I noted Rialto’s last post in the thread about remote housings but did not respond because I respected the recommendation of the Moderator to call and end to that discussion. However, since we have a new thread, I comment as follows.
There are numerous examples where the credibility of service documents should be questioned. While they are useful in the absence of anything else, any conclusions drawn need to be carefully examined in the light of experience and information from more credible sources. Here are two examples, one from Mr Sneddon, and one from my own books.
The Australian Mini and Moke, Page 77. Mr Sneddon claims that in September 1966, the floor assembly of a YDO5 Deluxe was changed to now include channels for protection of the fuel, brake and hydrolastic lines. I believe he was misled by information presented in Parts Catalogue PUB1012 which fails to include the YDO5 Deluxe floor HYA3502 (which has channels) and was introduced for production in January 1965. As a consequence, it is my view that incorrect information was provided to the Mini Community because of this omission in the Parts List (and incidently also missing in PUB1056M) and the author’s failure to examine his conclusion which would be contrary to what most people would expect for a Deluxe floor of 1965.
At Harrison’s Smidt’s garage sale the other week, I picked up an early model steering rack for a spare part for my 850. I spent a nice couple of days rebuilding it. These early racks are UK made and are different internally to Australian made racks. In reviewing the sections in steering racks and arms in my Engineering Series books, I’ve found that the Parts Catalogues and Technical Bulletins, not to mention the confused discussion in TP832A Workshop Manual, to be misleading and incorrect in many instances and some of this carried over into my books. I have just finished re-writing these sections in the light of a closer examination of the drawings and observations of actual racks at a local Mini emporium. In one publication, for example, PUB1056M would have us believe that in some cases, the angle of the steering arm was different on the right hand side compared to the left hand side, which would make an interesting pivot point for Ackerman steering geometry. PUB1056M is clearly wrong (Page K-3) but you would only pick this difference up if you looked at the drawings for the parts listed or looked at the actual parts. In the case of the early 850 rack, it is stated in Service Bulletin C39/66 and workshop manual TP832A the UK rack diameter is 13/16” (0.8125”) whereas drawing 21A715 as well as my actual measurement on several racks, show 0.8405” diameter. Both these service documents are wrong.
Although I occasionally misread a drawing or make an editorial error, I have never found a drawing that has a mistake on it. In the short time I have had to examine them, have uncovered many mistakes in those downstream documents which have served researchers previously. Even without the drawings, simple basic errors abound in books and magazines which should have been picked up at an early stage, but as with all self-published works, a typical author doesn’t have the luxury of a paid proof reader, and especially a knowledgeable one.
So to answer Railto’s question, yes, the credibility of such documents should be questioned at every opportunity. As for their authenticity, I am not sure what you mean. I am sure the documents you refer to are authentic service literature, even if they do have mistakes in them. As for what was actually manufactured, this ranges considerably, especially at model changeover time where some vehicles were a mixture of MKI and MKII parts.
An interesting anecdote comes to mind. I remarked to a colleague, who has a very low mileage 850 that he claims is absolutely original in every respect, that the bonnet catch guide plate on top of the grille support panel was pointing the wrong way. The sloping part, according to the drawings, should be towards the front of the vehicle. His pointed to the rear. His response was that, “Oh, those drawings are just bits of paper. My car is as it was when it left the factory!”. I was horrified. He is right to say what he did, but to my mind, his car has a fault. Two different points of view. Tony Cripps
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