Choke cables - are they obsolete for the Morris Marina?

[mickthefitter]

I'm a bit peeved again and I've not had my dinner yet.

I've come home to a choke cable in a Jiffy bag I ordered for the HL, from Moss Europe, and it's the wrong one. Not my fault. I had a fifteen minute telephone conversation with one of the operatives at Moss Europe yesterday, discussing my requirements, and this is the result.

Months ago I guesstimated the length while everything was assembled on the car, and ordered a 60" twist and lock choke cable off Ebay, about the longest one I could find. When it arrived, it didn't lock. It went back, and I got a full refund and I didn't re-order.

With the carbs now away and the very old, very likely original choke cable off and residing in an upstairs cupboard drawer, I'd measured my old cable and found the outer (with disintegrating pvc sheathing) was 66" long and the inner about 71" long. And my cable's got the holes for a choke light switch, though that's not a priority for me, just a consideration.

So, unable to identify what choke cable I needed off Moss's website, Moss having been recommended to me, I phoned them up from work yesterday. The perfectly amenable phone operative suggested (when I asked if it was possible for him to give me a part number if I gave dimensions - no it wasn't) I might need a part for a Mini.....I suggested that wouldn't be long enough, because you sit practically on top of a Mini engine, while a Marina has got a long bonnet...like, say, an MGB. So I waited on the phone while he measured 5 Mini choke cables from stock that came up on his system - all too short from the dimensions I gave. No surprise there then. Then he went looking for 'B' cables - I told him I'd like one with the little holes for the choke warning lamp switch if possible, but it didn't matter if he couldn't find one like that. A few minutes later he told me he'd found one that was a bit too long, and that I might have to chop it down. Not a problem. I did the deal over the phone and was assured the cable would be on my doormat today.

So it was when I came home. I opened the package, noted the little holes were there for the switch, but that the knob was a different style to my aged original one, but you can't have everything. Somewhere in my mind, looking at the coiled cable, my inner voice asked "Does this look long enough?"

Just before going to get cleaned up and eat, I opened it out and thought "No, it isn't long enough." Got the old one, laid them both out on the floor, the new one is only NEARLY TWO FEET TOO SHORT! How the bloody hell can about 51" - 52" inner cable length be TOO LONG when I gave a dimension of 71"?

I'll be on the phone tomorrow, telling them they've sent me an unsuitable part, that's for sure, and they'd better come up with the return postage fee because it is their fault. But I'm starting to despair that even a SIMPLE thing like a choke cable for a BL/BMC car, which are generally reckoned to be well catered for compared to things like Vauxhalls and Hillmans, is just impossible to get. I wasted money ordering the wrong oil filter from Rimmer Brothers and had to pay return postage to send that back, and then found I could get a Marina 1.8 oil filter for £2.50 off the shelf from a filter specialist, who does industrial filters as well, in Ilkeston. Now I've been sent another wrong part from another Leyland/MG specialist, even though I couldn't have been clearer about what length the cable was that I'd taken off. What DO I have to do???

[locost_bryan]

Earlpart list a single choke cable for all models, on page 13 of their Marina catalogue.
http://www.earlpart.co.uk/catalogue%20marina.pdf

Cable, coke cable, all models FS 0233 £24.05

There's also one on ebay MORRIS MARINA NEW CHOKE CABLE TWIST AND LOCK GENUINE PART OLD STOCK for £11.99 (although it's in a LDV bag).

[mickthefitter]

Thanks Bryan. Depending on the outcome of my phone call in the morning, Earlpart is within easy driving distance for me! They had my Triumph 2.5 saloon for work in 2007, though they don't do restoration work any more. I thought they were just for panels and exhausts now. At least if it's something they hold stock of, I can go with my old cable and physically compare like-for-like, which currently seems a better option than talking to somebody on the telephone and getting stuff in the post.

[mickthefitter]

Some good news. I talked to Earlpart earlier today. I'm not sure if I was talking to the proprietor (Neil, I think, from my previous dealings) but when I asked about the Marina choke cables, and if they were a stock item, he went to look and came back saying yes, he'd got an example in stock. Then I asked if he knew what the length was, and he told me he didn't have that information to hand but that the cables they had were a universal type that people didn't usually have trouble getting to fit. Me thinking "Hmm, sounds like the 60" cable that's all over eBay" I told him my problem, and my dealings with Moss Europe who'd told me they were sending me a cable in excess of the 71" I'd asked for, and when it came it was 20" too short. "I'll go and measure it" said the chap at Earlpart.

When he came back he said "Right, from the nut that secures the cable to the dashboard, the outer cable is 69" long, and the inner is about four or five inches longer than that, so about 74".

"That'll do for me" was my response. Somebody who knows how to actually measure something. And the longest twist-and-lock cable I've come across since I started looking. I could have had it delivered for just under four quid, but seeing as Earlpart are about the same distance from me as the drive I have to do for work every day, and I've got a few days off next week, I said I'd go and pick a cable up, so they've put one to one side for me. Meanwhile the fella at Moss who I spoke to on Wednesday was off today (I never really expected to talk to the same guy) but when I said, in disgruntled tones, that the cable I received was nothing like what I'd been told I was getting, I was immediately offered a refund (post at my expense initially, refunded on receipt he said) but no offer to supply anything different. I called Moss first, so straight after I phoned Earlpart and it would seem I got a result. I'm getting the feeling that associating my Marina with MGs just because its got a twin carb 1.8 litre B Series is a waste of time, so seeing as Earlpart list a lot of Marina parts in their 2016 catalogue and they're only 12-14 miles away, they are now going to be my first point of inquiry for any mechanical or service items I need from now on, I think.

[mickthefitter]

Yay! I got my Marina choke cable from Earlpart tonight, and just like the man said, it's three inches longer than the old one instead of twenty inches shorter, like the one from Moss was. I know where to shop now. Thanks, locost_bryan.

[Morris McKinnon]

What a head ache all for a choke cable. Glad it's sorted mate

[mickthefitter]

I know....what would happen if I'd got REAL problems with the car!

Oh, wait......

[Morris McKinnon]

Ha! have you had the carbs back yet?

[mickthefitter]

No. The turnaround was reckoned to be six weeks. I think I've got two or three weeks to go. I will probably take a trip back to Grantham to pick them up rather than have them posted to me. Then depending on factors outside of my control, like rubbish weather and family issues involving elderly parents, there are probably one or two jobs I'd like to do before trying to re-start the engine with the carbs fitted. I'd like to renew all the fuel pipe back from the tank, which is looking a little perished on the outside, plus I've got to find the fault with the electrical system that called time on the starter motor. It is only really practical to work on the car outdoors due to lack of light and space in the garage. The pre-fab garage I had put up eight years ago is a little bit narrower than standard, due to limitations on driveway space where it was put, and at the time I had it put up, I was only keeping a Mini (followed by a Wolseley Hornet) and I really did think I would stick to small cars as classics, since I was able to walk around the small cars in the garage and do some work on them. Then I began to consider swapping for a bigger classic car and looked up car measurements, and measured my garage, to see what would go in and how much space it would leave me, looking at cars like Victors, Cortinas, even the Corsair. I used to be able to fit my old daily drive Mercedes C200 in that garage, but could barely get out of the driver's door once in, but managed. I only put the Mercedes in there if I was out in my classic at a show, to ease parking in my street. With the Volvo C30 hatchback I've had for the last few years, it will not go in. It is too wide on the mirrors, which do not fold unless you are out of the car and locking it remotely. Anyway, various classic cars I considered owning would go in, leaving me an inch or two extra either side over the Mercedes, but no realistic chance of doing much work inside the garage. Then just under a year ago I spotted this Marina HL auto with 27,000 miles, coming up for auction, in the ads for Mathewsons in Classic Car Buyer, and with my past history of owning a Marina automatic in the 80s, became very keen on doing the 120 mile trip to Yorkshire on auction day. With my personal history of being a lot better at spotting bodged bodywork than I am at detecting hidden mechanical faults, I knew if I wanted to bid at auction, for the first time in my life, I was taking a bit of a risk, but everything looked right. Big history file, clean fluids, tidy engine bay....so I hoped I was getting a car that didn't need a lot of work in my cramped garage, and just needed to be looked after and improved slowly over time. That's why I've been rather wazzed off with this car's emerging level of cack-handed servicing and repair, and its decline into non-running status. I know it is far better than a rusted out wreck that many people like to take on, and I guess in someone else's hands it would be up and running perfectly by now. But with my part-time enthusiasm towards getting my hands dirty, plus my limited facilities apart from fairly dry storage, I've had to adjust my attitude towards the car and regard it now as more of a project. I'm still worried that the engine has internal problems like head gasket failure or damaged rings, because of how difficult it has been to pin down it's poor running, and the fact that the blocked radiator had been ignored by the previous keeper.

[JubileeNut]

Recommend changing old fuel pipe for decent e10 resistant stuff. Perished pipe can give all maner of starting problems with air getting sucked in and block filters etc.

[Morris McKinnon]

A few days back my car wouldn't start and when it did it run rough and kept cutting out, looked at everything, turned out to be a loose jubilee clip at the tank sender end. The pump was drawing air in and not sucking up enough fuel so yeah, new fuel hose and tight clips along with your recon carbs you'll know it's not a fuel delivery issue.

[mickthefitter]

Recommend changing old fuel pipe for decent e10 resistant stuff. Perished pipe can give all maner of starting problems with air getting sucked in and block filters etc.

There's a supplier of electrical items plus fuel pipes and fuel filters that I've used before, in Ilkeston. They'll have the stuff. Funny how all the useful businesses in my area seem to be based in Ilkeston or Heanor or Loscoe.

[mickthefitter]

A few days back my car wouldn't start and when it did it run rough and kept cutting out, looked at everything, turned out to be a loose jubilee clip at the tank sender end. The pump was drawing air in and not sucking up enough fuel so yeah, new fuel hose and tight clips along with your recon carbs you'll know it's not a fuel delivery issue.

Well, it's worth doing just from the fire prevention aspect of things. I think that old mechanical fuel pump my car came with was letting air in, hence the weird diagram drawn by the previous owner, of a fuel filter with air bubbles in it, left with lots of other bits of paper in the Haynes manual that came with the car. And the fuel filter removed and replaced by a straight-through metal union joining the pipes. I admit I only spotted the leaking pump from fuel stains on a spill pad I had under the Marina, left over from the Wolseley Hornet that dropped oil, as the pump didn't seem to leak with the car running. I bet that was the source of the bubbles though.

[mickthefitter]

I'm taking my Marina HL in tonight to have the back box fitted that was supplied by Baz, but I started it up last night just to make sure it would be on the button tonight after work, and my new choke cable is really tough to pull out to its full extent. It was a bit too long and I routed it to hide the excess, but I really think it needs shortening. Does anyone know whether if I disconnect the inner cable at the carb end, and pull it through the outer, I'll lose the ball bearing position inside the locking mechanism? I don't intend pulling right out, just enough to cut about 4" off the outer without risking damage to the inner. I'm guessing the inner cable was fed in during assembly with that ball bearing in place.

[Morris McKinnon]

shouldn't have a bearing. It's just cable clamped to a shaped rod that locks by twisting it. Lock by turning it clockwise, release turning the other way. Disconnect the cable from the carb and check if the inner cable moves freely. Pull it out if you have to. If it slides out easy then the problem is at the carb end. Linkage wrong way round?