Have a basket case round nose mini that i acquired mostly in pieces, so i wasn't around for the disassembling.The steering colum had been sent away for powdercoating by the previous owner.

When i inspected it, on the inside it seems there was a lot of melted hardened plastic.Don't know if this is relevant but the mini had a moke or clubman Ignition barrel so that there was a steering lock fitted.Have looked at an old minispares catalogue and it says there were some versions that had a locking mechanism but i could not locate in the parts diagram what parts there were (if any) and if there were parts, whether they were plastic parts and where they were located on the inside of the steering column. Could it be a part for that locking mechanism or something else?

If it wasn't a part for the locking mechanism could it have been a plastic guide tube or some sort of plastic bush ??? Any thoughts?

Any help would be appreciated so i can clean it all out and get the right part !

Probably was the top steering column bush, before being baked in the powdercoating oven! Easy to fit, plastic is usually white but comes in various colours.


photo from: http://www.minitech.net.au/

Note that there should also be a lower felt bush too.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

Just looked and found one of those had been removed (it was blue) and it had been taped to the inner column shaft so it wouldn't be lost. Asked owner and he confirmed it....
The melted plastic was white (if that helps)

The mystery continues.....

I think if the column had a steering lock it would have had a plastic bush top and bottom, the bottom one is split so it can be taken off.
The earlier model (MK1 and or MK2?) had a felt 'bush' at the bottom.
Sorry I don't have a pic of the bottom one, I just checked a mini online store can't find one there either.... Rover bottom one is diferent again

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Cool stuff!!