs to finish off last night before going for the annual registration inspection and alignment later this week:
Raise up the suspension height to be level (it was a bit nose down)
Fix the headlight wire that was burnt out
Check the usual oil/grease points/bulbs/handbrake/horn


It turned out to be another nice day today, so I drove it to work to make sure I was happy with everything. The wasn't anything obvious that stood out, and I'm happy with how it's all turned out. The new wheels just look so good too and will look even better once I get the chance to give it a wash


The next long term project I've picked up is some H4 carbs. I currently am a bit lost looking into the choke mechanism and how all that works, and also what modifications would need to be done to the manifold. These will be definitely ready by the time I build my SA1100 engine, and hopefully before then to use on the current engine. I'd like to think my current engine is a similar spec to some of the old Speedwell 1152 engines and they also ran H4 carbs



Here's a few photos from the MITG run on the weekend, I got a ride along in the Burgundy Cooper S and the white van as I hadn't finished the jobs on my car at that stage:

[UHR850]

Thanks for sharing the lovely and sunny pictures.

Kees.

[AndyPen]

Looks like a big smiles day

[timmy201]

Thanks for sharing the lovely and sunny pictures.

Kees.

Thanks Kees! There was a pretty chilly breeze, but good weather for minis

Looks like a big smiles day

Thanks Andy! Hard to top a sunny day and a mini drive

Another fantastic autumn day today, I had the car booked in for an alignment and the annual registration check (aka pink slip). He was happy with everything and we’re good for another year!

[roger mcnab]

hi timmy well i finally got the bonnet that i made out of a xb falcon gt bonnet with porsche boxster rear boot hinges as the front comes of and the bonnet needs to come with it but it needs some serious cutting and shutting as it is out of line with the middle of the car and has a 10 mm gap on the left side so a bit more welding to go but looks good but better when corrected i will take a pic on my new phone and see if i can send it
cheers roger
ps your car looks great

[timmy201]

When the car was getting checked over last month by the mechanic he noticed that it was leaking a bit of coolant. This was a bit strange as I hadn't noticed this before, and the level in the coolant tank had been consistent over the last few months and not needed to be topped up. The next time I drove it I noticed a little puddle forming on the ground under the front side of the engine when the engine was hot and the car was off. After a bit of looking around I was able to see a consistent drip going onto the timing cover from the water pump/bypass hose area. Once I got back home it was making another puddle, but the leak stops once the engine cools down, so I'm guessing it's a pressure related leak from the water pump seal. I ordered up a new water pump this week and it's ready to be installed


While I have the radiator out it will give me a chance to install my new speedo drive gears. My speedo was reading perfectly prior to me changing the engine and diff ratio, so we started with the following matching combination:
The stock 850 speedo is 1408TPM (turns per mile)
My kph 850 speedo is 880TPK (turns per km) which is just 1408 divided by 1.6
Diff ratio was 3.76
Speedo gears were the standard 6/17 combination
At 100kph on the speedo the road speed would be 100kph - all good

Since I changed to a longer 3.44 ratio (exactly 10% longer) and had kept the standard 6/17 gears it has been reading low by 10%
At 100kph on the speedo the road speed would be 110kph - not good!
The BMC method of adjusting for this was to change the speedo, so going from a 3.76 diff to a 3.44 the speedo would go from 1408TPM to 1280 (or 880TPK to 800). This wouldn't work in my case as I wanted to keep the silver 140kph speedo I have already. This meant I would have to get a reduction gearbox for the speedo or try and find some alternate speedo drive gears for the gearbox end.

There is a handy calculator here which can calculate what parts you need to make the speedo read correctly: http://www.guess-works.com/Tech/ratio.htm . I put all my numbers in and it suggested I would need an unusual combination of 7/18 gears.


These took a couple of months to get into stock and get shipped, but they are finally here


I decided to give it all a go last night after work. Starting on the inside of the car, the gear lever needed to come out so that the engine would lift up high enough to get the radiator out. The carpet, starter button, accelerator pedal all needed to come out too


Next up the lower 2 engine steadies and the top one near the master cylinders (plus the breather on the top of the flywheel housing)


I managed to drain the entire radiator without spilling a drop - the funnel right here did the trick. Of course I spilled an awful lot of coolant later when I pulled the pump off


I followed Matt Read's easy-out radiator method, jacked up the engine and just undid the 2 bolts at the bottom and it came right out.


Next up the engine mount bracket came out and also the alloy block


I was able to have a look under the water pump, and yes it was definitely leaking!


The speedo gears live under these covers, so these were taken out too


Old vs new parts here


New pump in with a new bit of hose


New speedo gears in too


The day nearly ended in disaster at this point, when I dropped a washer into the breather on top of the flywheel! Luckily I was able to get it out with a magnet


A couple of things left to put on, hopefully all done tomorrow

[timmy201]

So next up to finish the job was to put the alternator on and also bolt up the lower engine steadies. I'd had a bad thought in the back of my head that I hadn't put the fan belt on properly, and it turned out to be correct


I had to lift the engine up again and move the radiator over a bit to get the belt on - the clearance from the crank balancer to the lower radiator bracket is to small to get the belt through otherwise


The interior all assembled again


Engine all assembled, coolant added and an oil & filter change


I went for a test drive to the petrol station and now the speedo reads accurately again!


We had a MITG convoy down to Berry for the National Motoring Heritage Day today. The weather was nice and clear and there were plenty of cars to look at

[timmy201]

I've not had much time to work on the car recently, but I have bought/ordered a few things. First up was a 25D distributor, I bought an electronic ignition module and sent it away to be recurved to the engine. I'm really looking forward to getting this fitted as it should improve the engine significantly over the current temporary distributor


I bought another Moto Lita, this one being a 14" Mk4, and a very good price considering the condition it's in

It's got the funky font stamped on the bottom spoke


Next up was another pair of H4 carbs. The ones I had already were missing a few parts, like a fuel bowl lid, choke linkage parts and the brass damper caps. These ones seem to be more or less complete and only cost $75 (40 GBP) so seemed too good to pass up. I should now have sufficient parts to get a pair put together.

[NZmember]

What brand is your electronic module and where have you sent it for recurving?
Got an ignition fault somewhere with my 850. Considering going to a system like yours.

[timmy201]

What brand is your electronic module and where have you sent it for recurving?
Got an ignition fault somewhere with my 850. Considering going to a system like yours.

The module is an Accuspark brand and seems to be decent quality. My last one ran for years until I hooked it up wrong on the side of the road when trying to diagnose an issue...

I had it done locally (well 1000km away in QLD, Australia) by a guy that builds race engines and has been doing distributor tuning for decades. If you want his contact details, send me a PM

[timmy201]

I've now got the distributor installed and it's definitely made a difference, it's right on his advised spec of 8 degrees at idle and 32 at 4000rpm.


A few photos from our MITG drive a few weeks back, the poor forecast put a few people off, but it ended up a nice sunny & quiet day





I've also been messing around with the extra pair of H4 carbs. I gave them a quick clean and I'm just trying to work out all the linkages and return springs as I'm not familiar with them at all, and there isn't a lot of local mini guys using them.

[roger mcnab]

hi timmy
that guy in queensland is it paul gulson if it is he is a wizard with engines he built the engine for my 72 falcon ute 302 windsor and it was a real sleeper it used to upset many a performance car as it looked like a heap
i still miss that car and wish i never sold it
well cheers roger
having no fun with the front hubs for mine waiting for seal installer kit so i can get the rear seal in should have it in a few days
cheers roger

[70K1100]

Timmy, do you feel as though the regraphed distributor is better than the Black box set up?

[timmy201]

Timmy, do you feel as though the regraphed distributor is better than the Black box set up?

It’s definitely simpler than the blackbox. Assuming the curve is the same the performance will be the same.

I did like being able to adjust the curve on the black box, and also the rev limiter was a good feature too. The downside was the limited computer compatibility, and the fact the first one just died on me. I’ve yet to work out if my current one still works