On my last topic a number of police-related things came to the surface. Based on that discussion, I'm about 98% certain that my car is ex-NSW police, from the STP/highway patrol. (http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic ... y+underway) However, there are a few items missing from my car that I couldn't easily resolve.

I was reading through issue 11 of The Mini Experience last night, and noticed a few things. Most of these helped clear some things up, and one of them didn't. A few quotes from TME, with my inline comments/questions below.

"For example, SPO.16 included lowered front
seat frames, SPO.25 specified reversing
lights and two-speed wipers, while SPO.26
listed competition brake disc pads."

--My mini has all of this, except it has single-speed wiper motor but with four wires in the harness, i.e. that would have supported a two speed motor.

"As an indication of the detail involved, SPO.41,
dated 4 September 1970, covers nine pages
of changes – listing every pin, lever and clip,
as well as the major components."

--My car is build date 7/70--so would it still have only features found on the mk1 police cars, or would it already have some items that would eventually be listed in SPO.41?

"Other changes included a ported/polished
cylinder head (possibly carried out by
Lynx Engineering in Sydney, though not
confirmed) an improved camshaft, free-flow
exhaust, competition distributor, Lynx Ram-
Flo re-usable air cleaners (serviced every
2,000 miles), and competition brake pads."

--Don't know yet about the head and cam (teardown this Friday), the distributor has the number 29 on it, and I did receive a set of Lynx Ram-Flo cleaners with the car but don't know if they were original or not. See later comments re: 1 1/4" vs. 1 1/2" carbs.

"Inside the car included rear seatbelts, handbrake
warning light and a Smiths tachometer
(“mounted on the right-hand side of the dash
and red-lined at 6,000rpm”)."

--I do not have rear seatbelts nor captive nuts, no handbrake warning light or switch, and do have holes for the tacho, two-way radio, and i.d. plate. This would all make sense if my car didn't fall under SPO.41, except for the tacho--unless the tacho was included in SPO 16, 25 or 26.

"SPO.41 relates to the Mk2 Cooper S, and
the associated SL from 6 October 1970
states: “the first vehicle to include SPO.41
was Chassis No. 2372”.

--My car is chassis #216X, so definitely before this SPO took effect, both by chassis number and by build date.

"Changes made specifically for the Mk2 Cooper S include
the fitting of Dunlop Aquajet tyres, twin
HS4 1 1/2” SU carburettors (replacing the
previous 1 1/4” HS2 on the Mk1), a new inlet
manifold, single-piece heat shield, and a
new distributor."

--So this is where the carb and ramflo question comes in. My car has what seem to be original Cooper S 1 1/4" carbs, the two-piece heat shield, and PCV instead of CCV. Since my car predates SPO.41, is it possible that it came originally with 1 1/4" SUs instead of 1 1/2"? How do I i.d. the distributor?

OK, that should be enough for now. I'll email Watto with these same questions, and post his response if he doesn't respond here first.

Thanks all,
Ben McCafferty
Seattle, WA, USA

_________________
Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

I think you have answered most of the questions yourself.

I would think that your car would have been fitted with 1.25" SU carbs, because of it pre-dating SPO41.

Genrally it is accepted that the Mk1 had the 1.25" and Mk2 had 1.5", but like so many things with BMC there was a bit of a change-over period.

However, some other people, like Doug and John Smidt, might have a better idea than me.

Cheers,
Watto.

Ben,

There is very little documentation and hard evidence about the exact configuration of the Cooper S's supplied to NSW Police prior to SPO41, as eluded to by Watto. My best guess is they were stock standard models off the production line, except for the following changes:

SPO16 - lowered seat frames. This applied to all Mini models supplied to NSW Police over a 5-6 year period. They used Mini Vans and Mini Saloons as Station cars and escort vehicles, and the Cooper S as unmarked pursuit cars. All needed lowered seats to accommodate tall Police (there was a minimum height requirement to join back in those days).

SPO25 - reversing lights. Prior to the introduction of the switch on the front of the gearbox a manual method using a toggle switch attached to the gearlever was apparently used, although I've never seen one. This was documented in service literature of the day. Reversing light functionality was eventually included in SPO41 so SPO25 became redundant.

SPO26 - racing disk brake pads. All Cooper S's supplied to NSW Police had Ferodo DP11 pads, including SPO41 cars.

If your loom has four wires to the wiper motor it's a pretty good sign that the car had two-speed wipers at some stage. Confirm the wire colours from information in the following thread. Two-speed wiper motors and the proper switch are readily available should you want to reinstate this feature.

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=49056

See if you can distinguish all the embossed ID details on the distributor. It should be a 29D4 Made in Australia and will probably have the 8 digit Lucas part number and possibly the BMC part number (e.g. AYG0175).

One of my cars has rear seat belts with factory anchor points, the other has neither. One has the hole where a roof mounted two-way radio aerial was fitted, the other doesn't. One has a sump guard, the other doesn't (although the subframe may have been changed on the latter). One has evidence of driving light fitment behind the front bumper, the other doesn't.

I've seen no evidence that a tachometer was fitted prior to SPO41.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Doug

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

Ben,
I think you're missing a big slab of Ausi road under the tyres! Be kind and send it home.

Thanks as always Doug. OK, the upper half of the distributor has very neat raised lettering. One side says "Lucas", the other side says "Australia" and has an arrow pointing left-to-right to indicate direction of spin, then 29D, then a raised square with nothing stamped on it. On the lower half of the distributor, directly beneath one of the cap retaining clips, is a neat raised "2". Just to the left of that, upside down, is "4A". This last number/letter combo looks very much like handwritten script, but is still unmistakably raised, i.e. cast into the body of the dizzy, not scratched in. Not sure if all that will make any sense to you or not. There is no 8-digit part number that I can find, unless it's inside beneath the points plate.


In separate news, we tore down the motor today. It has been rebuilt before (will cross-post more details to my other thread). The end of the cam was VERY difficult to make out (looks like it's been hammered on), but here's the best I can read of the number on the end:
8/? CE-701B
The first two could also be 81. The third character is pretty much obliterated or never existed.

Does this combo or a similar one mean anything to any of you? Wouldn't be surprised if this is a replacement--it just "looks" newish. The pistons are +.040, rod bearings are +.010, so it may have been apart a couple of times.



I couldn't agree more. If you'll pay the freight for me and the car, I'll come while away my life driving it around Oz, seeking good beer and loose women. Well, moderately so anyway...

Ben Mc

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

Ben - I'll have to leave it to others to identify the dizzy in your car from the markings you've listed.

There's been a few threads on this topic that a search or two should find.

Start with this one - http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=68007 and this one - http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=67912

Doug

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

Thanks Doug. A stupid question--where do you normally find the Lucas or BMC part numbers on the dizzy?

bmc

_________________
Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

Wait a second--Doug, in the first thread you sent, me, last page, third to last post, someone mentions exactly the same markings as mine, but with part numbers also stamped in.

Hmmm...
b

_________________
Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

Rick, Watto and all,

I'm getting to the point where I am going to order a new loom from Vintage Wiring Harness. He has the patterns for the police loom, but will customize it based on my instructions. From our discussions, here are the things I think I need to be sure are in the loom (above standard stuff):
--Driving lights plus provision at a switch (where was the police switch located?)
--Reversing light switch on gearbox
--Reversing lights
--Tacho
--Two speed wiper motor setup, i.e. at switch and at wiper motor

--I was going to leave out the parking brake switch and indicator lamp, since my car pre-dates SPO41 and seems to not have either of these. Thoughts there?

--Anything I have missed?
--Would wiring for other items (speedo, two-way radio, siren, etc.) have been added by the police, or at the factory?

Separately, here are a couple of pictures of my wiper motor. While there is space for a fourth terminal, I don't think there is one. Can you tell at a glance whether this is a single speed wiper motor? I do note that the nut holding the wiper motor switch in the dash is different than the one holding the headlight switch--unless they were originally different, I'm guessing the wiper motor and switch were changed out (recalling that the fourth wire is present at the motor)? Photo attached for this also.

From that same photo, the clutch knob/cable on the car is the plain black knob with a "C" on it. Per the Mini Experience article on the '69 S, that knob should be the one that looks sort of like a four blade fan. Was there anything unusual about the police S in this regard? The one on there seems far too long, and I have the replacement pictured in TME which seems the right length?

Thanks and talk soon,
Ben McCafferty

Wiper motor with front plate removed:


Wiring, end view:


Dash switches (currently headlights on the right, wipers on the left):

_________________
Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

That would be the choke cable and yes I would think it should be the type with "4 fan blades" on it.

Steve

_________________
1964 998cc Cooper
1971 Mini K x 2
1972 Clubman GT

Er, uh, yeah.....I have that fancy-schmancy model where you use a hand knob and cable to shift gears...



bmc

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

It could be worth trying to determine if the whole switch panel
Itself is correct for your car.

There were lots of variations in the switch positions over the life of the aus produced minis.

Have a careful read of my old post here.

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59942&highlight=wiper+switch&sid=dc30e7d4b4c985f804aeec4aa01a7ed8

_________________

68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

Thanks phillb...

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Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

Hi again phillb,

I read your old thread on switch positions. It seems that most of the thread pertains to mk1 cars, yes? However, there was one entry in particular that seemed relevant:



I don't now how to define "early" vs. "later", but if this previous thread is about mk1, it seems that mk2 would qualify as "later"--would you agree? In my case, I have the following (left to right): choke, headlights, ignition, wipers, heater (washer below and to the right). Both switches turn "on" when flipped downwards. Based on TME (vol. 14, page 59), it would seem that everything I have is correct, except the wiper switch and motor because the car is ex-police and has a fourth wire taped back out of the way at the wiper motor. However, the wiper motor has a mfg date of 6/70, and the car has a build date of 7/70. Not sure how fast Lucas Australia got parts to the factory, but a month seems reasonable and makes me wonder if the single speed wiper motor is possibly another example of a changeover period from previous SPO's to SPO.41, i.e. similar to my car having 1 1/4" carbs instead of 1 1/2"--my thought being that the wiring might have been in place but the two-speed motors not yet in use? I'll have to go back and read Watto's article, I don't recall whether earlier SPO's called for 2-speed or not. If they did, I would conclude that the motor and switch are wrong and have been exchanged at some point.

Thanks and talk soon.
Ben

_________________
Ben McCafferty
Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA
1970 ex-police mk2 Cooper S

There is a definate known changeover during mk1 production where the wiper motor changed to a round one and the wipers swapped to sweep the other way and it seems at that time they swapped the position and type of switch.

Im not familiar enough with mark 2 to know if they swapped the positions back again. They did swap the choke and heater positions didn't they?

If yours goes choke/wiper/ign/lights/heater(L to R)

....then it is the total opposite to mine. Maybe that's correct for mk2?

What does you handbook say? (although they have errors also)

Main reason I posted was that I discovered the panels the switches are in also vary. So if someone has replaced the panel that could confuse matters as it sometimes forces the switches into certain positions. Just wanted to make you aware of that.

There should also be dates on the wiper light and ign switches and as you say a month or 3 is the usual variance in the dates I think. Although not that unusual for switchs to die over a 40 year period.

_________________

68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)