Heater control valve cable

[PFOtley]

I have a MK1 mini cooper s I am restoring, the heater control cable was missing and used one that had been on a riley elf. When fitted it is very tight with no slack going around the carburettor, I assume the cooper s with the angled heater valve and twin carburettors have a long cable and sheath, could anyone confirm that.

[Andrew1967]

I've not heard of different length Mini 'Push Heater' cables, but I do have a couple from Morris Minors that have the same knob but are quite a bit shorter.

[Andrew1967]

Having looked again at mine, it is a bit tight but the outer cable does fit. The inner however seems a little short by maybe 1/2”

[PFOtley]

Thankyou for your comments about the heater valve cable, since posting this I found by chance a longer sheath and inner cable with correct pull with push heater marked on. The Riley one measured 34 inches, that is the length of the cable and the sheath 32 inches. The one I have found is 36 and 38 inches and when fitted reflects the image in the Parnell book. I am no clearer what is the correct length should be but this looks good on the car.

[1071bob]

It's fairly simple to change the inner cables on the original choke/heater knobs, they are just staked in place via the small hole in the shaft.
1. With the shaft in the vice and the knob in some water to stop the heat soak, warm the end of the shaft to cherry red and pull out the old cable.
Make sure you pull vertically to avoid bending the shaft.
2, Shows the old cable with the stakes area.
3..4..5. I made some simple tooling to hold the shaft with the 10/32" bolt with the spigot on the end to locate in the curved side of the shaft. The
opposite side has a 2mm hole to hold a dowel pin with some silicon tubing to hold it clear of the shaft.
6. Warm the end of the new cable to cherry red, quickly push it into the shaft and wack the pin with a hammer!
I used 16 gauge stainless welding rod for the new cables.

[PFOtley]

Great information, thankyou for that advise.

[Andrew1967]

That’s an excellent idea Bob... I can see another homer coming up next week at work