So soon to son-in-law bought himself a mini 3 weeks ago. Not a spridget but
a 1960 Mini Cooper with a 1275 in it. I am ok that its not a spridget.
He has put near a 1,000 miles on it in 3 weeks and its been working fine until
1AM last night.
Its a 1275 with a single carb, good even compression all around and decent oil
pressure, converted to Alternator and Neg ground. I didnâ??t see the car
before he bought it, but he had a shop in L.A. that was recommended by
MiniMania look the car over before he bought it, they did compression test, etc.
A week ago on the freeway the car lost all power, he pulled over to the side
of the freeway and called me, I told him since it ran and he was only a
100yards from the offramp to get off the freeway even if it was at 5mph and I
would meet him with the trailer on the frontage road. During those 100yards
the car came back to life and he ended finishing his drive to work, he assumed
it was some crud in the fuel since he was low on gas, filled up and all was
well.
Last night on way home at 1AM the car died again, this time fulll tank of gas.
On the freeway the lights dimmed to almost nothing and the car lost power,
barely idled and just would not rev up above 1500RPM, stalled a few times but
restarted immediately each time, just wonâ??t rev and wonâ??t go. He called my
daughter and she went to pick him but he was parked in a if you park here
overnight you will be towed (they didnâ??t want to wake me up) so they decided
he would limp home with lights off. They went less then 2 blocks before being
stopped by the police but thank you Mr. Police officer for letting them
continue on their way (less than a mile) with no ticket. So he says with
lights off the car seemed to have more power but still barely runs. If he
turns the headlights on, it wonâ??t even idle, with lights on it starts and
idles fine.
I have not even opened the hood yet, going to pick it with trailer now.
My first thought is weak/bad fuel pump not having enough flow to run the car
at speed but the lights issue is confusing me. Battery after he got home last
night was at 13.32 Volts and its only a 1 year old battery according to
receipts that came with the car.
Looking for any clues you Spridgeteers might have.
The only issue I have noticed with the car is that I think it runs rich, the
exhaust stank, no smoke but it was a pretty strong smell but its his first
non-catalytic and non-fuel injected etc. car so he thought it was normal. We
were going to tinker with the car over the holiday but now I am forced to.
Mike
p.s. I am not a member of the mini list, but I will join and post there also.
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