Morris Minor Pre-Start

Morris Minor Pre-Start Checklist

You’ve found the car of your dreams, perhaps sitting in a yard, barn or garage under a tarp. The owner (or the owner’s kin) tell you that it was running when parked – anywhere from several months to several years ago.

I confronted that very situation, and in my case the car needed to be gone quickly. The former owners had sold their house, escrow was closing and they had to vacate the driveway. I had no spare funds at the time (the usual situation) and had come upon the car unexpectedly.

The safest thing to do is to have the car towed to a good, Morris Minor knowledgeable mechanic and have him/her go through the car for you. I never have that kind of money at hand.

The next safest thing to do is to tow the car to your own driveway/garage and follow the below steps, as well as performing all recommended servicing in the factory manual. Where’s the adventure in that?

My approach – and the least desirable but cheapest option – is to try and make the car drivable while it sits where you found it, and then drive it home. Now that’s an adventure!

This list is not intended for the mechanical neophyte. It assumes that you know a thing or two. The original factory manual is both very good and fairly easy to obtain. If you are new to this all, try to take a suitable friend with you, along with the manual.

Depending on how quick and dirty an approach you are comfortable with you can skip some of the below steps – but not all of them. You don’t want to damage an otherwise good engine just by starting it up the wrong way.

Is the battery charged? Will it hold a charge? If the battery is older it’s probably wise to replace it with a new one. Or, for testing purposes, you can jump to a known good battery.
Is the dynamo (generator) there? Is the fan belt intact and tensioned? Or maybe – if you’re lucky – someone has swapped out the generator for an alternator. We’re not going to worry about the charging system just yet – but we do need the belt to be intact and properly tensioned.
Visually inspect the engine compartment to make sure everything that’s supposed to be there – more or less – is there.
Remove all four spark plugs and squirt some engine oil (any viscosity) into the cylinders. Don’t overdo it. You want enough to coat the cylinder walls to provide pre-lubrication. The cylinder walls, pistons and rings may be very dry, and the result may be scoring of the cylinder walls without reasonable precautions.
While the plugs are still out, rotate the engine slowly by hand with the transmission in neutral. Take it slowly. If the fan belt is properly tensioned, you should be able to rotate the engine by grabbing the fan blades. If not, fit a wrench to the bolt on the main pully. Make sure you can complete a couple of full rotations without feeling any undo resistance. If you can’t turn it freely – or you meet resistance at some point – stop and determine why before proceeding. The most common issue is piston rings that have come stuck over time. If that’s happened, Google “stuck piston rings/seized piston” and try the various miracle cures. Some of them actually work. Once it turns freely, proceed:
Have an assistant sit in the car, shift into first gear and depress the clutch fully. Rotate the engine by hand – it should do so with normal resistance (remember, the plugs are still out). Now release the clutch and try again. You shouldn’t be able to rotate the engine without moving the car -- indicating that the clutch is engaging. If you can’t rotate the engine with the clutch depressed, the clutch may be bonded to the flywheel. There are tricks for getting it to release (Google).
Put the transmission back into neutral.
Check the fuel tank to see what’s in it. Gas (petrol) that has sat for any length of time is always suspect. You can dip a wooden dowel into the tank through the filler pipe, pull it out and sniff the end. It should smell powerfully of gas. If the gas is suspect, the best thing to do is remove the drain plug in the bottom of the tank and drain it all (no nearby open flames, etc.). Remember that there may also be a fair amount of water in the tank (from long-term condensation). Check the tank for excessive rust (you can see the bottom, center section of the tank – if necessary – by pulling the fuel gauge sending unit).
If the tank has rusted through and drained itself – or if it’s so hopelessly contaminated that it’s a project in and of itself – you can rig a temporary tank to test run the engine. The easiest way to do this is to remove the left rear wheel, allowing you to see the steel gas line connection at the upper rear of the tank. You can cut that connection – leaving a decent size stub on the tank side – with a mini-tubing cutter. You can now slip a length of rubber fuel hose onto the non-tank side (leading to the fuel pump), secure it with a hose clamp, and stick the other end into a gas can. If you need to move the car once started, you can properly rig a gas can with fittings to safely secure it in the trunk (boot). I recommend also fitting a vent line and running it to the exterior if you do so. Once the original tank is repaired/replaced, you can joint the section you cut with a short section of gas hose and clamps.
Once you’ve got some sort of decent gas in the tank, turn the ignition key to the first position (don’t run the starter yet) and see if you hear the fuel pump clicking away. If the car has been sitting for any length of time the float bowl in the carburetor may be empty (or it may be full of ancient, non-burning gas). If the fuel pump doesn’t run, check for power to the pump and diagnose the problem.
It’s easy to pull the float bowl cover on the carburetor if you need to. Remove any liquid in the bowl, clean it out and fill with fresh gas. Check the float bowl valve for proper operation, and eyeball the float and float level. Reassemble.
Check the oil level in the engine. How does the oil itself look? Make sure the oil is good enough to run the engine initially. If not, change it.
Check the coolant level. Check the appearance of the coolant to make sure it’s usable enough for a first run.
Remember that the spark plugs are still out. Disconnect the coil wire from distributor cap. Now, using the starter, crank the engine over briefly – five seconds is enough. It should turn over quickly (with the plugs out there’s zero compression in the cylinders) and make no obnoxious sounds. If you hear a high pitched and continuous squeal, the water pump may be faulty. The impeller on some of the pumps is rubber/plastic bonded to the water pump drive shaft. The pump housing is aluminum, while the engine block is steel. Sitting long enough, the dissimilar metals can cause a lot of corrosion and actually prevent the impeller from turning, breaking it free from the shaft. The squealing sound is the shaft rotating inside the impeller. You’re going to have to remove the water pump (reasonably simple) and inspect/replace it.
Figure out which indicator light on the dash is the oil pressure light (or – if fitted – which is the oil pressure gauge). Once again, crank the engine over with the starter. The oil pressure light should eventually go out, or the gauge should indicate a suitable build in pressure. This may take a bit. Don’t overheat the starter in the process. If you cannot detect oil pressure, stop here and determine why. You don’t want to start and run an engine that’s been sitting with the lubrication system being faulty.
This is a good time to make an initial check of the compression. If you’ve got a gauge, go ahead and check. Write down the results.
This is also a good time – if possible – to go ahead and set the valve tappet clearances. Recheck after running the engine for a bit.
Replace the coil wire in the distributor cap. Stick a known-good spark plug into one of the wires and hold the metal base of the plug to a good ground. Crank the engine over and check for spark. If you have spark, proceed. If not, stop and determine why (check points, rotor, cap, power to and from distributor, spark plug wires, coil wire, coil, etc.).
Re-fit the spark plugs with new or known-good plugs.
Make sure that the piston in the carburetor throat (remove the air cleaner) can be lifted freely but with some resistance. Check for dampener oil in the carb.
Ready? Inspect the engine compartment, particularly the radiator fan area, to make sure things look in order and no tools are in bad places. Pull out the choke and attempt to start the engine. This may take some doing, as you’ve got to get gas (petrol) through the carb and into the cylinders. If it fires up and runs, proceed to step 19. If not, the most likely problem is air/fuel delivery to the cylinders – either too little or too much. Stop and diagnose. If you’re the type to do such a thing, you can deliver a quick shot of ether into the carburetor throat.
It’s running now – or at least it started and ran for awhile. Don’t worry about some initial smoke coming from the tailpipe – remember that you shot some oil into the cylinders. Don’t forget to push the choke back in. Mess around with things to develop a decent idle.
On non-side-valve engines, pull the oil fill cap and – using a light – look in at the valve train. Things should be ticking over nicely in there, with no excessive noise. Look for evidence of oiling.
As the engine warms up check for coolant circulation, and to make sure that the thermostat is opening. Feel the top and bottom of the radiator. If the bottom is dead cold after the engine has been running for a bit there’s a cooling problem. Could be a bad thermostat, bad water pump or a blocked cooling system. Shut down and find the problem.
Look everywhere for leaks.

Before Driving:

Check the tires, both inflation and condition. Look for cracks in the rubber, both around the steel rim and between tread. Decide if you trust them enough to drive. If all 4 tires are steel belted radials you may be able to drive it home. If they are bias-ply tires – and they’ve been sitting for a long while – you will want to think carefully about it.
Check for brake fluid in the master cylinder (on the floor, under the driver’s feet). Jack the car up and check the brakes. Have an assistant sit in the car. Each wheel should turn freely with no brake applied, and lock when the brake pedal is depressed. The brake pedal itself should feel firm – not spongy – and should stop well short of the floor. That’s the minimum you should do before moving a long-sitting car. Water can collect in brake cylinders over time and cause the pistons in the cylinders to freeze in place. To do it right, pull all four wheels and drums. Do a full brake inspection – checking cylinders, shoes and lines. Of special note, some Morris Minors have two brake cylinders on the front wheels. The quick and dirty brake test described above does not insure that both cylinders are working.
Sit in the car and check the emergency/parking brake. Jerk it up fairly hard a few times to make sure the cable won’t snap if you need it. You can also visually inspect the cable and linkages below the car.
Crawl as far under the car as you can get with a good light. Make sure nothing has rusted through, is falling off or may cause the body to collapse.
Check all lights, particularly brake lights and turn indicators.
Without moving the car, but with the engine running, run through the gears just to make sure you can.
If you’re adventurous, daring and perhaps a little foolish (like me) very slowly put the car in gear and start it moving (whichever direction you can). Immediately hit the brakes and make sure you can stop. Being able to stop efficiently is the most important thing at this point. Keep this move and stop thing up until you’ve come to something resembling a flat, traffic free stretch of road.
Go for it, but at some point early on make absolutely sure you can lock the brakes up while the car continues to go in a straight line.
Pay attention to the steering. Is she responding well? A properly aligned Morris Minor will track down the road nicely. If she’s prone to wandering around, stop and find out why.