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

JAN 2014

Hi there to anyone who may be reading this and "Happy New Year" (somewhat late but better then not at all).

Well it has been a slow start to the year car wise as, naturally, everything has been closed over the "silly" season for the holidays and as such it was just yesterday that someone was very kindly able to come and have a look at the current front brake problem (see Dec 2013). He has determined that he new slave cylinders are actually wrong for the car or have been cast incorrectly and as such are holding the pads/shoes in the wrong place, thus causing the drums not to fit back onto the car. This is somewhat frustrating as I thought  had bought the correct Lockheed parts for the car and it looks like they are actually somewhat rubbish pattern parts instead. Now it is to decide to get new actual Lockheed parts or to have the old cylinders rebuilt and refit those, quite possibly the latter. The trouble is that I am a 27 hour drive away from the car at the moment and my poor Dad is stuck with trying to sort it for me instead, which is exceptionally good of him to do for me. Oh well nothing to do but sort it and get it together again, after all it's now 2014 and it has to be registered and back on the road for a June departure!

Guess the main point here is to make sure to read the fine print about the parts you're buying to make sure you're getting what you think your paying for!!

Oh and looks like I am going to get the count transported down to Melbourne. I would much prefer to drive it and I have blind faith in it that it would make it, but accepting others point of view of the car actually hasn't been driven for over 11 years now, so it would probably be more sensible to be able to have shorter runs out and back from home to give it a "shake down" period before the long trip as opposed to jumping in and driving 27 hours straight up. Probably makes more sense, though I don't think so ;)

 

Dec 2013

Well things have started to move along. I have just spent the weekend working on the car and have achieved a bit really, much thanks to my dad for giving me a hand with some of it. So far I have managed to replace the axel to hub seals and the back brakes, slave cylinders and pads and two of the three flexible hoses. The master cylinder was changed over in a surprisingly short space of time (thankfully), though I have noticed that the new master cylinder cap does not actually have a breather hole in it, so not sure if it should or not. The old cap definitely has a breather hole in it and to be honest I had never known that it was supposed to be there, it was so perfectly filled with dirt that you could not even see where it was supposed to be (don’t get me wrong the cap was perfectly cleaned and wired brushed of all dirt, it was just that not knowing the hole was supposed to be there I had never even noticed that it was full of dirt). I had never been able to get the brakes to bleed properly and it was a constant round of bleeding and re-bleeding every few months to try and get some pressure, usually I actually had to pump the brakes up to use them at all. Once I knew there was supposed to be a breather hole and I found the location and cleaned it out, BAM! the brakes bled and pumped up perfectly with a fantastic pressure, it was amazing.

 

The front brakes are being somewhat of a pain, I managed to get time to replace the cylinders and fit the new shoes/pads but the drum then flatly refused to go back onto the hub. It is as though the brake shoes are holding it so far out of alignment as to not have any way of getting the drum on. Dad managed to move the shoes with a screw driver whilst trying to get the drum on and managed to get it to fit, though there was no hope what –so-ever of getting the hub to then turn, it had locked up so tight that it too judicial thumps with a rubber mallet to get it off again. So the wash up of that is we’re going to get a mechanic to come and have a look at it just to see what the devil is going on there and whilst he is there get him to bleed the system as well, saves me doing it. 

Additionally have replaced the water pump, radiator and radiator hoses and the thermostat and housing and the by pass hose as well. I will need to get some new heater hosing and replace the fuel hosing as well as rubber components don’t like the hot humid weather where the car is locate at the moment, so just to be sure they need renewing. 

The new radiator is quite different to the original one I had in the car in that it doesn’t have the high top tank and it also does not have the drain tap and the bottom drain plug either. This is most vexing as I have had the heater hose running off a brass fitting in the bottom drain plug and now I have to come up with the correct piping and such for the later cars so that I can refit the heather hoses properly. Further I am going to have to find a way of modifying/adjusting the lower two mounts for the radiator as the new one sits about 1mm from the fan blade at the bottom, the top there is no problem at all for clearance, and 1mm clearance is just not enough the run safely with out the fan cutting a nasty hole in the radiator. Hmmm maybe a thermatic fan is necessary after all? 

 The new tyres are all fitted and looking quite good on the rims, they don’t look at all out of place I think and fit quite nicely. The fitter was most certain that I had to have inner tubes fitted as well with these tyres so luckily I had managed to get a bunch of new tubes and supplied them as well as the rims to the fitter. The tyres are the Nankang 155/80 R14 type and where not badly priced and look a whole lot better than the old crossply ones did. Mind I did have one reasonably decent crossply amongst the ones on the car and I have kept that to have it mounted on the spare rim as the Nankang won’t fit into the spare spot, so it will have to be my “emergency” tyre just like a modern has. Anyway progress has been made and now it is just a matter of getting the brakes seen to properly and then driving the car down to Melbourne for some proper going over and fitting of a few electrical items to make it comfortably able to cope with the modern sound and electrical requirements and then get it registered. Thank goodness I fitted an alternator all those years ago!

November Part 2

Well the good news is that I am off to visit the family for a long weekend at the start of December and as such that will involve being in the same place as the Count for the same length of time. Whilst I know that it really isn’t all that long of a break, as I don’t sleep much and as there is electricity in the garage (read: this means there are lights as opposed to the single dim bulb in the machinery shed it used to reside in!) so I should be able to get some decent family time in and also get some work done on the car as well. 

 So far I have the wheels booked in for new set of Nankang 155/80 R14 on the Saturday, so I will have to find/borrow/hire 4 axel stands so that I can get all the wheels off at once to get them into the tyre shop. I have also sourced and should have in the next couple of days the correct (so I am told) type of inner tube to install in the tyres, as the original Morris rims don’t have a beaded edge to seal the radial tyres against properly. 

Further I have purchased a brand spanking new radiator that should be on it’s was to location by Friday this week so will be waiting ready when I get there. Plan of attack will then have to be get a level to check if the wheels are straight or if they are toe-ing in, then get the Count onto the 4 axel stands and all the wheels off and cleaned up a wee bit so they aren’t too messy for the installation of tyres on Saturday morning. While the wheels are all off, if necessary, install the spacing washers on the eye bolt to true the wheels back to straight. Then it is replace all of the brake slaves, front and back, and the master cylinder, fill and bleed the system and adjust the hand brake and refit the wheels. Next is to drain the coolant, flush some fresh water through the system and whip the old radiator out and while I am at it and as I have a new one, remove and replace the water pump, drop a new fan belt in and then fit the new radiator. 

At this stage best bet will be to remove the heater core and also remove the 1000/Mini heater tap, flush through the heater core and if it is ok refit (if not ok then bypass till later), mount the correct type brass screw heater tap and then fill with coolant. From that point it will be best to fit the new locking petrol cap, which is a shame as I like the wee chrome original cap, fill the petrol tank with fresh fuel and then I should be well out of time and be on a flight back home. 

I think I will take the voltmeter with me so that I can see that the alternator is still producing power and I will need to make sure all the lights are working and shining and flashing as they need to be. The current train of thought is that I will head beck to Queensland later in January (due to school holidays and high airfares) and then I will drive the Count back to Melbourne, via the Wide Bay - Burnett, Newell, Olympic and Hume highways, already comprehensively insured as it will be, with a unregistered vehicle permit and compulsory third party. 

I am sure it will be interesting to see (1) if the car makes it, though I see no reason why it wouldn’t, (2) how many times I get pulled over for not having any number plates, hopefully none. I guess one thing I should not have to worry about is getting stopped for speeding! As a result of all this there will be pictures to follow of the work done and then of the trip down to Melbourne in the relatively near future. Actually quite looking forward to getting some work done and getting the car down to Melbourne, finally going to be getting somewhere with it and getting it ready for it’s trip around Australia.

Hopefully will be back to looking this good in the near future