Ive been working on my 850 for the last couple of years, the car is very original and i have just resprayed it in the original cherry red. My intention was to keep it original because i thought there would be few of these left un modified.

Over the years, ive just got the impression that no one really wants an 850 anyway and the interior has gotten shabby (the cloth that goes up to meet the roof lining seems to have spray dust all over it). I havnt put this stuff back in.

Now i am at the point of purchasing new carpet and im thinking i might just scrap the old door cards etc and put some different material in there. Also, i have an 1100 engine and mini K gearbox which i would like to fit the 850 diff housing to, so i dont have to cut the hole n the floor for remote.

I did not think it was possible to just switch diff housing, because wont the gear linkages be wrong??

My real question is, should i keep it stock or change a few things to pretty it up? The car is very straight but i have not buffed it so it is not very shiny.

I dont think my level of skill would appeal to a 850 original collector person so would i be wasting my time? Of course i have fixed the car up with as much effort as i can, but am not a pro spray painter.

I expect the answer to this would be somthing like "well it depends what you like".

But i just saw mentioned earlier that people dont like modded 850s.

Any suggestions welcome please, also, if you know waht is involved to switch diff housing please let me know.

I'd use the Mini K box, put the 850 diff housing & shifter on. Yes it will fit. But.. you need to bolt it on the bare casing, and then measure the bearing bores are still round.
I've put remote housings on 850s before which is the same deal.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Well I dont know about anyone else on the forum.. But I would be more than happy to own a car like yours even if it is an 850. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion..

Personally if it was me I would be keeping it all orginal and if I was in the market for a Morris Mini I would be looking for as close to orginality as I could get. Granted that you say you are not a pro spray painter and personally that would not worry me either. As it could be easily painted again if it really needed it. But things that would bother me would be holes cut out in the body or major modifications to it. Such as silly stereos and such things.

But if you do decide to change a few things there is nothing to say that you can keep the old orginal parts and then put them back if you ever wanted to. Or if you ever decided to sell her you can also mention you have the original trims etc for her.

Sorry I cant help you with the conversion though. But I am sure someone else on here will be able to. But it would be a shame in my opinion to go cutting out metal to convert it to a rod change. I also had this done once with a Mini I use to own many years ago and it was never done right and I kept going through those rear rubber mounts.

Anyway just my thoughts ..

850's were certainly not "wanted" as a std car. They are wanted by racers s they are light weight. But in recent years and even more so in the future. Std 850's are going to become more and more rare. So much so, in my mine collectors are going to be paying even more for them than a cooper "s" (just my opinion) If you do decide to mod it, all i can suggest is to do it in such a way that it can be returned to std. That way you have the option later on to do so and sell or more than you would modded. Not to mention you have all the modded parts you can sell as well. Having said all that, the mini is all about personality, you do as you wish to your car, don't go and do what others tell you to do. Make your mini you i say. Just do it in a way that won't drastically reduce it's resale price thats all.

Here's what a good looking example of an 850 is


Cheers

Aaron

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Well put. Look at Clubmans / Clubmen Quite desirable in the UK as 70s chic. Likewise with Mk I & II 850s now. The thing about Minis is that customising them is part of the culture, and anything from the 60s is going to have rust work done anyway.

Upgraded mechanicals are fine in my book, so if the engine goes west, dropping in a later motor but keeping the wand gear shift is wise.

But the real jewels in my very humble opinion, are those with period mods. A bit like the non-standard tyres and sunvisor in the example above. So no big mags, but period Dunlops are good. Likewise, old-style fog and spot lights are cool, but new tiny halogens are bad.

And above all, don't be too precious. A discrete stereo is cool, a massive subwoofer is not. As always, your mileage may vary

PS. I have an 850 Mk II with Dunlops and a discrete head unit...

You don't have to change the Mini K 1100 gearbox diff at all to keep the original hole in the floor.

Use a 1972 1100 Moke or 1972 Clubman Van gearlinkages to the 1128 gearbox with gearlever and it will come out in the original floor hole of your 850.

Wombat is getting the one I have here for his 850.

Thanks for all the replies.

The 'mods' i was thinking of doing was just getting different carpet colour (i cant remember waht colour original was, though it was rubber?) and changing interior trim to match. It also might be wise to change the rubber couplings to the mini k ball pot things.

It has twin leading drums.

Drmini aust, iam not sure waht you mean when you say boltinmg onto bare casing. When i look at my gearboxes, the 850 has a hole above the diff where the gear linkage travels from the outside into the gears. this appears to be on the actual box casing and the mini K box has no hole or bump at all?

If anyone has a gearbox like TK mentions that we could trade..

I also could just chuck another 850 box on it but, id like to not crunch in first and I think K boxes were strongeR?

Period mods . I hve the original "sorry sir, you've just been mini'd" sticker on back window :)

K boxes have syncro on first so thats always good, as for being stronger i would doubt it i think it just depends how its been driven previously. If you dont actually have the original matching number engine then by all means use the 1100, if you do have the matching number engine you'll create some value immediately by using that. Having said that using a K box with a direct change and an 850 engine would be a great way to make the car more useable but a purist wouldnt really notice.

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Agreed there. If you are actually using the car as your main mode of transport, then an 1100 would be a better option. Keep the rest standard, with the exception of adding carpets (ya can't get the rubber mats anyway!). Get the rest of the interior re-trimmed to standard.

If it has matching engine numbers, and your car is going to be used as your main car, then pull the 850 out, rap it up in a blanket and stoor in a nice dry place, put the 1100 in (with the magic wand, so ya not cutting at the floor). If you go to sell it in the future, look at the market and see if you car would be worth more with the original engine in or not. If ya sell it, sell the original engine with it.

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I want an original 850

not asking much just somthing like steve and mike's

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67' Matic
73' S

If there's no linkage on top, it's a Clubby rod change box not a K one..
Can't fit a magic wand to that!

check the casting number on front of the box- 22G1128 it's a Mini K (or Mk2 S) one.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

ahh and in comes doc to spoil the knowledge party with some casting numbers, always happens just as i start to sound like i know what im talking about

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22G1832. I pulled it off a 71 K. Anyone want to trade?
I think the engine number is 12A497 and also i think that the 850 in car is original.

Ive just pulled the diff off the rod change, and also the pots off the diff housing. atm i am planning on sticking the pots onto an 850 box, since no remote box has come my way.

Would it be a good idea to switch the diff from the rodchange box into the 850 box too?? The rodchange box seems to be in rather good condition. I believe i can not switch the rodchange gears into the 850 box?

Btw, this is all happening atm because my 850 clutch is reaallly slipping and the adjustment seems to do nothing but make gears harder to get into.

I think it happened just after i had revved the car reallly high and let the clutch out, to try and prevent my car rolling backwards off a cliff, ever since then it just slips. I payed to have a new clutch put in it a few years ago and have only driven maybe 50 kms in the time between then!!

hydralics seem fine.. errr soo anyway, back to my original question :)

I got the pots off using a hammer and 2 punches.

I wouldn't fit the 3.44 dif into the 850, it's just too tall a ratio. 850 only had 44 ft/lb of torque new!
No the rodchange gears won't fit into the 850 casing, which is 3 synchro. They would go into a K casing though (22G1128) if you find one.
4 synchro boxes are stronger than 3 synchro, but with an 850 it just don't matter.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.