These days CooperRoadMini is in a bit of a holding pattern as my lovely assistant is due to give birth to our son, literally at any moment now! Little Xaven (or Xayven?, Xayvyn?, Xavyn?….still working on it!) is due day after tomorrow as I write this. Perhaps to help in that regard, we are tempting fate by taking a picnic and the 4-wheel drive up to a nearly 8000 foot peak about an hour away. Yes we live in a wonderful place! We’ll escape early August 90s for spectacular views of several lakes and balmy 70s, and see if the terrain might help expedite Xavy Cooper’s arrival! OK, you can have some fun with our choice of middle name, but someday, he may inherit this mess!
Well, that’s the “life and times” update, but back to our title…. the question has come up again about whether it’s possible to pull the engine unit from a servo equipped Mini without disturbing the hydraulics. A ‘servo’ is what a power-brake booster is called for a Mini. They were installed at first only on the Cooper S models with disk brakes, different than most cars in that the unit is remote from the master cylinder. In the Mini, it is mounted on the right side of the tiny engine compartment, right in the way of getting to the clutch adjustment, and generally making many maintenance and inspection procedures much more difficult. That’s why I chose not to run one on my 66 S…. the pedal pressure is just not significant, even with late 8.4″ disk brakes and 13″ wheels with an early single line master. In any event, they are widely used and viewed as an upgrade from the S model.
So the answer is YES! In this short video taken just before I re-installed the engine in our last project, we can see how the servo unit is pulled up and tilted backwards with just a slight twist of the two brake pipes that connect it back to the three way junction on the bulkhead. I show a little trick for tightening up a small brake fluid leak…. finesse instead of brute force!
Finally, this last week I’ve been helping our friend Steven back in the great state of PA figure out what he needs to assemble the brake pipes to his Mark 1. He acquired the car in milk crates and coffee cans, so bits like the “three-way connector” are just “junk in a box”! Here you go Steven, you can see the layout of most of the engine compartment brake plumbing, and your car will be very much like this one!
https://cooperroadmini.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cooper-Road-Mini-Logo2-1.png00Jemalhttps://cooperroadmini.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cooper-Road-Mini-Logo2-1.pngJemal2014-08-02 15:02:102017-06-11 20:27:33Engine out without disconnecting the Brake Servo?
While we don’t have a current guest project in the works at Cooper Road Mini, the question of fitting a Weber side-draft onto the standard engine configuration often comes up. I took this video when I was reassembling our friend Mike’s 67 Mark 1 to show how these end up being a bit of a compromise as they seriously crowd the instrument cluster in the center of the dash. Most classic Minis well into the 80s came with the iconic “center binnacle” speedometer. I’ve described these set-ups as “trying to suck the speedo out of the dash”, and you can see with the two slightly different DCOE 45 combos I have, how the one with the “OER” carb just WILL NOT clear the speedometer and bulkhead without some chopping! This is the same combo I was hoping to run on our previous project Moke, but it would have required cutting the bulkhead on a painfully original English Moke! There is a reason that lots of knowledgeable Mini folks just don’t like the Weber on a street car…. A race set up won’t be concerned with modifying the dash!
https://cooperroadmini.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cooper-Road-Mini-Logo2-1.png00Jemalhttps://cooperroadmini.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cooper-Road-Mini-Logo2-1.pngJemal2014-05-02 13:04:502016-11-22 04:24:55Weber DCOE a Tight Fit in a Classic Mini
As part of my day job, I moderate and answer questions on the Mini Mania Forum. As part of minimania.com, the forum hosts an international and diverse group of Mini Cooper owners and enthusiasts. Sometimes people ask things in funny ways…. perhaps something is lost in translation, perhaps they didn’t read the words they wrote, so we have some fun with it!
This was a thread about the notorious failure of the classic Mini odometers, which often get stuck when turning over anything with more than three nines in a row!
Funny topic! This one brings back memories… My childhood Mini Van in Iraq had the typical odo failure at one of the 999s. My father patiently took it all apart till the dials could be poked and prodded. For some reason, Arabs like to clean parts in gasoline, and so it went wrong! First, the paint on the numbers came off, then he started a fire in the kitchen sink! Somehow the unit didn’t melt down and after cleaning soot from half the house, he actually got it to work again…. for a little while.
Years later, he was attending KSU in Manhattan, Kansas when the odo on our 66 Chevy Impala got stuck. Apart it came and into a tub of gasoline…. you guessed it, in the kitchen sink! Off came the numbers, and BOOM from the stove pilot light. Lots more soot for my poor mother to clean! A trip to the junkyard to replace a melted speedo. Not an idiot, eventually getting a dual Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics PHD from Stanford, but I bet he still cleans parts in gasoline!
Perhaps Palo Alto Speedometer is not such a bad deal.
Jemal
Here is the full topic and comments by members of the forum:
Let’s do one more…. This was in response to a question posed by someone new to Minis, wondering if a Classic Mini would be a good choice for “primitive” conditions….
If you mean the roads routinely have as much as a foot of water, there won’t be too many cars that won’t “malfunction”! Have you considered a Bush-era Hummer?
Keep in mind that Minis do come from England, where it is known to rain on occasion. Rain can cause rust, and Minis certainly have rust, so logically, Minis must be ok in the rain!
You’ll find that we’re a supportive and helpful group! What do you think so far?
OK, I can’t resist one more, about using a Classic Mini as a daily driver:
Now in my fourth decade as a motorcyclist, I’ve learned to ride and drive as though I am invisible. I do not rely on being seen, and I do not drone along, absent-mindedly next to a semi on the freeway, just hoping for the best the way so many complacent drivers do. Obviously you can mitigate risks to some extent but ultimately, the physical universe won’t allow two objects to occupy the same space at the same time. If the two objects are a Crew-cab dually and a classic Mini, well, I hope it’s not your Mini!
IMHO, the biggest fault with a Mini as a daily driver is the wrong kind of driver. It simply will not survive at the hands of someone inattentive to what the car is telling them. You can’t be multi-tasking with your various devices expecting the Mini to take care of you and itself the way a modern car does. You must devote attention to the sounds and smells and vibrations, constantly look for leaks, smoke, fumes, flames, a myriad of things the Mini might do to tell you what it need before it hurts itself or you!
It can be done though! Numerous members of this board have the right stuff! I don’t anymore, but as a child, our 66 Mini Van 850 was THE family car, and the ONLY Mini in the country. Banging around Baghdad, Iraq (back when it was semi-civilized!) for nearly a decade, we only had one minor fender-bender. Ultimately we drove it back to Wales, had the 850 rebuilt, then drove it back to Baghdad! The British newspapers of the 70s thought we had very much the “wrong stuff”, a family of FIVE, making that trip in a Mini Van! There was no back seat, let alone seatbelts!
Jemal
The “Wrong Stuff”! That’s me on the right at 10 years old! This photo appeared with our story in the local press circa 1973, North Wales near Chester and Liverpool.
https://cooperroadmini.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cooper-Road-Mini-Logo2-1.png00Jemalhttps://cooperroadmini.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Cooper-Road-Mini-Logo2-1.pngJemal2014-04-24 12:31:582016-11-22 04:26:03Fun and Informative posts by Jemal
Engine out without disconnecting the Brake Servo?
/0 Comments/in Classic Mini Cooper /by JemalThese days CooperRoadMini is in a bit of a holding pattern as my lovely assistant is due to give birth to our son, literally at any moment now! Little Xaven (or Xayven?, Xayvyn?, Xavyn?….still working on it!) is due day after tomorrow as I write this. Perhaps to help in that regard, we are tempting fate by taking a picnic and the 4-wheel drive up to a nearly 8000 foot peak about an hour away. Yes we live in a wonderful place! We’ll escape early August 90s for spectacular views of several lakes and balmy 70s, and see if the terrain might help expedite Xavy Cooper’s arrival! OK, you can have some fun with our choice of middle name, but someday, he may inherit this mess!
Well, that’s the “life and times” update, but back to our title…. the question has come up again about whether it’s possible to pull the engine unit from a servo equipped Mini without disturbing the hydraulics. A ‘servo’ is what a power-brake booster is called for a Mini. They were installed at first only on the Cooper S models with disk brakes, different than most cars in that the unit is remote from the master cylinder. In the Mini, it is mounted on the right side of the tiny engine compartment, right in the way of getting to the clutch adjustment, and generally making many maintenance and inspection procedures much more difficult. That’s why I chose not to run one on my 66 S…. the pedal pressure is just not significant, even with late 8.4″ disk brakes and 13″ wheels with an early single line master. In any event, they are widely used and viewed as an upgrade from the S model.
So the answer is YES! In this short video taken just before I re-installed the engine in our last project, we can see how the servo unit is pulled up and tilted backwards with just a slight twist of the two brake pipes that connect it back to the three way junction on the bulkhead. I show a little trick for tightening up a small brake fluid leak…. finesse instead of brute force!
Finally, this last week I’ve been helping our friend Steven back in the great state of PA figure out what he needs to assemble the brake pipes to his Mark 1. He acquired the car in milk crates and coffee cans, so bits like the “three-way connector” are just “junk in a box”! Here you go Steven, you can see the layout of most of the engine compartment brake plumbing, and your car will be very much like this one!
Weber DCOE a Tight Fit in a Classic Mini
/2 Comments/in Classic Mini Cooper /by JemalWhile we don’t have a current guest project in the works at Cooper Road Mini, the question of fitting a Weber side-draft onto the standard engine configuration often comes up. I took this video when I was reassembling our friend Mike’s 67 Mark 1 to show how these end up being a bit of a compromise as they seriously crowd the instrument cluster in the center of the dash. Most classic Minis well into the 80s came with the iconic “center binnacle” speedometer. I’ve described these set-ups as “trying to suck the speedo out of the dash”, and you can see with the two slightly different DCOE 45 combos I have, how the one with the “OER” carb just WILL NOT clear the speedometer and bulkhead without some chopping! This is the same combo I was hoping to run on our previous project Moke, but it would have required cutting the bulkhead on a painfully original English Moke! There is a reason that lots of knowledgeable Mini folks just don’t like the Weber on a street car…. A race set up won’t be concerned with modifying the dash!
Fun and Informative posts by Jemal
/0 Comments/in Classic Mini Cooper /by JemalAs part of my day job, I moderate and answer questions on the Mini Mania Forum. As part of minimania.com, the forum hosts an international and diverse group of Mini Cooper owners and enthusiasts. Sometimes people ask things in funny ways…. perhaps something is lost in translation, perhaps they didn’t read the words they wrote, so we have some fun with it!
This was a thread about the notorious failure of the classic Mini odometers, which often get stuck when turning over anything with more than three nines in a row!
Here is the full topic and comments by members of the forum:
http://minimania.com/msgThread/115313/1/1/Need_a_fix_for_a_stuck_ODO
Let’s do one more…. This was in response to a question posed by someone new to Minis, wondering if a Classic Mini would be a good choice for “primitive” conditions….
The full thread: http://minimania.com/msgThread/115236/1/1/Buying_my_first_mini
OK, I can’t resist one more, about using a Classic Mini as a daily driver:
The “Wrong Stuff”! That’s me on the right at 10 years old! This photo appeared with our story in the local press circa 1973, North Wales near Chester and Liverpool.