The Morris battery. Again.

[Steve Walker]

Flexitrack!

SteveW

[Fredxx]

An ellipse is a line following a specific mathematical equation.

An oval is a squashed circle and only needs only symmetry in one plane.

A racetrack with two semi-circles is not an ellipse.

[T i m]

That's the thing isn't it, to be able to do much of this easily, accurately and safely (to both the user and the equipment) you really need quite a range of equipment (and not all of it that expensive).

Like two DMM's with one setup on volts and the other amps so you can measure both simultaneously (and not necessarily at the same place).

One tool I've come across recently that has so far been very good at a very basic go/no-go level of vehicle faultfinding is the voltage probe thing:

(found cheaper elsewhere etc).

Test for the presence of 6-24 volts or ground (red / green LED) and / or apply the vehicle voltage or earth to a point.

A classic example of it's usage would be the kitcars o/s indicator repeater not working.

Take the lamp out and apply the earth clip to the lamp body and push the rocker switch forward to apply a live to the lamp contact and lamp lights (so good lamp).

With the o/s indicator running, touch the probe on the centre contact in the lamp holder and watch the LED go red / green in sync with the other indicators (indicator feed to lamp holder ok).

Put the lamp back in, pull the toggle switch backwards and touch the probe on the lamp case to give it an earth, lamp flashes.

Touch the probe (still 'earth') on the lamp holder beside the lamp, lamp flashes.

Touch the probe (still 'earth') on the rest of the metal body of the fitting, no lamp flash?

Release toggle and check status of the metal fitting and it shows earth.

Fault, a high resistance or open circuit in the joint where the lamp bayonet female is peened into the metal base of the fitting itself!

Temp solution, run some bare copper wire from beside lamp base to the lens retaining pillar whilst I order a new pair of fittings. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Was a time when a Morris Minor was state of the art too. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. You had to move the driver's seat to get at it.

Longest lasting battery I had ever - 11 years - was situated in the boot of a BMW. But that was a modern semi-sealed type.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It was a major engineering job to turn the engine round, involving adding transfer gears. And situating the battery right above the exhaust manifold would have been a recipe for disaster.

[Fredxx]

So spinning the engine in the opposite direction wasn't an option?

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Did they get spanked?

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

BMW have still to learn RWD is shit.

[Bill Wright]

If the teacher felt that they were being cheeky (what he called 'insubordinate') he would generally deal with them appropriately.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

It isn't vague in the way he used it, it's just plain wrong.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

An oval can be egg shaped!

Bill

[Marland]

Hornby originally used a much higher voltage.

They soon found shocking and possibly killing their customer base and the household cat was not good for follow up sales. Probably the paint was lead based as well. Imagine what those poker faced ? I try to look ?ard but am completely uselessness ? presenters on watchdog etc would make of it. GH

[Bob Eager]

No. They considered that, but too much would have had to be changed - including the camshaft, distributor ... the loss in power was considered acceptable. They were trying to use existing production parts as much as possible. The engine block and transfer gear(s) were new, of course, but not much else.

Not that I think turning the engine around had any effect on the battery position as such - the exhaust manifold was at the front (then at the back), which didn't change the distance to the battery.

[Graeme]

In message , Marland writes

Yes, I have two of the 'Met' locos, but neither are high voltage, although I do have a high voltage loco by the French maker, JEP.

I'm sure they recognised the potential (!) danger, and doubtless there were some shocks, but no recorded fatalities.

Indeed. All those sharp tin edges, high voltages, lead figures. How did we survive?

[Andrew]

And ahead of its time with all that ash woodwork, so eco friendly (shame about the CO other nasty stuff) :-)

[whisky-dave]

I bet some on here used to managed with a couple of frog legs in their day ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It would have seemed obvious. But I'd guess lots might need changing to do that. Perhaps dizzy, waterpump, cam drive arrangements, and maybe even the dynamo and starter. Most of which were bought in.

I assumed they added up the costs of changing the engine to run in the opposite direction and concluded transfer gearing was cheaper.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm trying to remember my many Minis owned a long time ago, but I'd guess if you could have located the battery at the front, it would have been where the Minor one is - just below the windscreen. And I don't think there was room given the carb and filter are there.

The Minor has lots of room under the bonnet which might help keep things cooler. But I never liked that battery position as hot air is going to find its way to it. Better to have it at the front of the engine compartment, cooling wise. But not in event of a collision. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The original post war Minor was of course meant to have a all new boxer engine. But Morris accountants decided a pre-war side valve would be just as good. ;-) The traveller came rather later on in the model range.