From: NAME: Alex McLellan
FUNC: MDA/CAATS
TEL: (604) 231-3054 <AMCLE AT A1 AT CATM01>
To:
"british-cars@autox.team.net"@mdavcr@galaxy@hobbes@psi%mda.2@mrgate@catm01
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andrewc@vsfl.demon.co.uk (Andrew Chapman)
wrote
:You are correct, no problem fitting, just a direct swap, the hydraulic/manual
:clutch is no problem as they are interchangable. The ratios are different
:however, as Roger Garnet pointed out.
:I had a Moggy thousand to which I fitted a 1275 Midget engine, retaining the
:original box. The result was a car with a redundant first gear (except for
:vertical hill-climbs) and awesome F40-like acceleration...upto about 20.
It's not difficult to make a Minor go faster.
It's more difficult to make it stop faster!
If you put a more powerful engine in a Minor, you should really upgrade the
brakes as well. Your insurance co. might take a dim view of an accident
claim if you don't! The Morris Minor Centre in Bath used to do a brake
upgrade for their so-called 'Series three' Minor. To make best use of the
bigger engine requires a different diff. If memory serves me right, Series
II minor was 4.55:1 (41:9); minor 1000 was 4.22:1 (38:9), spridget was
about 3.7 or 3.8:1 (34:9, 33:9?) , but they had smaller wheels.
The swap of gearbox/engine depends on a couple of things. Series II Minors
had a smaller clutch than the 1098cc Thousand, and the gearbox bell housing
doesn't quite clear the larger clutch cover plate. Judicious application of
abrasive materials will cure the problem. The flywheel is slightly
different too, so small clutch and big engine aren't compatible.
Also, the Series II gearbox has no remote control, so the gear lever comes
through the floor in a different place.
I read some ancient magazine articles that claimed only minor (!)
differences (except power and ratios) between sprite/midget/minor
engines/gearboxes/differentials/halfshafts etc etc.
I have an official British Leyland (who?) workshop manual covering the
Minor MM, II and 1000 if anyone needs info.
Regards
Alex
(ex 1954 series II 803cc!)
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