Old problems with new parts
I’m afraid progress on cars this last month has been slow, on account of my other hobby taking up more time than usual. However, I’ve enjoyed plenty of driving in my 1950 Morris Minor Lowlight, which has performed faultlessly on the regular and traffic-free very early morning run to Swanage from the New Forest to get there in time when I am volunteering.
I hope the editor won’t mind a little digression into the world of heritage railways while I explain the back story to the photo on the right. I volunteer at Swanage Railway as a locomotive fireman, and also a Trustee. About six years ago we acquired a London and South Western Railway T3 locomotive, No.563 built in 1893, and since then have been helping to raise money to return the locomotive to
the Lowlight’s snapped fan belt was removed and replaced.
steam. Last month, it finally returned to the railway ready to haul trains for the first time in 75 years.
I couldn’t miss this opportunity to line up my 1950 Morris Minor Lowlight next to 563. It is amazing to think that the last time No.563 worked in 1948, cars like my Lowlight were only just rolling off the factory line! The locomotive will shortly be launched into service, and associated preparatory work for this has naturally been taking up a fair bit of time, but all the extra mileage has generated things to do on the cars too.
Unfortunately, on my drive home after taking the above photo, the car evidently didn’t like being upstaged by a steam locomotive, and the fan belt decided to snap despite only having been used for a few thousand miles. This gave way on a dual carriageway, but with the ammeter discharging and the ignition warning light coming on, I was able to coast to the next roundabout and drive into a conveniently located petrol station to fit a replacement before the engine boiled up. Fortunately I had a spare in the boot and had remembered my tool kit, so this was no trouble, I just loosened off the alternator bolts, slipped that new belt over, tensioned it and tightened the bolts up once again. The task was made much easier because of the floodlights around the petrol station, and before too long we were on our way again. It wasn't even raining for a change!
I had another hiccup a few weeks ago, but this time in Horris, our 1970 Morris Minor Van. I was driving to collect my dad in typical summer weather – torrential rain! – and the wipers stopped working. At first I thought this was a problem with a blown fuse. (I think I've mentioned in a previous Driver Diary that we’d had a troublesome batch of these.) I stopped in a safe place and lifted the bonnet to investigate. The
fuse hadn’t blown, but some careful wiggling of it got the wipers working again. When I got home I took the fuse out, cleaned up the connections and replaced it, and the problem hasn’t returned since. Although I’m not sure I’ve driven it in the rain since then either…
Actually we have had a whole series of fuse problems with dad’s 1967 MGB GT, lasting several years. Plenty of weird electrical breakdowns have been traced to the fuse box, often solved by wiggling
the fuse or replacing it with another even though it didn't look blown. He fitted a new fuse box and the problems continued, but recently he noticed that the fuse which seemed to have failed but looked fine was really hot, so hot that he burnt his fingers removing it. A test with a multimeter confirmed it was not passing much current.
Further investigation revealed that the actual fuse had unsoldered itself INSIDE the cap, leaving the part visible inside the glass intact. Fiddling with other similar fuses confirmed we had a dud batch of badly soldered or spot welded fuses so they would fail gradually below their rated capacity. Most glass fuses sold nowadays are like this, but some are still around made in the traditional manner. Since then dad has replaced all his fuses with ones properly soldered from the outside and has had no further problems. These are probably new old stock ones rather than recent production.
Continuing on the maddening subject of unreliable new parts, I had a new radiator cap fall apart when I was checking the
coolant level. Rooting round in the shed I found a scruffy original one, probably 50 plus years old, which seems fine. I only fitted a new one (from a reputable supplier) because it looked better! I think the quality control on a lot of parts must be a bit lax, but because many classics do very low mileages, by the time they fail any guarantee has expired or the receipt is lost. This sort of thing is really annoying, and makes it doubly important to
carry a comprehensive tool kit and a selection of spares wherever you go. And yes, as soon as I got home I ordered two new spare fan belts.
It will shortly be time to switch the Lowlight and Lily, my 1967 four- door Morris Minor back over on the insurance, and so I had better make a start on preparing the lowlight for storage and getting Lily ready for the winter roads, but this will have to wait until next month.