1970 Morris Minor Traveller

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Hi,
Stumbled across this great site, and thought I'd present my 1970 Morris Minor Traveller and 1965 2-door Saloon. The Woody sports a 1275cc MG Midget engine & close-ratio gearbox, MG Metro HIF SU carb, LCB exhaust manifold, electronic ignition, Burlen electronic fuel pump conversion, hydraulic clutch actuator, Ford Escort/Orion ventilated front disc brakes, telescopic dampers, alternator conversion, extra Smiths gauges for oil pressure, water temp and inlet manifold vacuum, Minilite alloys and a few other tricks.






I have owned this car for 20 years, and most of the work done is my own apart from the bodywork which my brother kindly sorted. The next major upgrade planned is to change the cylinder head for a Metro unleaded one.

Thanks for looking!
Maurice.

[HoTWire]

Welcome to the forum.. Nice usable modifications in a smart looking car.. top stuff

[motherofgod]

Welcome, always more room for minor's

James

[Seth]

I don't know why all Minors aren't now fitted with all these bits. It makes so much sense!

Nice car

[michiel]

Nice car indeed!

[devilishdesigner]

seth said:

I don't know why all Minors aren't now fitted with all these bits. It makes so much sense!

Nice car

hehe, mine si still even running its original shocks from 1954

great looking ride by the way, must be great to have it on the road.

[dollywobbler]

Yay! Not killing a Marina to upgrade your Moggy FTW! Ford brakes eh? Nice.

[flappysocks]

Very nice.

[archieboy]

Very nice indeed! really need to get my van sorted

[archieboy]

Very nice indeed! really need to get my van sorted

And welcome!

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Thanks for the kind comments folks - most encouraging The old crate, on its original wood (thanks to Cuprinol preservative) is still reasonably practical and usable all these years on though I don't throw it around quite as much as I used to, out of some respect for the age and mileage (135,000 miles). This car has taught me alot about working on motors.

[bazzateer]

Now that's nice

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Recently fitted the Metro 1300 unleaded cylinder head, which has larger valves than the Midget original giving a little more oomph - tops out at around 100mph (speedo only reads to 95!) Running much sweeter now, with decent compression across all cylinders unlike before, and alot less smokey

However, I have bought a Fiat twin cam 1800 engine & 5-speed box + Minor conversion kit so this may find its way in before long, unless I stumble across a Minor 2-door saloon with a blown engine/box...

[Oldbus]

Nice car, welcome aboard! ;D

[qwerty]

Very Nice traveller. Fiat twincam could be interesting ;D

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Thanks for the comments guys! For the time being, I'm keeping the Traveller as it is, and have just purchased another Minor project, with Fiat twin cam engine ready-installed. I hope to have it at least up and running this summer...

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Fired the Fiat twin-cam engine up this weekend by jury-rigging the ignition, starter and using an electric fuel pump as the engine-driven mechanical one wasn't pumping effectively - it ran sweet

However, the starter motor appears rather weak. Don't suppose anyone has a spare one suitable for a 2-litre Fiat twin cam? Or does anyone know if a Lada Riva/Niva one will fit?

Cheers,
Maurice.

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Weak starter cured by fitting a decent thick earth strap Still some issues with the fuelling to sort out; I've always found Weber carbs to be somewhat tricky to set up - give me good old SUs any day

The block-mounted mechanical fuel pump does work after all, it just takes a fair bit of cranking of the starter to eventually persuade it to supply the carb with juice

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Well, more progress made to the Twin Cam Minor; after lots of issues with overfuelling and running horrendously rich, this was diagnosed by a local Weber expert as the hose running from the base of the carb being attached to the fuel return outlet of the float chamber rather than to the correct takeoff on the air filter housing, so that fuel was being pumped direct into the inlet manifold, bypassing the carb altogether!

I have now fitted a Facet electronic fuel pump ahead of the fuel tank, as the mechanical pump was causing difficult starting.

Also, the home-brew tubular exhaust manifold was running very hot where the constructor had joined the two-into-one section too tightly, causing constriction, so I cut and refabricated it with a new collector. Engine now runs smoothly ;D

Next major job is to refabricate the clutch slave cylinder bracket; the previous owner made a nicely engineered bracket but the throw of the cylinder is such that the clutch doesn't disengage, so no gears can be selected, so until this is done the car is undriveable

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

After attempting to get the hydraulic clutch actuation to work by adjusting the position of the slave cylinder, I decided to remove it altogether as it only gave around half an inch of throw, nowhere near enough to operate the clutch. I removed the clutch pedal from the Marina pedal box and welded on an extension fork to take a clevis pin (see photo below), to operate the clutch by cable as per the original Fiat Mirafiori spec. Result is a driveable car 2 months after purchase - but still needing a fair bit of work before it's roadworthy...


Marina pedal box modified to accept the clutch cable: