May 2014

Well here we are only 29 days left until departure. Not panic stations time yet, but still doing some things here and there to the car, mostly just small jobs that should make the car somewhat more comfortable for the trip. We've drained the radiator again and and turned the heater tap 180 degrees so that the heater pipe no longer rubs against the engine steady brace, which is due to having to relocate all the pipes to accommodate the new heater tap and the new radiator (new rad doesn't have a lower outlet or tap or anything which is a bit tiresome), the good part is that the coolant is no longer a delightful shade of mud, despite only being in there for about a month, and seems to be maintaining a much more respectable bright green colour. We've also made some new plywood trays for the lower parcel tray, they are in two pieces as the Mini heater that I installed some time ago would preclude the single piece board item it is supposed to have. The two half panels fit well and securely and no doubt will come in quite handy.

The only real concern I still have is if the alternator is working correctly, it seems to be able to keep the battery charged as long as the headlights are not turned on, turning the headlights on seems to then start draining the battery. It is weird the alternator can charge the battery while the lights are off but can't produce enough charge to do so when the headlights are on, anyway I think just to make sure that I don't end up on the roadside somewhere in the middle of nowhere it would be best if the Count drops by a auto electrician for a wee visit, just to make sure there is enough power to keep everything ticking along.

Oh and of all things the air cleaner element on the pancake air filter I fitted many years ago is really quite tired and dirty so we've been to all the usual suspects and trawled the internet looking for a replacement element and, you guessed it, no one has anything that will come close to the size of the element. Given that it has been so difficult to source a filter element I decided that it was time to replace the whole thing and have bought a RAMFLO air cleaner for a Mini, noting I have a 1.5" Mini SU and inlet manifold fitted to the car,and while I am definitely going to get a lot of induction noise though probably not much more than I already do with the pancake one currently fitted, the RAMFLO has the advantage of having a foam element that I am easily able to clean and if the going gets dusty I can always oil it as well for extra filtering power. Well that and the fact that they have been making them exactly the same for a very long time now, so there should be no problem getting parts for it if necessary.

29 and counting....

16 April 2014

Well, well, who would have thought the day would finally arrive.

Introducing;

Yep that is right, finally the Count has got it's nice new plates and is all road legal again, after only about 12 years if not longer. Very exciting stuff really and to be honest it has seemed at times that it was really just not going to happen. The Count has tested my resolve I can tell you and has taken almost every opportunity to not get to this point.

Actually the inspection for the roadworthy was yesterday afternoon and it was right up to the wire really. I had planned to take the car to work and then leave from there to head over to the other side of town for the test, but the Count had other plans. Went to start the car first thing in the morning and sure enough the battery was too weak to start it from cold. So took the bike to work instead rather than kick the car. Came home at lunch time ready to throw the battery on the charger for a couple of hours before the test, turned the key and wham instant start, swine. Then though fantastic problem solved it will be fine from here though best i check the lights are all good and working. Indicators, check, parkers, check, headlights, forget it they're out and have taken the parkers along for the ride. Switch the lights back to park alone and the parks are back. Break out the multi meter and sure enough the damn headlight switch has decided on this day of any that it would like to retire and had somehow managed to burn the main beam connection out.

So quick trip south east across town to the parts place and another second hand light switch and what do you know, everything is right again, we have lights and all is good. Well not quite all, pulling up at the parts place, may I add at this point this is the place where the car has just been holidaying whilst it had a new half chassis rails, king pins, tie rod ends and universal joints make over, one has to ask does that sound like the exhaust is "blowing" a bit? Hmmm...

Tester checks the car out and luckily for me doesn't hear the exhaust leak at the manifold and the paperwork is done and all approved, so obviously it is not too loud or I am hearing things, so I head home with the much desired piece of paper. On the way home I get to the bottom of the Westgate Bridge and am wondering why I can't see my headlights at all, then I try and accelerate and the engine starts to miss and cough, backing off settles it though. I notice that the dash lights are really starting to dim as well now and as I have to make it over this bridge (thankfully it isn't rush hour because a car dying on that bridge at rush hour has traffic backing up for miles) I decide to turn the headlights off. The dash light are instantly brighter so I am hoping the parkers are glowing and going to keep me out of too much trouble. The car breezes over the bridge and once over I try the lights again and they respond with the usual not very brightness I have come to expect from them. This lasts for about 50 meters and then they are off again, so the hope is that the battery is cactus and that is the problem but no doubt the Count is just trying it on again and I shall have to have the alternator rebuilt or the mechanics have wired something incorrectly when they have reinstalled the engine after the chassis rails replacement.

Oh well some more on the list, the minor exhaust leak being the easiest to fix which will take about half and hour at the most tomorrow, but the electrics and charging is all just magic to me so hopefully I can find the way through it without too much difficulty.

It's getting closer, it is only 45 days until I am supposed to leave on this trip! How did that happen....

April 2014

Well exciting times are upon us, the Count is back at home finally!

It's taken a lot longer then anticipated but all is good and looking fine again, well better than fine I guess as it now has new half chassis rails, king pins, trunnions and tie rod ends. Oh and they tried to remove one of the universal joints from the tail shaft and basically the end of the cap came away and the sides of it seemed to have self welded to the housing, so to save too much grief they just installed a second hand tail shaft which hopefully has fixed the problem. I am sad though that the universal joints in the "new"tail shaft are not able to be greased, I was told that most universal joints are not greaseable now, though that is not entirely correct as it is actually very easy to get universal joints for Morris Minors that are able to be greased. Oh well project for another time I think.

I now have a few more things to install, the rear shock links need to be changed and I want to get some panels made up to form a parcel tray and then install the stereo and relocate the CB from the passengers side to the drivers side if the aerial lead is long enough and install the remote speaker for the CB so hopefully I can actually hear it over the noise of the car.I think the I will run a power lead to the boot area as well so that I can install a power outlet for plugging the mini compressor and maybe a rear view drive recording camera as well.

The biggest thing I guess is that I am hoping to get the car back to the inspector this Tuesday arvo and given everything that he pulled it up on last time have been changed it should be given it's roadworthy and then it is try and get it through VicRoads and then officially get it re-registered so then it is pretty much almost ready to go for a wee bit of a drive. It's quite a money spinner for the government though, you have to take your car to a VicRoads office to be inspected, where the have a quick look and see if the chassis and engine numbers are what you have said they are and that is it., but to have it inspected you have to make a booking, which costs $16.40, and if you can't attend you lose the money and have to make another booking at another $16.40. Then just to have someone look at the chassis and engine numbers you have to pay another $26.20, so basically they are getting an extra $42.60 for every new registration in Victoria for in reality nothing. You just have to love indirect taxation don't you. I know, I know, it isn't a tax, it's a fee. There is a difference you know, isn't there?

Anyway getting there! Slowly but definitely getting there...

Old chassis rails, looking a bit second hand

March 2014 Pt2

It sure has been a while but the Count is well on the way to having it's new half chassis rails fitted now and is looking good. It is amazing what the old ones look like from the inside, well probably not quite so amazing as scary. The cracks in the rail above the hole for the eyebolt and the wafer thin rust sections are something to see, so too is the row of self tappers that are in one of the rails, who knows what that was about and all I can say really is the ignorance is bliss. To be honest I guess I really was quite lucky nothing happened on the run from Queensland to Melbourne, though it did make the trip without a hint of any problem, so as I say about ignorance. Hopefully at this stage I should have the car back by early next week and then I can get it registered and get everything ready to go for the trip. I am not counting on it as I have to coordinate times with the vehicle inspector, get permits and then get a VicRoads inspection as well, but hey a fella can only hope!

 

MARCH 2014

The Count has been for its road worthy inspection and as expected it failed, though happily the things it failed on are in no way as terrible as all the things that I had imagined would need looking at. It is amazing how you can talk yourself into thinking things are going to be a nightmare when they are nothing of the kind in reality. I called a couple of places to check if I could get a roadworthy done on the car and when they realised the car was a 1955 Morris Minor they lost all enthusiasm, so to get work done on it I wanted someone that would know what they are doing. Well I have found someone that should know what they are doing. I have now taken the car to a mechanic to have the few items repaired/replaced and they have now contacted me and come up with a list of items that they think need addressing. Well this is going to take some time as the most major item is they have determined that the chassis rails need to have a half rail replacement on both sides, something that has been on the cards for quite some years now, but on seeing what they are concerned about I have decided that it may as well go ahead. That and the king pins have a little play at the bottom trunnion, so they need replacing as well and the tie rod ends. Oh well given the amount of kilometres that I intend covering in the near future I guess it is better that it is done now rather than failing somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It is rather disappointing given I had hoped that the chassis rails would be ok and I would be saving the cost of that replacement towards the actual trip, but you have to go with safety and reliability don’t you. On a lighter note I did manage to sort the dash lights, or lack of, problem that I had. It seems that as I have actually bypassed the parking light wiring in the loom with a complete (well now I have done the tail lights too) new set of wires, the dash lights had been missed from the connection. Wiring them into the new parking light wiring has solved the problem and they are working just fine now too. So too is the number plate light, new wiring to that as well has sorted the smoke inducing problem and it’s working just fine as well. I have removed the auxiliary gauges that I had re-installed prior to driving it from Queensland and the car looks a lot better for it, actually that is the reason I had removed them last time really(they looked awful), well that and the fact I am none too sure of their actual reliability. 

The interior dome light still isn’t working and I am still not sure what is happening there, so at some stage I will trace the wiring for it and see what is going on as I am sure it is something very simple. Mind if I have to keep removing the glove box on the drivers side it is going to completely self destruct, given its age and its condition it is actually quite surprising it is still holding any shape at all. I am currently hoping to have the car actually registered and officially (not on a permit) back on the road and registered with all new shiny number plates fore and aft by the end of March. 

I realise given the ambiguity of the mechanical schedule with the works on it and the difficulty of getting it back over to the roadworthy inspector and further the fact I have to get an appointment with the State roads authority to get them to “officially” agree that the engine and body numbers are the ones on the car and not something the inspector, mechanic and myself have made up (actually I am sure it is just something else they have thought up that they can effect a fee for) that this may be a wasted hope, but you never actually know and some people do say that miracles actually happen, don’t they?

Feb 2014

Hello and welcome back to another update.

Well the time arrived and I went back to Queensland to visit with my parents and to finally get the car running and sort it out with all the newer new parts.

I must say, with the right bits and pieces, the Counts brakes went back together in a matter of 30 minutes and apart from one slight laps of concentration on forgetting to completely tighten one pipe, which resulted in a vast lake of brake fluid all over the nice clean floor of the garage, the brakes are working fine again. I fitted all the other parts, managed to install the radiator and get a decent clearance from the fan with the use of a nicely weighted rubber mallet to "adjust" the radiator mounting panel, which must have been damaged some time in the past, before I owned the car. For some reason the old radiator didn't seem to mind the bend in the panel, but the new one certainly did.

I fitted an old auxiliary gauge cluster and the temp sender was telling me the car was about boiling all the time, so just in case, as the radiator and hoses were very hot, I took the new thermostat out again which is supposed to be an 88 degree unit and have left it to run without one again like it always has done. I still think that it runs very hot for a car without a thermostat, but have to say that was really only when the temp outside as at the high end of the 30 degrees C, when the air outside was cooler the car would sit around 80 degrees C.

Additionally I have fitted the UHF CB under the dash, though find that I am going to need an external speaker for it mounted in a better position as I can't hear it over the noise of the engine and such while the car is running. I also have a twin outlet power socket that I can use for charging the sat nav unit and whatever else may need charging. The speedo in the car is still not reliable and to be honest I am not too sure it is up to much good as it "flickers" between speeds when driving at a constant speed. Thus the use of the sat nav, not for finding the route, but more for the GPS speed readout.

So now I guess you realise that I have actually had the car on the road and it certainly had a shake down trip. First up I took it for a run from my parents place out to the old farm for a brief visit and photo outside of the gates (pic below), before heading back to town via a rather long round about route, which is basically when I decided it was running far too hot (according to the gauge).

After a bit of fiddling about trying to get the rear tail lights working and basically having to run a complete new wire from the front to the back all was good, for about 20 seconds, until the car and engine bay filled with smoke. I managed to turn the lights off and stop the melt down, and thankfully it was one single wire that burnt out on the parking lights circuit. I managed to find the culprit that caused the near fire in the car, it seems that it is either the wiring to the number plate light or the light itself as with this left unconnected all the lights worked perfectly. Thus it was with much happiness that I re-installed the lights switch, fixed up some rather dodgy wiring that had previously been done and everything was right to go. Well except that I needed to install the locking fuel cap that I had forgotten about, the Count's was still the original and I must say the black plastic of the new locking cap leaves a lot to be desired, as you can see in the pic, when compared to the nice chrome original.

The antenna for the CB sits nicely behind the over-rider in a hole that has been there for a great many years where a previous AM CB aerial was mounted, the new CB is light years better and at only about a quarter of the size too. The tail lights are new as the old ones bulb mounts and wiring points were all very fragile and the circuit board in them was basically held together with tape. The little light under the bumper in the pic above is the LED indicator and it is certainly bright enough to be seen.

Ok with all of this done, permit and insurance in place and the weather looking good I set off from Gympie last Monday (3 Feb) and went via Kilkivan and Toowoomba in Queensland and then the New England Highway to Armidale in New South Wales for a over night stop.

This was a trip of 662 kilometres and basically took 11 hours, with a few fuel and water stops as I was averaging about 80 kilometres per hour. The next morning I left Armidale about 0700 and drive south over some really taxing hills that certainly had an effect on the speed. I stopped briefly in Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia (thus the next pic)

With more fuel stops and a rest break here and there it was on via Sydney to the National Capital, Canberra for an over night. The distance for the day two run a mere 943 kilometres and about 14 hours given the traffic and rain in Sydney and the fact also that I had no headlights (just parking lights) from the stretch between Sydney and Canberra, and even though we have daylight saving arriving at 2130 it was dark. Thankfully I caught up with a slow moving truck that I was able to sit behind all the way to where my accommodation was.

Given the lack of headlights I decided to have a break for another night in Canberra, to meet some old friends and to sort out the issue with the headlights. First up it was back to visit my now dear friends at Supercheap Auto to get some bits and it turns out that every time I put the headlight stitch back into the dash the headlight wire would pull out of the mount and be totally disconnected, no matter how I tried to connect and mount it. I finally managed to crush a clamp on terminal end so it would fit into the wire mount of the switch and crimped it to the wire, this seems to have sorted the problem. I finally have reliable lights and all is almost good, I just still don't have a interior light or dash lights that work for some strange reason, yet to be sorted.

Thursday morning sees me on the road at 0630 and other than the short stretch between Canberra and Yass the road is dual highway all the way to Melbourne, so no more having to pull off the road to let the trucks go on by! Given the golden guitar pic I felt it was only right to get some more of the big things on the way, unfortunately I missed getting a pic with the big merino at Goulburn on the way through between Sydney and Canberra as it was getting dark and I really wanted to get into Canberra before the light went, so I made up for that with three other big things between Canberra and Melbourne. First stop was at Snake Gully, Gundagai, about a 150 kilometre trip, where as in the song, the dog sits on the tucker box, which it has done for nearly 81 years. Ok size wise it isn't really a Big thing, but given its history I reckon it qualifies.

 After a quick fuel stop and bypassing Gundagai township proper, it was onwards towards Albury/Wodonga. Albury is on the New South Wales side of the border and Wodonga is on the Victorian side, the border between the two states mostly being the length of the Murray River. Just before reaching Albury they set up, some time ago at a place called Table Top, a real life version of the Ettamogah Pub. The Pub was a creation of a cartoonist, Ken Maynard and featured in a magazine that no longer exists, the Australasian Post. Yes true this is also technically not in the official list of Australian "Big Things" but it was in that magazine for many, many years and well I think it is a big thing. Actually its physical dimensions are huge!

This Ettamogah was the original one in Australia and copied versions has been created in other parts of the country (one in Queensland, actually geographically not that far from where the Count has been staying, though its never been to that one, yet), though unfortunately this one at Table Top New South Wales is no longer open as it closed in 2011. I must say though that given the fact that it is closed, it is in an extremely good state of repair, it looks like it has just closed for the night.

Heading south again it was bypassing Albury and then crossing the border into Victoria (the Count has not been in Victoria since 1993 for the Morris Minor Nationals as Ballarat, (and it got to that via a trip around Tasmania too I might add!) all up a quick 21 kilometres to stop and visit briefly with family friends and the people who found the Count and looked after it until it was given to me as a 21st birthday present. This is certainly the Counts area and it should probably know its way about the place better that I ever would. Photos were taken to pass on to the original owner and I then hit the road again. 81 kilometres further on still heading South, it was a stop at Glenrowan, for a visit to the big Ned Kelly. Glenrowan of course being famous for its association with the bushranger Ned Kelly, who made his last stand there and was finally captured after a siege and shoot out with the police. It is a quiet little town today and they really have spent some money on it since last time I turned off the highway to visit it, they have made quite and attractive improvement to the place, it looks quite friendly and inviting.

Finally after a quick sandwich in the park with some friendly magpies it was back into the car and on the last leg into Melbourne, unfortunately timed to coincide with the afternoon homeward traffic. Thankfully it seems the mega bucks that they have spend on the ring road have been well worth it as the traffic at no point even looked like coming to a stop, actually it barely even slowed down, which was brilliant! After a final 235 kilometre stretch it was pulling up out the front of the house and home, again for me and the first time for the Count, all up it was a trip of 2092 kilometres and it was done with barely any oil used and no coolant lost either. I re-greased all the appropriate places in the car park at Singleton Plaza after having lunch on the second day, and will do it again in the next few days as well.

Quite a shake down trip and one well worth taking as it is always good to go on a road trip and it basically shows that the Count should have no problem getting around Australia come June. I think the greatest distance done between fuel refills was 268 kilometres and that (according to the gauge) was with a quarter of a tank left to go, mind who knows how accurate that may be. So, though I am no expert, I think I was getting something like 7.39 litres per hundred kilometres, which I think isn't too shabby for a 1955 Morris Minor with a 948cc engine, Series II gearbox and 4.55 diff, given that it was mostly done at 80 kilometres per hour and that means it took a heck of a lot longer to get anywhere than it would at 100 or 110kms. Route followed is basically:

I guess the next adventure now is to get it registered in Victoria, which hopefully will be fairly straight forward.....

Hopefully.... 

JAN 2014 PT2

Ok well given the problems with the slave cylinders I have opted for a new set of Lockheed ones for the front. I have ordered then from the UK last week and they have arrived today! I am now going to bite the bullet and buy a new set of front pads form a Minor specialist here in Melbourne as a close side by side comparison between the new pads I bought in the UK and the old ones from the car highlight that there is not only a difference in the actual amount of pad bonded to the shoe but that the shoe itself is a slight bit longer. Maybe I have been sent the 8in shoes for the later car rather than the 7in ones that I require for a 1955 SII? Don’t know, not sure, but to get around that problems I am having I have decided to just get a whole new lot (as it is actually cheaper than rebuilding and sleeving the old slaves and re-bonding the old shoes too so I am advised by a local brake specialist).

 Now it is just a matter of getting down the road to the local Morris specialist to get the shoes/pads and then booking another flight to go and visit the car and install the new, new items. I am certainly hopeful that this time there will be no problems and they will just go in as they are supposed to. I have to say that I have not had this problem with it before (though it was 20 or so years ago) as when I changed them all last time it just all went together without a hassle, surely that is not too much to expect!

 I have also received the new radiator hoses and the copper water pipe (which is for the later cars that goes between the sections of heater hose and mounts on the head bolts) which means that I should be able to get the cooling system all reinstalled too. The old radiator was totally shot (well it was the original one!) and the side walls of the top tank were leaking through tiny stress fractures. The new replacement radiator is unfortunately not the tall top tank variety and it also does not have the drain tap or the blanking plug on the lower tank. This all means that I can no longer bolt the brass hose adapter into the blanking plug spot and run the heater hose from there, as such I have had to implement the copper pipe and the lower hose from the later cars so that I can keep the heater in the car, bit or stuffing about but you get that I guess. The radiator is slightly narrower in width to the original as well which means that as I tighten the mounting bolts the radiator is pulling the mounts in towards the radiator and as such they are sliding the whole lower edge backwards into the engine bay as they tighten. Obviously this isn’t the best outcome as it is putting the lower edge of the radiator about 1mm from the standard fan blade, thus if it was mounted and the engine started and revved had then the fan would probably flex enough to go through the new radiator, not ideal really. That is where I had to leave things during the last brief visit, so in addition to finishing off installing the new, new brakes and bleeding the system (hopefully the new master cylinder will vent and all will be good), I will have to pack out the radiator and get a washer or two between it and the mount bracket so that is stays where it is put. To safeguard the radiator and maybe free things up a bit I am going to take the engine driven fan off the car and install a thermo fan instead, specifically so that I have maximum cooling when I need it and not only when I am travelling fast. With a new radiator installed and all coolant being new etc I am presuming that really I probably won’t need a fan at all, but given that this is Australia and it is hot in some places, even in the winter, I would like to just make sure. I know that it is not “original” but really the car will have the later heater pipes and radiator hoses to keep the electronic ignition module (from a Mitsubishi Sigma!) feeding the 1.3 Rover Mini distributor, the new wiring and relays for the halogen headlights and auxiliary fuse box , the Mini heater, etc to keep the thermo fan company.

 I know people get upset with others making changes to the originality of the car, but really it is my car and if I want to change it to make it more usable and comfortable and safer then why the heck shouldn’t I be able to. Anything I have done to mine is easily reversible, I have almost all of the parts and I can change it back to original any time I like (granted there may be a few additional small holes from mounting things), so I guess that counts for something. Mind I have no problem with anyone doing whatever they like to their cars, some folk make some amazing modifications that I would never even have imagined, I might not ever want to do anything similar to my car and be happier that I know I can easily change it back to original anytime but I certainly can appreciate the modified vehicles.

Almost antique electronic ignition module