What a week I've had with my mini, last week I broke down on the southern outlet near Hobart,with a flat battery, I had to get my alternator recoed, and on thursday broke down again with a blown head gasket(it was blown in between no. 3 and 4 cylinders), luckily I work in a servo and the mechanic offered to fix it. In 18 years of driving(the last 18 months in a mini) I have never been stranded on the side of highway, and now its happened twice in one week, hopefully when its fixed I'll be right for another 18 years, does anybody else have any sorry stories to tell. Tony

I got one that nearly made me cry.
I was driving round with a mate and the engine had just had a tune up and new ball joints and tie rod ends.
Driving for 20 mins then go to change to 2nd around the roundabout and would u **** believe it, it wouldnt go in.

Wouldnt select any gears. I freaked out and pulled over.
Popped the hood to see if anything wasnt where it shouldnt be.
All seemed good.
Killed the engine, tried selecting gears... yep that worked.
Started engine up in neutral, tried to select gears - nup.
It would go into reverse only, but crunching it a little.

Called the RAA out,.... **** useless mob of fags they are.
They said "nah cant help u with that... we'll call a tow for u"
Got it towed back to the mini place i had the stuff done. This was saturday at 4:00pm and they close at 12.. No work could be done until monday.
I got it towed to a mates place, and he lives right round the corner.

Monday comes and he and I drive it to the place... With engine off, select gear 1 and start engine. This is the only gear that could be driven in until the engine was switched off then changed. LOL!!!

I thought the gearbox was rooted but he fixed it up on the same day... blown slave clutch cylinder. Fark that was scary.
And it only cost me 160 for it all fitted.. .new recond cyl and all.

You're lucky it was just the clutch! I had my gearbox get stuck in fourth gear, and no matter what I did it wouldn't budge. Had to replace the gearbox. The old one is sitting in the back of the garage, still stuck in fourth

About a month ago I had a similar problem - but easier to fix. Coming out of the servo I tried to change into third and found a box full of neutrals! Pulled over and after a while of looking around I found the roll pin had fallen out and it ended up being an easy fix.

Yea I knew the roll pin would come up. I had an interesting experience with the first mini I ever bought and after paying the bloody lying "mini club member and lifelong enthusiast" the better part of 10K. I was going on the M4 at like 140 when I first loose all gears completely and a second later after trying to find 4th or 3rd the 1 gear tries to engage. I had just enough velocity to reach a safe stop.

So towtruck, $180 and 4 hours later I look under the car and realise that when the roll pin on the rod change selector became too loose the genious secured it in place with a normal old hose clamp (rather than spending the $1.5 for a new one). This lasted for exactly 3 days before the rin punctured a hole through the clamp on the motorway.

Sixteen years ago i had a 1964 van. Was driving around rockhampton and just about to go over the fitzroy river bridge and i had no third and forth. I drove home in second gear, luckily only another 3 km, and wondered what the hell had happened. Anyway ended up pulling the engine and gearbox out, dismantled the box and the selector had come loose.
I couldn"t be bothered putting that box back togeather so i fitted another one.
Anoyher time i broke down was half way between Rockhampton and Gladstone, 50 km to go. The car started to cough and splutter. I pulled over and started fault finding the problem.
Turned out the condensor had crap which made the points overheat, this in turn melted the plastic part of the points which runs on the dizzy shaft.
Luckily i had some tools . I found a drink can on the side of the road and cut a piece off it and folded over the points melted part to make it the length it used to be. I Filed the points as they had burnt prety bad then i reset the points.
YES it worked and got me to Gladstone.
Try doing a roadside repair like with a late model car.

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76 1275 Leyland S