The time has finally come, it has been a long ride, but it can't be put off any longer.
The timing chain that has happily been rattling away for years finally has to go.
I asked a mechanic many years ago to do the job, but they possibly weren't interested in doing it as they stated "Why the hell would you want to do that, they last forever, there's no need". As a true believer of the "if it ain't broke" principle, I decided to just let it go and keep running with that chain in place. This course of action has been just fine and the car has done many miles quite happily, rattling away as the chain got longer and longer.
The thing is, with a trip to Perth coming up next April (2025) for the Australian Morris Minor Clubs National Rally, it is probably best that any issues with the car are sorted out before setting out to hopefully minimise any possible problems on the 6,920 kilometre (4.300 mile) round trip from Melbourne to Perth and back. To that end, the timing chain's time has come and it's time to go. The required parts have been lying around the place for a while now as the level of enthusiasm hasn't been high, though given that there is plenty of time available there is no excuse.
Stripping the front, hockey sticks (seriously what psychopath designed the mountings for those), bumper and nose panel surprisingly didn't take all that long, possibly as it hasn't really been that long since it was last off the car. Removing the starter "dog" (where the crank handle mounts to the front of the crankshaft should you ever wish to hand-start the car) was surprisingly easy, a good fitting spanner, a pile of rag on the passenger side chassis rail and a light push of the starter solenoid it comes loose. Everything else came away easily, two different-sized bolts holding the timing cover 7/18 and 1/2 from memory, the hardest part was getting the old gasket to let go (well not quite true, the hardest part was getting the old gasket off the mounting face!).
Ensuring the car was at TDC and lining up the marks (dots) on the two cogs was easily done and that then positioned the two key blocks on the crank and the camshaft at 12 and 1 respectively, where they are supposed to be positioned. Releasing the nut on the camshaft was somewhat difficult though manageable and then the two cogs and chain slid off as a single unit. To reinstall it is simply put the new chain of the two cogs, ensuring the two "dots" are pointing at each other and then sild the cogs and chain as a single unit back onto the crank and camshaft over the locating keys, ensuring not to turn either shaft at all in the process, and there you go...
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| Timing dots all lined up |
So I did the nut on the camshaft back up and cranked the engine over on the starter (no ignition) and everything seemed fine. Reinstalled the new timing chain cover (the old one had the early felt oil seal and was forever randomly leaking oil) with a new oil seal and tightened everything up. Cranked the engine over on the starter again and everything sounded good and went well. Then reassembled the front of the car, swore a lot about the hockey stick mounting nuts again, filled the radiator with coolant again, started the car and it was fine.
It seems that not everything was 100% fine as there appeared to be a few random noises, though they quickly went away, so decided to go for a test run. All was going well at low speed, though trying to accelerate there was just nothing there, managed to nurse it off on a bit of a run about and stopped for a bit of a break and head scratch. Trying to start the car again and it really wasn't happy to do it, it just cranked and cranked. Finally, it haltingly fired up, barely running and only just managed to get it back home again, hmmm.... this doesn't seem great, definitely a timing issue.
Now the timing shouldn't really have been an issue as it was running fine before, we knew where TDC was and the chain was fitted correctly and the keys and timing marks were all in perfect alignment. There is an additional issue to now in that the new timing cover, fitted so as to do away with the felt oil seal, is from a Mini and just in case you don't know, the Mini has timing marks on the flywheel, easily seen through the bell-housing of the mini gearbox.
The Morris Minor on the other hand always had its timing marks in the most pig awful place, on the bottom of the timing cover, where the only way you could possibly see them was to lay flat on the ground and try to get a view between the front chassis cross member and the sump and look up at the bottom of the crankshaft pulley. Wonderful as all that sounds, given that the 'new" timing cover is from a Mini, there are no longer any timing marks at all, anywhere...
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| Original timing marks at the bottom in red. Now imagine the front panel and rad in place! |
Next job them, strip the rocker cover (needed to do the valve clearances again anyway (though they were all actually fine)), find TDC again with a drinking straw in the No:1 cylinder, make a mark on the timing cover and the crankshaft pulley, refit the spark plugs, new gasket and refit the rocker cover, give the dizzy a bit of a tweak to get the new mark on the crankshaft pulley to about the right position under the timing light and Bob's your uncle, happy car running again and all pulling fine.
Well, fine until later on the test run when it started making an odd squeaking sound like the fanbelt slipping. Home again and some lube to the water pump bearings and the alternator bearings and some stop squeak on the fanbelt and all seemed ok again, until later on again when it started making a bad squeaking and squealing sound. The best course of action was to give up in disgust and leave it. Next day and pulled the front of the car off again (yes predictably more swearing and cursing the name of the hockey stick mounting designer). Pull the fan, belt and the starter dog off again and attempt to get the timing cover off, which proved difficult as it was now very difficult to get a spanner onto one of the bolts that had gone in so easily the day before. Once finally managed to get the bolt out and managed to get the new gasket to release (it split!) the timing cover and everything looked fine, though there was a bump in the cover where I couldn't get to the bolt and some very light scratching.
It looked like somehow the timing chain had hit the cover and then scratched against it. Maybe the dent was always there or something else strange had happened, but another new (second-hand) timing cover, oil seal and gasket later and the car was running fine, not a problem and no strange noises at all. The test run was ok, though no power at all, another twist of the dizzy and it was mostly ok again, though a bit down of acceleration, and being a Morris with a 948cc engine, there isn't a lot of acceleration to begin with, so it s noticeable when it is lacking. Further runs and it seemed to sort itself out and start to come good, or so it seemed.
I have to say that the car running is a revelation, as long as I have had this engine in the car, and that is well over twenty years, it has always rattled, but it doesn't any more, it is like having a new car, so quiet it seems weird...
