G'day,
After some advice please on where the carby spacer goes on the manifold and also which air cleaner I should be using as the one I thought was the right one fouls the speedo cable.

My motor is an 850, fitted with an alloy inlet manifold (part C-AHT770), running a single 1 1/2SU and currently got a pancake type air filter PF102A.

First question is - what's the correct position for the 1/2" spacer. I was under the impression that the spacer was there so that the carby linkages don't hit against the abutment plate so I fitted the carby in the following order:
Manifold, abutment plate, spacer, carby. As per the pic below.

However, I've been looking at a few engines today trying to find an original air cleaner and all of them had the spacer fitted straight after the manifold and the abutment plate was hard up against the carby. With the original air cleaners, the abutment plate has the locating thread on it for the long wing nut bolts that hold the air cleaner on. In order to fit the air cleaner, the abutment plate has to be against the carby to make the holes line up.

So - it looks like I've got mine in the wrong order. That being the case, what's the spacer for?

Second part of the question is the pancake air cleaner I've got puts a fair bit of pressure on the speedo cable when it's fitted. In the pic below, you can see the setup before I bolted it up and I didn't have the speedo cable fitted then. Now the cable is screwed on, the air cleaner I reckon is a bit too close. By close, the cable is hard up against the air cleaner and I reckon it will wear in time.

So now I'm thinking of putting on an original air cleaner and I found one this arvo but the bloke won't sell it. It's the old metal type and currently on a Morris 1100S. I reckon it's about say 2" high. I did get a more recent plastic one - part 12G4299 - but I think it's a bit too thick to use. Closer to 3" high. I can get it on the carby but the top of it just about hits on the body.

So what's my options - try and find an original metal air cleaner or is there another after market one that I can use?

Thanks, Rocky

If you’re using an aftermarket filter, it needs to be the offset type with the mounting holes towards the bottom of the filter.

You should be able to use a metal or plastic stock air box for an HS4 car. I had the metal one on mine with the 998 & HS4, they use the same height filter as the plastic box so shouldn’t be much different in height?

I also had the abutment plate next to the manifold, then spacer and then carb. It has a different angle for the air filter stud too

_________________

Thanks Timmy - you've got the spacer in the same spot as me then.
The pancake filter I've got has the offset holes which mount the air cleaner off centre but it still seems too close to the speedo cable I think.

The spacer I've currently got on is about 12mm but I've also got an 8mm one in my box of bits so if I used that, I'd get a few mm extra clearance.

Is there any reason I can't use the thinner spacer? I got a box of carby bits from a bloke and the thinner spacer was in there.

I didn't get a chance to measure the difference the height between the metal and plastic air boxes but the metal one seemed a fair bit thinner. Not sure if the Morris 1100S used a different housing to the Minis.

Cheers, Rocky

My metal air box was from a mini matic from memory. I also had a KN cone filter on there for a bit, and it didn’t have any issues with fitting, but the cone does naturally give a little more room

I think the spacer just had to be in a decent spot so both cables reach and operate properly.

_________________

Yeah, it doesn't matter where the spacer is, whatever works - or just leave it out altogether. Theoretically the spacer will give a little more low end torque but it's bugger all.

An air cleaner like you have there probably means you need a right-angle speedo drive adapter. They screw on to the speedo and the cable comes in from the side. You can get an adapter off an old Range Rover/Jag/MG or many other old pommy cars. Look for part number bg 2410/20

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Thanks for the info on the spacer Simon. I've pulled my setup apart and redone it with an narrower spacer, then the abutment plate then the carb. Had to use shorter studs in the manifold.

The original type air box now fits much better and I'm looking for a metal one instead of the plastic one I have to make it look a bit better.

I'm starting to get a collection of stuff that I bought but now don't need, starting with one chrome pancake filter.

Cheers, Rocky