998cc Kelvinators Mini

[kws]

[PANTS]

[kws]

As the first step to sorting out the issues needed to get Snicket on the road, I decided to remove the radius arms, so it also knocks out two jobs in one.

I had suspected there may be some play in the rear arms, as when taking a corner hard, the inside rear edge of the tire would often make contact with the body... and it shouldn't be able to do that. They also look super old and crusty.

The first thing to do was to whip the wheel off, and check out the "soft suspension" that was noted. You can also see on the right of the photo, where the tire has rubbed the inner guard.

I think I found why it failed on it...

 

The shocks have leaked all their oil out, and are doing nothing. The other side was worse! Ok, so that's fair enough.

Next was to remove the drum and inspect the LH brake, which was the one noted as doing nothing. I backed the adjuster right off and pulled off the drum

There is a bit of grease on the hub, but nothing inside the drum. The shoes are showing weird markings, but could just be because they havent been used in anger for a while.

No obvious signs of brake fluid leaks from the cylinder. As a test I set my camera up and checked what happens when I put my foot on the brake, without the drum on. I should have seen the shoes get pushed out by the cylinder... but I had nothing. Not a mm of movement. Guess that's that; the cylinder is seized.

I took the dust cap off, and I'm sure it's not meant to look this grotty

Moving along, I proceeded to disassemble the arm for removal.

Disconnect the brake lines from the hose. From left to right, is the fixed nut on the hose, bracket on arm, star washer, locking nut to secure hose to bracket, and then the brake pipe nut.

Removing the shocks was next. For the LH side I had to move the fuel tank to access the shock, which was a pain. Also found more surface rust, which I brushed back and treated (looks worse in the photo than it is). I used my cordless ratchet to spin the nut off

But like most shocks, the shaft will try to spin, so I used a pair of vice grips to lock it in place. Worked like a charm

The shocks when removed offer almost no resistance to being moved by hand.

Since the arm can now drop right down, I removed the trumpet and cone. On this side I had to use some percussive persuasion with BFH to free the cone from the trumpet, but it was only stuck there, not seized, so didn't take much. The other side came apart easy.

Somewhere in here I removed, but forgot to get photos of, the hand brake quadrant. It's on the underside of the arm, and in the left of the photo above with the cable running to it. Mine was held in place by a split pin, onto a pin that goes through the arm. You also need to remove the cable from the bracket on the backing plate of the brakes (and from the lever, just a split pin and remove the pin). Do this by levering the metal collar with the spring, out of the tab on the arm and pulling the cable free.

Next I removed the brake hose from the bracket on the subframe, and from the pipe. This is not fun to access, but can be done. I have replacement hoses which will be fitted on reassembly.

With the hose out of the way, there is a large nut on the side of the subframe that needs to be removed

And another on the outside of the subframe, where the grease nipple is. I have also loosened one of the outer mounting bolts in this photo, above the arm.

Another bolt is hidden under the arm

Then there are another two under the bracket, and once removed, the arm can be pulled free from the car

My arm is pretty grotty. Old grease, dirt, and what I think is a Lanolin based rust protectant.


 
The other side is the same deal, and took me about quarter the time to remove that the first one did, but with one little catch. The brake splitter is close to the RH side, so the brake pipe is very short. There is very little movement in it, so to access the nut on the side of the subframe I needed to remove the bolt holding the splitter to the bracket, and gain some space. You could also just remove the pipe from the splitter, which is probably better, but I didn't want to risk rounding the nut. It looked old.

This side was worse when the arm was removed

I'm going to have to chip all that out before I refit the refurbished arms. Oh well.

So the arms are out, I have ordered two new brake cylinders (RH side cylinder didn't look any better, so doing both) and a new set of shoes. I'll be dropping the arms into the local Mini specialist to have him fit the rebuild kit, as I don't have the tools to ream the new bushing out, and I'll get him to fit the new brake cylinders too. Once they are done and back I can reassemble the rear, and start work on the front.

[kws]

Since I was at a standstill with the rear of car due to waiting for the rear arms to be reconditioned, I decided to push on with the front of the car.

Referring back to the Rego inspection sheet, up front I had play in the front lower LH "kingpin" (lower ball joint), and play in the RH rack end. I ordered a replacement standard steering rack (I considered a quick rack, but apparently they can make the car too twitchy to drive normally and it's not like the standard rack is slow) and a pair of ball joints.

I had been procrastinating the rack replacement as everything I had read indicated that it's a complete arse of a job. "Step 1, lower the front subframe". Yeah.

Anyway, yesterday I bit the bullet and got stuck in.

The first job to do is to get inside the car, and remove the column pinch bolt. Remove the nut, and then use a flatblade screwdriver to open the gap on the clamp up a little and the bolt should come out fairly easily.

I also loosened off the upper column clamp. This is meant to have a headless shear-bolt, but in typical Leyland fashion mine wasn't sheared off. The head of the bolt is the orange arrow, and it screws into the blue arrow. The "nut" on the end is weird, it free spins and doesn't lock into anything. I used a screwdriver jammed into the slot to jam it and undo it.

Next it was time to crack off the nuts inside the car that hold the U clamps to the rack. There are two on each side of the floor. Blue arrows are the nuts. Orange arrow is the hole in the panel to access the centering hole in the rack.
 

With them cracked off, but not too loose, it's time to get ready to lower the subframe.

Undo the top nuts for the shocks, and remove the shocks from the mount

And remove the tie rod ends from the knuckles

Now to drop the subframe. I left the front mounts done up (its rubber mounted on my car so has some give), and removed the four nuts and bolts on the lower rear mounts

I supported the engine with my jack and some wood, and then removed the two massive top mount bolts. This allowed me to gently pry the back of the subframe down and get the much needed clearance. I did also lower the shifter box from the floor (two nuts inside the car behind shifter), otherwise there isn't enough clearance to slide the rack passed the rods. The manual says you only need to gain 20mm of space, but I had to lever it down as far as it would physically go, and even then it's just enough.

The four nuts inside the car hold the rack in place, so remove those and then the U bolts can be removed from under the car

And then with some wiggling, out comes the rack (I hadn't lowered the shifter box yet, so it pulled the boot off during removal) from the drivers side.

The rack is completely covered in oil/grease, and the rack ends are quite floppy. Compared to the new one, it looks very grotty

I filled the new rack up with some differential oil (there is a lot of discussion regarding what should be in these; grease or oil, but as I had oil on hand, and the rack was completely dry, it's what went in it). You fill the rack via this port, which is also the centering hole for the rack. Its usually got a black plastic plug screwed into it, which can be seen in the photo above

And then with the help of my lovely wife, I carefully slid the new rack into place, and secured with the U bolts. I cleaned the grease off the bolts and replaced the plastic strips. It's a two person job for sure, as one person needs to push the U bolts through the holes, and the other needs to spin the nuts on to hold it in place. Do NOT tighten the U bolts up yet through, leave them loose enough to be able to move the rack.

With the rack in place, I used the jack to carefully raise the subframe back up, and refit all the bolts and secure it. I was planning on reusing both tie rod ends, but unfortunately one was damaged during removal. A replacement is on its way, and one has been reused. I counted the turns during removal, and refitted the same amount of turns, so hopefully the alignment won't be too far out. Will get it aligned anyway, but need to drive it there.

So, whilst waiting for the replacement tie rod end to arrive, I looked into the ball joint play. This is what I found.

 

So, the whole damn joint is loose and moving on the knuckle. Thankfully the locking tab did its job and stopped it coming completely out and falling to bits. Yes, that is also water coming out of the boot. I think the fail was fair.

I was intending to replace this with the hub on the car, but knowing what I know now, that would be a huge pain to do, so I removed the hub from the car. Having to spin the whole hub assembly around to undo the brake line sucks, but I couldn't be bothered stripping the hub to remove the cylinder and spin that off.

I was also only intending to replace the lower joint, but the top joint turned out to have miles to play in it, so that was getting replaced too.

I don't have many photos of this process because it's very messy, but once I had the hub on the workbench I hammered back the locking tab, and used a massive socket to remove the dome nut. The grease in both joints was bad. Almost looked like grinding paste.

I cleaned up the hub, and noticed a couple of rough spots which I cleaned up with fine sandpaper. Then it was a matter of refitting. Getting the shims right was a real pain, but trial and error got there eventually, so that the amount of play in the joints was just right. There are plenty of videos on YouTube of how to do this, so I wont go into too much detail.

New joints look good though. I need to get more grease to pump through the fittings, and tighten the hub nut, but otherwise that is another job done.

The last job for the day was to center the rack, and reinstall the column. To center the rack, remove the plastic plug discussed above, and use a 5-6mm drill bit, and a mirror, and whilst someone slowly turns the rack from either lock, look for the hole in the rack and slip the drill bit in. This is dead center on the rack.

As there is only one spot on the rack pinion for the pinch bolt to fit, the column can only be fitted in one way. Keep in mind the rack MUST still be loose in the U bolts for this, so you can tilt the rack up for down to align the pinion. Turn the wheel so the pinch bolt hole lines up with the notch on the rack pinion, and slip the column onto the splines. It should slip on easily, if it doesn't, try to change the angle of the rack up or down to make it a straight line with the column. Next try to slip the pinch bolt through. If you have the column lined up well, it should slip through without too much issue. If it doesn't, take the column off the splines and turn the wheel to align the notch and try again.

Unfortunately after all this, because the column could only go in one spot, my steering wheel is rather out of alignment. I'll need to take the wheel off and reinstall it straight.

Tomorrow morning I drop the arms in for reconditioning, and then its a case of building it all back up, reinstalling everything, bleeding the brakes, and it should be ready for the re-check.

[kws]

My recheck is booked for Wednesday, so with limited time to get it all sorted, I got the Mini back together.

We left off the steering rack reinstalled, waiting on a new tie rod end, and about to have my rear radius arms inspected and reconditioned.

The tie rod end arrived, so that went in and for the first time I could spin the wheel lock to lock on my new steering rack. It's a bit notchy as it hasn't worn in, but has no play in it at all. Should be fun.

Having the tie rod end installed also allowed me to remove the steering wheel and reposition it so it isn't crooked. During testing I confirmed the alignment is way off, but I'll try to get that sorted Wednesday morning.

Now.... the arms. So, remember that VTNZ failed my rear arms on having "excessive play". I dropped the arms in to the local Mini specialist, P D Automotive, and intended to have them recondition the arms with new pins/bushes, and fit new brake cylinders. They gave me a call the next day and basically told me that VTNZ are talking out their backside, because the arms have had new pins fitted recently, and there is little to no wear and certainly no play in the pins.

They gave the arms a quick clean, removed the old nylon cups and fitted the new wheel cylinders to them and I picked them up ready to refit.

Before fitting the arms I needed to remove the old joints from the ends of the trumpet and fit new ones. Mine were well seized into the trumpets, but I used a long screwdriver (longer than the trumpet) down the middle of the trumpet to drift it out, by bashing the end of the screwdriver against the concrete floor. Not a glamorous way to do it, but it worked.
 

 

Fitting the new ones was a bit harder. I cleaned the hole they fit into, and using copper grease and WD40, carefully bashed them into the trumpet with a dead blow hammer, padding it with a rag. Remove the nylon cup first.

Refitting the radius arms isn't rocket surgery, the pin goes into a hole in the subframe, and into a bracket that gets bolted onto the outside of the subframe. The hardest bit is keeping the oil seal on each end in place over the thrust washer and arm, and not having it pop out.

Having a cordless ratchet was amazing for this job, as I could hold the arm with one hand, start a bolt with the other hand and then spin the bolt in with the cordless ratchet. If you didn't have one (but you should have), a second person to hold the arm up would work too. It's not light.

In went the trumpet with new joint and the old cone. I used copper grease on the face where the trumpet and cone meet, so they don't seize together.

The shock holds everything in place by limiting travel of the arm. I'm using a pair of the cheaper oil filled KYB shocks. Still better than the failed old ones, but not as good as the more expensive gas shocks. To fit the shock, slip it onto the stud on the arm first, and then extend the shock up into the arch. Fit the washer and bush and guide it into the arch hole. Now, holding the shock up with one hand, use your other hand inside the boot to slip the other bush, washer and then nut on top. I did the top nut up as far as I could with my cordless ratchet, and then gave it a final tighten by hand, as you need a tiny spanner on the top of the shaft to keep it from spinning.

Now that the arm was in place and being held by the shock, it was time to start refitting the brakes on this side.

First the new hose went in. I transferred the locking nut and washer over from the old hose, with a good helping of copper grease on the threads. The hardline to the cylinder was fitted next. I found it easiest to fit it into the cylinder first, loosely, and then fit it to the hose. Doing it the other way around limits movement to align the smaller fitting on the cylinder. Keeping the hose lock nut loose so the hose and move around a bit helps too.

Speaking of cylinders, here's a nice new one. I confirmed the old ones were buggered by trying to turn the piston with a screwdriver. Its easy on the new ones (has to be, so you can line the slots up with the shoes), but none of the old ones would turn.

Next I removed, cleaned and greased the adjuster screw and blocks. It's a very simple system, which would work well, if it had the means to auto adjust, but since it doesn't, it needs almost constant manual adjustment. The system works by screwing the screw in and out to push the blocks out. If you wind the screw completely out, the blocks aren't pushing on the shoes

But you can see as the blocks move up the taper, by screwing the screw in (the blocks are held in place and can only move in and out). This pushes the blocks out further, which pushes the shoes out and closer to the drum

You can also see that the taper isn't just a cone, it's actually squared off, which means there is some fine adjustment by turning the screw just a little bit either way off the flat. Moving off the flat, the rounded edges push the blocks out further again.

I refitted the adjuster, and moved to the other side to refit the arm. Before I could though, I had to clear some grot out of the subframe. It was a combination of grease, dirt, and who knows what else. I started with this.

And using a couple of large screwdrivers and a shop vac, I chipped away at it

I found some surface rust under it all, so a brushed it back and sprayed on some rust converter before refitting the arm. Refitting was the same as the other side, but a lot quicker this time. Refitting the hand brake cable spring to the back plate sucks, but can be done with some brute force.

I repeated the cleaning and greasing of the adjuster on this side too before fitting. Next was to fit the new shoes. Make sure your hands/gloves are free from grease, and refit the same way they came off. Take note of where the springs hook into, and which way around the shoes go. Each shoe has a leading (longer gap from the end of the metal shoe to the friction lining) and trailing edge (short gap from edge to lining) which needs be fitted the correct way around. The green arrows indicate direction of travel for the wheel when driving forward. The orange arrows show where the leading edges should be on the shoes.

And on goes the drum. The drums were in decent shape, so I gave them a degrease and clean and reused them. I probably should have given the insides a light sanding to help bed the shoes in, but too late now.

The other side was the same process

Next was bleeding all four brakes. I have explained this is a previous post so I followed the same instructions and got as much air out as I could myself, but found that I could only get it all out with a helper holding pressure on the pedal as I opened the valve.

I took the car out for a quick drive and it did not feel good at all. I think it was a combination of the alignment being too far out, the wheel bearing being a little on the loose side, and the shoes bedding in and being out of adjustment. I went back into the garage and tended to everything I thought it could be, and the car was much better to drive. The alignment was obviously still well out, but I'll get it properly aligned to fix that.

The rear was the biggest difference though, going over bumps before, the whole car would bounce back and forth, now the rear is solid and going over bumps isn't an issue. The steering feels very tight and very direct with the new rack.

So, other than the alignment, we are ready for the recheck.

[kws]

Today was the day; Recheck day.

Everything had been building up to today. All the work done, all the money spent, it all comes down to a pass or fail today.

First thing I needed to do was get the alignment sorted. I had booked for an alignment first thing this morning, so that I would have ample time to get that done and still make it to my recheck booking. They got onto it straight away

And within no time, I had this sheet in my hands

Yes, that is 21.5mm total front toe, when it should be 1mm total! No wonder it was scrubbing the front tires hard. With that sorted, the car drives much nicer now, and the steering wheel is finally straight when driving.

After the alignment I shot home and refitted the front carpet. Its torn and ugly, but looks better than the bare floors. Remember, I'm trying to make an impression so the inspector plays nice

I hooned in for my appointment. This confirms my suspicion that the car doesn't really suit 100kph motorways. It gets to, and holds, that speed OK, but it's pulling almost 4000rpm and there is some tasty shaking at times. Need to check the wheels for balance, which I may do next week. I suspect it's out. I may even paint the wheels while I have them off as they are a bit rusty.

Looks good just sitting there

I went away and killed some time and when I returned, lo and behold, this happened
 

For the first time since 2012, Snicket is road legal! With the standard black plates still!

This was a car that when I got it, barely ran, had no brakes, had no lights, leaked oil a lot, various things were loose and missing, and had been used as a parts mule. Now it runs like a champ, it's great fun to drive, and best of all, it's a viable classic car again. Others would have just scrapped it and we would be short one more awesome classic Mini, but now it's actually worth investing time and money into, and being able to enjoy it.

I drove home the back way, arm out the window, enjoying the wind in my hair and the sun on my face, whilst listening to the sweet sound of a 998cc A Series purring away. I couldn't help but stop and grab a couple of quick pictures

         
It's a great little car, and though for what I have spent I could have purchased a tidier one that was already on the road, I wouldn't have been able to save this car.

[kws]

Well today has been somewhat bitter-sweet. Little Snicket has been moved onto a new owner.

It was inevitable that I would sell the car, and the biggest factor was that since getting it road legal over a month ago, I have driven the car about 3 times. The Honda does all the daily work, and the BMW does all the other weekend work (its summer, I'm a big fan of air conditioning, which the Mini didn't have).

It wasn't fair to Snicket to just sit outside, in all weather, not being driven.

I'm sad to see it go, it was a cool little car and I put so much work into it, but the young guy that bought it is real into old cars, and is looking forward to enjoying actually using the Mini. His ownership is a trial by fire though, since right now he is on a ferry and about to drive the car back to Christchurch, over 400KM away! Easily the longest drive the car has made in at least 4-5 years, if not longer. Oh well, good bonding with the car I guess, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

In order to get Snicket ready for the sale today, (I'm embarrassed to say) I gave it the first clean since I bought it. Actually came up pretty well. It's a shame I never got around to polishing the paint as I think it would have come up pretty well. Even the Honda got a wash, and that was WELL overdue for one (oops).

After the wash my Wife and I cleaned all the windows, and noticed a tiny little baby praying mantis chilling on the roof. Somehow it hung on despite me earlier washing the car with some vigor, and lots of water. It turns out we forgot about the little guy and when we got back from a quick drive to fill the tank, sure enough it was still hanging onto the roof!

I thought I should relocate it to the garden, but not before it gave me a fist bump and explored my hand

So that's the end of this journey. Snicket has gone to a new home where it should get more use, and my hard work can be enjoyed. I'm just glad I saved it and put it back on the road instead of it ending up in a crusher and being reincarnated as a Chery or Ssangyong.