26 replies to this topic

[Jimi30]

Being left-hand drive, my photos won't be of too much help but I'll see what I can do. I'll also look through some of my older manuals to see if they have any sketches of where the plumbing went on the early RH drive cars.

In the meantime, I was only able to find a few pictures online that hint at where some of the hoses may go if you relocate them. It looks like one goes in vertically on the left side of the engine bay and the other from the heater valve goes through somewhere on the right.
http://www.smithmaps...6c/67engine.jpg
http://adgodwin.co.u...normal_mess.JPG
http://minicooper.1h.../web_mini_5.jpg

Ah right no I definatly dont have those holes...maybe I'll have to make soem then lol. Thanks for your help, any idea about the demister funnel sizes?

[nikilah]

if you look inside the car on the passenger side is there not a recess where the pedalbox would go on a left hand drive car?

[Jimi30]

There is a recess yes, and I could drill holes in it to route the hoses through but I'm wondering whether the hoses will be long enough to reach this way

[nikilah]

stupid question but you are sure there are no holes above the recess in the cross member. thers's not a plate there covering them or anything like that. just checking because i thought they were on all shells. that is where mine go through. just get some longer hoses to join it up and problem solved.

[dklawson]

Hi again, I took a couple of pictures of the heater hoses on my car. You can see them at:
http://home.mindspri...sideHoses01.jpg
and
http://home.mindspri...gineHoses01.jpg

The inside picture shows the recess that should be behind your pedal box. This recess should be mirrored on the left side of your passenger compartment. The engine picture shows a top down view of the hoses passing through the plate where my top engine steady is. You'll notice the grommits. I enlarged the holes and added those. Originally BMC/BL did not use anything to seal those openings or to protect the heater hoses from the sheet metal.

Don't worry about what length your existing hoses are. Heater hoses are relatively cheap. Buy bulk material and make them whatever length is right for your application. As for the holes and where to make them, you really need pictures from a right-hand drive car and I can't help you there. However, if they mirrored the hole pass-through points on the LH and RH cars, you should have a filler plate where my clutch and brake masters are. Chances are you'll have holes under the plate and through the body at that location. If not, it won't be hard to add them. However, I suggest you look up "step drill" and buy one of those tools to drill large holes in sheet metal like this.

I'm not sure I followed your question about the demister vents. You'll need to spell that one out a little better for me and explain what your concerns are. As for taking pictures of that for you... I'll see what pictures I already have but I'm not going to take my dash cards out to photograph what's behind them. It's just too much work with too great a risk of damage on a Mk1.

[Jimi30]

Right I'd gone last night before the last 2 posts, physics revision was starting to hurt my brain. Woke up this morning and thought about it and remembered that when I'd looked at it last night i saw there were bolts going through the recess. Only hit me this morning that it was acovering plate just as Nikilah said. Had a look from the other side and sure enough there are holes there so thats that problem sortedish.

THe demister funnels question, what I mean is that too me the funnels that go to the vents behind the dahs look quite large and the plastic hose that goes too them also seems to get in the way of where the trim cards go? I was wondering if the funnels and hoses you can see in my pictures look any different to the ones that are behind your trim dklawson? No I wouldn't ask you to start taking your mk1 dash too pieces lol.

Thanks for all the help guys

[Dan]

Originally on early cars (in fact up to 1988 I think) the heater supply was run through the bulkhead using the hole that your original speedo cable is using in your photos. The speedo cable came through a hole in the black plate on offset clock cars with this heater layout. The heater return then used one of the holes in the crossmember. This made sense because of the layout of the cooling system. In your case however I suggest that you use both the holes in the crossmember because your cooling system is different. Use some grommets to seal the pipes into the holes as well as you can, and even some silicon sealant to seal around them. Rover stopped running the hoses this way because it encouraged water to leak into the cabin from under the bonnet. Not coolant, just road and rain water. So you need to seal round the hoses well. In fact the holes in the actual crossmember are quite large and oddly shaped and the hoses have traditionally run through holes in the cover plate in order to seal them better. Get yourself a round hole punch from an engineeering suppliers. Find a grommet that will seal well to the outside diameter of the hoses and get a hole punch to match. The punch will cut you a nice smooth edged hole, they are only cheap things which use a bolt to tighten them up and cut but are brilliant. Then you can silicon the plate to the crossmember and silicon the hoses to their grommets and all should be well. Also plug the now empty large holes in the bulkhead and any other holes you have revealed (by removing the binnacle and other parts) with grommets. It makes the car a lot quieter as well as dryer.

As for your demisting ducts, they are much larger in plastic cased heater cars but it shouldn't prevent the dash trims fitting. It will just distort them a little.

You do know I assume that you have the new speedo cable the wrong way round in your original photos?

[taffy1967]

Whilst you're at it, it'd probably be worth sealing the heater hoses to screen vent connections with some tape because their notorious for loosing the hot air behind the dash.

Oh and you can buy the dashboard liner trim for Newton Commercial too, although you may want to compare prices first.

[Jimi30]

Ok rerouted the heater hoses this afternoon through the original holes so thats all sorted now and I can finally get the binacle in the right position. Thanks for the advice about sealing the holes will look in to that at the weekend,

Yer the speedo cable was the wrong way round then, I just shoved it through to check the hole I'd made was big enough. I've removed that plate anyway now.

I'll have to start looking for some old style funnels then...unless the pipes to these won't fit on to my heater...in which case I may just have to lose the demister function.

[Jimi30]

Righ its all in and finished, very happy with it I'll out some pictures up later. I might write a short guide on how to do the conversion if people think it might be a useful thing to have on the forum. I found it quite hard finding out exactly what was involved when I set out to do it?

[Dan]

You did decide to keep the demister I hope. It is an MOT and legal requirement (but nobody ever tests it because all cars have it!).

[furiousjim]

i would appreciate a tutorial please

also, how much did it set you back if you dont mind me asking that is.

cheers