On a drive just out of town a few days ago there was a slight waft of burning plastic, and a puff of smoke from the glove box behind the steering wheel. It turns out that for some reason whenever I turned on the lights, the wiring loom would begin to self destruct, melting, and shedding it’s insulation, presumably filling the cabin with toxic fumes. I could’ve probably chased the problem and patched it up somehow, but as it would be difficult to assess the full extent of the damage caused without cutting up the loom, and with wires in both the glovebox and boot being stripped bare, i figured the best course of action was to replace the entire wiring loom.

Firstly I set about taking photos of the fuse box and voltage regulator so I knew where the bulk of the connections terminated.

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Stripping the loom out was relatively easy, although when it came to threading it all through the bulkhead to remove it, I opted to cut it in two.

…unfortunately I made the mistake of ordering a new loom used in cars between 1965-1970, when my car was registered in January 1964, which meant that some of the wires were different colours to those in the loom I was replacing, and some of the terminals were different.

It was not immediately clear where everything went, so this turned into a task that took me a few days to figure out.

Eventually, with the new loom in place I turned the key, and as you might expect from someone who has never worked on cars in any real capacity before… nothing happened. But why?

After a few more days of tinkering, and probably filling-up the Morris Minor Owners Facebook page with various questions about all different connections and wire colours, sourcing several different conflicting Morris Minor wiring diagrams in the process, I resorted to enlisting the assistance of a local auto electrician, who was able to determine that the fault – simply a problem with the ignition unit. I may have damaged this component when I (rather stupidly) started disconnecting various parts of the loom without first disconnecting the battery. Maybe not the smartest move.

As luck would have it, there is a shop not too far from me which had the replacement ignition component that I required, so I was able to rectify this relatively quickly.

And sure as anything, the car started after this. Huzzah!

It was a bit of a task, but it was satisfying to get the car working again after all of this. It might not be the neatest job, but it saved me a few quid and more importantly It was valuable to gain more of an understanding of which wires go where.

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Previously I attempted to change the front driver’s-side parking-light bulb, only for for the glass to separate from the cap, which remained seized in place due to the obvious corrosion. As a result, I replaced the whole unit. Just another small job.

Based on the paperwork I received with the car I believe the mileage of 106649.2 to be correct as of 27^th October 2015. Unfortunately however the Odometer can only record up to 99999.9 miles before starting over at 0 again, so here it displays only 6649.2.

Looking back at this one, this was just daft, and something that probably could’ve been easily avoided had I known more.

On 16^th September 2015 I encountered my first breakdown requiring recovery. Again, at this point I knew absolutely nothing about how a car worked, or what made it go, so when I called roadside assistance and they told me it was a recovery job, as they believed it was a blown head gasket, I took them at their word… it actually turned out to be a blocked air filter, which could be replaced for around £5.

The paper air filter on the Morris Minor is situated right above the manifold/exhaust clamp, and if it’s not sealed correctly then there is a chance that the exhaust fumes are being sucked through the filter.

The filter was covered in soot, so after some research I replaced it and was on the road again.

On 13^th September 2015 the purchase of the car went ahead, and ‘Molly’ the 1964 rose taupe Morris Minor was mine. First of all I had to work out how to start it!

The four door saloon was first registered in Kelvedon, Essex on 22^nd January 1964, and has belonged to four owners prior to myself. The last owner, a Ms. Hall from St Albans had owned the car for the last 15 years.