12 replies to this topic

[Nanni Dietrich]

Several decades ago ( ) I had for a short time an ageing purple painted Mini 850. It was a mid-1960s original Austin car, with a long gear lever, pivoted to the front floor of the car.
Years later I purchased a brand new Mini 1000, with the wider front grille. It was a white car built under licence in Italy by Innocenti, with a "regular" short gear shift between the front seats.
Do you know what kind of gear lever had the works Mini Cooper of Aaltonen, Makinen, Fall, Hopkirk and friends?

Edited by Nanni Dietrich, 08 July 2013 - 09:57.

[Catalina Park]

The Cooper and Cooper S all had the short shift between the seats. (usually called the remote shift)

Here is a video of Timo that might help.

[doc knutsen]

Several decades ago ( ) I had for a short time an ageing purple painted Mini 850. It was a mid-1960s original Austin car, with a long gear lever, pivoted to the front floor of the car.
Years later I purchased a brand new Mini 1000, with the wider front grille. It was a white car built under licence in Italy by Innocenti, with a "regular" short gear shift between the front seats.
Do you know what kind of gear lever had the works Mini Cooper of Aaltonen, Makinen, Fall, Hopkirk and friends?

The original 850 Mini had the long "magic wand" gear lever, but when the first 997 Cooper came out, it featured a cast-alloy extension to the diff housing, that featured a new gear change mechanism, with a short and precise change. This was used on subsequent Minis of all types, until it was replaced by the "rod change" mehanism in the early Eighties. The "remote" was the same on all the Cooper and Cooper S derivatives, also on the basic Mini 998.

Edited by doc knutsen, 08 July 2013 - 10:59.

[BRG]

The early 850 and 998 Minis had the 'pudding stirrer' gear lever which ran forward directly to the gearbox, but was a bit vague due to its length and flexibility. When they brought out the Cooper models, it was realised that this simply wasn't good enough and the remote change was designed, using a casting bolted to the gearbox and running under the floor back to the seats, with a short vertical lever that gave a far more positive change. But doubtless added to the costs of the car.

Later, this was fitted to all Minis when the inadequacy of the original lever started to be more obvious compared to other cars. You could buy one and fit it to on older Mini with a little work, or there were some after market conversions that provided a similar remote change (Alexander did one IIRC?) but running inside the car.

Edited by BRG, 08 July 2013 - 11:01.

[JtP1]

No 850 mini had a remote until the rod change system came out in 73(?). The only 998s that might have had pudding stirrers were early Elfs and Hornets. The pudding stirrer went into the diff housing and worked the box from a linkage up the back of the diff. The Cooper remote changed the back of the diff housing and the remote drove a similar vertical rod up the back of the diff into exactly the same linkage that the 850 used. the lower end of the vertical rod was different, but the top eas the same.

when the 4 speed synchro box cane out in the late 60s, all boxes came with the remote style diff housing and they were the ones you could bolt the remote to an 850. The 850 4 speed synchro came with the wand/ pudding strirrer lever, but one that bolted to the remote style diff housing.

All works Coopers would have had a remote gear lever complete with rubber hose. The remote alone stopped the engine jumping about.

[RS2000]

You asked about the works cars. They used the standard Cooper/Cooper S remote change but the standard rear mounting was replaced by the "Mitchell mounting".
Apart from welding up the bent over flange (that fits against the floor of the standard car) (to prevent it unbending) the (harder) rubber part completely concealed a "ball and cup" which would hold the mounting roughly in place if the rubber failed. This was soon marketed to all as a "Special Tuning" part.
Although, like all BMC Special Tuning parts compared to Ford RS parts, it was cheap enough, few users were likely to cut the rubber up just to see what was inside. The pricing of ST parts like this one was effectively assisting private owners of BMC cars but, as someone said, Ford are still here and BMC aren't....

[doc knutsen]

The early 850 and 998 Minis had the 'pudding stirrer' gear lever which ran forward directly to the gearbox, but was a bit vague due to its length and flexibility. When they brought out the Cooper models, it was realised that this simply wasn't good enough and the remote change was designed, using a casting bolted to the gearbox and running under the floor back to the seats, with a short vertical lever that gave a far more positive change. But doubtless added to the costs of the car.

Later, this was fitted to all Minis when the inadequacy of the original lever started to be more obvious compared to other cars. You could buy one and fit it to on older Mini with a little work, or there were some after market conversions that provided a similar remote change (Alexander did one IIRC?) but running inside the car.

I fitted an aftermarket remote to my 1100-engined 850. It was manufactured by a company called SPQR. The mechanism mounted on top of the "transmission tunnel" and it was covered by a neat little console in black fibreglass. Worked a lot better, too. But it did not do too much to stabilize the engine, unlike the factory remote.

[Morris S]

I fitted an aftermarket remote to my 1100-engined 850. It was manufactured by a company called SPQR. The mechanism mounted on top of the "transmission tunnel" and it was covered by a neat little console in black fibreglass. Worked a lot better, too. But it did not do too much to stabilize the engine, unlike the factory remote.

[Catalina Park]

This is a similar one that was sold in Australia.

[JtP1]

I fitted an aftermarket remote to my 1100-engined 850. It was manufactured by a company called SPQR. The mechanism mounted on top of the "transmission tunnel" and it was covered by a neat little console in black fibreglass. Worked a lot better, too. But it did not do too much to stabilize the engine, unlike the factory remote.

.

Yes, I know. I have one lying in the back of the garage. Never used it, it came with a shell.

[275 GTB-4]

I fitted an aftermarket remote to my 1100-engined 850. It was manufactured by a company called SPQR. The mechanism mounted on top of the "transmission tunnel" and it was covered by a neat little console in black fibreglass. Worked a lot better, too. But it did not do too much to stabilize the engine, unlike the factory remote.

Doc, you could also purchase a gearbox steady to complement the engine steady up on the firewall...they seemed to work well

[BRG]

I fitted an aftermarket remote to my 1100-engined 850. It was manufactured by a company called SPQR.

That's the one I was thinking of, not Alexander. SPQR, out of Rowlands Castle, Hampshire - a bastion of the motor industry (not) - made a range of Mini bits.

Yes, I know. I have one lying in the back of the garage. Never used it, it came with a shell.

Someone got £99 for one of those on e-Bay in April, so dig it out and cash in!

[JtP1]

Someone got £99 for one of those on e-Bay in April, so dig it out and cash in!

Away to look for it now, that's more than I paid for the mini.