22 replies to this topic

[TheYoungestGary]

Okay update for everyone……..

It was the choke cable!

It was very slack due to the stupid location. I have no idea why anyone would place it there. My only thought is as the car is meant to fuel injected, the original path wasn’t present to feed the choke cable through, so the previous owner improvised.

I manually helped the choke open and the car starters straight away, and idled easily until I turned the engine off.

I will look at how I can set the cable up properly!

Edited by TheYoungestGary, 08 May 2026 - 07:19 PM.

[timmy850]

The choke cable normally loops around the other side of the carb and is clipped onto the same bracket as the throttle cable, you may need a new choke cable as yours looks a bit short


You'll need this clip
https://www.minispar...e-clip-hif-carb

It goes something like this


Also, check with your particular fuel pump, but they often don't work well being at the opposite end of the car and sucking the fuel through the lines. They can also not like being so high in the engine bay and not having any head pressure. The factory location for an external electric fuel pump is on the rear subframe just under the fuel tank. If yours was a fuel injected car originally there should hopefully still be the wiring there if you do need to move it

Edited by timmy850, 08 May 2026 - 09:17 PM.

[TheYoungestGary]

Hi mate,

I think the cable is like it on mine as the car doesn’t have the usual hole on the right of engine bay to pass the cable through, the previous owner seemingly improvised and passed it through an existing gap on the left side of engine bay, then fit it snug between the carb and air filter. Rogue choice, but I can understand why they may have done it. It however means the choke cable just doesn’t really pull really well, and the usual set up like yours would be a million times better. I’m trying to think of a way I can replicate it like yours - maybe just a longer cable is required?

As for the pump, again seems like another strange choice. I can’t see why they would have chosen to move the pump location from the rear to the engine bay. I have no idea what benefit that could cause as surely it would mean it has to work much harder to draw the fuel to the carb. Although I’m not sure if that’s something I’d be able to change?

[timmy850]

The fuel injected minis had an in-tank pump which has too high pressure to work with a carb mini, so it’s possible that the fuel tank was changed to a standard carb one.

When people convert to an electric pump they will sometimes add them to the engine bay like that, but it does need to be the right pressure and type of pump to suck the fuel from the tank.

[TheYoungestGary]

Ah I didn’t know that, so maybe it does make sense that it was changed then! As far as I know it seems to work, iv driven the car about 7/8 times and has been responsive every time, just took ages to get started due to the cable I think. If I can’t reroute the cable, do you think I can just buy a longer one (along with the holding clip you linked) and that should work better. At the moment it appears like the previous person drilled into the carb to pass the cable through, which I cannot believe

[timmy850]

Yes you can definitely get a longer cable. Mini shops sell them, or you can buy a generic cable, they’re all much the same

[Rubbershorts]

You can always drill another hole in the bulkhead but it's probably already there. Just difficult to find. Make sure afterwards the cable is protected with a rubber grommet to save chafing the outer.

This is a decent instruction video from Darren Haines showing how to set the choke up correctly.

https://youtu.be/U2h...Irh2qE5q7SyUXPO

[TheYoungestGary]

Perfect! Cheers mate !