Jump to content

Tortrons series mm minor of slow


tortron

Recommended Posts

  • 5 months later...
  • Replies 139
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • tortron

    140

Top Posters In This Topic

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

So

set some time aside to work on this again

so far

Engine, gearbox and front suspension are out - all of which are caked solid in hard crap

engine bay is about 80% stripped, taking it right back because most of it has surface rust breaking through

Small amount of rust in the battery box, probably wont fix it (had some steel pop rivited over) Will make up a wooden case job to sit in there as its a pretty big space for a battery. This will hide anything i dont want to see :lol:

some pitting where the radiator overflow drips on.

However i have uncovered an unhealthy patch of rust hiding under the drivers side engine mount. Will need a patch made. No big deal, just another item on the list

List seems to be always getting bigger, but progress is progress right? (would have liked to be driving at the end of the week, could have done if i had just put the seats back in and filled up the tank :lol: oh well)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some nasty pictures

mountrust.jpg

Rust here was hidden nicely under the engine mount tower

sillrust.jpg

This is the front sill section nearly directly under that mount. Basicly from that rust back about a ft on each side has been replaced with a rough patch (they should have made it an inch longer eh)

Good news is that that should be the last of the rust repairs.

Split my engine and box today to check it out - one of the springs on the clutch had broken, and was probably part of my clutch problems way back when this thing was driving. Nevermind, i have two spare boxes and a new clutch (part number is the same as the 803 a series incase anyone cares) so will all go back together better than before.

Next on the list is to re-captivate the gearbox crossmember captive nuts

Then take out the diff and springs, so all that can be stripped back, painted and any rubber bits replaced as needed

Wanted to do that today, but i dropped the damn gearbox on my fingers. Its small, but almost a solid lump of cast iron, now my fingers are simply too fat to work on the dinky little nuts and bolts in this :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

This was the "clean" side

dirtysus.jpg

Combination of soaking in degreaser, standing infront of a bench grinder with wire wheel for 2 days, wire brush on a drill, and scraping with a flat edge cleaned them up ok.

Drivers side grease had gone rock solid, fortunately it hadn't worn any of the assemblies. Have ordered a new swivel pin as this one was badly pitted (and has been for quite some time it would appear). Parts are cheap so why not, also ordered a bunch of rubber dust seal etc

rebuiltsus.jpg

Now looking like this, note the brass trunnions.

Went for a basic black and silver, would have been similar from factory (depending on what day of the week it was). Havnt bothered with a full polish on any of the parts, i prefer a clean brushed look over mirror finish. Should look good with the brake banjo connectors on there. Should also handle nicely too.

Parts you cant see - fresh grease in everything, fresh oil in the lever arms, torsion bars trimmed to drop the front circa 2 inch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

gearboxbefore.jpg

Morris minor gearbox as found in its natural habitat

gearboxclean.jpg

Grease and grime removed. Painted partly in stationary motor grey, and a red which i believe is original (all my other gearboxes have this red)

gearboxpainted.jpg

And painted, looks a bit orange on my screen. Red is ok, could have been a bit darker. Will do the engine the same

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The brother came over the other day, and we spent most of it eating cakes and pies, drinking coffee and occasionally rubbing the old lump (in amongst this the engine got cleaned too)

engineafter.jpg

Its shiny, so that means its rebuilt right?

(acutally before this i decoked the head and will reset the valves once its running. Thats all this old girl wants)

Ignore the painted park plugs, they are just there to stop me painting the threads. Might do the head nuts black for a bit of contrast, and go over the alloy bits - timing cover, sump etc again.

Clutch is off for replacement, contemplating shaving down the flywheel, but i probably wont.

Also rebuilt the front brakes, so all that is done

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

mountrust.jpg

enginemountpatch.jpg

minorenginemountrustrepaired.jpg

nekminnuit.jpg

Clang, Boom, Steam

rust cut, whiskey drunk, patches cut, whiskey drunk, patches welded, whiskey drunk, shed caught on fire, whiskey drunk, whiskey drunk, bed

Think i will drill a wee hold in the middle of where the engine towers mount, so i can inject fishoil or what have you into the front chassis rails

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Spent the last 3 days under the rear end

several stuck bits, soaking & a couple of hammer blows has gotten the driveshaft, diff and suspension out.

Will need new front pins for the springs, rear shackle pins, new rubbers everywhere, connecting arm for the armstong shock

Will take the diff to washworld tomorrow, steam blast the inch of gunk off it.

Wire brush everything

paint everything.

Diff seals look ok, it never dripped much, cleaning may change that

next steps

clean up underside rear

have done the rust here already, so its just paint and reassemble.

My lowering blocks dont fit, they are too big for the titchy diff spring mounts, locating pins are different too and the design of the blocks doesnt permit me modifying them. Will get some made and get new u bolts.

Will make new brake lines while im down there.

After that, its - pull the sump and switch the flywheels

replace all the seals there

Remove the remains of the "fixed nuts" for the gearbox crossmember and fit standard nuts and bolts.

Bung in gearbox.

Clean up and reinstall all under bonnet equipment

soundproof rear half of interior

fit underlay and carpet

retrim interior panels

finish my custom instrument gauge

get a new exhaust system made

once im all back together and running, i will gather up all the bits required to fit the water pump.

Fit tiny amp, hidden speakers and mp3 input

and hopefully get some miles in

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found some more rust in the body beneath the left hand rear spring eye. 3"x1" patch and that should be the last of it. Cleaning the undersides of cars is a horrid job.

Exciting news!!!!

I have now removed everysingle removable part of this car

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welded up the rust in the rear today.

Also ran one side of the rear brake line. Took a while, but looks good. Have held the lines down with some original and now impossible to get brass zip ties. Hopefully there are some more in my spares for the other side.

Got quoted about $400 for a set of lowering blocks for this. So it looks like my money will be going to the uk yet again.

Plan on por15ing the entire underside floor tomorrow. Am unsure if i then want to put on some underseal. I have always stripped it off my cars and cursed whoever put it on. But with a good base and it all being fresh i can see yye benifits in cutting down on road noise. Il think about it, as i already have a dynamat type deadening, then under carpet stuff, then carpet. So its going to be alot quieter than it was when i was driving it (only had metal floors).

Plenty to do, but progress is slowly building. Wanting to sell off my other vehicles and daily this again, seems a long way off, but once my ordered parts show up i should have it on all 4 and the sump+gearbox back in within a few days

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tapped the bottom axle locating hole and loctite'ed a bolt in there. The one was open to the half shaft, this should prevent any oil loss. I think that the other 3 will be fine with the rubber grommets.

Ran the other rear brake line, and also the front offside line.

Stripped down the rear cylinders and master cylinder and cleaned them out. They are looking good (were resleeved in stainless and rekitted when i first got the car).

Have reassembled the rear brakes, i am even using beehive springs.

There is still a seemingly endless list to do

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have put on 2 coats of por15 on the underside

my package from bull motif came today

so i have all my new suspension rubbers, fender welt, and a few other bits.

They didnt mention the gaskets wernt in stock when i ordered. But a note in the package did. Not that impressed as i probably would have ordered from esm again if i knew that. Oh well, i was making a second order soon too as i have found some bits are missing

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some og members may remember the bit of trouble i had with the alloy water gallery/generator mount.

Its held on with 5 bolts. I snapped off the middle one flush

then snapped off an easy out in there.

I used knead it to seal the cover and this worked perfect, with the proviso that i would fix it propperly at a later date.

Today i drilled it out. Colbolt drill bits cut through like butter, will retap when i get a 5/16 unf tap (iv only got unc for some reason).

Also cleaned up the start of the thread on the offside shock arm (must have knocked the very start of the thread with something. I had the nut off with aspirations to dismantle and rebuild, turns out you need heat anf 5+ ton of pressure to pull the arm off, so i cancled that idea)

Wont be putting a heater in just yet, so i machined out the heater take off on the pump so i can fit my temp sender in there. Il probably end up just putting a cap on this and drilling out the blank on the head to fit a brass male to male fitting. Just need to borrow a drill press for a few mins to get it in square.

Also pulled out the fuel tank. The hammerite i used hasnt sticked very well in places, so will repaint and refit with new screws.

In summary, waiting on a bunch more bits.

Short list of work to do:

Lowering blocks to go in

diff, driveshaft & rear suspension to go in

turn torsion bars down 2 notches to match rear

uprated oil in armstrong shocks

refit master cylinder and run lines to front and rear union

New gaskets and seals throughout engine

fit lightened flywheel

fit clutch and gearbox

fit water pump (i have all the "conversion" parts - you have to blank off where the lower radiator hose goes to the engine, then run a new hose and metal pipe to the pump. Im only missing the metal pipe. Will kindly ask a plumber to make a copper one.

Clean, paint and refit under bonnet equipment - distributor, fuel pump etc

thats roughly all i need to do....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Phone pictures, have more indepth ones on my camera. Will dump more at some point.

2013-07-18133823.jpg

finished diff, hasnt leaked anymore so i must have sorted it. New brake lines and rebuilt brakes

2013-07-18133629.jpg

drilled the water gallery blank in the head.

1/2" all the way through for the probe, then 19/32" halfway to tap to a 3/8bsp fitting.

Brass 3/8 male-male fitting has 1/2" machined out of the first 1/4" to match the step on the probe bulb.

Fits wonderfully, hopefully the capillary hasnt been damaged in the last 4 years!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flushed out the rear armstrong shocks.

Turns out they are rebuilt units - can see the replacement plug on the rear side. This explains the good condition and being the only part of the car not leaking.

Another giveaway is the gasket under the filler cap. They didnt punch any holes in it, makes topping up a bit hard. Haha

topped up with fresh sae.30 & painted

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...