the other day, i was in downtown st. louis meeting a friend for lunch. as i was heading home in my classic mini, i hear a loud snap and thunk! (the gas pedal then falls to the floor) i immediately realized that the throttle cable has broken. i began to think... well, the choke does in essance the same thing as the gas pedal... so... i drove home using the choke as the throttle. i, of course, stayed off the highway and got up to speeds of about 25 - 30 mph.

i'm sure this is not a ground breaking discovery but it made me think... what other classic mini stories are there out there that we could share?

these little cars are contantly providing challenges that require us to be resourceful - it's part of the charm to me and i love it (my wife however, doesn't get it)

so let's have it... what similar kinds of things have happend to you in your classic minis?

 

The "keep it going with the choke" story reminded me of how I coped years ago with a weak fuel pump on my Cooper. Getting home involved going up a mile-long hill. Although the fuel pump delivered enough fuel on the flat, it had trouble keeping the bowls on the SU carbs filled when going uphill. So on a regular basis, the engine would cough, sputter and start to die about half way up the hill. The solution was to quickly make a u-turn and go back down, letting the bowls fill, then make another u-turn back up the hill. Eventually, I replaced the Lucas ("Prince of Darkness") pump and my drives home became shorter.

 

Lucas fuel pump? ... maybe you mean S.U. - their reputation is almost the same!

I got stranded in Butte, MT in my morris minor because of a fuel pump and couldn't "field clean" it's points enough to keep it going so i replaced it with the only thing i could find at the Truck Stop: a huge Holley motor-driven pump (as opposed the the solenoid-type S.U.). That sucked so much current that when i wanted to start the car, i had to turn on everything else running through that fuse (windshield wipers, etc.) just to kick-start that pump motor ...

... that was the same trip when the Lucas starter motor failed - good thing the Minor had a crank-starter! There are several times I wish that Mini's had cranks, too ...

 

... there are all those practicle-jokes, too:

like the time the high school football team thought it woould be funny to put a Mini in the back of a pickup truck

or when a Mini was plsced sidways in the parking lot between two vans ... and the owner had to wait for one of the van owners to leav so he could get his mini out

or the sunday morning when someone stepped out to get the sunday paper and found his mini tipped over onto the grass parking strip beside the curb (once rolled back, by the way, it started right up and had not a ding or dent - not even a broken mirror , not even any leaked gas ... )

 

When I was 17 zipping along, I watched A 10" wheel/tire pass me & other traffic, go down hill gaining speed, dodge more traffic, backup hill, launch up a curb (a good 10-15') through a couple of yards before wedging in some shrubbery. I was so impressed I went and got that wheel !--------------------It just so happens I was short one--------------

The photo is of my 1st "s". 2 months after totaling a van with it, I drove it from Houston, Tx. to San Francisco & back About 200 miles into the adventure It dies. Checked for fuel & spark, all ok. Just as mysteriously it runs..........for a mile. After a couple of these episodes I realize the fuel pump points can be coaxed into cooperating via the ign. switch. So rather than take a match book cover to the points, I drove turning the car off momentarily every mile till Tuson,Az. Got new points, I spent maybe 10 min. under the car..................Also contrary to what you may have been told....Jackrabbits will fit under a mini......sort of..........

 

I also had a wheel come off a classic Mini, inside front while I was taking a corner. Most unpleasant. I eventually had to replace the caliper on that disk as it developed a nasty crack.
What was more fun was destroying a driveshaft universal joint while I was about 3 hours from home. I had friends coming up the next day, so I called and got them to bring me a new uni joint. I was under the car, with it up on the stock jack, on uneven ground , on damp earth. As I was pulling on the uni to get the drive shaft to slide in, the car started to tip over off the jack.
With a mighty burst of adrenaline, I pushed the car back up on the jack, got out from under the car and went looking for some jack stands.

Also had an accellerator cable snap while I was 1/2 way past a semi-trailer, going uphill.

All 3 of these events were different Minis.