Morris, The Mini Moke! - 56k Warning by liirge

11 minute(s) of a 73 minute read

Morris, The Mini Moke! - 56k Warning 

Compliments of liirge @ theminiforum.co.uk

2-19-2008

Morris, has been in the family since his original purchase in 1966 by my grandfather, We are farmers, and the moke was used on the farm so had to take quite a punishment. In 1993 the car finally retired to a farm building after what my father said was a bad drive shaft. In August of 2007 i expressed some interested in restoring her back to original condition, i have never rebuilt a car, more farm machinery and tractors, i knew quite a fair bit, and was unaware of how big the mini scene was. I finally decided to start work in October of 2007, and i have taken photos through out the work. I would like to say that were the car is, there is no running water (im working on it), I was also told te car had a 1275GT installed into it (Later this was found to be incorrect)
Enough of my talking, and here are some pictures of how she was:

Notice that is mud that has managed to build up between the arch and the Wheel.

~29/10/07~
WORK HAS BEGUN
The moke has been jacked up and brand new tyres have been installed. The next step is to take apart the wheels hubs as some of them have seized. I am waiting upon a tool to arrive to do this.
Rear Wheel hubs are siezed, handbrake possibly left on?

~01/11/07~
Well, Handbrake was left on! The passenger side Drum has been restored using Emery Paper, that was a chore. The Shoes however are going to have to be replaced.
The Wheel Arch has been Cleaned by me it took 3 hours, but the results are pretty amazing if you check out the pictures you'll see what i mean!!
I FOUND THE IGNITION KEY!!!! The Brake master cylinder needs replacing, the whole system needs bleeding. Both the Master and Slave Clutch Cylinders are also in need of replacing!

~05/11/07~
The other rear (Drivers side) Wheel arch has been cleaned, and the drum for that side has been restored aswell. The wheel bearing on Drivers Rear side completely broke as i took it off, theres still part of it left on the stub axle. I hope the stub axle is OK. The Grease nipples for the Radius arms are gonna need replacing, there not working so well!!!!

~12/11/07~
The rear Wheel Bearing came off with a puller, what a chore. The Stub axle is fine, the bearings ruined!The Front has been worked on i managed to remove the backplate on that aswell as the shoes. The plate was attached to the Engine bay by a rubber braking pipe. The bolts all were so corroded on that all spanners and sockets used on it just rounded it. After hours of work and BRUTE FORCE they came off and new brake hoses have been ordered.
Now to get to the other front brakes on the passenger side the Radiator has to be removed. I started work on this today, and its one hell of a job, The rubber piping has perished and useless, one of the retaining clips for the hoses has stuck, A bolt on the engine block going into the thermostat has sheared off, Oops!
NOW on a normal mini it wouldn't have been to hard to loosen and remove, as the front grill comes off and you can just reach in. HOWEVER the moke is different the front grill DOES NOT come off. In the end we had to undoo the sliding nuts on the Dynamo and slid the drive belt off. Now from underneath and with great difficulty and several dislocated joints the bolt holding the radiator at the bottom came off!!! 

~14/11/07
The Good The Bad and The Ugly!
Well letsa start with the good news! The radiator has come out finally and looks in good nick, im going to air clean it. The Brake pipes have arrived aswell, so hopefully in the new weeks the brakes will be up and running and can be tested for leaks!
The front passenger side brake hose came off slightly easier than drivers side, but it was still a couple of hours work.
Now the bad news. The Thermostat wasn't properly installed! and who ever last replaced it sheared part of the cylinder head. i have been informed that it was actually a problem when the moke was last used, apparently it overheated BADLY! so it could be a £200 Cylinder head for me. The CV Joints are caput, and i really mean completely gone, theres oil leaking from the gearbox, were the drive shafts attach, so there gonna have to be taken out, and replaced!!

Notice the oil leak!

~27/11/07~
well, there has been a lot of discussion and arguments since the last update. I will try and update in order of happenings. The Drive shafts came out, after a hell of a palaver involving the purchase of a Ball Joint remover - that required an ever increasing size of mallet to finally separate all of them, The rubber on the ball joints has to be replaced. were the drive shafts came out one side was pouring oil from the Gearbox\Differential.
I have loosly Wire brushed both front Wheel arches. The Dynamo has come out finally, and left a gaping whole in the Engine bay.
The Big Debate since last time, was should i buy a second hand engine that has been run recently for about £450ish, or replace the Cylinder head and pray to god that neither the Clutch or Gearbox has caput.
We rang some people (M&M Mini's www.Mini-Metro.co.uk) and they have spent the last 2 days looking for an engine that will actually fit the parts we have, but our chances are SLIM to say the least. If they cant find anything by Friday, its a new Cylinder head and divine intervention!!!
Other parts to have come out this week are the Manifolds both exhaust and inlet, and with that the Carb. also. While i was at the Manifolds i decided it would be prudent to take the WHOLE exhaust system off!! im now feeling the aches from that decision. The moke has been moved from the bottom of the Store, to the top by the Workshop. I have removed the Shock absorbers, one was Knackered completely and the other one was on its way out, both need replacing.
So alot of stuff has been taken out but not much new stuff has been put in!! there are a LOT of boxes full of bits and bobs.

~29/11/07~
Well today marks the 1 month anniversary of starting work on the moke, its been quite slow, but other commitments are taking there toll, but there seems to be an awful lot taken off and not alot of new bits put back on!!!
Yesterday i cleaned the floor pan, and discovered RUST!! its not to bad, but it looks expensive. I dont know anything about body work, and i can weld but not well, so not up to MOT standard.