Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing One shot oiler leaking

over the last week or so I have noticed a few drops of oil on the drive. I think its probably leaking from the one shot oiler system - where the tubes all connect - just ahead of the bulkhead. I have never used the oiler, so I am thinking it might be best to decommission the system. Can I just cap/block off the tube to the sump?

I did my old one and it goes to a sort of distribution block on the bulkhead and from there to the oil pressure gauge as well. You need to blank it off so this still works.
Regards

Just yesterday I was discussing this with two Morgan mechanics, and they said you should worry if it DOESN'T leak. The one-shot is deliberately designed to send engine oil dripping down the kingpin and to your garage floor.

Some owners have disconnected the one-shot and replaced it with a grease fitting. The mechanics said that grease would not be able to make it all the way down the kingpin, and a second grease fitting would be needed further down. They have done this for several racers and would be able $$$$ to do this for me for $$$$$.

I've only had to replace my kinpins and bushings once in 30,000 miles, so I'm not going to complain about the oil spots. Part of the charm and ...

Most of us do. The oiler system doesn't help. When it leaks, it can foul your brakes and worse.

Terrifying.

ok so I was just having a closer look at the oiler pipework. There seemed to be some weeping form the pipe coming from the block (is this the oil pressure sender?) as it enters the 3 way connector attached to the bulkhead. I noticed that the "nut" holding this was a little less tight than the others and so I tightened it a turn.

Started the engine and oil spewed out everywhere! seems like I was better before with a weep!

Sawman,
I just realized that, if you have not used the one-shot oiler, you should not have any oil on your drive. (At least not under the front corners.) The oiler should work only if someone depresses the oiler button, so it could be that your one-shot mechanism is starting to fail, which might lead to catastrophic loss of oil. (But the one-shot on my '61 +4 is 51 years old and works fine.)

I had the oil pressure gauge pipe fracture on a Midget 1500 on the M1. The pressure reading started to fall, so I looked behind and I was making a dense fog of oil smoke. After pulling over it wasn't apparent where the smoke was coming from until I revved it to 3000 revs, when a fine jet of oil sprayed onto the exhaust manifold. The dipstick reading had gone from full to under the low mark in a couple of miles or so. I always carried a reserve of oil at that time, so topped it up and proceeded with care until I could fix it.

dave, so do you think the pipe may have fractured as it enters the nut?
So i guess i can take this apart, trim off the broken section and refit?

I think that the only way you'll fix this is to strip it down and look. Some oil pressure pipes have an olive at the end, so you may need a new pipe. On the Midget I cleaned it well and used araldite wrapped in electrical tape and it never budged!!! On that car the pipe had developed a tiny pinhole.

Can you take a photo?

Cheers Dave, there is indeed an Olive shaped brass nubbin at the end, the pipe seems to be cracked just before this.

Do you suppose this would be a standard ford part (its a cvh!)

Typical on a saturday afternoon!!