ok. the car is amazing and great, but the speedometer and odometer don't work and the horn. How do I fix it? where can I get the parts? any websites would be great, or companies I can call and purchase over the phone.

 

Ahhhhh - I see you are a newbie to the world of Mini as was I some 5 years ago.

1. Buy the Haynes ... or the book of your choice but many of us speak Haynes ....

2. Get to know MiniMania or Moss or the site of your choice cuz your local auto part store is NO help

3. Find out if there is a Mini or MG or British Car club around and hook up .....

4. Pull up the carpets and look under there ... and put it on a lift and look under there ... and look HARD at the subframes .... then decide how hard to drive it

on 2 ur ?




If the speedo and odo are out you want to check the speedo cable - unfortunately getting to the tranny end is a wee bit of a PITA

if you need a new cable moss (mossmini.com) or minimania.com or a slew of others will have it. If you need to replace the speedo, these places will also have that but it is $300 or more for a SMITH's

This place can repair smith's: http://www.nisonger.com/

........

Horn: do you get juice at the horn? (pull the horn wires and put a simple bulb tester or a meter in its place) if so you just need a new cheap horn or repair the wiring (is the ground bad?). If you don't get juice then you need to find out why....switch or wires in between. Switch solution depends on the year. Once you have juice at the horn do yourself a favor and replace with something LOUD.

some ideas: http://www.griotsgarage.com/p2p/sear...rrivals&page=1

or even something from Harbor Freight ...

but add a relay to the circuit....extra draw of a GOOD horn might damage standard wires.

 

Pull the speedo cable off the speedo and go for a ride and see if its turning. If not then you need to troubleshoot the cable otherwise you need to source another speedo. They are always on ebay. If you turn the speedo mechanism by hand its enough to make it register so that should tell you something.

 

could you explain that in woman terms? this is his wife posting again. We're would I find the cable? How do I hand turn the mechanism? any tips are much needed and much appreciated

 

The speedometer cable connects the speedometer to the transmission. The cable connects to the transmission at the back of the power unit (engine+trans) just forward of the firewall. The other end connects to the speedometer.

The easiest end to disconnect is the speedometer end. On all Minis I've seen, the back of the speedometer can be accessed from under the bonnet (hood) by fishing your hand into the cavity behind the carburettor(s). The cable is roughly the diameter of a pencil and connects to the speedometer with a big knurled end that can be spun on and off with your fingers.

The speedometer cable is made of an outer sheath and an inner rotating cable (rotated by the transmission). If the inner cable rotates when the vehicle is in motion, the speedometer is most likely bad. If the inner cable does not rotate when the vehicle is in motion, the cable could be bad, or the part inside the transmission that rotates the cable could be bad.

So ... to verify the cable integrity, put the car on jackstands to elevate the drive wheels. Disconnect the speedometer cable from the speedometer. Start the vehicle, put it in gear, and see if the inner part of the speedometer cable rotates. CAUTION - If you're not comfortable with doing this safely, take other measures to determine this safely.

If you're lucky enough to be able to disconnect the speedometer cable from the transmission, you should be able to spin the inner part of the cable and see the speedometer move.

I'd post a picture of the cable, but I have no idea what year Mini you have.

I hope it helps.
Good luck and happy motoring,
Jeff

 

it's a 1975... Um, since I have fairly small hands, I should be able to just reach into that cavity and find a cable that has a knurled end that un screws right? I definatly dont feel comfy doing the jack test. although there is a garage here on post that would let me check and probably love to help just to say they did. You don't see many of these older minis around here now. and now for a stupid question. What is the choke for? i noticed when I started the car, not in gear, that when I pulled the choke, the gas pedal went down. is that all it does? and what does the little button next to it do? It's soft and rubbery and sticks out about 3/4 of an inch. Im trying to learn this mini as well as my hubby, and he doesn't want to ask, cause you know, he's a man and all that

 

The choke is a feature of carburetor cars. It richens the fuel mixture when the engine is cold. It makes the engine easier to start in the winter time. You pull it out to start the car and then once it starts you push it in some and then once the engine will run without it you push it all the way in. You do not want to run the engine normally with the choke out.

I think the speedo cable is long enough that you could pull it through the hood or out one side enough that a passenger could see it when you take it around the block so theres no need to jack it up. The back of the speedo once you have the cable off has square slot inside of the connector you unscrewed. Just put a small scrwdriver in there and turn it. It will begin to advance if it works.

Does the button look similar to the choke **** with a flame on it or is it something else? The other **** that looks like the choke opens a valve to let engine coolant heat up the heater inside of the cabin.

 

Hehe. I believe that's the windshield sprayer. There's typically a bottle of washer fluid under the bonnet with a rubber line running from the button, and rubber lines running to the washer nozzles. When the plunger is depressed, it pressurizes the washer fluid bottle pushing the fluid out the nozzles. No electric pump here

I left mine on for no reason other than I think it's goofy ... kinda like the car. It currently serves no purpose on my Mini.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

I would get a hold of Graham at Heritagegarage.com . He is honest, fair and extremely helpful. He is the Yoda of the Mini world.

 

1. RESOURCES: although there is a garage here on post that would let me check and probably love to help just to say they did. Don't dismiss this great resource. If you have a base auto-hobby-shop you have access to a potential resource many would die for. For pennies you can get access to a lift - any tool you might need - and expert help as well as the help-ya folks around. CHECK THIS PLACE OUT. Here the hobby shop holds monthly classes in basic auto servicing and things go on from there.
{I retired at 30+ and hung out at a similar hobby shop for a few years ... we old farts can be a source of info .... all it takes is a willingness to ask for help ....}

2. The description of the choke is right on....there are those that say if you can start your Mini without using the choke then it must be running too rich ... see the owner's maunal description below..... The first 1/4 inch or so of the choke pull on a properly setup Mini actually does not change the 'mix' but engages 'fast-idle'. I've know folks who broke their throttle cable to drive home using the choke as a hand throttle! You can get up to about 30 mph using just the choke!

from the Mini Owner's Manual for your car:


I cut and pasted a few pages together ...

 

wow. thank you all so much. That's all great help. I unscrewed the speedo cable and the white end piece and about 1/2 an inch of the cable inside the tubing fell out. I figured out whats wrong with it at least. lol. We're just having some minor problems with the mini. the headlights while on dim look like a night light. not bright at all, but the high beams work wonderful. I accidently stalled it today, and now it wont start at all. It will turn over, but that's it until the battery starts to die a little. if any of the elctrical is left on for more than fifteen minutes while the car is off or idling, the car wont turn at all. We did decide on a name. Harvey.

 

I forgot to ask you before (brake check switch question) --where/how did you get the manual for the car? I like the Haynes...but there are some things you have that are REALLY damn informative!

What;s your secret?

 

Yep - having the owner's and shop manuals gan be very helpful at times....


You can still find the CD from motoring heritage that has all the various owner's manuals, parts fiche, and shop manuals from several sources

http://www.triple-c.com/Products_and...=0&pn=HMCC4002
cd's r available for other year ranges and many other vehicles

This CD is a PIA to use .... and will only work under Windows NT (or 98!) - not VISTA and not MAC, and queries to the company about an upgrade have not been answered for a couple of years now.... There's an ugly security front end on the CD that I spent a little while trying to get around without much luck. Alto the files are PDF you can't do anything with them 'cept thru the cd's viewer unless you get 'creative'.

I keep an NT machine around just so I can access this damn thing!

 

Ahhh I have seen a few people reference the CDs, but I had not seen screen shots of the contents. I can't fault them for being a little protective of the PDFs, but still...hmmm...I might have to "research" the secrity portion a little more -in all honesty, just so I can keep a digital copy with me if I want to reference something on the road.

That being said...that link is awesome, souly because: "Mini MkIII 1000 (Canada) 1977 to 1979" is listed.

My classic is a 1977 Austin 1000 from Canada...but when I have looked over the Mini timeline I often thought (and so did the appraiser and dealer) that it was an MKIV, but it doesn't fit because from what I read, Mini dropped Austin and Morris from the name before 1977. I had assumed there was only a RHD & LHD difference when it came to geography...not a model difference.

Looking at the list of cars & years...it now is starting to make sense!

 

from an advertising standpoint the 'builder' name was dropped. But here's the VIN plate in my 79

 

We were actually given two manuals with the car. The Haynes MINI owners handbook & servicing guide and the Autodata mini car repair manual. I just didn't know what to look up.

 

Is this creative enough for you. Post #54 should be all the creativity you need.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f80/hexaloc...59/index3.html

 

have you tried it?

 

I did one file and its free and clear. Im going to do the whole cd today. I did some research on the topic and as you can see from the time of the post it was a little late.

You put the cd in and let the stupid menu come up, escape out of it.
Browse to the actual pdf files on the cd.
Use the utility on that forum. This now makes the file open without the cd but its still a secured pdf.
If you want to you can download a trial of a-pdf and unlock the pdf security so you can do whatever you want with the pdf.

 

I don't follow
This now makes the file open without the cd but its still a secured pdf.
what have I gained?
don't I need to
1. copy the pdf's to another drive (off the cd)
2. run the utility to unlock them?

what am I missing here?

BTW until I dump the XP box this is an academic question. For now I can read what I want...and on those occasions I want to post a clip I print the page and scan it back in. But I was an IT guy for a time so these things still interest me.

 

Im no computer whiz but I'll try to explain this. The security on the cd is a two part system. I has an application called hexalock which prevets any of the files from opening without the master cd. The cd itself has some sort of passcode burned into that that cant be burned to a normal cd-rw. The hexalock program also prevents you from printing to a file , copy paste, etc.

The second protection is that the pdf files themselves are password secured so that you can't do anything with them other than look and print.

You wont be able to use the cd interface this just gets you the pdf manuals. I just did the whole cd and it took about 5 mins.

Of course this explanation is for educational purposes only .

Let me explain this better:
1) Put the cd in and let the menu come up. Escape out of the menu.
2) If you right click on your cd drive and hit explore the actual files from the cd interface are here D:\assets\publications (D: is my cd drive)
3) Run the tool from that other forum.
4) Select a folder to save where you will save the unlocked files
5) Click open file and pick each file in D:\assets\publications one at a time.
6) You now should have the pdf files from the disk saved to your computer which will open now without the cd in the computer and should work on vista at this point.
7) The pdfs are still password secured so that you cant edit them or print them to a file.
8) download the a-pdf trial http://www.a-pdf.com/
9) In a-pdf choose batch pdf documents security
10) Add the directory that you saved the files to
11) Hit next and choose Security Level, none
12) Hit save and youre done

 

cool

I read you didn't verify this opens the files to VISTA

I'll try the proceedure to a networked drive later this week then try to open via VISTA...if that works I'll try from scratch on a VISTA machine and see if I can get in from that path

potentially a useful tool for folks who don't want to keep a legacy machine kicking around

 

You have to do this on an xp machine and then copy the unlocked files to the vista machine. Basically your making yourself a security free version of the cd if you burn the files back to a cd. If you cant get it send a pm and ill set you up.

It should work fine on vista. After the steps its just a normal pdf. That hexalock program is the problem with vista, which is what the steps bypass.

My home laptop is an antique and they don't let us have vista on my work computer. In fact I wanted to do this because my cd rom on my home laptop doesn't eject anymore without putting a pin in the emergency eject hole.

 

Another thought I had on this was to print the secured PDF...as a new PDF file. So if you have Acrobat Standard (or Professional) you can just print to a PDF and you have a non-secured PDF.

Granted, I don't know if the software let's you print

 

u da man

I copied the files to a network drive and accessed successfully via a VISTA machine.....including cut and paste



for what it's worth I see no reason the unlocked PDF files would be incompat' with a Mac but I'm not a Mac-o-phite so can't confirm