Datsun 120Y/140Y auto wanted.

[rich.]

i still have no idea what your up to, but this is big enough to transport kids & is an auto should meet your high stanadards
http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/779991547.htm?ca=18_s

[TerryG]

It would appear John is planning to do a fairly common Australian conversion and bung a Datsun engine in to a morris minor but with a slushbox. Although going by reputation, John may be planning the same trick on something else old, RWD, probably plastic and with a wheel missing..............

[JPB]

Rich, I love these big old Datsuns, but Terry's right about what I want to do and I feel that a straight six may not be quite such an easy thing to plop into a Minor's engine bay.

Terry, the irony of the tricycle idea is that technically, I'm allowed to drive one of those in its factory state as the tricycle VED class is on my licence and it makes no distinction between manual and auto, though the Reliant Robins do have a pretty heavy (coil spring) clutch that I used to struggle with long before I was driving about in autos. Imagine a Minor with a badly fitted chassis leg that puts the relay shaft bush out of alignment with its opposite, then add the sheer awkwardness of a coil spring clutch cover to use - especially in town traffic - and throw in Reliant's infamous slipping clutch release fork trick, that sees the holes in the pivot shaft become slots and the clutch de-adjust itself in use. All of these things combined create a very heavy, imprecise clutch action which was why I got more into Rebels than kittens, as [Rebels] have a short, A35-style rod clutch or a slightly heavier but still vaguely manageable hydraulic one on late 750s.
So if I were creating an automatic Reliant, a kitten would be the place to start and that's been done, using a Ford transmission, tacked straight onto the back of the car's 1600cc x-flow engine with a MK2 Escort Ghia auto flexplate and an Escort 1100 T/C for a responsive takeup. The Reliants all use the same clutch as a 948cc Minor so yes, a very light Laycock diaphragm spring clutch is available as an upgrade but the only tricycle I currently own is far too good to hack about and there's a solid Minor standing around doing nothing.

I hadn't realised that Australia had adopted the Datsun solution so widely before I looked it up. The Datsun-engined Minors I've been drooling over are mostly in the States and my cousin, who has a restaurant in South Carolina and keeps her eyes open for cars that I might be able to use, has been busily hunting for cars and their owners local to her with a view to getting me as much information as possible from those who've already done the job which, so the consensus has it, is pretty straightforward and recognised by some insurers even here in the UK.
Cousin It is bang into her classics and runs a (pre-Farina shaped) Morris Oxford as a daily car which ensures that her punters know she's as mad as a balloon, apparently this is good for business.

[rich.]

john how could you sacrifice a datsun
why not get a citroen c4 diesel auto, (they are actually quite a nice drive) & transplant that int a minor & make it fwd at the same time? im sure a man of your talents could easily manage that, & it would be one less modern on the road

[TerryG]

That raises a couple of questions.
Are you doing this because you want an automatic minor or because you want to build an automatic minor?

If it is because you want one, have you looked at the shipping cost from Australia as it may be more cost effective to buy one than build one. We even have some members on that side of the world that may be able to have a look for you.
If you want to build one, as you can fit all sorts of engines in to a minor with very little work keeping them running on a carb and replacing plastic with metal where required, wouldn't it be sensible to find an auto box with a manual valve body that fits in the hole or requires minimal modification then worry about making an engine fit it afterwards? Even some custom machine work to get a 1275 connected to a Toyota auto box may be worth investigating.
It kills a lot of the fun but I have seen 2 minors fitted with Vauxhall front subframes and converted to FWD so if you did that you could have an automatic from their range.

I love car customisation (I love standard classics too but there are lots of those) but the Datsun is getting quite rare so it would be a shame to cut one up if there was the option to get one that was already done.

[JPB]

.... it would be a shame to cut one up if there was the option to get one that was already done.

I can't argue with that and the idea of buying a ready made one - especially from a country where rust is often not the issue it is here - is good, however then, I'd have a very straight, 1950s Minor shell sitting around and the main reason I wanted to do the job myself is to make use of that as it's one I've known for over 30 years and in that time it's been carefully looked after and even more carefully stored to preserve its rust free state. The only welding on the shell is to the bottom of the o/s A post and that was done (in Thatcham order and quite invisibly) by me over 20 years ago, soaked in Ensis V at the time and has shewn no signs of deterioration since. Even if I buy a car that's known to have no structural issues, can I be sure that its overall condition is as straight?
It is a dilemma and what doesn't help is that I've had word of a complete Datsun 140Y engine and matching autobox at a specialist breaker's warehouse in Vancouver, though all of the Canadian relations stay too far away to make the shipping any less painful, but it's possible and as this image showing an Australian Minor suggests, it all looks pretty close to stock with the Datsun-derived parts fitted:



That rocker cover could be made to look very A series-like with very little difficulty and everything goes where it should.

I won't be parting out any viable car but would still consider a rough Sunny that can be driven prior to donating its organs to a good cause.

[TerryG]

You could have picked a tidy conversion to post a pic of.
With the engine painted green and an appropriate air filter it would look fairly period.
I have never looked at automatic boxes for a mog but as the type 9 manual box fits, wouldn't whatever automatic option was available in granadas / sierras fit? Then you could have a kent / pinto / x-flow / etc?

[kevin]

Do it john, either get the engine and box or chop a whole car, the additional parts can help keep som other Datsun project going.
Can an autobox not be fitted to an original minor engine or are they not powerful enough?
Would something like an automatic mx5 engine and box not fit?


Kev

[JPB]

Do it john, either get the engine and box or chop a whole car, the additional parts can help keep som other Datsun project going.
Can an autobox not be fitted to an original minor engine or are they not powerful enough?
Would something like an automatic mx5 engine and box not fit?


Kev

Kev, the problem with any of the autos that are fitted in place of other, well known manual gearboxes is that the torque converter inside their bellhousing is by its nature a tight fit, so leaves no room to cut out the rebate that manual boxes need to fit under the Minor's steering rack. A 1098 with a Borg Warner 65 from a late Marina or Ital would go well enough if the diff were changed for something higher to allow greater converter advantage and relaxed cruising but A series conversions have the box so much lower to clear the rack, that the sump can catch on all sorts and even with a Ford box, it would still be impossible to cut that notch to solve the problem as it does in manual gearbox swaps for more modern alternatives such as the one in the image on the first page.

You could have picked a tidy conversion to post a pic of.
With the engine painted green and an appropriate air filter it would look fairly period.
I have never looked at automatic boxes for a mog but as the type 9 manual box fits, wouldn't whatever automatic option was available in granadas / sierras fit? Then you could have a kent / pinto / x-flow / etc?

The type 9 fits with a notch cut into it to clear the rack., same thing applies to other autos as it does the BW65; the converter is a close fit to the bell housing so that essential notch can't be made without fitting a smaller converter and there are very few that are smaller, the Datsun (AW) one is shallower but of slightly larger O/D, so fits in front of the rack with the engine's water pump and chain case in exactly the same position as they'd have been with the A series engine still fitted, but that larger diameter means that - sadly - the AW gearbox from the Sunny or Violet won't fit to the A series would need as that smaller but torque converter deeper.

I'd put in about 48 hours on this before I even posted the request and the Datsun solution, though not the only one if you consider more radical modifications, is the best by far for engine efficiency, transmission function, weight, effect on performance if diff not swapped out for a higher geared one and looks. Plus it stays with RWD and much as I admire the various FWD Minors that we see on the forum and elsewhere occasionally, I'd be starting with a superb shell so wouldn't want to lose the essence of the original car, not in this case.
If I don't do this, then that car could have a Marina pedal box grafted in - quite common in itself - and an hydraulic clutch with a servo and a handlebar grip clutch control fitted but that was a right royal PITA in the Rebel I drove that way because there are always more things to do than there are hands.

[TerryG]

My traveller had a marina peddle box fitted. swapping the brake light switch was a royal pita!