Scenic views of a rusty chassis.

To help out a Canadian van restorer who is tackling a rebuild of an early 1950 van that had been customised/butchered, part of the front chassis has been cut away.

Well he wanted some pictures of the missing items so here are a few i took in the rain Sunday morning. So all other J'ers reading this he is in desperate need of various items, will you help him out? Rear door hinges, rear doors, late engine covers both parts, Wiper motors, steering wheel, handbrake lever, instruments and binnacle etc etc, What have you spare?.

Chassis plates and body plates.

1966 Morris body plate.1966 Morris chassis plate. (uses the words car number not chassis number.)
1955 Morris car body plate, similar to the type used on C.K.D. export J types. ( uses words car number not chassis number)
1960 body plate.
1960 car  chassis plate.

Late 1957 jb Chassis Plate (UK )Late Jb body plate showing body number 35381 but is fitted to chassis jb/mr 37200.
Body plate close up. (Australian)
Early Australian brass chassis plate.
A nice Australian plate showing the word chassis is missing, replaced by the word car number (a term used on Morris cars and car derived vans ).

The chassis number is 41271 as to what the prefix 7/ relates to, any ideas any one?

I have been talking to many people around the world via this blog and the MCJTV site and some confusion has occurred as to what and where they are as they differ on export vehicles. Morris J types were made in three types for the home market, chassis, chassis cabs and complete vans.

The chassis being the main item as all other units are fitted to the chassis.

The van bodies were made as stated on their plate by the Nuffield Metal Products Co. They produced van bodies and put their makers plate on it with their own serial number.

In the U.K. only the chassis number is used on official paperwork.

When J type production started the vehicles had a large brass plate with all the serial numbers of the chassis and large units on it. During the formation of the B.M.C. group and with the second type of engine cover being introduced (to improve air flow, as over heating was a problem) the brass plate disappeared and a small aluminium plate with only the chassis number on it, took its place. It would seem that export vans were different. Australian vans seem to be fitted with a type of aluminium plate more in keeping with the type fitted to Morris cars of the period, of course cars did not have a separate chassis so for a car or car derived van they had a Car Number which equaled the chassis number and which went on to be the VIN number. Morris products whether vans or cars still had body numbers, but they were never logged in an official way.

  

NEC Birmingham, preview of the J type stand.

Picture taken Thursday night before the show opened to the public Friday morning.

Snap taken by The Great Harvey pitcher, Thanks mate.

A sneak preview of the J type stand at this years NEC classic car show.

And now for something completely different.

As you know I have some other vehicles than J types, my first car needed my attention. The other morning a guy in a large white van, that was behind me, jumped out of his cab as we had stopped at a junction and banged on my window. Quote " nice motor, but I nearly shafted your rear end, your xxxxx brake lights don't work" , He had been following me for some time, so close if fact that I thought he was trying to get into the boot.

So Sunday afternoon I was let out for half an hour to change the brake light switch.

The brake lights were working, but I must admit the pedal needed a hard press to get the brake bulbs to light. So I needed to change the pressure switch which is the same as a J types and is located in the same place. Easy job one large socket for the switch and a spanner on the 3 way union.


So you just know an easy job was bound to go wrong. The spanner slipped and the large socket twisted the switch and 3 way union braking the brake pipes!

It was now raining and the wind was getting up. So into mad panic mode, into the garage and found various copper brake pipes and replaced them on the car.

New switch fitted to the union with the aid of the vice in the garage. A quick bleed of the brakes and we were back on the road.

I will have to order the correct pipes as some I had used were a bit long and I had to loop them to take up the excess.

Oh well at least I could drive to work this morning and not walk the 3 miles.

The van found in Canada is a very early 1950's vehicle and this morning I got to hear about a J in New Zealand that is in need of spare King Pins, so I have offered to help but as yet have no details of the vehicle.

Fuel Tanks and Fuel Gauges.

New fuel tank senders are available from ESM Morris Minor suppliers.

http://morrisminorspares.co.uk/The wiring diagram of the J type fuel tank sender and meter.
So if you re having problems with your fuel gauge, here is how to test it and how it works.

With 12 volts on the "B" terminal  BUT no connection on the "T" terminal and the gauge earthed the left hand coil (C1) would be fully energised and show full deflection of the fuel gauge needle. The right hand coil (C2) has the resister across it so has less "pull" than the left hand coil but does give a "damping" effect to the needle. (When driving the float would be bobbing about all over the place,). so the the coil (C2) slows and dampens the erratic needle movement.

With a working tank sender now connected the resistance will vary,depending on fuel level. 

With a full tank the senders resistance will be very low so now the "T" terminal is nearly earthed, this means the left hand coil (C1) has "earth" on both sides of it so has no current flowing through it and therefore the coil (C1)has no effect on the needle. This now means the right hand coil (C2) has full voltage across it and so has current flowing so it does effect the needle and gives full opposite deflection.

Looking at the circuit its very basic but very clever, the resistors job changes, in certain situations it is a "current" limiting device, when you have a full tank or shorted wire situation it stops the coils burning out, in other situations it balances " in a voltage potential "whetstone" bridge" kind of way, it would take too long for me to explain this.

Also it and both coils balance the gauge reading making the gauge practically independent  of  normal variation of battery voltage.

The circuit is happy and works just as well on positive or negative earthed vehicles.

A very very clever Mr Lucas.

ROD 525 fuel tank (above) showing it was easy to see the sender but hard to remove. The fixing screws at the rear of the sender were hard to remove as the wooden beam above hampered access and they had been chewed up by a previous attempt to remove it.

OBL 432's Van sender unit sitting under the nice round cover plate by the nearside foot well. Easy to get to and replace if need be.

While restoring or conserving ROD 525 one of the job's I needed to do was get the fuel gauge to work. It always showed a quarter of a tank. I drained the tank of water/petrol/dirt and grit and the gauge still said A quarter of a tank. So out with the sender, very easy to get to on the pick-up but due to the timbers of the load deck very hard to remove due to lack of room and chewed up brass screws from somebody else's previous attempt.

Once removed it was easy to see why the gauge said what it did, the float pivot was totally rusted solid in the casting and the coil mount was brittle allowing the coil to move around.

So I had to find a replacement, so I purchased a new one, the sender units are the same as early 1949/1955 Morris Minor which are easily purchased. One word of caution, try to get an original Lucas one as opposed to the re-manufactured look alikes, I have had trouble with both regulator boxes and sender units that look good but have been faulty.

While the sender is out of the tank, switch the ignition on, the gauge should now read a full tank and with the sender unit supply wire earthed it should read empty.

The only thing you have to swap over from the old sender to the new Morris minor one is the float and wire arm which is crimped into the pivot shaft of the sender unit. It is easily done.