Got the Morris Minor out of the garage today. It seems to run better than normal in the cold air. I managed to get a few miles on it with no break downs. Life is good!

SU HS2 Carburetor

A few weeks ago I removed the carburetor from the Morris to rebuild it. Progress has been slow, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing so I didn't want to get in a hurry and mess anything up.

I have been doing a lot of reading and it is starting to pay off. I am beginning to understand how it all works, including why the gas vaporizes in a carburetor. After reading many many different sets of instructions on how to adjust it, and they seem to differ wildly, I hope to get it all figured out soon.

Last night, I successfully got the jet centered. It took several attempts, but once I got it right, it was dead on. Tonight I installed the carburetor back on the manifold. (I haven't hooked the throttle or choke cables yet.) After getting it mounted, I gave it a shot of starter fluid and attempted to turn the motor over. Unfortunately the battery was dead so after hooking up the charger I hit the starter switch again. It cranked up (and ran very smoothly) until all the starter fluid burned off. Two more attempts at cranking it before the bowl finally filled with fuel and the car started running off gasoline. I was fairly impressed with my efforts at this point because it was probably running smoother than I have ever heard it.

Tomorrow I plan to get back out to the garage and adjust the fuel mixture, idle, and fast idle. Hopefully it will all come together without much trouble.

(Dirty carburetor, before cleaning.)

Did you know that the reason fuel atomizes in a carburetor, is that when air passes through a venturi, the air speed increases thus causing the atmospheric pressure to decrease. (This decrease relative to atmospheric pressure is a slight vacuum.) The decrease in air pressure lowers the boiling point of the gasoline. The lower boiling power causes the gas to vaporize. Any extra fuel that does not vaporize at this point, will vapor due to the heat as it flows through the intake manifold.

My daughter would say this was "very interesting." This of course would mean she was not really listening.

"Whitworth" or "A Little Background Reading to Better Understand the Next Post"

The Wikipedia entry for 'British Standard Whitworth' had two interesting bits of info about Whitworth threads.

1) "The Whitworth thread that most people encounter is the quarter-inch thread on the bottom of most cameras for mounting on a tripod..."

2) "British Morris and MG engines from 1919 to 1955 were built in a factory that used metric threads but with bolts and nuts for Whitworth spanners (wrenches) and sockets."

Yes Morris, as in Morris Minor 1000.

SU HS2 Carburetor Rebuild

The SU HS2 carburetor off the Morris Minor has been on hold for a couple of weeks. I had two problems that needed to be solved (without causing any permanent damage).

1) The brass jet was stuck in the jet pilot. This was keeping the jet from moving when the choke handle was pulled. I believe the strongest adhesive in the world is probably varnish made from dried gasoline. After soaking the pieces in carb cleaner for two weeks, they were still stuck. The solution to this problem turned out to be taking a propane torch to the brass for about 10 seconds and then dropping it in a bucket of water. Presto! The parts had separated.

2) The threads for the jet locking nut on the carburetor body had been cross-threaded at some point in the past. This made it impossible to put the nut back on correctly.

It was suggested to me that I could remove the first row of threads using a roto-tool. It would probably work but I was not certain I would improve the situation.

I checked the net for a tap and die set so I could clean up the threads. The problem here is that the nut has 3/8 Whitworth threads. (Three-eights of what? Not metric, not SAE. Whitworth!) I found a set online, but wasn't sure I wanted to throw $40 at the problem. I would if that turned out to be the only viable option, but I continued to search for other options.

I ended up borrowing a 3/8 Whitworth wrench from Lott. Using the wrench I was able to non-forcefully coerce the nut back across the threads. After a few twists back and forth, the threads were clean enough to hand tighten the nut.

The two problems are now behind me. Maybe I will finally get the carburetor put back together in the near future.

So I meant to post some copy with those last three photos but like so many things I never I got around to it.

Weekend Update

Saturday David M. and I drove up to Scottsboro to purchase some hardwood for the next couple of projects. We ended up buying some Leopard and Purple Heart. Both should make some spectacular boxes. Danny's next project will be from cedar. I already have a stash of cedar in the room above the garage so we didn't pick up any cedar at The Hardwood Center.

For Saturday afternoon the plan had been to drive up to Colombia, TN to ride the (model) trains but that little adventure was rained out again. I believe that was the third time in a row we planned to make that trip only to have it rain.

The previous photos show a piece of white oak joined with a piece of MDF, a photo of Danny using the joint jig we purchased back in the spring. Yes, that is the Morris in the background. The last photo is a shot of a weather balloon rising from Green Mountain in South Huntsville.

GMC Update: I painted the drive shaft this week.

And the Chainsaw! There I mentioned it, but it is not really news until I finish it.

Fly-In/Car Show

Saturday morning I drove over to Big Ed's Pizza. The local British Automobile club was meeting there and then driving out to the Moontown airport for the fly-in. The route was a nice scenic route over Monte Sano which included several miles of tree lined roads. The cars included several MG from various decades, the same Jag E-type I saw last week, Ernie's Fiat Spider, a Sunbeam Tiger, a Karman Ghia, a Volvo, and various German air cooled vehicles. In all there were probably about 30 and I am certain I left out a few very interesting cars.

The fly-in was pretty awesome. Lots of cool planes - old, new, single wing, bi-plane, etc. It was fascinating to watch them take-off, land, and fly by. The older planes were the most intriguing.

Last week I made the mistake of going to the car show with a dead battery in my camera. This week I did not make the same mistake. Instead my memory car was full. I wonder what my next trick will be?

I had such a great time on the drive-out, I was seriously considering joining the Brit. car club. There I was surrounded by a bunch of cool convertibles, driving my Miata! I told one of them it was an Austin. Next time maybe the Morris will be road worthy. In the midst of all this I met yet another guy from Rocket City Miata club. He attempted to recruit me for their club as well. I have been intending to join it but they meetings typically occur on a might I am busy. It turns out they are currently meeting on a night that I am free. Hmmm.

Roger's Day Out

Today we took the Morris to a Euro-Brit car show. Lots of Triumphs, MGs, Austin Healeys and Volkswagens. Quite a few Range Rovers, Minis and Porsches. On Ferrari, one Lotus, and one Morris.

The trip, fewer than 10 miles, to the show was uneventful. That is until I stopped for parking directions. At that point Roger refused to start. That has not happened before (when I had gas in the tank – I have already run out twice because the fuel gauge doesn’t work). Fortunately the car is British so no one was surprised when it wouldn’t start.

I popped the bonnet and a bunch of guys leaned in under the hood. These guys were great. And knowledgeable. And prepared. After checking to make sure there was fuel, they checked for spark. The spark was weak. Eventually they had replaced the distributor cap, the rotor cap, and the spark plugs. And Roger was alive again. The amazing part was that they had all these parts with them. And more.

I got the name of the guy that supplied all the parts so I could replace them. I also learned a lot through the process. Basically the car didn’t want to start because the spark was weak – it basically needed a tune up. The weak spark alone was not the problem. The plugs were also really dirty. The plugs were dirty because the car was running rich. And the car was running rich because the electric fuel pump was the wrong part.

Normally these cars have mechanical fuel pumps but they often get replaced with electronic equivalents. The problem was that this one pushes about 5-7 pounds of pressure where the carburetor only needs about 2 pounds. The increased gas pressure basically forces gas through the carb which is what has been causing the car to run rich. This all made complete sense, after it was explained.

The car has been running rich. I had been studying how to tune the carb in order to correct the problem. Using the instructions from my manual, I had tuned the carb down as lean as possible. I was baffled as to why it was running so rich. Now we know. We also know I need to replace the fuel pump. (One of the guys even offered to loan me one.)

I also found out that as the distributor wears out the car loses power at medium to high RPMs. I would say that based on this knowledge I would say my distributor was well worn. The car definitely felt peppier after the meta-tune-up.

And finally I received lots of good advice I plan to follow:

0. Replace the fuel pump. Soon.

1. Finish the tuneup. Replace the plug wires, the condenser, the coil, etc.

2. Carry some spare parts in the boot. Extra plugs, distributor cap, rotor cap. The parts are cheap and don’t take up much space.

3. Buy some extra tools and leave them in the boot as well. With a Harbor Freight nearby, I think I can accomplish this for about $20.

One of guys in my neighborhood invited me to this car show. I already knew about it and planned to attend. I had talked with him about my carburetor already. He was at the show and had brought me a copy of a tuneup guide for my carburetor. (Did I mention these guys were all really helpful.) Ernie is a very interesting and knowledgeable guy. He is also a Fiat guy. I believe he has 4 Fiats, maybe 5, 3 are convertibles. At least one is a parts car. He also has a couple of 1967 Datsun 1600s which are also convertibles and which I think are pretty awesome cars – I mentioned one in a post several years ago when I first saw one in a salvage yard. Most of his cars are still in the project stage and I suspect he is actually working on all of them. (And he is an accomplished brew master.)

Last night the local Euro-Brit car club went on a drive. I had wanted to attend but I was pretty sure Roger wasn’t up to it. It is a good thing I didn’t attempt the drive. Hopefully we will be up to it next year.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable day, even with the breakdown. The kids went with me and I think they had a pretty good time as well.

Tuesday night woodworking was not very productive. The greater we managed to make 24 precision cuts. OK, so maybe only 3 of them were precise, but we did try to at least cut the correct boards.

I also crawled under the Morris to find the gas leak. It turns out the leak is in the tank. This is quite unfortunate as the tank is pretty much full right now. And now it is slightly less full. And now ever so slightly less than it was a second ago. You get the picture. So in the very near future I suppose I will be dropping the tank, but first I must procrastinate for a while.

And finally it must be said Danny is now officially a bum. Bring on the summer and shred the list.

The Morris Minor 1000

Hello Roger

Thursday night while browsing Craig's List, I came across an interesting ad: For Sale: 1967 Morris Minor, yada yada yada.



(To get a good idea how big this car is notice the Volkswagen Beetle in the adjacent spot.)

Thirty-six hours later it was parked in my driveway. When I saw the ad, I knew it would go quickly. I called the owner. He said two others had already made arrangements to come see the car. I made my appointment for earlier in the day!

This car is roughly the same size as a VW Beetle. The interior is spacious but sparse. The exterior styling is reminiscent of cars 20 years older that it. It has a very small engine (1 liter) and a fairly large trunk boot. The paint looks good in the pictures and from about 20' - closer than that you can tell it needs some attention.

It quit once on the trip home. The previous owner said the gas tank was full. The gauge showed the tank was full. Fewer than 15 miles later I was out of gas. The gauge still showed the tank was full - it was not. In what seemed like a fortuitous event, the car ran out of gas right in front of a gas station. Unfortunately it was an unattended commercial refueling station. None of my cards worked there. My neighbor Brian who was still following me at this point, went and bought a gas can and brought me back some gas. At this point I headed straight for the station and filled up the tank and the empty gas can, just in case.

Did I say it quit once? It also developed a vacuum leak on the way home. This is kind of the opposite of quitting. The leak caused the engine to idle high. Nothing that couldn't be dealt with if I ever made it back home. Because it was idling high, I turned the motor off each time I had to stop for a light. (This reminded me of my hyper-mile-ing experiments the summer of 2008.)

Each time I stopped, there were one or more people there to ask me about the car. Two British car guys stopped to chat, they both wished me luck which I understand one needs when they have a car from the UK. Lots of people waving also. I think this car was getting more attention than the 1925 Chevy truck did. Amazing.

It has a few problems, but nothing we can't live without. I hope to get it running a little smoother soon. It won't be too soon though, my calendar is booked pretty solid for the next couple weeks.

Several folks have asked me what I am going to do with this car. The short answer is nothing. I don't plan on restoring it - basically I just want to keep it running and go get a milk shake from time to time.

Oh, yeah, we have decided to call it Roger, a name that stuck very quickly.