Fast Eddie
VIP MEMBER
I first went to Japan in 1992, me and the guys I were with couldn’t believe what we saw in Japanese scrap yards... the cars in there were way better condition than the cars we were driving back home !
Ive since gleaned from a mini forum that there are two different types of senders for different gauges. Having wrong type can give result I'm seeing. Will do a few more tests to pin it down.Temp gauge could be thermostat (maybe somebody's removed it!)..
Have heard of the water issue. Perhaps a points issue? This car has EI and has been in a fair bit of rain without ign issues (actually on the day I purchased it had to be driven home in a good rain for nearly 1 hour on highway).Make sure you your point cap and leads as well coil are sealed as being in the front they get a lot of water when driving in heavy rain or any water crossings, just a sniff of moisture will stop the motor, my mini was the only car I could get up in my back yard to my shed, was able to get it in between the house and fence with only less than 50mm each side of the door handles.
Ashley
Later models had a screen up front to shield the elecs but WD always worked for us.Make sure you your point cap and leads as well coil are sealed as being in the front they get a lot of water when driving in heavy rain or any water crossings, just a sniff of moisture will stop the motor, my mini was the only car I could get up in my back yard to my shed, was able to get it in between the house and fence with only less than 50mm each side of the door handles.
Ashley
In my first 11 years working at the Austin Longbridge factory I helped build the odd one or two Mini's, when I started there were 4 lines each making 600 a week down to one making in the last days just 200. It was supposed to be dropped not long after the Metro was released but its popularity kept it going for a few more years with upgrades including bigger wheels for the front disc brakes and lots of limited editions. Japan was a funny market, they drove on the left just like the UK, but 50% of the Mini's made for Japan were RHD, it was a fad in Japan to drive a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side so we sent what they wanted.
When I worked in the Development dept (sweeping the floors in the school holidays ) there were prototypes of a rear tailgated version of the Mini which was never put into production. They had the original Alec Issigonis pencil sketches of the original design, more art than engineering drawings.
In the same dept building (nicknamed the elephant house) there was a car called the Triumph Lynx, a Triumph TR7 with a sloping glass rear. It had come from Canley but was drop dead gorgeous and was to have the Rover V8 engine from the outset.
Elephant House before its conversion to development centre and the glass removed so no prying eyes.
Triumph Lynx
Noted the temp gauge barely moves off the blue cold mark. Either it has the best cooling system ever or something is not correct with gauge or sender?
And at 40+ years old they qualify for 'classic' status in the UK.... Shame most are rotten by now :-(