A sheddie’s twin-engined Morris 1300 project
A RETIREE MAKES A DIY FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE MORRIS 1300 BY POPPING A MOTOR IN THE BOOT
Ex stock car racer Albert Gordge refuses to retire gracefully
Turning a two-wheel-drive into a four-wheel-drive car by adding an extra motor has been a longrunning but successful engineering challenge for retired New Plymouth mechanic Albert Gordge.
What made the operation more unusual was that Albert put the extra motor into the rear of a 1972 Morris 1300. The Morris 1100s and 1300s were popular cars in the ’60s and ’70s — front-wheel drive cars with a sidewaysmounted engine, a slightly bigger version of the Mini.
Anybody who has ever put a motor into a car that’s not made for it will know the headaches that can and usually do occur. How about putting a motor into the boot of a car?
We’re talking two engines, two gearboxes (and two linked gear sticks!), a combined clutch booster, and a hell of a lot of synchronization
Some real know-how
Albert did the whole operation in his shed, with no hoist or pit and just many years of experience behind him.
He put the car on four 20-litre drums and lay on his garage creeper to work underneath. The operation took fourand-a-half years!
The ex–stock car champion is not one to put his feet up and retire gracefully. He wanted a challenge and no way was he going to let his age of 75 and a bit of Parkinson’s disease slow him down.
Albert has always had a soft spot for the Morris and Austin 1100 cars and the idea of adding an extra engine into one first popped into his head 30 years ago. Now he’s done it.
The operation was not without its headaches. We’re talking two engines, two gearboxes (and two linked gear sticks!), a combined clutch booster, and a hell of a lot of synchronization. There’re two keys, two chokes, and a new shared petrol tank.
How to begin?
He began by making a new rear sub chassis for the rear motor. This was cut from another 1300 and the car was flipped over for the operation.
“I got the front of a rear sub chassis and the rear of a front sub chassis and welded them together,” Albert explains.
“I took the firewall off the first car, put it into the rear of the second car, and joined it to the sides.
“I then cut out the boot floor and put it all together. This meant the attached sub-chassis parts were factory-made so that saved a lot of engineering reports.”
We ask him how he got the new sub chassis and running gear to line up and he shows us lugs under each side of the car used in the factory construction.
“We measured from these lugs,” he says. “There was no welding when we put the new sub chassis in. Everything has been bolted together.”
“Making sure the new motor and gearbox unit was in line for the wheel arches was a worry, especially with the car upside down. It worked out fine though,” he says.
“People said the body won’t handle the weight of two engines but all the weight of the engines are direct onto the wheels, so no problems there.”
To avoid having two clutches or having to use a lot of force pushing one pedal, Albert cunningly used a Honda brake booster assembly to operate them both at once.
He pulled out the original petrol tank to make room for the second motor and built a 10-gallon (38-litre) new one in the back seat to feed both motors.
“There’s a shitload of regulations to make a petrol tank legal, but I got there,” he says.
He was pleased the car could retain the floating Hydrolastic suspension that it originally came out with.
A lot of headaches
The brakes caused a few sleepless nights. The car came out with discs in the front and drums in the rear. He adapted the rear brakes, fitting Honda calipers for the handbrake. He fitted factory engine stabilizers to both engines to stop engine movement. His biggest headache? “Sorting out the gear linkages was a big job — it took months. There is a tunnel running down the car for the front exhaust and I had to design and make up gear linkages to fit into the tunnel to the rear-engine gearbox. Cables wouldn’t work so everything had to be made from scratch.”
The first linkage Albert made after a month’s effort didn’t work. He shows
“You had to be more of an engineer than a mechanic. No, change that, you really had to be a magician!”
us a box of linkages he invented and made that also didn’t work. Eventually he got there and invented a clever clip that enabled the two gear sticks to clip together with an instant-release clip.
A job for an engineer or a magician?
Sorting out problems often took weeks rather than hours. He said that a big lesson was not to work too far ahead but rather work on one job at a time.
“You can’t buy linkages. The whole operation caused many sleepless nights working things out. You had to be more of an engineer than a mechanic. No, change that, you really had to be a magician!
“A mate asked, ‘At what stage do you think you’ll regret starting this job?’
“I thought, Cheeky bugger, but it was pretty early on I wondered What have I gotten myself into?” he says with a grin.
Everything had to be robustly made to pass roadworthy inspection by the Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association (LVVTA).
A substantial technical manual under the heading of NZ Hobby Car Manual (now The New Zealand Car Construction Manual) became Albert’s Bible for the job. However the car passed muster at the testing station with flying colours.
Working upside down
“There’s a shitload of regulations to make a petrol tank legal, but I got there”
The road test
We roar down the road, changing from front-engine drive to rear-engine drive, to both together.
The car runs really well, no vibration, and it’s completely legal and certified.
“What are you going to do with it now?” we ask.
“The car is absolutely no use to me at all,” says Albert. “It’s just been an engineering exercise and a challenge, as well as something to keep me ticking over and stop me getting Alzheimer’s.”
He says long hours on the project have been well tolerated by his wife, Maxine.
“At least she knows where I am — it’s been all go in the shed for a long time.”
Maxine says Albert started the project to keep his brain active: “He is not computer literate, nor is he interested in computers. A lot of what he needed was possibly online, but the exercise was to use his brain, which he did.
“He figured everything out himself, which shows the type of man he is. Anyone who thought he wouldn’t finish the project doesn’t really know Albie,” she adds.
His next project is catching up on garden work around the house for Maxine.
Albert and Maxine also enjoy road trips in their restored 1930 Ford Model A.