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An original news article shows several possible reasons: https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/morris/marina/archive-thousands-of-marinas-need-modification-of-windscreen-wipers/ The issue would also have been exacerbated by the use of the Trico Speedblade (wire type) wiper blade that was fitted to early U...

I'm afraid I don't. I can only assume the original reg was sold as a private plate (possibly somebody's intials). It's not currently on a vehicle, so it would be possible to buy it back and refit it if you can find out who owns it. Has happened to quite a few Marinas (including one of mine). When th...

As far as I know the wiper arms were unique to early Marinas. Part number CZK 3280. I have seen them surface on eBay from time to time. I don't have any spares. Might be worth asking round on the Facebook groups but I haven't seen anybody breaking a car with early wipers for a while. Nice to hear AK...

Gearboxes can be usable for much longer. I had a 1.8 with over 100k on the clock and the original gearbox. It was noisy, but it worked. Have had several with 50 - 70k on the clock which have been perfect, and one with 24k on the clock which had broken synchro springs. How it's been treated is more i...

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Sounds like you had dodgy synchro. Usually it seems the springs on second gear are the first to give way. I've had many which have crunched going into second! I wonder if Marina gearbox production started just before the facilities (or the tooling?) were completely finished. My J reg has Herald gear...

Yes, I have come across it a few times. I can only assume it somehow relates to a databasing issue. For example, you can search for a 'Rover Ital' on some car parts websites but the manufacturer 'Morris' or model 'Marina' are not listed. I had one Marina where the make was recorded in the DVLA datab...

It's also worth saying not all lead substitute uses an octane booster. For example, I am sure Castrol do two versions of 'Valvemaster', one with and one without. As David says, timing needs to be adjusted according to the fuel you use and because modern fuels are different invariably the factory tim...

Lead additive is just pouring money away. There's at least one A series Marina with north of 200k miles on the clock which has never seen additive and no sign of valve seat recession. If you're worried it's probably cheaper in the long run to have hardened seats fitted than to keep buying additive.

Surely introducing a more sophisticated engine into a vehicle that was not designed to house it is likely to decrease reliability? The B series is a very simple and rugged unit. Even when they're are completely worn out they'll still run!

The bores in an A series tend to be very long-lived, often a new set of rings is all that is needed. It's a fairly straightforward job- head off, sump off and pistons out. Scholar Engines on the A140 or Seager Engineering in Debenham will be the people to take it to if you don't fancy tackling it yo...

It is amazing how long some of them sat for. Strange given how they struggled to keep up with demand sometimes. I guess it came down to whether the cars they had were the colour/spec you wanted!
I look after the register of cars for the Club.

From the chassis number your car would have been built around September 1974, so it sat for a good while before being registered. Glad it has finally found a home. It had been for sale for at least a decade! The stainless windscreen trim disappeared around chassis number 470,000 (around January 1975).

There are certainly more than 10 GTs surviving. As with the MK1 TC models, the saloon variant (HL) is rarer. The rarest Marina variant is the 1.8 Deluxe saloon with only three known survivors.

Can't say I knew that one was local! Here's a pic of it from a few years back, looks a bit sadder now. Wonder if it's as solid as it looks....