There's a small hole in the firewall between the heater hooks in my Cooper S that exits into the engine compartment below the crossmember. I think it is normally plugged with a rubber grommet so not used, but I'm curious as to why it was there in the first place. Looking from inside it's quite close to the driver's side heater hook.

Interestingly both the Mark 1 and the Mark 2 Cooper S carpet and underlay makes provision for the hole.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

My '66 S has neither hole; '70 S has both.

I always thought that hole was a generic hole used on other models. Maybe for the underbonnet heater cable.

Looking forward to hearing the correct answer.

Here are 2 more. One is slightly different because it has a hole either side of the drivers side J bracket.

My earlyish 1964 850 has the hole there with a rubber plug in it. I can have a look through the 850 parts book tomorrow to see if there are any clues

Assuming you mean this one:

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Maybe someone with a 997 cooper could have a look at their setup. The interior heater looks like it bolts up to the bottom of the parcel shelf therefore the heater cable may need to go beside it and out that hole.

Bill - does your '66 S have the original carpet? If so, does it have a hole in that spot, like the red carpet pictured above?

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Yep, that's the hole I'm talking about.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

A Cooper I restored back in 2000 used the heater assembly shown in GTO Green's post. Thinking back and looking at some of the photos the two holes for cables in the switch panel had the Control Cable for the Water Valve on the left and the cable for the Air Intake Control on the right. These two cables came out of the two holes in the cross member just below the speedo housing. The Choke cable from memory came out of the mystery hole in question.

I am not sure about the carpet but we did not have the original and had a set made. I can only assume that we put a hole in it.

Looking at a Morris Mini Minor parts book it shows the choke cable coming up from the bottom add to my theory. ????

John

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1965 MK1 English Morris Cooper S (Downton)
1967 MK1 Morris Cooper S
1972 Clubman GT (6/72 Cadiz)
1968 MG Midget

I found a page in the Cooper Parts Book showing the said heater cables.

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1965 MK1 English Morris Cooper S (Downton)
1967 MK1 Morris Cooper S
1972 Clubman GT (6/72 Cadiz)
1968 MG Midget

Here are 2 early Coopers with that heater. The washer pump moved to the passenger side and the choke cable was next to the steering column. It would make sense that the choke cable used that hole .

My 67 mk1 has the hole as well as hole in the original Westminster carpet and felt
Pretty sure my mk 2 has the same but will have to check.
Would also like to know if it was used
Cheers
Rod

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1967 New British Racing Green Mk1 Cooper S, 1967 Lake Green 1275 MG Midget, 1969 Jet Red / Crystal White Mk2 Cooper S, 1972 Gambier Turquoise Clubman GT (ex police), 1972 Camino Gold Clubman GT, 2009 JCW Challenge Edition, Megane RS265, Clio RS220.

I think that it would be a safe bet that the hole was used for the choke cable on the early cars and the Cooper as discussed above.

BUT... what about the hole in the carpet? My theory is that the cars that were ordered by the Police utilised that hole for whatever reason (Police Speedo maybe?) and instead of having to put a hole in the carpet every time they had an order the carpet sets were made with the hole already cut in. You would not see it as the heater covered it. Makes sense to me.

John

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1965 MK1 English Morris Cooper S (Downton)
1967 MK1 Morris Cooper S
1972 Clubman GT (6/72 Cadiz)
1968 MG Midget

Nice try but no cigar.

The cable for the NSW Police speedometer came through a hole hacked in the side of the instrument binnacle and across to the speedo mounted on top of the steering column. This was done at the NSW Govt Motor Garage during installation of all Police equipment, not at BMC. I've seen several ex-Police cars with this hole, including mine.

In any case the hole is not big enough for a speedo cable. The other cables for driving lights, siren and tachometer came through holes drilled (roughly) near and in the round blanking plate in the firewall on the driver's side.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

miniresto - do your Downton Cooper S and Clubman GT have that hole?

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Winabbey,

The English Cooper S does have a hole near the heater J hook but it is to the left of the passenger side J hook. I am sure that hole is for the left hand drive pedal box though.

The GT does not have any holes there.

Cheers
John

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1965 MK1 English Morris Cooper S (Downton)
1967 MK1 Morris Cooper S
1972 Clubman GT (6/72 Cadiz)
1968 MG Midget