Popular Post kws Posted July 2, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 2, 2018 Yay When I got the car, it had this weird heater valve on it that didn't work, oh and it leaked. That was no good. I haven't quite worked out what this heater valve was from, but I suspect it pre-dated the car by a while. It didn't line up with the cable, and there was a steady leak from the top of the housing I got a replacement standard style valve from Minispares with my last order. Like an idiot though, I somehow forgot to buy a gasket. Oops. I smeared some sealant on the face of the valve and used that to transfer onto the gasket paper, so I could cut out a new gasket Of course it wouldn't be one of my cars, or British if it didn't do this Thankfully that particular spill was planned, unlike a couple of later ones. I removed the two nuts that held the old valve on, and removed the hose clamp. The old valve came off easy enough, as did the gasket (yes, woah, an actual gasket?!) I thoroughly cleaned the mounting face, smeared some sealant on the gasket and on went the new valve. Shiny. Now, you can see one thing I did wrong in the above photo. A: the heater cable is bent at the end so doesn't push in further, and B: that metal part in the clamp shouldn't be there.... but I didn't realise this was wrong until I fit the replacement heater cable. This is what the cable should look like. It takes some fiddling when fitting to get the correct amount of travel. The heater valve now works from the pull lever inside the car now. One other coolant related issue I had noticed with the car was that there always seemed to be some coolant on the block below the thermostat. I finally traced this down to a weeping thermostat housing gasket. It's hard to see in the photo, but obvious in person I thought to myself, "oh, this will be a quick job. Just pop the housing off, make a new gasket and away we go". It didn't go like that. The first warning should've been when I took the top hose off and saw the damage to the end of the thermostat housing and how brown it was in there. I took off the three nuts on the thermostat housing, and the two on the radiator, removed the bracket and then tried to remove the thermostat housing. It wouldn't budge. After MUCH abuse with many tools, it finally started to shift. It turns out the front stud was corroded into the housing Unfortunately the stud didn't survive the job, so I had to source a replacement. Once I saw the thermostat I was a bit suspicious of that, and a quick test showed that it was very sluggish to open. A new one of those, a gasket and a new thermostat housing were sourced. The new housing shows how much was missing from the old one I used the double-nut method to wind the new stud into the block, with a generous coating of copper grease on the threads. I also greased the actual studs, in the hopes they wont corrode to the housing again. The other two studs were OK to reuse. On went the new gasket The new housing looks much nicer. I topped the coolant up, but I'll need to actually run a flush through I think. There is a fair bit of brown crud in the system. I probably need to try a CLR-water mix flush to try to remove some of that corrosion in the block, but that's another job for another day. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 2, 2018 Author Share Posted July 2, 2018 Having repaired the Drivers seat, I needed to carry out some more work to get it back into the car again. The first issue I had to fix was the hand brake mounts. These had been torn out of the floor by some muppet, so I needed to get my weld on and stick some metal glue on it. Now, I warn you, I have never welded with electricity before, and although I am enrolled in a welding course, that doesn't start until next month. I couldn't wait that long to get this little zap of a repair done, so I cracked on anyway. The first issue I had to deal with was using the dreaded flux core wire. I didn't want to get a gas bottle yet, so chose this for the task. I know its frowned upon by many, but it seems to have worked (just) for this task. Another issue was that despite having watched many YouTube videos I didn't initially get the welder settings right, so I think I didn't give it enough power right off the bat. This meant I got some nice blobby rubbish that didn't really stick too well. I did crank some power into it to make it actually stick, but by then I had already made the mess. I'm not kidding myself here, I doubt I got good penetration in the metal, so it probably wont stand up to time, but it doesn't really matter. As long as it holds up long enough to get through the inspection I can weld it properly once I know what I'm doing. The final result is this. I gave it a blast of zinc paint to cover the bare metal, and I wont give a close up photo It works though. I have the handle adjusted to three clicks, and it can hold the car on my steep driveway with no issue. With that done, the carpet went down again It's a good feeling finally putting it back together. The next thing to go in was the gauge cluster. Before this could go in though I had to replace the oil feed hose to oil pressure gauge. The old one was removed because it was damaged and leaking. The new nylon cable is VERY long, so I couldn't route it the normal way (to the left from the fitting, over the clutch housing and up to the gauge). I don't know why its this long, surely it could have been made the correct length before having the ends fitted? I routed it around the valve cover, next to the thermostat (it's the white pipe in the photo) Of course nothing is easy though, so I couldn't just screw the hose into the block. The old hose fitting used a tapered fitting to seal The new hose requires a flat face with a fibre washer. I didn't know this at the time so had to scramble to get an adaptor. Thankfully they are available from local Mini part suppliers, so out went the old fitting, and in went the new one with the washer If everything goes to plan I'll likely fit a tee there anyway to fit an oil temp gauge too, but that's down the track. The new hose went on easily with the right fittings I still needed to have a loop in behind the gauges I refitted the speedo cable, and fit the new hose to the oil pressure gauge and fit the binnacle. And like magic, everything works. In went the repaired drivers seat. The passengers one is still to be fixed The carpet vacuums up well, but it's completely buggered so will need replacing. It'll stay for now though as carpet sets aren't cheap. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post kws Posted July 3, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 3, 2018 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. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 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. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 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. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post kws Posted July 3, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 3, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 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. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 5, 2018 Author Share Posted July 5, 2018 Brrm Brrm, my tachometer arrived from China today, so I quickly wired it in so I can see how close to valve bouncing I am. Before I get to the tacho, first I have to mention my throttle issues. The last few times I have driven the Mini I have noticed the throttle sticking when pressing down on the pedal. It sticks so you need to apply more pressure to push it passed that point. The point is completely variable, it can happen at the bottom of the pedal or half way up. Thankfully it doesn't stick the throttle open, it just makes accelerating a bit jerky. I had heard that if the engine ground isn't good that the car can end up using the throttle cable as the main ground, and because the throttle cable is very thin it heats up a lot and melts the inside of the throttle cable liner. I had suffered a very similar issue with Effie a while back when the ground point was corroded, and the throttle cable did indeed start to smoke and get damn hot, but the cable survived that. My Mini only has one engine ground strap, which goes from the gearbox to the subframe. Only issues there is that the front subframe in the MK4 Mini is mounted to the car via rubber insulated mounts. This is meant to make the car less harsh than the older ones, with less vibration, but I doubt anyone would ever consider a Mini soft anyway. As most of you will well know, rubber is a terrible conductor of current, so relying on that to ground the engine isn't really good. I had some bits sitting around, so I whipped up a quick additional ground from the gearbox to the grounding point on the body. I was going to use some wire I had from a cheap subwoofer kit I had, but when I looked at the 8GA wire it came with I found that the whole wire, insulation and all, was thin enough to fit in the terminal. The actual copper in the insulation was about half of what my decent 8GA wire was. The proper 8GA wire, the copper its self is as thick as the whole insulated Chinese wire. Proper wire, back from when Dick Smith actually sold decent stuff I crimped a terminal on each and, cleaned up the bolts and fitted it It doesn't appear to have actually done anything, but I see no harm in it being there. The later injected Minis have another ground strap that goes along the top engine stabiliser to the body, likely as the injection system requires far better grounds. To see if the average grounds had damaged the throttle cable I disconnected and removed it from the car. Thankfully the cable slides freely in its sleeve, even when looped or gently bent. So the cable wasn't the fault. I also checked the carb, this operates freely and smoothly, so that wasn't the fault either. The next option was the throttle pedal assembly. I removed it from the car and had a look. This photo is from after I had lubed the pivot point up, but you'll get the idea. I found a lot of corrosion on the pivot point, where the pedal arm pivots on the firewall mount. It turned out the washer (green arrow) was corroded to the mount (orange arrow) and stuck to it. This meant that when the arm pivoted, the washer was binding on the little tab (red arrow) that stops the whole lot sliding over. The washer needs to spin freely, so that even if it gets pushed against the tab it wont cause any resistance to the arm turning in the mount A quick dose of percussive persuasion quickly freed the washer up, but it had caused some damage to the arm, and the mount due to corrosion and wear. I thoroughly lubricated everything with WD40, and then smothered it in copper grease to help keep further corrosion away, and keep it free. This has reduced the binding in the throttle a lot, but it still doesn't operate completely smoothly. I suspect this is due to the corrosion it suffered. I'm amazed there is no bushing or anything in the mount, it's just metal on metal. I'll see how we go with it as it is, but in the future I may need to buy a replacement (which is thankfully available new) Whilst I was sorting the throttle, the courier arrived and left me a nice little package from China. It was my tacho. These old Minis don't have one standard, and just for my own interests I wanted to add one, but make it completely reversible (so no drilling holes etc). Installation was a piece of cake. I took power from the top fuse, which had a free spade terminal. This is switched power, and I used it for both main power and backlight, so the backlight is on whenever the ignition is on. Ground I got from the washer pump spare screw (it's a spare now, as the outlet hose becomes friends with the airbox if its installed straight) The only other wire was the signal from the negative on the coil. I was hoping to just pop it on a spare spade terminal like the positive has, but either it didn't come with one or someone had broken the extra spade terminal off the negative, so I used a much hated splice connector. These are kinda cool because you use a spade terminal to join the second wire into the connector, so it can be disconnected easily. I wasn't sure where to mount the gauge, but knew I wanted it kinda in front of me, but not in the way of anything. I didn't want to drill holes anywhere, so it had to be mounted on something solid so I could use trim tape to stick it on. The top dash rail worked, although my tape didn't stick very well to it, so it may have to move again. It also gets a bit of glare from the side window. Now, before you ask, yes, I did mount the gauge on the piss on purpose. I don't care much for the lower RPM range, so I arranged it so that at the 12 o'clock position the needle will be at about where I should let off the throttle. The little A Series engine is apparently only good for 6000RPM or so, so if I see the needle at the top, its time to back off. Because race car. I'm not sold on this gauge, it seems a bit lazy to respond and looks cheap. It was cheap, so let's be honest I didn't expect miracles, but the plan down the line is to make a custom dash and integrate a couple of extra gauges (like tacho), but I wouldn't be reusing this gauge in that. It'll do for now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 That's right, I have finally hit maximum working-ness! Obviously if you have been following this project, having everything finally working is quite a large achievement, considering that almost nothing worked when I got the car. The last thing I needed to get working was the reverse lights. Obviously they didn't have bulbs originally, so that situation was easily fixed, but even with bulbs they were a no go. I found the two wires on the firewall a while back, but they went nowhere. I then found the disconnected wires that should lead down under the car sitting on the floor under the carpet. I connected them to the wires on the firewall, plugged a new reverse light switch into them to test, and BAM, reverse lights. Ok, so why was there no switch on the remote housing under the car? I fed the wires and grommet through the floor and then went under the car to investigate Well that hole doesn't look like it should I undid the two nuts on the inside of the car so I could drop the housing down Well I guess that might be why someone tried to bodge a weird setup with microswitches and random wires run front to back and twisted around the reverse light wires in the back... the old switch was broken off in the housing This is the sort of situation that a screw extractor is perfect for. I grabbed my smallest one, wound it into the switch remains by hand And then wound it out with a small spanner. Easy. The extractor has a reverse thread, so as you turn it to screw it in more, it bites hard and actually starts to undo the item its being screwed into. Simple but useful. I wound the new switch into place, and refit the housing to the car. I plugged the switch in, and with the ignition on and the car in reverse gear, I used a spanner from inside the car to slowly wind the switch in until the lights turned on. I adjusted the switch so that the lights would reliably come on and off as the shifter was moved, and then wound in the lock nut to keep it in place. Lights! I found the remains of the old switch in the tub of rubbish/old bits that came with the car It literally took less time to extract the broken off part of the switch and fit the replacement, than it would have done to do the bodge that was in the car when I got it (that didn't work anyway, it wasn't connected to anything!). C'mon people, just do things properly. This was a huge milestone. Now everything electric works. All lights, switches, wipers, washer jets, uhhh... what else is electric in a Mini? Not much, but it all works! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 Worn bushes are no fun, and these bushes get a hard time in normal use. My Tie Rod bushes were stuffed and needed replacing. I replaced the actual rods when I first got the car because the original ones were badly bent. At the time I didn't have replacement bushes, they were still in transit, but they arrived shortly after the arms went in. I knew the bushes were bad, so they needed changing. Removal of the rods is pretty simple. Two nuts and a bolt per rod. The main nut is in the front of the car behind the valance, and the small nut and bolt is attached to the lower arm. This little one is a bit of a pain, as there isn't much space with the brake pipe and CV boot to get the bolt in and out, but it can be done with some patience and care. I used a screwdriver through the bottom of the rod to line the hole up whilst pushing down on the bolt through the top. With the rod removed, this is the state of my bushes Just a bit flat This is what the bushes should look like. This is the Minispares uprated kit, with a standard rubber bush on the inside and hardened poly bush on the outside. This makes the handling more predictable under acceleration, whilst still allowing the arm to move slightly under braking, which apparently stops weaving under braking. Refitting is easy (other than fitting the bolt), just remember to get the bushes in the right order. I also waited to tighten the large nut at the front until there was weight on the front wheels, so that the bushes would be compressed in the state they would normally be in during use. In terms of results, there is a bit more road feel and vibration through the front, but it feels a lot more stable just driving around now. I haven't tested in anger yet, but I suspect it will help handling. Mine must have let the wheel flop around all over the place before. It's a simple and quick job to do, even if it's just to replace old bushes with standard replacements (but the uprated kit is cheap enough I would recommend it). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 12, 2018 Author Share Posted July 12, 2018 This darn car. There is always something that makes me shake my fist in frustration. I'll cut to the chase. I ruined the throttle cable. It sucks, another new one is on the way. I confirmed it by unbolting the bottom of the accelerator pedal and pulling the cable by hand (still attached to the top of the accelerator pedal), sure enough, the binding was there. How did I ruin it? Grounds. The car had chosen to use the throttle cable as a ground for the engine electrical system. Obviously with such a small metal inner cable, this didn't go well and it has damaged the outer lining. But I had a ground from the engine to subframe, what happened? At a quick glance, yes, I had a ground. But wait, what?! That's not good The ground IS attached to the bolt, but the bolt is no longer attached to the engine. Looking back through the photos of when I drilled the sump plug, you can see the crack in the plate. You can also see its broken before Could this be due to the very tired old stabiliser mounts I recently replaced? It's a solid piece of steel, it must take a lot of force to break it. If the engine was rocking back and forth from having bad mounts this could have finished it off. I unbolted the ground strap and stuck it straight onto the mounting stud for the plate, on the gearbox. I don't know if this broke before or after I fitted the extra ground cable, but I suspect before due to the throttle cable damage. Since hooking the ground back up, there has been a noticeable difference in the amount of flickering the headlights do when idling. I have a replacement plate now, so I'll need to get around to fitting that. It's not a hard or big job, just need the time and motivation to do it. I'll be taking some time off working on the Mini to focus on fixing Tess and getting her ready for her WOF inspection which is due. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted July 28, 2018 Author Share Posted July 28, 2018 Maybe leaving a 38 year old car outside in some of the heaviest rain we have had wasn't such a good idea. I knew from a previous day of leaving it out in the rain that it would leak, but I originally thought it was through the old door seals and rear side window seals. Apparently I was a little wrong. Bringing Snicket in from the rain, the interior smelt like wet dog. Not pleasant, and I could see the front carpets were soaked. I had jiggled the rear side windows to make them seal a bit better last time, and it looks like that helped a bit, but the seals are beyond stuffed. The door seals weren't the cause of the issue though, the real issue was that the rain was entering the door and leaking out from behind the door card and over the door seal into the car. I needed to pull the door card off to see where the water was coming from. The door cards are easy to remove. Unscrew the door handle, opening lever and window winder. Then there are a series of clips around the bottom and sides of the door card. With the door card off, there was a lot of moisture behind it This was after a couple of days with a dehumidifier in the car too. My doors have plastic membranes behind the door card. Designed to stop moisture coming through, but in this case they were actually trapping moisture against the door card. There were massive holes in the door panel, by design. The water is meant to go out the three drain holes in the bottom of the door, but obviously its finding the easiest way out, through the gaping holes I removed the membrane, and had a nosy at the door. The inside of the door is in reasonable shape, with minimal rust. There was some surface rust in places. The drain holes, as you can see in the photos are clear. I vacuumed out the inside of the doors to remove the dead spiders and dirt Whilst in the door I wanted to check the window mechanism as they just weren't operating as smooth as I would hope (and the drivers side makes a horrible noise when lowered). Lowering the window right down I could see why. Completely dry rails The rollers were a bit out of round, but after a thorough smearing of grease the window rolls up and down a lot smoother. It's hard to get along the whole rail, but I greased as much as possible and just wound the window up and down to even it out along the rail The other thing I needed to do with the door was to treat the surface rust. I basically covered the whole inside lower quarter of the door with rust converter, until it was running out the drain holes and then left it to cure. And then I sealed up the holes in the door with duct tape And then back on the membrane went. I reused the existing butyl sealant on the door, and some more duct tape to help secure it in place I repeated the work on the driver's side door too, with similar results. I left the door cards off for a couple of days so they could dry out, but they aren't in good shape and will need replacing at some point. In the mean time I removed the soggy carpet and underlay to expose a soggy and ugly sound deadening. This whole lot stank, so its out of the car airing out, but the sound deadening was glued to the bulkhead and was trapping water. I used some brute force and ripped it all out, and into the bin it went. The carpet is well stuffed and the underlay isn't much better, but both will be reused in the mean time as I cant afford a new set The floor had some surface rust, so I ground it back and used rust converter to kill it. No serious rust though, just solid metal. So I had basically stopped water getting through the door, but now how do I stop water getting into the door in the first place? Well, there is a rubber seal that pushes against the window. This was brittle and broken on my Mini, with large sections missing, so I ordered a pair of replacements and clips Unlike the SD1 where you replace just the rubber section, the whole rubber and chrome comes together. Removal isn't hard, with some gentle levering at the back of the door to pop it up far enough that you can just grab it and pull it free. You slip the new clips into place first. I purchased mine as a kit, which comes with the "recommended" 4 clips per side, but my old trim had 5 clips per side. Not sure if they had been refitted at some point with an extra clip. I went with the four, evenly spaced new clips rather than re-use an old clip. The flat side goes on the outside of the door. And the grippy, spiky bits on the inside The new trim just pushes onto the clips I am a little annoyed though, as I went with the newer plastic capped chrome strip from the later cars (as that's what was available at the time), and it seems it's slightly shorter than the old chrome ended strip. Doesn't look or fit require as nicely at the front. The rear of the trim is OK You can see the rubber pushes up against the glass nicely with the window closed. This should make a difference in how much water actually gets into the door in the first place The next task to stop water ingress was to replace the horribly buggered rear side window seals. These were literally falling apart, with the seal section coming free from the U channel section in multiple places The seal appears to have also shrunk and has been "fixed" with a glob of sealant None of this was good and the windows bucketed water in unless you carefully placed the seal whilst shutting the window. To remove the seal you need to remove the window. This is held in place with two screws on the catch, and two screws at the front on the "hinges" It's a solid bit of glass, so take care not to drop it. The seal then just pulls off the body and goes into the bin Someone had used what I presume was butyl sealant around the seal. This wasn't stuck to the seal at all, but was a pain to remove from the body. I ended up using a plastic scraper, and then brake clean to wipe it away This did reveal two things. One, someone has previously used a sharp knife around the whole of the window, leaving cut marks in the paint. Two, there was rust under the "glob" of sealant at the bottom, and on the B pillar This rust was the same on both sides, so I wire brushed it back, and treated it. The car will eventually need paint, so I'm not too worried as long as the rust wont get worse. It was mainly surface with some minor pitting. No deep rust or holes. Refitting the seals was a crappy job because of the way the seals are folded for packaging. They are twisted so they can be easily folded to halve their size in the bag, but because of this they don't want to easily untwist to how you need them to. With some gentle persuasion, I managed it though. I used a rubber mallet to help gently tap the seal into place. I did not use any sealant under the seal, as the design of the seal is such that it should keep water out of the join. As a side note, having the windows out gives really good access to clean and inspect your companion boxes. Mine had some rubbish in them, lots of dirt, but only surface rust. Phew. This is after a good vacuum Refitting the window is really a two person job, just so you don't drop it, but It can be done alone. I used Gummi Pflege to treat the seal, and once that was absorbed I used some silicone spray on the front quarter of the seal (where the hinges are) to help the window slip over the seal into place. I sat on the back seat, fed the window out of the car through the hole, and fitted the hinges and lined it up that way. Once the hinges are over the seal you can hold the catch to support the glass. It'll take some wiggling and jiggling to get the hinge holes to line up nicely But the new seal butts up nicely against the window all around With those seals replaced, hopefully now I will have sorted 90% of my water leaks into the car. I'm suspicious of the front windscreen seal, but haven't actually seen any water come in around that. The door seals are stuffed too, and will need replacing, but I think they will hold out water well enough for now. A the moment I'm waiting for some bits from Minispares, such as front subframe shims (none were fitted when the subframe was refitted, so the front valance has been pulled in), and clips for the four seam trims, so I can fit them. I purchased new seam trims locally, which I'll need to paint soon to match the car, but was a bit disappointed to find the rear "primed" trims I got were completely bare metal inside, no coating. I quickly gave them a coating of Zinc paint on the inside, so that should protect them for a bit. The front trims were primed inside and out. I also sorted the Statutory Declaration I needed to get signed by a Justice of the Peace to say that I'm the legal, entitled owner of the car, so now I have all the paperwork ready to go and get the car re-registered. Just need to find some time and money to actually the inspection done. Parts Used MSSK2103 - Mini 1980 on. Window weather seals set & clips. (www.classiccarparts.co.nz) EAM7724 - Mini seal for opening 1/4 window. x2 Please note these parts are specific to my car and may vary. Please check before ordering. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kws Posted October 12, 2018 Author Share Posted October 12, 2018 Its been a while, but I finally got around to taking the Mini down for its re-registration inspection so that it can be driven on the road again. Unfortunately the inspection was a fail, So I need to sort these, A new lower ball joint (will do the pair) A new rackend, which isnt available, so a new steering rack >_< Rebuild both rear radius arms Replace both rear shocks (apparently there is play before the cones compress) And fix the brake imbalance (LH 10% / RH 93% - Almost nothing from the left), which may be the hard one to do. I don't recall any obvious leaking etc when i last removed the drums, so will strip both down, clean the lot, and replace the rear hoses when I remove the arms. Hopefully there is something obvious that needs to be replaced. I'm not looking forward to the work, and only have 20 working days to sort it all before i have to pay again and have a full inspection. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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