Back On Track!

With our new tools at hand, we were finally able to recommence the tasks which had been holding us up. Despite the cramped workspace under the car, Joel was able to remove 3 of the 4 bolts on the flange pinning the prop shaft to the differential. The 4th bolt proved to be more difficult as both the head of the bolt and the nut deformed under the pressure of the spanner, and we finally resigned ourselves to cutting the head off the bolt using the Dremmel. Once this had been done and the remainder of the bolt hammered out using a screwdriver, we lowered the prop shaft and withdrew it to the rear, thereby completely detaching it from the car.
We've decided that this particular task should be a "one-off". In other words we'll completely clean, paint and oil the prop-shaft while it's off, so we don't have to re-detach it in the future.
Our next task was to try the advice given to us on the forums of morrisdownunder.com to detach the speedo cable from the gearbox. It turned out the advice was completely solid, and it was a simple thing to unscrew the cable itself from the brass fitting, as opposed to attempting to unbolt the large brass fitting from the gearbox manifold.

Whitworth Spanners & Getting the Gearbox Off

Well the little Lowlight is now up on stands and we have removed all the brake drums, shoes and cylinders. We've decided to replace most of the brake bits with new parts to make sure that the car stops as well as possible. Seems like the pragmatic thing to do with a 61 year old car with only drum brakes!

At the moment progress has been halted because of our seized clutch. It will not engage at all. We had the engine running when we first got the car, and tried pushing the clutch in and putting it into gear. What an awful grinding noise! Hopefully we haven't chipped a tooth of one of the gears. We won't be trying that again. Our thinking is that we should remove the gearbox and see whether the clutch or pressure plate has corroded on.

We've just received some second-hand British Whitworth standard tools which we won via an eBay auction. Its very exciting because finally we have the right size spanner to undo the bolts on the prop shaft. We were pulling our hair out because our 1/2 inch and 13mm spanners were too small, but our 9/16inch and 14mm spanners too big! The right spanner has proven to be the 1/4" Whitworth. We'll post some pics shortly for all the tool-fanatics out there.

Hopefully we can now get the propshaft off and gearbox undone. Again - let us reiterate how limited our technical understanding is - it will be a challenge!

Once we've gotten the gearbox off, our thinking is that we will then know whether we need parts for the gearbox/clutch. Then we'll place a large order for new parts from the UK including cosmetic stuff, an exhaust, heaps of brake bits and window and door rubbers.

Hopefully then with those bits we can get the car roadworthy. Once its mechanically sorted, we then plan to pull it all apart again to give it a back to metal respray to make it pretty. But that seems a long, long way away, given our slow progress up till this point. Watch this space.

One great thing about a car like the Morris Minor is the community of enthusiasts who are generous with their knowledge. We're getting some great advice from the Morris Down Under forum:

http://www.morrisdownunder.com/

Its all about learning - this Morris Minor project!