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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/04/18 in all areas

  1. Right, so clearly that was a lot of work done in short space of time. This post will bring me up to date now. I have been trying to split the previous posts out to make it easier to read and follow, since if I combined them all together it would be one huge MEGA-POST, and no one has the time to read that. This post is more of a brain dump of the other things I have done with the Mini that don't fit a particular category or are too small to be their own post. First up, is yes, the second replacement oil drain plug I fitted a few posts ago (with the thread tape and Rover crush washer) has successfully stopped the oil leak. I finally have oil only where it should be! Praise MOWOG the fickle god of British cars. Secondly this arrived the other day. One monster of an Imperial socket "Whats that beast for?" I hear you ask. Well, when I was in the engine bay the other day I randomly noted that the main subframe tower bolts were... loose. Not just loose, but barely even in their threads loose. 1-5/16" is the size of those bolts, so I got the socket to correctly torque them up. I don't know if they just forgot to tighten them? They obviously had a socket that worked, because they had to remove them in the first place. Oh well. The car feels a bit more planted in the front now, but I'm actually amazed how little you could tell when they weren't tight. I guess it puts a lot of strain on the other mounts though. Another item that arrived is my utterly gorgeous new rocker cover. You have likely seen it in some other photos, but just look at it. MMMM. Unfortunately being the idiot I am, I didn't notice the part that said "when you order this you will need longer bolts to hold it on". Well, I didn't get those bolts, but I did manage to make mine work by trimming down the new bushes. Its tight, but I got it torqued down correctly, and with no leaks! A couple of other little items I had been waiting to fit were some washer jets (the old ones were WELL buggered) And a new hazard relay, so now I have on demand hazard lights. Check out that lovely heatshrink. I secured these two up onto the wiper motor to stop them rattling about, next to my new washer bottle Speaking of washer bottles, the caps are proving bloody hard to get. No one does new ones, but thankfully I managed to source a good used one that will work. Once I had run new hose to and from the washer pump, I found out that the original pump that came with the car, despite making the right noises, didn't actually move any water. I guess that is why it was removed... The replacement pump in the above photo is the pump that originally came fitted to Effie when I first got her. It works perfectly, and now I have two pathetic jets of water that kind of shoot onto the windscreen. Water drops as proof. The last couple of items that also got changed out were the starter solenoid, and battery negative lead. The starter solenoid was absolutely coated in oil. I don't know how, but it was all over it and up in all the terminals. I tried to clean it, but gave up and sourced a replacement. It had also previously overheated the wires, causing some damage to the insulation, that was taped up. This is the trigger wire once I removed the tape. Lots of bare copper and a melted terminal cover I cut the terminal off, crimped a new one on and covered the lot with heatshrink I did the same to the other bare wire; the constant feed I removed the old solenoid from the guard, and fit the replacement in its place. I used copper grease on all the terminals, to help keep corrosion away. The car now starts much nicer. Previously it would be very slow and lumpy to crank, almost like the battery was almost flat, despite having a fully charged battery. Now it just whirrs over, and fires up. I doubt the battery ground lead made any difference to that, but it got replaced anyway. The old one, despite being a replacement already, had frayed badly where it met the terminal on the boot floor. I also wanted to fit a battery terminal with a wing nut for quick disconnection. So that's where we are now. Once I have the rear light bulbs sorted, and the battery secured, we will finally be ready to go for the re-registration inspection. Exciting!
    11 points
  2. After much sanding and painting the body repair is finally finished! The original number came up great with a cut and polish I hope to never have to piece this jigsaw puzzle back together again..... I will get a some pics of it with the body on shortly. Next job is to get the mechanicals sorted out. Every thing is in very good condition so it shouldn't take much.
    7 points
  3. So, small car update, big life update! I am going in to have Gastric Bypass Surgery tomorrow. It was going to be in August but they last minute moved the date forward. I only had 6 days notice so I have been rushing around getting ready for that. I was planning to get the car finished by the surgery date in August but since they moved the date forward then I will have to finish the car after I have recovered. So, expect less progress photos for a while. I will post a little update when I am out of surgery and back online. Here is a few little progress shots of the interior all painted. And I also got some track rods from a friend on the Avenger forum
    5 points
  4. This isn't a job I was looking forward to, but one that needed to be done. I had to replace the split outer CV boot. The boot was split and spewing grease everywhere. I probably could have tried to get through the inspection with it cleaned up a bit, but figured it was best just to change it out. Step one, as always, is loosen the wheel nuts with the car on the ground. Also do what I failed to do, and remove the split pin and crack the main axle nut before you lift the wheel. It isn't torqued high, but you cant do it with a spinning wheel. Jack the corner up and lower it onto a stand. Whip the axle nut and washer off Next I loosened the nuts for the top ball joint and steering rod end. I gave the metal that the ball joints go through a good whack with a hammer but got nowhere, so I resorted to some WD40, winding the nut to the top of the thread and hitting the top of the nut. This broke both free without issue. I think I need a dead blow hammer. Interestingly I found another grease point I didn't know about, on the underside of the steering rod end. Will need to get some grease in that nipple. I left the lower ball joint and tie rod attached (later removed, to flip the bolt around, but it doesn't need to be removed) to the lower arm, and lowered the hub/drum complete. There was enough movement and slack in the brake hose to not strain it, but take care. You can see the axle just slipped out of the hub, and with some wiggling out it came completely Now, I tried to be lazy, and leave the axle in the pot joint and remove the CV, but don't be lazy, it's a waste of time. Remove the large CV clamp on the gearbox pot joint, on the other end of the axle, and the whole lot will just pull out and be removed from the car. Be careful that the balls in the pot joint don't fall out when you remove it. With the whole axle out, it's very easy to split the CV off. Just hold the axle CV downwards, put something soft under it to cushion the drop, and hit the CV with a mallet. It should just pop straight off. Everything is full of grease; this is a very messy job. I have heard of people putting the pot joint into a plastic bag to limit the greasy mess, but I just stuck the joint into a box the CV boot came in. Seemed to work OK. Remove old boot Slip the new boot on and make sure the small end seats into one of the grooves in the axle Refit the CV (I wont say how to do this as it varies. The Haynes manual gives some detailed instructions) And then get really angry at the stupid flat metal clamps they supplied, and the fact you didn't think to get the proper tool for them. No, pliers don't work properly. The boot I got from Supercheap (listed as for "front drums" as I know the ones for the discs are different) seems to be a bit short on the CV end and doesn't sit completely in the groove. It seems to clip in though and doesn't just pop off at maximum angle, so hopefully its OK. Teaches me to not buy it from a Mini parts supplier. I ended up using zip ties to secure the boot, but I have ordered the correct tools, and more proper bands. If/when this boot fails me, I'll probably just get a universal stretchy boot and use that instead. Apparently the stretchy boots are quite common to use on the Mini as its quick and easy. Torque the nut up to the required torque (which is quite low on the standard cars, 81NM), fit a new split pin and away you go Looking good after a quick spin (catch tray to catch the overflow from topping up the radiator) Ok ok, I know it's a lot of posts, but I'm almost up to date now. Clearly I have done way too much work in a short space of time.
    5 points
  5. One tool I forgot to mention in my last post about tuning, was the Gunson Colortune. In a world where everything is digital, with sensors and readouts, it's fun to be learning how it was all done back before all this. The Gunson Colortune was basically an analogue, visual, Air to Fuel Ratio display. These days you would use a Lambda, or O2 sensor to detect the AFR, but they didn't have them back then (or if they did, they must have been crazy dollars). The Colortune is, for lack of a more technical description, a see-through spark plug. This allows you to see into the cylinder, and see what the combustion flame looks like. You screw it into the cylinder in place of the normal 14mm spark plug, connect an extension and connect the ignition lead to that. The kit also has a periscope sort of mirror device to make it easier to see in awkward spaces If the cylinder is burning lean, the flame will be a pale blue/white. Like this (oops) Perfect is a dark blue And rich is orange I picked up a Colortune from an awesome member of a forum I'm on (thanks @Steelies), and set it up when I was changing the jet adjustment on the carb. I started with a very light blue since the mixture was very lean, and now I'm on the edge of dark blue and orange. If I lean the mixture out a little it'll be a solid dark blue. There is a lot that can be learned from looking at how the flame reacts to different situations. This is the instructions for the Colortune that identify what could be causing different issues It's a pretty cool little tool, and I will continue to use it when playing with old cars. I may even try it on Tess at some point.
    5 points
  6. so after it having a few coats of primer on the sills i gave it one final light sand to help with a better paint finish. i then gave the sills a blow down and wipe and laid some paint down with some paint that i had matched up using the fuel flap as a sample colour name seems right to me then applied one light coat And while i was waiting for this coat to tack on... I then applied a few more coats on each side with them not being very thick coats with leaving some time before applying each coat. ended up using the whole amount i filled the gun up with And didn't end up with any runs in the paint and a pretty good finish for a non paint guy. could've got a better finish if i had applied the coats thicker but also didn't want runs haha oh and next up ill take it off the stands which should be quicker than it went up
    4 points
  7. New guards!!!! Cannot rate hopu hopu engineering high enough
    4 points
  8. Boot lid looked worse underneath. Mess. Mess removed Big Hammer and small hammer. Took out back to real steel. Half of this had been replaced in the past by the looks. Inside then painted in zinc etc. (Yes, I use old Hard Drive magnets for welding - have a pile from when I made a rocker-cover racer) I often forget to take the above progress photo as I just get it done and paint it, however tonight when I took a break from grinding back welds I took one. Top line looks bent - it's not. Just the reflections of grinding. I've since completed and little holes filled. I'll do the other side of the boot tonight if I can be bothered. I'm starting to channel my inner @yoeddynz / @azzurro - It's quite nice to see progress in metal. Further to @tortron's comments I'll be putting drain holes in this ridge to avoid this happening again. Also will check on starter motor status tonight with my brother.
    4 points
  9. If you're serious i have used a copper plate faced with a kitchen sponge soaked in copper sulfate and connected to a battery charger to wipe copper plating on things.
    3 points
  10. 3 points
  11. Paint strip disks far out perform wire cup brushes (and stripper) Can you go ahead and nickle or copper plate this please
    3 points
  12. Get real good with a hammer and some aluminium Then spend the rest of your life polishing Nice
    3 points
  13. Took the Mini for a quick drive. Compared to the last video, it runs solid now. Pulls well in all gears, and revs out to some undetermined RPM (still waiting on my tacho to arrive). I have a sticky throttle though. Its something to do with my new cable, so hopefully that isnt damaged. I did add an additional ground to the engine today. I find it weird that the only engine ground goes from the engine to the subframe, and then the subframe is rubber mounted. Apparently a bad engine ground can fry the throttle cable as it heats up and melts the inner liner. I hope this hasnt happened, but we will see. Ill pull the cable out and see whats up. Sorry for the mad shakes in the video, but the Mini vibrates just a bit. Dont watch too hard if you get motion sickness.
    2 points
  14. 2 points
  15. 6" pod filter adapters I'm wanting to use for trumpets finally arrived ... once they trimmed to fit 6 if them in there and molded into 1 and painted....... should be perfect... Only took 5 weeks on back order from summit racing.....2 days to get to NZ and 16 days to get to me from Auckland.... good old NZ ay. Now I can work out how much more to remove from the engine bay....pull motor and box out for clean up and build..and start welding all the holes in the engine bay up before mak8ng a rotisserie to do the underside.
    2 points
  16. Did some things. Swapped diff housings to a spare one and rebuilt a 3.9 head to drop the rpms a bit on the highway. Also a little off the height. Hopefully finished this weekend, but only get a couple nights a week in the shed
    2 points
  17. No wofs around here m8 she's a moped..... Full sealed unit would be rad. Don't know how well it will look on the front of a vespa but will just wait and see i guess. Will price one up through a mate see what he recons be the go.
    2 points
  18. I've done stuff like that in a bath with a big bag of copper sulfate. Oxidizes pretty quick though.
    2 points
  19. It's a more pure driving experience Use different colour string for the wipers
    2 points
  20. Small update. Sold some used parts from my last cat over the weekend, which meant that I could order my new parts for the wagon. Ordered AE86 rotors, pads, retaining clips, new dust caps, wheel seals, AE72 clutch master (starting to sweat on the push rod inside the car a tiny bit) and slave cylinder (took a look at the factory one while I was under the car the other day and it's weeping a bit), a big tub of wheel bearing grease, and a few cans of brake clean to get the parts ready to be cleaned up. I also cross referenced the front wheel bearings from the AE72 and the AE86 and they do cross over, so I'm going to reuse the newer Koyo bearings I found in my AE72 hubs in the AE86 hubs and just give them a good cleaning and repack them with grease. And, I managed to track down a set of T3 RCA's this morning that should be here early next week. My wife and kiddo are flying across the country in a little over a week and they won't be back until the end of August, which means I get 3 weeks alone at home, which means I also get 3 weeks of time to work on the car uninterrupted before I go to meet them. My hope is to get the suspension completely finished before I leave for my vacation. Just hope we get the sand blasting cabinet fixed soon so I don't have to do all of the rust cleaning by hand.
    2 points
  21. I think I had 4 of my fleet at Hanmer last year.....
    2 points
  22. As a kid i thought cobys were tractor mufflers for this very reason.
    2 points
  23. I reckon @yoeddynz can come do my bonnet and @JustHarry can come do the boot with their respective methods. I will then judge neither of them and drive my car. Win/Win (I'll be putting stuff under bog cause I can't work fast enough to ensure no moisture)
    2 points
  24. yea they dont come solid axle F, you're right it will be E i'm pretty sure
    1 point
  25. just noticed some spelling mistakes.
    1 point
  26. https://xcessivemanufacturing.com/toyota/cressida/mx73/chassis-and-suspension/toyota-mx73-t-mx73-1uz-mmb.html
    1 point
  27. does it have an F series diff? If so the LSD unit out of an Altezza or the front of a 4wd hilux will fit.
    1 point
  28. I got a clutch lever from an old 20s bike to use for my front brake lever, it need serous work to make it usable but its a good size, it was bent 90 degrees and its made from brass. also I got a throttle, that also needed fettleing to make fit, I wanted black hand grips but ended up with some strange ones witch look like coke cola, got a brake cable and a throttle cable, used a inner wire clamp off a Kohler engine to mount the cable to the throttle lever on the engine, need to make a return spring, All thats needs to be done now is the seat screwed on and the controls bolted on and it should go.
    1 point
  29. He must have heard us talking, haha, I have a meeting with him set up for tomorrow morning. Did offer to bring beer in an email I sent so that may have been the clincher. @cletus I am most of the way through filling out "Form 4A- Concept Approval Application", is this the best thing to take to the meeting with me, or is a list of parts/brands/processes/materials I intend to use better? Or both? Also a seperate question/sort of related, in the application, it has a section for steering, which is not something I had overly considered, as it isn't something I would be dealing with just yet. Is it possible to retain the factory steering column from the Datsun 720, and just have the input shaft spline/length machined to suit the GQ Safari steering box? Or is there a more common way of doing this? It might even be the same spline for all I know but as I say not something I have thought of much until now, and I won't likely have the chance to check between now and tomorrow morning. I will be buying the CCM (on PDF) later today but I won't likely have time to fully read and understand that section by tomorrow either. Any help is greatly appreciated.
    1 point
  30. 1 point
  31. Just kidding ive done quite alot lately imported this ms51 toyopet from japan for jap parts swaped them with nz new parts and have sold it on with the paoer work to get it on the road in nz
    1 point
  32. Now that everything seemed to be running OK, we had oil only where oil should be, and coolant was mostly where it should be, it was time to do some old school tuning. The main things you can tune on an older car like this is the fuel mixture, the timing and the idle speed. These are all the things I needed to check and set. Obviously before you can even considering tuning the engine up, you need to know everything else is in good shape. I had just gone over the ignition system and replaced the cap, rotor, points and leads. The spark plugs although old, once gapped correctly were OK. The fuel was recent, the pump worked, the carb was clean and I had no vacuum leaks. Step one was to use the knowledge of where the timing marks are (as mentioned in a my previous post about them), and using a timing light try to see where the timing is. I don't have many photos of this, because you need about 4 hands to actually check the timing (one to hold the timing light, one to hold the mirror, one to turn the distributor, and one to stop the cables getting in the way). My timing light is an old Optilux unit that I purchased many moons ago. It only gets brought out occasionally, but I'm always happy to have it. A good timing light is one of those things that if you buy a good one to start with, it'll last many years of occasional use. Mine has no adjustment, no readout, and no tach. Just a simple light. A timing light needs four things. Power, Ground, Signal and something to point at. With no battery in the engine bay (or even a "jumping" point like modern cars) you need to source 12V from somewhere. I chose to grab it from the starter solenoid feed, where the big brown wire (constant power) connects to the solenoid. The Ground was taken from the bolt above the starter solenoid The inductive signal clip goes on ignition lead number 1, with the arrow pointing towards the spark plug. Cylinder 1 is the closest to the fan I found it quite hard to hold in the button on the light, whilst holding it, and the mirror, so I used a zip tie to keep the button pressed. I found setting the mirror up so you can see where the marks would be, and then pointing the light at the mirror (instead of trying to point it into the hole) so the mirror reflects the flashing light onto the flywheel worked best. With the engine running (at the lowest idle I could get without it stumbling, which I guess would be about 1100rpm), warm, and the vacuum advance disconnected and blocked at the carb, using this method I tried to find the timing marks, only to find that they weren't visible at all. I tried using the fine adjustment on the distributor to get the marks to come into view. The fine adjustment is the two bolts on either side of the distributor mount. The holes these bolts go through are slotted, so you can turn the distributor and make small adjustments. One bolt is circled, and the other should be where the arrow is pointing (mine is missing that one) I went full retard on the slot, and nothing, no marks. The distributor was already at full advance when I got it. The next step was to tighten those bolts back up, and loosen off the main clamp, for maximum adjustment freedom. This circled nut tightens the clamp, and loosening it off allows full freedom of turning the distributor. I turned it a further 20 or so degrees and BAM, I saw the marks finally come into view. I set the timing to the 10 degree mark. It's a little more advanced than the 7 degrees Haynes says it should be, but it'll be fine. I'll run 95 or 98 octane in the car in the future anyway. I locked down the distributor, check the timing again, and we were firmly on 10 degrees. Don't forget to reconnect the vacuum advance, which is blocked off by the black cap in the below photo With the timing in the correct place, the engine was running smoother, and would allow me to lower the idle, but I still had a stumble. Looking at the spark plugs I was running very lean. I had a very white spark plug with only minor traces of brown. The engine also stumbled, and stalled when the piston lifting pin was pressed. This is a clear sign that the mixture is too weak, and I needed to enrichen it. To enrich the mixture you use the jet adjusting nut hanging under the carb. This nut raises and lowers the jet assembly, allowing more or less fuel into the carb. The nut is circled here Its pretty hard to see, and harder to get to. You cannot get a normal spanner on it easily, so I found it easiest to turn it with my fingers. One hand on each side of the carb, using both of my index fingers to turn it. To enrich the mixture you want to lower the nut, turning it down, away from the carb body. If you were looking down at the top of the carb, you want to turn the nut clockwise to enrichen, and counter-clockwise to lean the mixture. In my case I had to turn the screw a hell of a long way, the mixture was very lean. Having come from my last tuning experience being the Speeduino, where everything is basically handed to you on a screen, with figures, gauges and logging to work from, this was far more... personal. This kind of tuning is all done by feel and ear. When I was turning the nut, I could tell I was getting close as the idle speed started to rise, and the engine smoothed out. If you turn the nut too far and the mixture gets too rich, the idle speed will start to drop off again. You want to stop at the peak of the idle speed. When you start to get to the point where you think you are near, after each adjustment give the throttle a couple of good blips and wait for the idle to settle again. Happy? Tweak and blip again. Sometimes you may need to rev and hold the engine at a higher RPM for a little to clear any excess fuel in the inlet, and then continue. The piston lifting pin also comes in really handy here too. With the VERY lean mixture I had, as soon as you looked at the pin the engine would stumble, the rpm would drop and it would stall. This pin was invaluable to identifying where the mixture was. If your carb doesn't have the pin you can do the same thing by sticking your finger in the carb inlet and lifting the piston with you finger a couple of mm. What you want with the piston lifting, is for the idle speed to either stay the same, or in my case since I left it a little on the rich side, the idle to jump up a tiny bit and then settle again. I still have a little tweaking to do to lean the mixture, as I left it on the safe/rich side, but its happy for now. The idle is now a lot smoother, the engine is more responsive and its happy for me to drop the idle speed down for a nice tick over. The idle speed is adjusted by the screw inside this recess at the front of the carb. I use a narrow flat blade screwdriver to turn it. What it's actually doing, is it's just a long threaded pin that just pushes on the throttle linkage (that the cable pulls on) under the carb. Not technical, but works. I took the car for a quick hoon around the block and it feels a lot more lively now. Its faster, and doesn't bog down or hesitate. No signs of a misfire anymore either. One thing that makes me happy is the fact that it starts so easily. With the engine warm, it starts immediately, with no other inputs. So with the timing set right, the mixture set close enough, and the idle nice low and smooth, it's actually a nice little car. Cant wait to get it legal and see what it can really do.
    1 point
  33. 'upgrade' to single tube moped frame? to keep the look - plus heavier build, and a larger head set size to suit forks with better geometry/strength..? eg yamaha QT50. would need diy rear end i guess, but also allows for adjustment of head angle, wheelbase and wheel type. and a moped is less likely to be brazed together which suits fusion welding mods a little better
    1 point
  34. Progress has been pretty slow, mostly finishing welding the manifolds. Gotta bad tank of argon that sent me backwards. Was scratching my head for a while trying to figure out what was wrong and needless to say was a major fark around, had to remake one of the pipes due to compromised welds. Been accumulating many yellow paper bags of dirt cheap nickle and dime install parts from aliexpress (oil and water turbo fittings etc). Also bought one of the Aliexpress gas lens kits with pyrex cups for the tig torch. The visibility of the pyrex cup is a revelation, especially for $7 delivered! Also chickened out and bought the bigger wastegates, turbosmart 45mms. Contemplating a 4m long 2>1 screamer pipe exiting behind the rear wheel, should be enough room and sound ruthless (and hopefully pass cert). Wastegate, custom fit: ^ Can also see holes cut for the intake. Thinking air filters will go where fog lights are currently and get ram air straight from the front bumper. Dont have the filters yet but mocked up old filter for test (will be blacked out for stealth):
    1 point
  35. That's a good one. Still dim on the open road at night. Living a bit out of town she's pretty dark. Would like to go to a led headlight. Maybe something like this. Before I go to something like this Need to find some mirrors also. And man takes a good 6 litres of gas as well. Big tank.
    1 point
  36. Not done much with this since dismantling the carport that fell on it, (no damage) as the ute has been hogging all my limited car time. WoF has now expired and the front half of the exhaust still needs replacing (Car is otherwise fine, starts and runs great). Im happy with the rear half, but as the front half needs replacing i want to run twin pipes from the manifold to the diff as per the 2300 Abarth S Coupe exhaust below (twin pipe section is much shorter currently and is blowing pretty bad) Eventually triples and extractors too, but not for a while, and like most Fiats the cast manifold is actually better than most aftermarket attempts. Anyway, it has been sitting outside on the lawn getting rusty , but have finally found some dry storage for it. Sleep tight sweet prince, ill see you in summer xox
    1 point
  37. 1 point
  38. Come round here m8, the bog tins always open
    1 point
  39. Hi David I found you a fan. This is quite rare it was on a bathurst special edition valiant station wagon. They had a special transmission with second gear removed for light weight and a single barrel carb so they could do 3 whole laps without stopping for fuel. Peter Brock thought this fan was so great he signed it. Should be a good upgrade for your little toyota engine, this fan was designed for a big block 245 hemi 6 so it should cool your small engine twice as much and this plus thermostat removal should end any head gasket issues ever by running the engine at room temperature. I measured it and it will fit your engine, as a bonus getting rid of the viscous unit will give you the powerful fan noise of a much larger engine which will be impressive! Regards Clinton.
    1 point
  40. Mr2b form correctly filled out and legal roadworthyness acquired. So keen on for this year on the new steed
    1 point
  41. ^so tiny! Its like a small sleeping bag with wheels and an engine
    1 point
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