ok, first post...I did search and found nothing that helped.

1960 Mini with a 1275 and who knows what else the previous owner did to it. Car does have discs in the front and some brand of updated suspension also. Only had the car about a month and only put 600 miles on it so far.

Car was driving fine a week ago and it started making a awful noise, its a knocking noise that sounds like metal to metal contact, it goes up and down with speed. I can't identify where it is coming from exactly as it only happens when driving, not at idle and not when revving the motor up sitting still. Pushing the car does not make any noise. My first thought was something with the clutch because when I put the clutch in as I was driving the noise went away but that is not the typical symptoms of a bad throw out bearing, and its LOUD.

Got home and put the car on my lift and found shiny spots on each corner of the driveshaft u-joint and a matching shiny spot on the exhaust headers, so I am assuming that is the problem. I have no idea what could have happened, car was driving fine and then this and I am only guessing I found the problem at this point, but nice shiny metal where everything else is rusty/oily is a good starting point.

I think something moved but everything feels tight, motor mounts look fine and there is nothing obviously wrong. I am pretty sure what is going on is that when I drive the car the motor moves a little and causes this to hit and when not under acceleration load it moves back, the driveshaft has only 1/8" clearance to the header when sitting still with the engine off.

What could have moved/shifted to cause this ? I found that the height adjuster locknuts on the suspension were loose so my thinking is that the car lowered (or raised) itself as I was driving over bumps etc but that would move everything at once so I am not sure that would cause the issue, this weekend I will play with ride height adjustment but I am not very confident it will be the problem

 

Hi..is it deffinently a 60s mini or a 1990s mini with a log book of a 60s mini.....take a photo of underneath with exhaust looking to back of gearbox(trans).....so I can tell what type of engine and shift as the 60s engine would have a Rubber couplings and large ally casting shift

 

its definitively a 1960's mini, I will take a pic later tonight and post it.

As I mentioned though, it has new motor (1275), suspension, exhaust, brakes from a mishmash of years I think. It should have original gearbox. But I will take pics and post them, thanks for any suggestions.

 

Since I was not sure what exactly to take a pic of, I decided to take a bunch, too many to post here I think. I create a web page with lots more pics, in some of these pics you can see where the driveshaft is hitting. And I hope there is enough detail to identify to model/year of the parts in the car. Here is the link http://mini.rambour.com

 

yes the wrong type of exhaust manifold fitted for your mini you need this 3 into 1 system to allow room for coupling
http://www.maniflow.co.uk/index.php?...6&product=1507

 

MK1 hit it on the head, you need pot joints to clear that type exhaust......can pot joints be fitted to that transmission?
(I know, it would take different axles too)

 

ok, so I will look into different exhaust system. Odd that it worked for a month, but I will look into a new exhaust, I can afford that.

What are pot joints ?

 

as I said already that's the wrong manifold from head down to exhaust.....for a mk1 with a remote gear change.......to do the old UJ couplings to the modern Pot joints will require engine removal to gain access to Diff casing and you will need a new diff to accept pot joints this will be an expensive job ......much cheaper to use the Part I put link for just £90 .......
this is a pot joint
http://www.minispares.com/product/Cl...ck%20to%20shop
but you will require new drive shafts aswell

 

well, just to close off this thread :(

New exhaust, plenty of clearance now and still get the noise. So it was not the exhaust being hit by the universal joints, although they WERE hitting, I could clearly see that when we pulled the exhaust.

So back to square one.

We are going to pull the motor/gearbox and fix some oil leaks and look around. Yeah more work then needed but it has a bad oil leak we want to fix anyway.

Going to start a new thread about pulling the motor since I have some questions and I sure hope I don't put it back together with this squeak/rattle/scrape since I don't know what it is.

 

Does it have front swaybar? If so have you checked the end links?

 

It does not, its all apart now and rebuilding motor and everything in front of the doors.

 

all sorted now I hope