hi guys,
i have been searching the net and had no luck so far, i know alot of people have done 4wd and rear wheel drive through putting bike engines in the back and so on, but has anyone done a RWD mini using the standard engine and box like say a 1275 engine and gearbox? if not does anyone know why not?

cheers
Paddy

There's a few people who have done a twinni conversion - two mini engines; one at each end!

There's a guy on here in Adelaide who has done it and there are some photos of his car on here.

RWD only, I don't know. I've only seen the UK bike conversions.

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With the original east/west configuration of the A series in the mini you have a set up which has two propshafts coming off the gearbox to drive each of the front wheels.
In a rear wheel drive car you want one single propshaft running to the back and then drving the back wheels through a rear diff.

Unless someone can correct me, I cant think of any way (of easily) transferring the power from the two front driveshafts to drive the rear wheels. This would involve some pretty nifty engineering to say the least. What could be tried is a North/South configuration A series driving the rear wheels, that would be cool.

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Nah you just put a complete FWD Mini engine, box and subby in the back... suspension and all.

If you are going to do a north/south engine + gearbox + diff setup, ffs fit something bigger than an A series.. with less weight and more HP.
There's hardly enough room in a Mini for a road legal setup, but it's been done in USA and elsewhere where they don't have a nanny state & it's legal.

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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.

Ah yes doc, didnt think of putting the whole setup in the back. To be honest I thought he meant making a RWD conversion with everything from the original mini setup in situ, ie. Still retaining the engine in the front.

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can be done, but you need to re-engineer the diff housing - the factory made some 4wd mokes in Aus for a trial but they didn't go into production.

if you were going to do that, keep the front driveshafts and run a diff in the back as well

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Some of the (faster) GT5 Minis raced in the US are RWD - use Sprite engines/drive trains. Mind you they have spaceframes and plastic bodies as well....but I'm sure there's a Mini part there somewhere (other than the label on the rego docs...javascript:emoticon('8)')

Cheers, Ian

Factory 4WD Moke (the couple that BMC built) was under-engineered, both in the rear diff and the takeoff from the front one.
And that was with a stock motor...

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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.

I would like to do all three options (mid mount mini drive train, A series north south and the east west AWD) just to have something different.
IMO the best one would be the AWD followed by the mid mount and last the north south setup. If only I had the money .

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

Thanks for the info guys, yes what I was mainly looking at was retaining the east west engine in the front and just taking the drive from the diff somehow, I'll have a look at the 4wd mokes design and see of I can improve it a bit.

Warwick Augustin did one years ago. Suffered horrible oversteer until he put it on it's lid.

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There are some really interesting details here about recent modifications to the diff in the Quadra Moke.

http://www.mokesinc.org/index.php/topic,8716.0.html
I hope you're as good with a lathe and mill as Spider.

Also general discussion on 4wd Mokes and Minis here.
http://www.mokesinc.org/index.php/topic,8731.0.html

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

seeing the top link in the post above you could make a custom transfer case that bolts to the rear of the gearbox and run a prop shaft to custom a rear diff and subframe

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1969 Blue Mini K, 1330cc, Weber 45, polished aluminum roll cage, Race seats, 4 point harness, full rewire incorporating 8 fuses, 6 relays and new headlights just needs tyres front shocks and a windscreen til re-register

If you were going to go to all that trouble why not use an engine with a bit of power?

because the engineering in that is more impressive

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1152cc turbo A-series now with 125.7hp at the wheels !

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