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Hi All. I removed the pedal box from my Cooper S and it has a yellow paint marker on it. I know it is genuine S but I don't have another pedal box to compare and spot the difference. Is it the way the pedal is cranked???? C'mon the anoraks....

I was always led to believe the difference was a *thicker* brake pedal. Certainly the set I obtained years ago support this, but I haven't been in close contact with enough sets to be certain.

cheers

Jacob

That's what I've learn't as well. Up until the twin circuit brakes appeared, the Cooper S had a thicker pedal arm than the mundane models.

The S brake pedal is usually thicker, but there's another difference. Along the pedal, the angles are slightly different which results (when fitted) in a raised pedal compared to a regular pedal. As for the yellow spot, I've seen some with the same marks. Mine didn't seem to have that though.
Some pictures:





S pedal on the right:

All Mini's here from around '64 had a thicker brake pedal. Our cars were assembled from UK components so I would assume yours would have had the thicker pedal too. The difference with the S one is the different height, as previously mentioned.

Regards
Al

The yellow mark could be a quality control inspection mark, put on it after inspection. Makes sense because a brake pedal is quite an important component.

Factory inspection marks are usually found on engine components, and also are grading marks, where for instance a "very good" standard 1275 crank would be put in a 70bhp Austin 1300GT engine rather than a standard 54bhp Austin 1300.

austinisuseless wrote:The yellow mark could be a quality control inspection mark, put on it after inspection.

I have read that somewhere before! And being true, can explain why mine doesn't have the yellow mark, as it is a CKD car.

The thicker, cranked brake pedal was first introduced in about Feb 1962 on the 997 Cooper after the deletion of the brake booster, the 850 carried on with the same pedal. As for the missing yellow dot, can we assume that a leaking master cylinder, which leaves brake fluid down the back of the pedal, could this be stripping the paint?

Anorak off now.

codriver wrote:As for the missing yellow dot, can we assume that a leaking master cylinder, which leaves brake fluid down the back of the pedal, could this be stripping the paint?

That could happen, but I don't think that is my case as the pedals I've seen have the yellow mark at middle length (like the picture below) and mine had all the original black paint in that area in average/ok condition and no signs of yellow marks around. I would say that, being a quality control, it was because it was not assembled in the UK, but here in Portugal where quality control procedures could've been different. Anyway, this is not that important, I think.

I have seen UK and Dutch assembled cars with the yellow dot markings, I always thought it was their way of marking the brake pedals for quality and so they could recognise them more easy during assembly

I would think the yellow paint is just an identification mark .

Didn,t think BMC inspected anything

Morris did, 251 ENG - maybe you were referring to Austin.

Oooooooo - politics...

OH yes , forgot that .

All the clever stuff was made at Morris engines in Coventry .

Well, Austin did rip the MG1300 engine, or should I say Morris Garages 1300 engine for their Austin 1300GT. The engines were always better in the Morris 1300GT after the MG1300 was discontinued.

And I suppose I could mention that there is many more Morris Minor 1000s on the road today than Austin A40 Farinas that were in their same class then, but I won't, or did I...

Dont pick on the a40 I just got one last week I'll have to put it in our projects very soon

Let me know how many late 1960s newspapers are keeping your A40s front wings together. To get them past the MOT then was a couple of copies of The Times (better quality of newpaper then), held together with underseal brushed on inside, and colour sprayed on the outside.

Anyway, the A40 was one of the most airstream cars about then, believe it or not. The Moggy Thou was a house brick in that department, lucky you ever saw 70mph downhill, with the wind behind you. Morris was into reliability rather than aerodynamics, it looks.

Think we are way off topic here too - yellow spot on a brake pedal?