I am hoping that someone on here can provide some information for me.
I am restoring a 1982 Range Rover Classic and it has two eyeball vents in the dashboard.
One of them is complete and works OK, the other is missing one of the flaps that shut off the air flow and most of the other flap is broken away.
As these were common for cars in the 70’s and 80’s I thought some parts may be interchangeable.
The bore of the eyeball is approximately 40.5 mm.
The flaps are driven by a bevel gear on the centre shaft that meshes with similar gears on the flaps.

Can anyone confirm if the bore of the later mini eyeball vents are the same and if they operate the same way.

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Visually they look similar and operate the same, but the main bore of the vent through the middle on a mini one is 56mm.

Thanks Harley, but the Mini One is a BMW Mini isn’t it.
I was thinking of the original mini that had the flat dashboard in the UK.
I believe these had the two eyeball vents.

Phil

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Harley means the vent from a classic mini not a model of BMW mini.

I hadn't got around to measuring one but my guess was that the classic mini ones are larger than your 40mm measurement.

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1986 Mayfair (998 auto), 1974 S, 1974 Van, 1972 PMG Van

Too many minis

I measured a classic mini vent from a 90s model car.

For reference though - a BMW mini vent is 65mm through the middle for an R50/R52/R53.

Thanks Harley
Strewth, at 56 mm the bore of the eyeball is huge compared to my Range Rover at 40 mm.

Phil

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Find a job you love and you will never have to go to work !

Probably because they aren't fed air from a fan. The eyeball vents in minis were only ever connected to ducting that ran to the grille.
I guess if the hole was much smaller you'd barely get any airflow.

I came across this cool website called Carsized that allows you to compare the sizes of two different cars. Just for fun, here's a 1985 Range Rover next to the current MINI Countryman.

https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/mini-countryman-2023-suv-vs-land-rover-range-rover-1985-suv/

It's no wonder the MINI stuff is big.

Sorry this doesn't help your vent question.

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

While also not related to the vent question here is another comparison photo.


Phil

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Find a job you love and you will never have to go to work !

Physical size is not everything. Good things have always come in small packages to quote a cloche.

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Cheers Dave.