Cooper Road Mini’s latest project

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Lets introduce you to our latest project! Our new Friend Mike looked me up after he bought a beautifully restored 1967 Mini Cooper S that turned out to have one of my engines from about eight years ago! As many of these powerful engines do, 2nd gear was getting hard to engage without a crunch, indicating the synchro or baulk ring is likely worn out, keeping it from synchronizing 2nd gear to the main-shaft, resulting in that crunch we all know!
Ride along with us as we test drive the car up Red Dog Road near the Cooper Road Mini Compound. I show a way of shifting by “cheating” a little to work around the bad synchro, to “save” the gearbox from continuing the destruction until you have the time to take it apart.

Setting up the Mini Cooper Differential

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Here are a couple of short videos of me setting up the mysterious side thrust on the differential that applies to all styles of the Classic Mini Cooper transmission.  Once you understand the goal of having no side PLAY in the diff without any side LOAD on the bearings, correct set up just depends on attention to detail and having a reasonable assortment of shims, about two gearboxes worth….

This first video is the conventional way to set them up, pretty much the way the manuals tell you to do it:

This next clip is a different way of looking at doing the math, with the idea being to reduce the amount of “stuff” to assemble to simplify and reduce the chance of making a mistake.  Or, simply another way of looking at arriving at the correct shim may help you understand what’s important, and you’ll find a way to do it that makes sense to you!

CooperRoadMini’s MAZDA??

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A happy Mini owner usually has another vehicle or six in or around the garage. Our 66 Cooper S Resto-mod is more proof-of-concept than practical transportation, so our collection of Classic Survivors together add up to meet my needs for getting around our local area. Half a dozen relics that are only good for certain conditions. As up to half of these are not close to “usable” at any given time, The ones we rely on require attention from time to time. For me, that usually means UPGRADES!   Our 1974 Mazda Rotary Engine Pick-up is one such survivor and it has a heater! …And an interior that can be closed off to rain and cold, and we want our cool truck running again.  It’s been on the back-burner and the pile of  “I’ll get to that when the truck is fixed…” has grown.

A+ Gears in the Older 4-syncho Mini Cooper Gearbox

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Here I show the modification to the 22G1128 gearbox case that allows running a full late A+ Gearset from a Rod-change transmission. The modification allows the case to accept the 3-step layshaft that is needed for the A+ style laygear. This is a viable option as most of the small input bearing mainshafts have passed into oblivion, and finding a good set of gears, particularly second gear in the pre A+ helical pattern is getting difficult… and expensive.

Running A+ (or even the large bearing “intermediate gears prior to the A+, including the close-ratio 1275GT type if you can find these) provides a number of upgrades to address weaknesses. Besides the stronger 3-step layshaft and gear, you get the larger input bearing mainshaft, and the corresponding stronger input gear. The later gears also have a different coating on the synchro cones of the gears which lets the baulk-rings (synchros) work better, and is more durable (it has a black, almost “soft” when oily texture compared to the shiny metal of early gears).

This is a great upgrade, as the early small bearing type were used on tiny engines, and take a real beating when asked to perform with big-bore engines making 4 or 5 times the power and torque.

Next, I’ll be installing the differential, then we’ll confirm our Idler-gear end-float.

Oh Shift Forks! Back to the MOKE

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Well, as the seasons change and the days get awfully short, CooperRoadMini retreats into the R&D basement. We have space to leave half a dozen gearboxes taken apart all over the bench top and parts cleaner while we contemplate the next big improvement!

And here it is!   Years ago, I figured out that the 3-synchro remote gearboxes’ 1st/2nd brass shift-fork could be lightly clearanced to work in the 4-synchro 22G1128… probably when I didn’t have a good 22G889 (the “correct” 4-sync shift-fork), and cost of a new one was heading north of $150.  I made the mod whenever I could not come up with a good one.  I’ve noticed that the 22A611 3-sync shift fork is a much stouter casting and provides about 30% MORE brass in contact with the collar on the 1st/2nd hub slider…. Have a look at the video below.

In this case, I pulled the fork out of the old Moke 3-sync box, and it was in perfect condition, unlike most of the 4-sync versions which are usually knackered!   As our Moke is still using the “magic wand” shift linkage, this mod should really tighten up the stick-in-the-mud feeling that people expect with the magic wand!   The reader will kindly recall that our first gearbox suffered an idler bearing failure which destroyed the case and flywheel housing after about 750 miles, just when it was breaking in and shifting beautifully.   With our new case, we’ll be installing a full set of A+ standard ratio gears, modifying the case to accept the three-step layshaft.  We’ll keep the 3.44 final drive as it provided the perfect balance of acceleration and cruising speed for the Moke.

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Dwight’s Winning Woody

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While CooperRoadMini.com has been mostly dormanat over the summer, a number of interesting things have happened. We’ll have an update on our Moke project soon.

Yet in the meantime, my good friend Dwight Smith’s ’62 Traveler Woody won the Best of Show Award at the recent Portland British Field Meet. This was an astonishing achievement, as there were more than 800 fine British automobiles of MANY makes present. Check out who joined him in this elite group of show cars Click Here.

I’ve known Dwight for many years. Back in ’05 he ordered an engine from MiniMania. One our fabulous supercharged 1380cc units. If a customer was interested, I’d go over all sorts of details and make recommendations on how to best achieve the best power package for the car. Dwight was, and every detail was deliberate. The final drive, and transmission internal ratios, the drop gear options, the cylinder head, the cam, drive, timing, compression ratio, even the color of the engine, all of it well considered.  Dwight came down to Nevada City and we ran his engine at the Mini Mania open house in the spring of 2006. The howl from that engine always drew a crowd.

Many of us know the downside of being so detail oriented is that our projects can take FOR EVER! Sometimes years go by as we “decide how to proceed”!   By 2009 the bodyshell was as PERFECT as any England-sourced 60s metal object could possibly be!  By 2011, the stunning engine had collected some dust, on display in Dwight’s living room.

Late that summer, my technical writing gig at a General Dynamics company screeched to a halt. Dwight said he’d just been unable to start building the car, would I come up and assemble the big parts?

Hmm.  I’d built my 66 Cooper S from nuts and bolts. Over many years. Switching projects, slow progress here and there. Could I do it in a week or so?

It took 10 days. A couple spent helping Dwight “organize” his workspace, again this sometimes takes instigation by a third party with no attachment to debris that somehow fills any open space.  The car went together nicely.  Engine into subframe, body over it, front suspension, assembled rear subframe up to body, top notch brakes all around, dialed in the blower, clutch, radiator, ignition, and enough electrical to start the car with the key before heading home.

Dwight spent nearly two more years tending to details that he enjoys and does very well. The result was the spectacular green Woody seen by so many over the Labor Day weekend at the Portland All British Field Meet.

These are all photos I took at Dwight’s in September 2011 in Lake Oswego, Oregon.  You can click on any to see a full size image. Yep, those are my Crocks and I’m the one hanging through the windshield.

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’67 Mini Moke reintroduced to its owner

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Here’s a little compilation of the first test drive with our friend when he met his “new” Moke. He was amazed by the difference with the new power train. Remember, this was a tired old 850.

http://www.vimeo.com/69617357

67 Mini Moke: First Drive with new Engine

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This was moments after letting the clutch engage for the first time!

Our 67 Mini MOKE fires its new engine for the first time

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After a couple of attempts that let me correct the distributor orientation to get the timing in range, and adding dashpot oil to the HIF44, our new 1345cc Mini MOKE roared to life just after noon on Wednesday June 5th 2013.

This short video is the first minute or so of of my smooth-running engine!

Mini MOKE Count-down to Start-up

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With about a week to go before the Mini Mania open house “Nevada City Adventure”, our long term Mini MOKE project is going together for real!

This video shows me taking out the front sub-frame after lowering it a bit to get the old steering rack out. It was so easy to remove at that point that I couldn’t resist! I hammer-and-dollied some bumps and bruises, pressure washed, then painted it the next day when I came home for lunch. By Friday evening, the engine went in, and back up into the MOKE it went….. That’s the next post….. Let’s try at least one update per day until we drive it!