Adoom

Yeh, it's so handy that the parts just fit! I hadn't seen anyone else using this solution on the UK micra mini forums. I think I saw one person with a dirty great bracket to use a slave cylinder to push the cable clutch arm. Another with some aftermarket 'pull' slave cylinder that was apparently not so reliable. And on the nissan engined mini FB page, some guy was saying to just convert the mini to cable clutch cause it's "simpler".

And now it's longer! I drilled a 10mm hole 20mm deep in the end, then machined an over sized extension that would press all the way down into that hole. I put a wide groove where the join was then mounted it in the lathe and turned the VFD down to about 3rpm. FULL SLOW captain! It was slow enough that I could just put the earth clamp on the shaft and use a block of wood to stop it spinning and the lathe reeling in the cable. And zap zap goes the MIG. Machine down to final diameter.

The way I read it is... Only the tread on the top half of the tire can't stick out past the guard, but the tread on the bottom half can. So you could have loads of negative camber and be all good.

So the mini is a hydraulic clutch and the K11 gearbox is a cable clutch. I prefer to go for a hydraulic clutch because the lines can be tucked away. I was thinking I was going to need to make a big bracket and stuff for a slave cylinder. But then random PickAPart perusing of manual Nissans turned up an N16 Pulsar. The gearbox is very similar to the March, with a QG15 engine... but it has a hydraulic clutch! The aluminium spacer seems like such an afterthought. But I have seen pictures of other N16 and they have the same spacer. I did find another later model N16 which had a cast spacer that does look like a factory part... I forgot to get it, ran out of time. I CBF removing the whole gearbox in my lunchbreak to take the whole pivot shaft assembly, so I planned to knock out the roll pins and just take the lever arm and slave cylinder. So lunch break day one. Got the slave cylinder off. But my pin punches are too long and there is no room to hit them with the hammer. FINE THEN!!!! They are nested roll pins, so need two sizes. Lunch break day two. Soooo I strongly suspect that the workshop manual for removal of this arm starts with "separate engine and gearbox and rotate clutch pivot shaft for clearance". Shit, the bellhousing is in the way of knocking the pins out. Que tool abuse and using my big screwdriver as a chisel to bash the shit out of the protruding part of the roll pin to flatten it, allowing me to bend it slightly, just enough so it rides up the bellhousing instead of driving directly into it. 45 minutes of bashing and swearing and I managed to get the pins out. Next step, cut the welded arm off and machine it smooth in the lathe. Ah... the shaft needs to be a bit longer. No biggie with the lathe, I'll just bore it out and press and weld and extension on. Then I will use the mill to drill new and straight, roll pin holes in the shaft. After working out what angle to clock it at.

Use the same thickness as what you are removing, makes the welding easier. Watch all of Fitzee's Fabrications on youtube. ....But he does like to use thicker steel so he doesn't have to worry about making it too thin when grinding back welds.

After weeks of procrastination I finally found enough motivation to go out to the garage and machine some more steering arm. The non-critical dimensions are very rough, just enough for clearance to bolt it on. I still need to check for binding and measure the bump steer.

I went to get a wof for this some months ago and they failed it on "the brake switch". "Oh you mean the adjustable bias valve? It's been there since 2006.". But they said it's not on the cert plate, so fail. Turns out it was on the first cert plate, but was overlooked by the cert inspectors on the last two plates(they didn't put it on the plate order form). I spoke with LVVTA and they said it was not uncommon. They sorted me out at no cost and printed me a replacement plate. But I did need to take the car to them to do a brake test. Of course on the day, it was pissing with rain. Half way there I discovered that my alternator charge cable was unplugged?! So the battery was totally dead by the time I got over the Remutakas. Dad to the rescue with a jump start. Then driving up Ngauranga gorge, still raining, some guy appeared to be planning the merge into the side of me from the left. So I picked the 'accelerate a bit' option. I left it in 5th and applied a little gas... fine fine fine BOOST! And the rear end let go. I barely managed to stay in my lane which was fortunate, because on my left was the curb and on my right was a wall of spinning truck wheels. I figured that my tires were probably quite old and a bit hard. But still lots of tread. A few days ago I finally remembered to have a look at the date on the tires. 2005!! I suppose my semi slicks won't work so great anymore either.

I keep tracking swarf from the garage to the house because I never quite get around to sweeping. But I've discovered wiring brushing the soles of my shoes is quite effective at dislodging it.

I did consider it. I did try, not very hard, to get some to measure. The center of the balljoint needs to be about here for minimal bumpsteer. So I don't think they would drop enough. To 'flip' the balljoint, I would have to use a through-bolt and a rod end bearing instead of a factory balljoint. I'd rather use a factory balljoint for longevity. AFAIK the rules don't allow you to use an insert type thing to reverse the taper. You could ream the taper to reverse it, but then the hole would be HUGE and there won't be much material left around the hole.

3HP belt drive. Apparently if the start cap is bad, I should be able to 'roll start' it and it should keep going. I can't/it doesn't. Mine will turn over and seem like it's going to run, then pop the fuse.

Where can I get a 40uF run capacitor for my compressor? Mine is bung. I reckon it's the run cap because it turns over and tries to run, but then pops the resettable fuse. Stuff I am finding is either drop shipped or has the stud on the bottom that makes it not fit or >$50

I've got no bottles for the OxyAcetylene so I am incapable of making it orange hot. But anyway, the Car Constructors manual specifies that the steering arm balljoint taper is to be reamed.

So the taper I machined on the lathe was 'close' but not perfect. A little wide at the big end. But I thought, oh well, good enough to test with. Oh, maybe I'll take the welded prototype off the car. And compare it to the machined one. FUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!. So I somehow managed to fuck up the original measurement by 11mm. Then drew the scale drawing using that measurement. Then machined it from the drawing. So, start again. SO SO MUCH SWARF! I also bought a tapered reamer. YAY! It's the correct taper angle. Ouch! It was $175! Only $16 shipping from USA though. In only 9 days?!

I have some doors in a similar state to yours. My plan is to scrape and vacuum/compressed air blast as much of the loose stuff out as I can. Then make a water tight trough thing just big enough to place the bottom of the door in. Then fill it with a chelation rust remover like Metal rescue or Evapo-rust, enough to cover the seam. Then leave it for as long at it needs to make the rust go away. It doesn't eat the metal, so you can just leave it for ages. This stuff really does work. But it does get used-up after a few uses. Wash it out with water, then heat it up so it's 100% dry, then flood the area with epoxy. Later,once the door is painted, probably put some cavity wax in there too.

So work gave me some Repco gift vouchers.... #PROBABLYNOTGETTINGAPAYRISETHISYEAR Does anyone have any experience with the spray guns they sell? Are they okay, or should I not bother? I need something to spray epotec408 (>1.8mm nozzle I think). And an as yet undecided top coat, possibly 2k.

Was that Howat Engineering in Lower Hutt you used? What did he charge you for cutting the splines? ....I've got some CV shafts I need to get shortened and was planning to go see Brian about it eventually.

Mixed grill FTW

I found far too many NOPES for this setup to last longer than 5 seconds before exploding. Maybe the faceplate......? That seems..... less dodgy. Never used a faceplate before.... Am I gonna die? Do I need some counterweight.... you know, so there's more shrapnel to fly off and hit me, or smash through the roof? How many rpm....? It's a small hole and aluminium, so quite fast.... but death and dismemberment do not appeal.

Any idea what range you might get out of it?

Never bought any 90deg. But here are some old quotes to give you an idea. They are kinda old, 2020 and 2019. Just email them and be all "how much is?"

I've used Autobend a few times for exhaust bits. They do deal with the pooblik. They have the catalogs online, but you need to email them for prices, then they email you an invoice and your bits turn up with the courier.

Working out how to machine the steering arm with some aluminium I had. Much easier to machine than a big block of steel, that I don't have. I used the bandsaw to cut out that corner, much faster than turning it all to swarf. I had plans to machine the balljoint taper(the hole on the left) using the lathe. As it is now, I should be able to fit it in the big 4 jaw to center the hole. But I just tried a practice taper in some scrap and it seems real close, but the finish is not as smooth as the oem hole which I don't think is good enough. I'd buy a taper reamer, but OMFG they are expensive. Also, as far as I can accurately measure, the taper is 4 degrees(per side) and I cannot find anything that size. I think for the steel version, I'll get it profile cut as a rectangle, so I have my reference surfaces, but also cut out most of the material I need to remove. So I don't have to spend hours at the bandsaw cutting the outline, I would just need to cut some tabs.

I ended up replacing my sacrificial anode with a sheet of steel. More surface area and easier to wipe the scum off. Pretty much all the rust is gone, except for the bit in the middle due to the size of my container. A lot of the paint came off too. I did no scrubbing, just shot it with the water blaster. Most of the grease came off(it turned white) but probably due to soaking for days in the washing soda that's used to make the electrolyte solution. I got mine from Mitre10 ages ago but I can't find it anymore, it's this stuff. https://www.countdown.co.nz/shop/productdetails?stockcode=276728&name=greenwood-washing-soda-crystals

The subframe has a bit of surface rust. And some oily greasy stuff that the water blaster didn't shift. This is a bit of a no-effort experiment. I know the electrolysis will remove the rust and after a few days it may lift some of the paint(from previous experience). But I want to see if it will lift any of the oily stuff. I could do with a deeper container... but where can I get one that's as cheap as a $18 warehouse paddling pool? An IBC tank with the top cut off would be good, but I can't find anything nearby and I also don't want to spend ~$100

Julian wanted me to plate over the butt weld.