New member - Milton Keynes - 1989 Mayfair, 21k miles

[gareth]

Hi all,

New member here. My Mayfair has been sat in my garage for the last 10 years after having some issues with the gearbox. After doing the L2B in the girlfriends Mini this year I've decided to try and get mine up and running again.

When I left her she had no drive in 1, 2, 3 or D from memory, so I'm a bit worried about my options. My expertise with mechanics goes about as far as changing brakes too, so I'm sure you'll see lots of questions popping up from me!

I'm going to start by doing a full service. Drain any fuel that's in there, drain the oil, then change the following:

Fuel Filter
Oil Filter
Oil
Coolant
Rocker Cover Gasket
Thermostat Housing Gasket
Spark Plugs
Ignition Leads

Can anyone think what else I should change?

Once the engine is running then I guess it's time to tackle the gearbox. I'm assuming mine is knackered but from looking online I'm worried that'll mean new engine/gearbox time. Is it possible to get my auto gearbox rebuilt, or buy another that's working and swap it over? I really like the idea of keeping the auto box as you don't see too many of them around anymore.

Thanks for reading,
Gareth

[limby2000]

Hi Gareth and welcome to the forum. Glad to see your keeping your mini auto, as you say auto mini,s are getting rare and becoming an endangered speicey.They are not for everyone and they do have their quirk,s but I love em. Your car can be repaired no matter the problem, most of the wearing components can still be bought and what can,t can be aquired from the many donor autoboxes sitting on racks in breakers yards. Speak to Martin (MRA) he sells reconditioned unit,s and also parts (new and used), he,s our auto guru and been fixing em for 25 years. You can go down the secondhand route as its cheaper, but I like others on here have had problems with changing the box only to find its slipping or worse. If its done more than 50,000 miles or over 20 years old and still working you,ve done well.Regular oil changes (under 2000 miles),and correct grade 10w40 (ma2) seems to be the order of the day. I rebuilt mine myself, as have other members on here ( check out Stu) he's done a strip down piece. Good luck with your project. P.s your drive issue sounds like forward clutch pack failure.

[(minisniper)]

Welcome to AMR Gareth