It's finally happened - the Morris' turn has come.
A year or so ago, we bought a '61 Morris Minor Traveller. For a while,
she was the reliable car - Pat's FIAT was having an affair with its
mechanic, and I was going back and forth between the two Triumphs
trying to keep them both running.
That ended, and the Morris got put away for the rainy season. There was
some clattering from the engine and some smoke, and she'd foul out the
#3 plug from time to time. A leakdown test showed that the #3 exhaust
valve was burned. I figured to pull the head and get the valves done,
but didn't get to it over the winter. I also amassed parts for the
front suspension rebuild and disk brake conversion.
In spring, her brakes started to go; when the master cylinder seal
completely let go, we parked her. She has sat, stalwart, waiting her turn.
Yesterday I pulled her to the head of the driveway; as usual, she
started right up with a little choke. No brakes, but the handbrake
works. Lots of smoke. Tonight, I ran her a while, and tried once again
to determine the source of the clatter. And then drained the oil and
coolant, drained the block and backflushed the heater.
Sunday, sfisher is going to come over and help pull the head; I've
never worked on an A series before (this is a 1275; one of the many POs
replaced the original 948 years ago). The current plan is to pull the
head and see what's up in the cylinder bores. If they look OK, I'll
send the head out, drop the pan and
pull the front cover, and replace all the seals I can reach. Maybe the rod
bearings, too.
If the cylinders don't look OK, I'll pull the engine and either rebuild or
replace. And since it's out, I'll put a Datsun five speed tranny in,
too. It's the right thing to do, but I wouldn't mind putting off the
expense for a while!
So there will be lots of A series questions, especially if I rebuild!
The car doesn't have to pass smog laws, so I can change the cam. It's
not going to be
raced so I can fiddle with specs to my heart's content. This car is meant as a
town cruiser and weekend campmobile, and might eventually end up towing
a kart or Formula Ford.
The first question: the noise. My current guess is that it's timing chain
clatter. As far as I can tell, the A series doesn't have a tensioner, right? So
if the chain stretches, you replace it. Does the chain stretch often? Does this
seem a likely cause of an irregular clatter? Am I asking for trouble trying to
replace the chain without removing the engine? Is there a spec for how tight the
chain must be?
If I send the head out, what should I get done? Max power isn't necessary, but
power is good. Don't care to sacrifice *too* much economy for around town,
though.
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