25 replies to this topic

[animale]

Hey all,
I used to have two minis many moons ago (12 years to be exact) and now have given up my two well love affair and returned to the little gem of Minis.

Rightly or wrongly I bidder for a Cooper on eBay and managed to pick it up for a fairly decent price.
Having been out of the game for many years my mechanical knowledge is a little rusty so thought I'd pick the brains of the experts.

So here goes.
It's a black J Reg Mini Cooper.
I know it's had a little tinkering done as its got a centre exhaust, extended arches, bucket seats and a custom dash, and a fibre glass front end.

I have a couple of questions.....
What carb would be standard in this model?
Why would someone have put an electric fuel pump on this model.....it makes a loud ticking noise before start up.
The speedo in it I think has been from another car as its a 90mph big dialled one...
When did minis start having 5 forward gears?
What else should I be looking for that may need urgent attention? I don't want to look aimlessly around the car.
I'll try and get some pics up soon.
Thanks for any replies.

[Dan]

Something described as a 1991 J reg Cooper could actually be one of a few different cars due to late registrations or sales of old stock and so forth, so can you give us more detail on what the actual car is? It could be a Racing / Flame / Checkmate Cooper conversion, a Cooper RSP (AKA Cooper LE) or a mainstream, production Cooper. All 3 would be a legitimate Cooper. It could also be a home conversion.

Minis didn't have centre speedos by 1991 and they never got 5 speed boxes as standard.

[animale]

Thanks for the speedy response,
I'm not actually sure what sort of Cooper it is and wouldn't know where to start looking.
I only picked it up yesterday and haven't had chance to do some rummaging in daylight hours yet.
Sorry for the vagueness.....consider me a complete novice

[minimissionary]

Does the ticking noise kinda sound like a marble vibrating on a table? If so, it's the stepper motor, I believe, and is perfectly normal.

Assume that the previous owner hasn't serviced it for a while; oil and filter change, fuel filter change (if it has one), plugs and leads, dizzy cap.

[Dan]

What does the V5 describe it as under model?

[animale]

Wow, cool, am really impressed with the comments,
Missionary, yeah does sound like that a little, but I was reading that there's no real need for an electric fuel pump on this model.
Am I right in saying it would be a SPI model or am I completely wrong there too?

Dan, the V5 just described it as Mini Cooper.
Related to earlier post the dash is custom brushed aluminium style, with 5 or 6 clocks/gauges in it. Most of which don't work. Lol
Speedo does but is showing as 77400 miles yet MOT check online shows last MOT odometer reading was 1035 miles. So is definitely different speedo

[minimissionary]

With regards to the fuelling, stick your head under the bonnet and have a look. The air box will have "Injection" clearly written on it, if it is as such.

Ps. Buy a Haynes manual.

[animale]

Missionary, cheers, I will get to the bonnet on Saturday after work, hopefully in the daylight.
Haynes on the way courtesy of eBay.
I think it may be a later model following the RSP. Apparently the made copies of the RSP for mainstream production.

[minimissionary]

Fingers crossed for the RSP

[Spherix]

Does the ticking noise kinda sound like a marble vibrating on a table? If so, it's the stepper motor, I believe, and is perfectly normal.

Assume that the previous owner hasn't serviced it for a while; oil and filter change, fuel filter change (if it has one), plugs and leads, dizzy cap.

If it's a 91 Cooper, it's likely a carb'ed one; that does not have a stepper motor. I'd go with a proper tuning of the valves clearances.

[animale]

Here she I anyway

[animale]

Would anybody care to talk a complete noob through my engine bay?
Think figured it's 1275 carb model from VIN number.

[minimanclive]

It's got what looks like an Mpi (1996 on) block and distributorless ignition. There must be an electronic box of tricks somewhere to control the spark.

[animale]

Is the block the silver cover?
It's a 1991 cooper originally.
And on the vin it equates to a carb model, not MPI or can they be the same?

[Spherix]

There is very clearly a carburettor mounted on top. There's an non-standard ignition system installed however. This is by no means an MPI block.