Introduction - '74 Mini 1000, Blue Thunder in NM

Started by bryanp, May 12, 2016, 01:57:32 PM

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BruceK

1973 was the year of several changes including the rod change shifter, pot joint inner CVs, and alternators replacing generators. 
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

DS1980

I have a 1972 that is magic wand and yoke. I believe last year for both.

bryanp

Yes - they are the pot joint inner CVs. 
Good advice re: the adjustable lower arms.  I already told my boys that they will be attending college at MiniSport, so it's all good.   

MiniDave

#28
I can't think of any reason you couldn't put a 998 motor on an 850 gearbox and keep the magic wand and cross joints - downside is that you'd lose the lovely 1st gear synchro of the rod change gearboxes. But I don't know of any way to make a rod change into a pudding stirrer......

BTW, I like this style of adjustable lower control arms, they're easier to set up and very strong......MiniSport carries them.....

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

BruceK

1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

MPlayle

#30
Supposedly, the rod change boxes can be modified to use the magic-wand shifter, thus gaining the later 4-synchro gear set and differential while retaining the early style shifter.  (The folks at 7Ent have said it can be done.)  I don't recall which outputs you end up with - yoke or pot-joint.  If pot-joint, then a change in drive shafts is also required.

I'll take the remainder of this discussion over to my Moke thread instead of continuing to "hijack" the original intent of this thread.


MiniDave

#31
I could see putting the later gears in the earlier case, but I don't see how you could use a rod change case - there's a hole and bushing where the shifter goes thru that the rod change case doesn't have - you can change the diff case to gain that part, but not the upper part.

You can see the shift rod in this pic.....not to mention all the internal shifting mechanism is completely different in a rod change box. There is a kit to change over pot joints to yokes, Stan did (or is doing) that to his......



Here's the rod change gearbox for comparison.....

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

Nicholasupton

Quote from: MPlayle on December 07, 2016, 11:47:07 AM
Supposedly, the rod change boxes can be modified to use the magic-wand shifter, thus gaining the later 4-synchro gear set and differential while retaining the early style shifter.  (The folks at 7Ent have said it can be done.)  I don't recall which outputs you end up with - yoke or pot-joint.  If pot-joint, then a change in drive shafts is also required.

I'll take the remainder of this discussion over to my Moke thread instead of continuing to "hijack" the original intent of this thread.

You can fit a Magic wand to a Remote case, not a rodchange

MiniDave

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MPlayle

Nick,

Thank you for the correction/clarification.  It is a conversion that is new to me and I probably misunderstood part of Jack's description when he told me about it.


towjoe

This is done by Guessworks.
http://guess-works.com/Shop/Gearbox/NewProduct.htm
John Guess is a great source for gearbox parts.
Regards
towjoe 77.gif

MiniDave

That's an excellent option, I don't think I could build one for that price - especially because of the machine work needed.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

bryanp

#37
This is very cool and I am learning a lot - didn't know that the rod/want conversion was even possible. 

I went back thru this thread and realized I had not answered certain questions, so here they are:

MiniDave, re: my Dad's old Moke, he both autocrossed it in Hawaii and won the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Championship for his class in '74.  We got it in '70.  Here's a blog w/ the whole story - click on the pics for a bigger view.    http://maximummini.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-hawaiian-ex-rental-became-worlds.html#comment-form

I sold my Alfa SS thru the AlfaBB to a former Chicago AROC president who had previously done a Veloce Sprint and a Veloce Spider; the right guy to have it. 

BruceK; yes, I diligently got rid of all my scrap lumber in the garage clean-up before the Mini arrived.  So all I had to set the motor on was firewood!

MiniDave

#38
Brian, the wand is the absolute last choice when it comes to shifters, either rod change or remote is much better.....

Loved the article on the Moke!
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

MEhinger

On the final drive discussion, I have a knightsbridge mini I bought new. It came with a 2.76:1 final drive and I loved it from the start. It runs 3400 rpm at 80mph. The 1275, MPI has plenty of power. I liked it so much that when I built my son's car, I used that gear again. His car is a 1293 with twin SUs. It has similar if not better performance. I have no experience with higher elevations like where you live but it all works well in Tennessee.

And I do have to add that your car really looks good.

bryanp

Well, Christmas came early; after many calls w/ DHL, they officially declared the gearbox "lost" and started the claims process w/ MiniSpares.  Then Friday it showed up!!!  Here are the pics for those of you who have more experience w/ the innards of the Mini box that I do.  And, thank you, MEhinger - I am having fun.

MPlayle

I see I'm not the only person to use those small furniture dollies for engine dollies.

I've even used one at each corner of a Mini to put the whole car on dollies for putting it into the corner of the garage.


MiniDave

The 5th gear is to the left in this picture, normally that area is fairly empty.....

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

bryanp

It has been a while since I have posted any progress updates.  I am in the midst of a kitchen renovation, and the stupid kids always want something . . . like food, so I am able to work on the Mini about four hours a week.

Per the advice of MiniDave many months ago, I switched out my lower control arms for the heavy-duty adjustables.  I treated the floor and the firewall w/ a B-Quiet product, allegedly a third lighter than Dynamat, installed the LHD steering rack; installed new glass and regulator in the left door (the felt was long gone and the staples holding the felt/rubber on the waist rails had gouged the glass pretty good).  I fabricated a plate for mounting the OPB pedal box and have a little brake plumbing to do.   

My 1310 engine came from the UK along w/ the supercharger, custom manifold and clutch.  The gentleman who did the work also beefed up the center bearing support.  Now I am waiting on a bunch of peripheral engine stuff since I have gone from an A- motor to A+ w/ verto clutch.

So my question for the group has to do with dealing w/ the heat from the supercharger.  I have looked at a lot of modified Minis and do not believe I have seen one where relief vents have been put in near the rear edge of the bonnet.  I have a new heritage bonnet in primer (the one that came /w the car looks like it had gone thru a "heat event" w/ the sheet metal sagging slightly around the x-brace).  Before I have it painted blue, I was thinking about placing two relief vents in it - a simple two-louver arrangement towards each of the back corners.   Is there a reason not to do this?  Is it possible you never see relief vents in Mini hoods because you want to encourage the air to go through the radiator, and the relief vents allow that much more air to go somewhere else? 

thanks all!     

MiniDave

#44
Wow Bryan, you're making huge progress!

The heat from the supercharger will all be internal, not external.....and I can't see any way to plumb an intercooler in there, so I would not worry about it. However, it does seem to me that adding vents to the hood would cost some airflow out of the radiator end, but I could be wrong. At any rate, if you have a good enough radiator, you'll be fine.

The only downside of additional heat in the intake from the supercharger is reduced efficiency, but I'm not sure you'll notice it except on a really hot day. Be sure to set your timing so you don't get any pinging under load, and you will absolutely need premium fuel, the higher the octane the better.

Those are the exact lower control arms I buy, I like them better than the other style - very easy to adjust. Be sure you have the taper correct in the ball joint hole, it's easy to put them on upside down/wrong side.....don't ask me how I know!

I use a piece of board in between the pads for the engine to rest on.....

Oh, one other small nitty comment, I put the door opening handles on 90* from where you have them (pointing slightly forward), you pull back to open the door, I think you'll find doing it the way you did will be awkward to operate. You'll also want your window winders to stop where you don't bang your knee on them while you drive......but not necessarily where mine are in this pic......
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

bryanp

#45
Ok, so I am starting another post in my own thread with "it's been a while since I last posted . . ."  The kitchen is done and my spouse is happy, so I am back in the garage.  I just have a few new bits of progress to share.

Per the advice of this group, I got a set of 12" minilite-style wheels w/ 165/60 Yokos.  If you recall, the previous owner had just purchased a set of 13" wheels w/ 175/50 tires.  Even though the new wheels are smaller, the offset on the inside is greater than the 13x7 wheels, so I was getting a tiny bit of fouling w/ my new rear sway bar.  I decided to go fancy and get a set of the Minisport finned rear drums and the 56mm studs (forgot to get the longer drum screws, but they're on their way - I know they are missing in the pic).  I test fitted the rear tires/wheel, and plenty of clearance now.  I won't know until I set the car on the ground many months from now if the smaller wheels/tires will look decent w/ the fat flares the previous owner installed. 

I also re-plumbed the gas line in the boot, inserting an electric pump and then a regulator - I will need this to dial in the psi for the supercharger.

Next, I need to finally finish the pedal box mounting - I fabricated a steel plate for it to hang from, but i'll cover that in a few weeks (famous last words) in my next posting.

bryanp

Problem; I tried to mount the OBP pedal box using the steel plate I fabricated.  The problem is that the gorgeous adjustable steering column bracket from DSN Classics (see the second pic in Reply #8 of this thread) is much bulkier than the stock steel bracket (21A2463).  The DSN bracket fouls one of the master brake cylinders mounted to the front of the pedal box . . . . and I am out of front-back adjustment w/ the pedal box/master cylinder dimension. 

Of course, I destroyed the old bracket when I removed the column last year - the shear bolts did what they're supposed to do, so I broke out the hacksaw, thinking I wouldn't need the old bracket having bought the DSN dash jewelry.   :-[  So - no one makes/carries the old bracket.  Seven has a used one, but it says it's for MK1 and 2.  Does anyone know what the difference would be between the pre-71 bracket and the post-71 bracket?  I have the collar/bracket for my MK 3 column and I also have the column adjuster lowering bracket (BG5101), so the only thing I can think of that would be different would be the distance between the mounting holes in the in the earlier bracket to the skinny "nut plate" (114-919) that sits in the bowed dash rail.    But there does not appear to be a difference between Mk 1/2 and Mk 3 nut plates, so I just don't know.

Any thoughts?  Does anyone have a spare MK 3 bracket I could buy?  Doesn't have to be pretty ....


MiniDave

I may have one, let me dig around my box of "stuff", I should know by tomorrow.......
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

bryanp

thanks, Dave!  turns out that Seven doesn't actually have the used one on their site . . . .

MiniDave

Sorry, turns out I don't have one but they can't be that hard to find, can they? There must be thousands of them lying about in old shells in England........
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad