Cheers Matthew!

Although a later model. Its one of the cleanest examples I have ever seen (I have owned 30+ Mini variants) and I have great memories with this Mini...  I truly want Darren to feel the same love for it, and I know he will! 

Amen!

I recommend you get a real roll pin punch w/ the locating ball on the tip. Not much room to work under there—you’ll want your hammer blows to be straight & true. Once you have everything buttoned up you might consider safety wiring everything in place. 

This is me whining about the crappy rubber gator that came with my rod seal kit [LINK]. Hopefully you can source a better one. Mine was junk. 

Braden.......
You've gone above and beyond with your customer !

Just sayin

The only one I had was a modified shock shifter to be some form of short shifter.  So he ordered one from MM and we are going to split the cost. 

And if you don't have one yet, get a Haynes manual for your year mini.

I'm confused i thought you had purchased a shifter from MM or the seller was sending you one.

Awesome help. Thanks :)

Spitz, 3/16 it is. I was looking at different roll pin punches today at Princess Auto, just seizing up the selection. When I saw how many choices there were available I just walked away..lol.

Alex, one of the videos ( really good ) explained and showed about not tapping it too far, and showing the sleeve that it would/will hit. Great tip. They DID NOT mention holding the rods ( they likely just do it without thinking about it ? ), and frankly, that’s likely something I WOULD DO...drop it. :( So thanks !

croc7 , will do...thanks. I’m getting this narrowed down :)

Malsal, the thing is, for now , I don’t know where I can find an original , long throw shifter and parts. So , considering I have lots of things to do while she is on the stands, I may as well get under there , all the box out and clean it, inspect it, and if I need any bushes etc, then I can work on other things while I’m waiting for the refurbishment parts. Pretty easy. Up and down as few times as necessary imho. Plus, I want to know more about my car. “not 4 sale “ will from now on my signature. These things take time, some times :) The biggest thing for me Malcolm , is that I want to take this apart only once if possible, at least for a very long time. BTW- I have 2 new bobbin mounts. If all looks good , that’s great. If things need attention, that’s fine too. Fix it in a garage or fix it at the roadside...

Cheers all, I appreciate every tip. Darren. I’ll ad to this thread when the “ box “ is back in the car.

If you install the shifter first you may not need to mess with the underneath unless you are going to replace the rod change mounts but even then there is no need to remove the roll pin.
With repairs you need to concentrate on one thing at a time it makes life easier when diagnosing problems.

Edit: Maybe you are replacing the selector seal at the same time, i can't remember if you posted this repair.

See if you can find a punch with a 'guide ball' on the tip that centers the tool on the pin-prevents deforming the roll pin, works great.  Stanley-Proto  J49316S2 as an example.

Reverse is your friend - it allows easy access to the rollpin, but don't try and drive it all the way out so that it drops onto the floor.  The pin will hit the gearbox and stop moving before it has completely come out, it's out of the shaft but still in the collar.  Once you've slid the coller off the shaft the pin can be removed fully.

Don't let the linkage hang down on the rear cotton reels as they can split, in fact it's not a bad idea to replace them while it's all apart.

Use a sensible sized hammer while hitting the pin - use a small tapping stick and all you will do is burr the tool and pin.

You should not need to remove any exhaust components.

Be sure to use a proper 3/16" drift to remove the pin.  I usually put it in reverse....maybe thirds easier (?)

Greeting all. I hope everyone is having some Mini fun today. As usual , I am looking for some advice.

My question is ; Do I need to drop or remove any ( or all ) part of the exhaust system to be able to remove the rod change control box from underneath my ‘89 Rover Mini. I realize that the shifter rod and the steady rod come out with the control box ( shift rod removes by driving out the drift pin at the transmission end —while in 3rd gear for easiest access ) , but none of the videos tell wether or not the exhaust system has to be removed , partially removed, etc, for the box and attached rods to come free of the car. I want to give this control box a thorough bench cleaning and also I want to check the condition of the rod bushings, internals, etc. Having a better understanding of how the gear change works ( I have a fairly good idea ) will be learned during the job.

Thanks for any advice, Darren.