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Morris 1300


RobT

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2 hours ago, BeEP said:

Nice to see the tip of your speedo ribbon is still red.  Most go orange/yellow over time as it's the only bit permanently exposed to the light; I suspect your car has spent most of its life safely cocooned in a dark garage!

Ah that's interesting, I never thought of that.  Like this one.

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As for the garage, it lived in here from 1979 to January this year, in a leafy suburb of West London.  It's doing a typical A-series and dumping a noticeable amount of oil on my garage floor, so the giffer must have garaged it literally all of the time as I can't see any stains on the driveway.

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The weapons-grade level of stalking continues, as it lived in here from 1968 to 1979.  I imagine that house was fairly new back then.

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Apart from the old V5 which has enabled me to do the above, there's no other history with the car unfortunately.  I almost feel obliged to start anew, by recording every time I grease the knuckle joints, fill it up with pez etc!

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I got the windscreen as a "finders fee" and the person who swept it up was going to rebuild the engine to put in a Mini. As he pointed out, if there is any ADO16 shell worth scrapping to take the engine for a Mini then it was this one!

Even the displacers had completely rotted through!

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I just  love the condition of that car, it's just how I like them, it looks like the kind of (cared for) example I saw still floating about in the late 1970's/ 80's not some super shiny restored  thing,  just good honest useable in nice condition .

The rusty one does really tell you how badly these could deteriorate. The number that were in scrap yards in the late 1970's/ early 80's when really  some of them weren't that old was untrue & yet the body rot was bloody scary terminal. I often recall that the whole front end forward of the windscreen often used to droop forward/ down, especially if they were on the top of a pile & the wobbly sills full of filler. I know  all cars rotted badly back then but 1100/1300's really were IMO especially bad. Sad as it's a bloody good design.

Cool speedo too !

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41 minutes ago, HMC said:

Fatha HMC’s first car was a Morris 1100 in Connaught green, I have a pic somewhere. XJA116 was quite an early one and was recovered off the motorway in the late 60s when either the rear subframe or mounts sagged/ gave way apparently.

It was registered in Stockport.

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On 6/12/2020 at 12:04 AM, RobT said:

As posted in News 24, a NOS condenser seems to have cured a few ills and it's running lovely.  So I thought I'd risk taking it to my trusted tyre fitting place today, which is a 12 mile round trip.

Levitating Morris.

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I think buying the cheapest tyres I could find was the right decision.  £27 each Rotalla Setulas in 155/80 12 flavour.  £168 in total including fitting.  I'll be driving this in all weathers (OK maybe not the depths of winter) but the ancient crossplies were just bloody awful.  I had a moment in wet weather yesterday, so anything will be better tbh.

When I read that, your car immediately turned Red and I saw you coming down a hill, negotiating a bend, clipping the kerb........oh dear crossplies

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On 6/13/2020 at 7:58 PM, Richard_FM said:

It’s a shame the rear subframe was such a rust magnet,  I presume mud & moisture used to get trapped around it.

The story goes that Pressed Steel Fisher who were going to build it told Issigonis he'd designed in huge rust traps. Issigonis however wouldn't change it so PSF went ahead as per his design... PSF it appears were right !

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The other irony is that the rear subframe mounts were susceptible to sheering during development. They ultimately fixed that problem, but if they hadn't, the rear subframe would have been removed more often for inspection/replacement. Giving more chance for cleaning and repainting before it detoriated further.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Been doing a few more jobs on this recently.

It's been running too rich since I bought it, so a tuning session was finally called for.  First off I set the timing with the help of the Carlton's battery.  No idea why my timing light wouldn't run off the Morris battery.  Parked this close the leads just about reached.

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All it needed was a tiny tweak, so next up was adjusting the mixture.  I just backed it off by one flat of the adjustor and bloody hell, it goes like a rocket now (relatively speaking).  It was running out of puff at 50mph and I was told a rich mixture could be the cause, so I need to take it for a run to test that out.

Adjusting the dragging rear brakes may have helped too mind.  I only managed to remove one drum as the OS hub nut is torqued to feck, so I need to revisit that with a longer breaker bar.  My impact gun was beaten.  Plenty of life left on the NS shoes, and it all cleaned up well, with a new-ish looking wheel cylinder.

However, the increase in power* made the clutch slip again under load.  So I adjusted the stop and it's sorted, but a new clutch might have to happen fairly soon.

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Next up was the ride height, as it's too high at the back.

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Not all ADO16s have these, but mine's got auxiliary springs that can be adjusted to raise/lower the rear.

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11 in the above pic is the spring, and the adjustable bracket is below.

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This bit from the manual explains what to do.

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It says the radius arms should be in full bump position.  Best I could do was load the boot full of sand bags, loosen the spring nuts, then max out on the clearance between the bracket and the subframe by adjusting the bolts.  Result is the radius arms are tilted slightly, thus pulling the rear down (assuming I've understood it correctly).

I went for the maximum clearance at 6mm.

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It was quite hard work doing all that seeing as I was under the car without it being on axle stands.  Net result wasn't much difference, just 5mm lower at 365mm, so still 10mm above spec.  Wondering if I should try adjusting the spring bracket above the recommended maximum.  Worth a try I suppose.  If stuff starts fouling I'll just back the bolts off.

As you can see, no real difference visually.

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Looks even more dragster when parked on the level.  This is after...

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Of course, I could always lob a few sand bags in the boot with the spare wheel and be done with it!

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32 minutes ago, SiC said:

You know one side is left handed thread? Iirc left side. 

I knew but still forgot when undoing mine!

No I didn't.  I tried in both directions though with the impact gun, and it wasn't budging.  Maybe some heat and a 3 foot breaker bar I keep meaning to buy!

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  • 3 months later...

Brief update on this old thing.

New clutch fitted a few weeks ago.  I farmed that out to Les at BL Transverse.  He charged what seemed to be 1998 prices.  Good old Les.

He also made up some rear brake pipes for me, as this happened when I removed a wheel cylinder.

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No matter how often I bleed them they're still spongy, but I haven't done the other one yet.  I also need to replace some brake pipes up front as they're looking a bit crusty.

It's been running too rich, so I leaned it off a flat but then it ran like shit.  Topped up the dashpot and it ran much better, so I'll take that.  Carb rebuild might help, and makes sense to do that when I tackle the exhaust manifold I suppose, as the farting has got worse.  But in the meantime it's a runner which I'm content with, so I gave it a quick wipe down earlier and went for a brief bimble to the local park.

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See ya in another three months!

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Carb gasket kits are cheap as chips. Rebuild kits are a bit more and if the spindles are worn out it's a bit more specialist to remove the bushes. 

A gasket kit and a good clean on the bench with carb cleaner did wonders for my carbs. Easy enough to pull the carb off, then take it off inside to work on the kitchen table with. 

Gasket kit:

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/gasket-set-hs2-carburettors-aue810a.html

Service kit: (As above but also replaces the float bowl needle and main jet)

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/service-kit-hs2-wzx1851.html

Rebuild kit: (As above but also replaces throttle disc and spindle - usually requires rebushing and that is a bit more specialist tools)

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/rebuild-kit-hs2-carburettor-single-gac6153x.html

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