In article 20171230111252.442259b8@Mars,
Rob Morley wrote:
On Fri, 29 Dec 2017 17:42:33 +0000
Chris Hogg wrote:

The early minis were
particularly prone to conking out, as the plugs and distributor were
right out front and caught everything.

That reminds me of a particularly wet drive on the M1 in a new-to-me
Mini that kept cutting out. It emerged that a previous owner had lost
the plastic shield that should have sat between the front grille and
the distributor - as soon as I tied a carrier bag in its place the car
ran fine.

The shield only arrived on later Minis. Early ones had nothing - then that
rubber glove round the dizzy.

Seems the prototype(s) had the dizzy at the back. Which then caused carb
icing with the carb at the front. Which is why they turned the engine
round and had to add an intermediate gear.

--
*Indian Driver - Smoke signals only*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.