21 replies to this topic

[mini_79]

1979 mini 1000 with 1275 or 1300 engine in it

[Dan]

Can you show a picture of the top of the engine? Maybe with a bit more in it than the other pictures!

[mini_79]

Better photo u can see the pipe over the radiator

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[mini_79]

I was trying out the breaks as the mot is soon and when I press hard the back wheel's lock up and the front is that normal

[DomCr250]

If it's got a 1300 Austin saloon engine in it then the breather comes off the timing chain cover .... don't think they were fitted to mini's as standard and most people swapped across the mini timing chain cover when swapping the engines across.

 

Nothing wrong with having it.

Edited by DomCr250, 21 March 2014 - 09:29 AM.

[DomCr250]

Have a look on here for some threads regarding adjusting the back brake drums .... really simple to do.

 

If you have discs on the front then it sounds like your brakes are working correctly.

 

But it's such an easy thing to check and adjust the rears it's always worth doing before the MOT man looks at it.

Edited by DomCr250, 21 March 2014 - 09:33 AM.

[tiger99]

The split pin referred to earlier (I can't see it in the pictures) is indeed to keep the hole clear, and is correctly called the jiggle pin (highly un-technical term, I know, but that is what it is commonly called), because, as said, it jiggles about due to engine vibration. I can't say whether every car has one, but very many of the older cars I have had used one in the bottom of the clutch housing, indeed it seems to me to be essential, as the crankshaft oil seal must always leak slightly, and oil must not be allowed to accumulate in the clutch. So, if you have a jiggle pin and it is not loose, squirt it with WD-40 to help shift the muck, and wiggle it until it is loose.

 

As for the brakes, it may be ok, or not. Adjustment will not help the front to rear balance in any way, that is set by the hydraulic pressure ratio, but you should adjust them anyway as it avoids having excessive handbrake or pedal travel, either of which is an MOT fail. Most Minis will lock their rear brakes in the wet, because the pressure limiter valve (two very different types were used) acts at a fixed pressure, and can't cater for every circumstance. Yours should have a bulkhead mounted PRV, item 29 in the link below, and if that is faulty, premature rear lockup is likely.

 

http://www.somerford...page=page&id=65