What's all this "was"? Plenty of us still drive them! ;-)
Only in part - if the bottom exhaust to gearbox clamp is loose (or, as is often the case, missing), it will loosen quickly. It's that clamp that's the key.
Except that usually needs a new gasket too, and the choke & throttle cables fray and are a sod to get back... I do it occasionally but mostly it's more trouble than it's worth. Managed to get my daughter's attached properly last week with the carb in situ anyway.
The 850 engine revs quite well. You'd be surprised. I have a 998 automatic and it never ceases to amaze me how many times it will beat modern cars off the lights. It has no right to, it shouldn't be able to, but it makes me smile when it does!
The Mini auto box is made of cheese though; I've been through three, and the parts are unavailable when the drive fails (leaving only reverse...)
- same every time. And since the block is different on autos, you just swap the whole unit. I scrapped one pristine block because of that. Not worth saving.
I'm glad to hear it!
Yes that clamp was usually also broken off on mine :)
Thing is, drive down a normally bumpy road above about 50mph and the car rocks about fairly alarmingly. It's easy to see how that quickly works the exhaust loose.
I used to drive a Mini 1000 auto. Not as bad as you'd imagine, but quite slow.
What fails then?
I remember having a crack at adjusting brake bands in one, only to find they had fallen apart.
[distant painful memory awakened]
Problem was, they were fragile compared to the OE hose. I had one nearly new one blow, dumping all the coolant on the M54. The next one was an OE one fitted the hard way.
I don't remember them failing, but back then most of the vehicles I worked on tended to be driven by old ladies who prolly never used enough throttle to get the thermostat to open!
Was there some sort of mod to block the by-pass passages? ISTR it being done but can't remember the specifics.
I used to hate doing clutches on them, 1100's and Allegros were so much easier.
Julian.
Go up one to the 1800 and that was a nightmare. Power unit out time.
I changed a clutch in an 1800 princess with the unit still in the car with no trouble (other than the whole peculiar system) Mini was no problem with the right tools and a new crank bolt. Although on one I had to drill a hole in the bodywork in line with the crank bolt so that I could use an air wrench on it (and hammer on a socket to a damaged bolt.) Worst clutch I ever did was mark 2 jag, engine/box out first on those.
A pal had a garage business in Bordon, Hants. (Squaddy territory.) It was at the time when Mk2 Jags were just coming into banger status, and a typical squaddy choice.
He used to cut out the bulkhead and floorpan in the vicinity of the gearbox, and then pull the box back into the passenger compartment in the style of a Triumph Herald. The job would be finished by welding the piece of bulkhead back in place. He even had a template in the workshop to make it easier to cut the hole in the right place.
It seems brutal now, but the cost of doing a clutch on one the official way would have exceeded the value of the vehicle.
Chris
like the method I have used to change renault heater matrix, cut a slot to the side and slide it out. tack the bit back in place and seal it up. I have also seen transits with a hole in the bulkhead to change the cam shaft.
Could well be they'd addressed the problem on the later Princess. It certainly had a larger under bonnet area.
My 1800 wasn't a peculiar system - it used a standard clutch and flywheel
- unlike the Mini.
It was just possible on a lift to drop the clutch side of the engine and do it from underneath - but the BL workshop manual cautioned against doing this as it strained all sorts of things. And saw my main dealer doing it this way...
I did a few without problems. But obviously never had damaged bits.
Best conventional was a Mk I Escort. Did that in 2 hours start to finish
- and it was the first and only I'd done, on a mate's car.
Other good one was the FWD Triumph 1300 and 1500 - all done from inside the car so you could do it in the street without getting wet or dirty. ;-)
Yes, AFAIK the A+ in the metro and very late Minis didn't have it. I'm pretty sure it wasn't present on the wife's 1996 Mini.
On the lift and I used a home made engine holder that straddled the engine bay and bolted onto the head bolts, that would have obviated straining bits as you describe. The real annoyance was getting a housing gasket, and cleaning off the old one.
Best clutch is clearly the early FWD cavalier, sub 15 minutes was quite feasible.
the forward clutch, I understand - I'm not too familiar with the internals, as there's no rebuild manual and no spare parts, so no point looking!
Mini clutches are fairly easy on the earlier engines; you need the special puller but they're cheap enough, and at least you don't have to serarate engine and box like most cars. Later ones with the Verto clutch can be nasty though as the flywheel has a habit of welding itself to the crank...
The A+ engines did away with the bypass; later they also did away with the heater takeoff from the head too, substituting it with a "banjo" type arrangement at the base of the thermostat housing.
That brings back more memories, we had a couple of 2200 Pricesses on the books (with the transverse 6 cyl) I never did a clutch - can't have been any room whatsoever! But remember that they had a habit of grinding up the front hubs, taper washer and driveshaft splines no matter how hard we tightened the nuts up. I think they were just too heavy on the front end for the suspenion etc.
I'd say the Vauxhall Viva because of easy access and a box that was so light that lifting up and down with one person wasn't too much of a strain.
Julian.
My 1800 did the same - but only one side, the nearside. Which unusually had a standard right hand thread on the driveshaft which locked it to the splines on the hub. My conclusion was it should have been a left hand thread so self tightening. After a second expensive failure - even secondhand parts weren't cheap due to demand - I used Locktite spline and thread sealer everywhere which seemed to do it.
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