Jan Alaska

DH just sent me the link for this ...

http://nmi.craigslist.org/cto/4466202672.html

Hes been looking for a project car for a while .. but Noooooo !!!

The old grumpy folks from up the road had one of these in that nasty baby poop brown with a brown vinyl roof, no good memories about the 1300 at all.

Pulaski

I'm with you there: a huge "No".

I'm glad that there are people who restore and cherish such vehicles, but honestly, I have no idea why people get attached to such cars. What would he get next? .... An Austin Princess, A Morris Ital? An Austin Maxi? .....

Jonion

Probably an Allagro!

MostlyYank

They should go native. A Pinto perhaps? Pacer.

Feel free to ignore this :

Got the S-10 going. Turns out that I managed to bend the ears on the prop shaft together a bit, probably when forcing those &(*$@ nylon OEM retainers to give, just enough so that I couldn't get the inside c-clips to seat properly.

Big hammer time! Beat on them and accomplished nothing but smushing the metal a bit, so I ended up having to file them flat while grumbling vague obscenities.

Finally stuck the ear in a vise with the shaft straight up in the air, and pushing on the shaft to bend the ear hoping it wouldn't break. It didn't, but because I still had to muscle in the clips a bit I think there's still too much pressure on the end of the caps. As they aren't designed for that stress I suspect premature and total failure, probably when I'm doing 75 down the freeway.

So I will soon take it back apart and use a bolt with washers and nuts to spread them nicely, and replace the ujoints - again.

/off

Pete

Welshgator

Are they asking $700 or giving you $700 to take it away?
I remember that engine. I used to have a 1970 mini estate with that engine transplant. I used to drive back and fore between Banbury and Oxford in that cramped little car. Worst days were when there was slush on the road. The distributor was at the front of the engine and when a lorry came the other direction bringing a huge wave of slush, my engine would cough and splutter and die on the spot. Had to risk life and limb getting out to spray the distributor with WD40. Boy, those were the days.

Jan Alaska

An emergency plan may be needed, he emailed the fella already. Apparently he was considering putting the engine into the mini

Nutek

I had a Mini 1000 with a Austin 1300 in it.

Jan Alaska

Oh Lord I'm doomed

Nutek

I was 17 at the time.

Pulaski

What was the insurance like on that?
Shortly afterwards, IIRC, you grew out of driving toy cars.

Nutek

Suprisingly similar to a Mini 1000.

There was a small outbreak of Oldsmobile.

Welshgator

Haha. My mini estate had the same transplanted 1300 engine. My brother had picked it up for me from a mechanic friend of his when I was 20. The insurance was also surprisingly close to that of a Mini 1000 I lived in fear of being stopped by the police as it had much bigger wheels on the front to stabilize the thing, it was a dead giveaway. It was a fun little car but torture on the long commute I did in it every day, those Mini seats were not compatible with my bony rear end. After a few years I couldn't stand it anymore and bought a Rover 2200TC, it was sheer luxury on that drive. Went from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Nutek

If you added the halfshafts from the 1275 you got disc brakes. Apparently.

Jan Alaska

OK that does it, I'm going to have to change my password for BE. Bad enough that hes contemplating putting a 1300 in the little mini and now all these ideas about halfshafts and disc brakes arghhh !!

Pulaski

A deathtrap seen on the road yesterday- note the severely compromised C pillars. Obviously a Fiesta isn't going to come off well in any accident in the US, but this rolling death trap has a 3" notch in the left hand C pillar, and one nearly as bad on the right.