Yes, I seem to remember all old Minis were a cause of many sore heads Richard And not only through bumping your head on the bonnet either!!! I have some especially 'happy' memories of changing the inboard driveshaft 'Hardy-Spicer' joints What a mission that was!!!
And... never forgetting the little bypass hose betwixt cylinder head and block... Whoever designed that was cruel. I remember you could get concertina ones that were a little easier to fit - but not by much!
Richard_C wrote:
Anyway this thread has got me thinking about odd stuff I have (or maybe had) somewhere in the garage, including a chrome cigarette holder/dispenser/lighter. Will try to dig it out and post a photo or two.
Love to see that. I adore such things... It seems unreal now that smoking was so much a part of everyday life - and ultimately death...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
I remember those pesky in-board UJs - nasty things, comprising metal plates, u-bolts and sandwiched rubber. Oil leaks from the engine routinely destroyed the rubber, and make the joints go all clonky.
And the ever-leaky exhaust joint between cast manifold and downpipe: a taper joint, with a hard to get at clamp. After repeated loosening and leaking, I finally "sleeved" these internally with a short length of steel tubing placed inside - no more leaks.
Grizzly memories, too, of fitting replacement fanbelts, and fighting them past the multi-bladed fan and cowling. Some folk resorted to doing away with the wing-cowl.
And water-drenched distributors and h.t. leads! A ghastly plastic shroud for the distributor kept some of the rain out, but just enough in to cause tracking and misfires. The thin black plastic cover would harden with age, so it was a real fight to remove it.
IIRC, the original proposal was for the transverse engine to be the other way round - exhaust at the front, distributor etc at the rear. Suppose we should be grateful we didn't get that: dynamo and starter would have been nicely inaccessible, but at least the plugs etc would have stayed dry. Turned around, would that noisy idler gear between engine and gearbox have been redundant?
I had a couple of Mini/1300 automatics. Always amazed me that those AP auto boxes were designed to run on dirty old engine oil (which they shared with the engine above). Interesting to compare to our lovely HP boxes' need for hyper-pristine ATF!
I vaguely remember that auto-boxed Minis didn't get the nasty rubber UJs on the drive shafts, but proper needle-bearinged Hardy Spicers. Maybe to cope with the extra leaks...
Ahh Chris You're bringing back even more memories now... I'd forgotten the fan belt!
Yes, you are absolutely right in that the original proposal was to install the engine the other way round... Doing the points was difficult enough as it was, imagine how tricky it would have been with the distributor at the back!!!
I believe they were also very worried about carb icing had they put it right at the front...
The idler while was such a signature it would have been a shame to have lost it...
A bit like the Morris Minor exhaust over-run flatulence
Jim
Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
Location: Live & work in London but weekend in Devon (or do I now live in Torbay & work in London?)
My Cars: Citroens:- '81 2CV Club (quietly sleeping in a parallel universe) '05 (yes, really) C15 '97 Xantia Exclusive estate others:- '96 Jeep Cherokee Limited - the "donor" '99 Jeep Cherokee Orvis - the green one '97 Jeep Cherokee Limited - the red one '99 Cadillac Seville STS '96 Cadillac Eldorado ETC & numerous what might be described as abandoned projects!
I've moved on from tartan travel rugs (although there still most of a sort of faux black watch one in the green Cherokee) to full size thermal blanket, which now resides in the red Cherokee, which has saved me the cost of a hotel on several occasions.
Can't be bothered to finish this, forum's driving me mad, deleting stuff faster than I can type!
Citroens:-
'81 2CV Club
'05 C15
'97 Xantia Exclusive estate
others:-
Jeep XJ Cherokees x 3
'96 Cadillac Eldorado
'99 Cadillac STS
& the numerous "abandoned projects"
That looks awful Neil Makes a horribly frumpy little atrocity look even frumpier... I never thought it was possible to make a Moggie look any worse than it is but by golly, Alexander succeeded where Issigonis failed...
I'm not a fan... In my opinion, the Moggie is the most over-rated so-called 'classic' on the planet. I'd rather have a Marina and that's saying something...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
Oh I do not know about that Jim.....my Moggie was fun. At my age at the time and without a flat of my own the Traveller was a very "romantic" car to own !
Alasdair
Activa, the Moose Rider 3x C5x7 Steering racks and counting
Stickyfinger wrote: ↑25 Jun 2017, 06:39
Oh I do not know about that Jim.....my Moggie was fun. At my age at the time and without a flat of my own the Traveller was a very "romantic" car to own !
Happy memories I guess Alasdair...
Actually, the wooden Traveller did have some merit - it was not quite so frumpy as the saloon...
I always see the Moggie as an old maiden aunt... All misery and preoccupied by chronic illnesses...
Never had any love for them, ever, and that goes right back to when I was a small boy...
Dad had a Traveller for a while and he couldn't like them either... Kept it for about a month if I remember rightly... Swapped for an HB Viva and that says it all really...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
What an omission page 8 of the thread and no mention of beaded seat covers! Thanks to Zel for reminding me of those devices giving them a mntion on another thread. Can't remember if their purpose was orthopaedic to alleviate back pain resulting from poorly designed car seats of the time, or simply to counteract the hot vinyl burn syndrome in the summer months. Then again it could have been purely a fashion accessory which looked cool
Location: Live & work in London but weekend in Devon (or do I now live in Torbay & work in London?)
My Cars: Citroens:- '81 2CV Club (quietly sleeping in a parallel universe) '05 (yes, really) C15 '97 Xantia Exclusive estate others:- '96 Jeep Cherokee Limited - the "donor" '99 Jeep Cherokee Orvis - the green one '97 Jeep Cherokee Limited - the red one '99 Cadillac Seville STS '96 Cadillac Eldorado ETC & numerous what might be described as abandoned projects!
That got me googling. Im a bit bored waiting for my aircon to be regassed. Bri-nylon is simply the trademarked name for nylon. Its unclear if it was taken by dupont or british nylon spinners and I think is simply short for british nylon.